o:: 


r-> 


_^^>»  ^  s^j^ 


13'>2-^ 


:.:>^>-':32i3E>?-^l>" 


.21 


2^  "^ 


^3!>2^:^ 


3> 


3^      -.4^ 


2:>^ 


s* 


'^3SO  "^ 


^^^, 


i3^^r>2^ 


^SMs 


!>.>:>• 


=^^ar 


^:3> 


.i.^iEs>:> 


:>;3s>.-:3»'  .:^^3J 


.^ 


^^^*E> 


GMfe 


Rw^> 


2^>;:lT>":^ 


s>:^£>..iai^^?:^& 


Z3»  3y 

■^m> 

a? 

"Z3f-  ^^. 

23m^ 

-V 

:z:3^  .'  - 

laii)' 

-^-1 

IIS*  ,■>:■    .. 

:2^> 

-.a^-^ 

:3^   -.-    :^ 

»>          -2 

>> 


?^ 


^^852>?    ;5^-:>>~a. 


i'^'%^ 


/  -)  ^<^l^t.i^i>/^fy' U'-i^^^i^.^^ 


^^ 


H  THE 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAID, 


FROM    THB 


TREATY  OF  LIMERICK  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME ; 


behto 


A    CONTINUATION 


OF    THB 


HISTORY   OF  THE  ABBE  MACGEOGHEGAN 


COMPILED   BT 


JOHN    MITCHEL. 


NEW  YORK: 
D.  &  J.  SADLIER  &  CO.,  31  BARCLAY  STREET. 

MOXTREAIit 

COKNEK  NOTRE-DAMB   AND   ST.  FRANCIS   XAVIER   STREETS. 
ME8.   HICKET,    19   HIGH   STREET,   BOSTOIT. 

cuv> 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  tlie  year  1868, 

By  D.  &  J.  Sadlier  &  Co., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  4lie  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern  District 

of  New  York. 


ntnotjfi  by  VINCENT  DILL, 

ii  &  91  New  Chambera  SI ,  N.  T- 


BOSTON  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 
CHESTNUT  HILL,  MA  02187 


INTRODUCTION. 


In  preparing  a  Continuatiou  of  the  valuable  History  of  Ireland  by  the  Abbe 
MacGeoghegan,  the  compiler  has  aimed  only  to  reduce  and  condense  into  a  co- 
herent narrative  the  materials  which  exist  in  abundance  in  a  great  number  of 
publications  of  every  date  within  the  period  included  in  the  Continuation. 

That  period  of  a  century  and  a  half  embraces  a  series  of  deeply  interesting 
events  in  the  annals  of  our  country — the  deliberate  Breach  of  the  Treaty  of 
Limerick — the  long  series  of  Penal  Laws — the  exile  of  the  Irish  soldiery  to  France 
— their  achievements  in  the  French  and  other  services — the  career  of  Dean  Swift — 
the  origin  of  a  Colonial  Nationality  among  the  English  of  Ireland — the  Agitations 
of  Lucas — the  Volunteering — the  Declaration  of  Independence — the  history  of  the 
Independent  Irish  Parliament — the  Plot  to  bring  about  the  Union — the  United 
Irishmen — the  Negotiations  with  France — the  Insurrection  of  1798 — the  French 
Expeditions  to  Ireland — the  "  Union"  (so  called) — the  decay  of  Trade — the  fraudu- 
lent Imposition  of  Debt  upon  Ireland — the  Orangemen — the  beginning  of  O'Con- 
nell's  power — the  Veto  Agitation — the  Catholic  Association — Clare  Election — 
Emancipation — the  series  of  Famines — the  Eepeal  Agitation — th«  Monster  Meet- 
ings— the  State  Trials — the  Great  Famine — the  Death  of  O'Connell — the  Irish  Con- 
federation— the  fate  of  Smith  O'Brien  and  his  comrades — the  Legislation  of  the 
United  Parliament  for  Ireland — Poor-Laws — National  Education — the  Tenant- 
Right  Agitation — the  present  condition  of  the  country,  etc. 

The  mere  enumeration  of  these  principal  heads  of  the  narrative  will  show 
how  very  wide  a  field  has  had  to  be  traversed  in  this  Continuation  ;  and  what 
a  large  number  of  works — Memoirs,  Correspondence — Parliamentary  Debates — 
Speeches  and  local  histories  must  have  been  collated,  in  order  to  produce  a 
continuous  story.  There  exist,  indeed,  some  safe  and  useful  guides,  in  the  works 
of  writers  who  have  treated  special  parts  or  limited  periods  of  the  general  History ; 
and  the  compiler  has  had  no  scruple  in  making  very  large  use  of  the  collections 


idiij 


IV  INTRODUCrriON. 


of  certain  diligent  writers  who  may  be  said  to  have  almost  exhausted  their  re* 
spective  parts  of  the  subject. 

It  may  aid  the  reader  who  desires  to  make  a  more  minute  examination  of  any 
part  of  the  History,  if  we  here  set  down  the  titles  of  the  principal  works  which 
have  been  used  in  preparing  the  present :  Doctor  John  Curry's  "  Historical  Review 
of  the  Civil  Wars,"  and  "  State  of  the  Irish  Catholics" — Mr.  Francis  Plowden's 
elaborate  and  conscientious  "  Historical  Review  of  the  State  of  Ireland,"  before 
the  Union  : — the  same  author's  "  History  of  Ireland"  from  the  Union  till  1810 — the 
Letters  and  Pamphlets  of  Dean  Swift — Harris's  "  Life  of  William  the  Third" — 
Arthur  Young's  "  Tour  in  Ireland" — the  Irish  "  Parliamentary  Debates" — Mr.  Scul- 
ly's excellent  "  State  of  the  Penal  Laws" — Thomas  MacNevin's  "  History  of  the 
Volunteers,"  in  the  "  Library  of  Ireland" — Hardy's  "  Life  of  Lord  Charlemont" — 
the  Four  Series  of  Dr.  Madden's  collections  on  the  "  Lives  and  Times  of  the 
United  Irishmen" — Hay's  "  History  of  the  Rebellion  in  Wexford" — the  Rev.  Mr. 
Gordon's  "  History  of  the  Irish  Rebellion"  [the  work  of  Sir  Richard  Musgrave, 
as  being  wholly  untrustworthy,  is  purposely  excluded] — The  "  Papers  and  Corre- 
spondence" of  Lord  Coinwallis — and  of  Lord  Castlereagh  ; — the  "  Memoirs  of  Miles 
Byrne,  an  Irish  Exile  in  France,"  and  a  French  oflScer  of  rank,  lately  deceased — 
the  Lives  and  Speeches  of  Grattan  and  Curran — Sir  Jonah  Bai-rington's  "  Rise 
and  Fall  of  the  Irish  Nation" — Memoirs  and  Journals  of  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone — 
Richard  Lalor  Shiel's  "  Sketches  of  the  Irish  Bar" — Wyse's  "  History  of  the  Catho- 
lic Association" — O'Connell's  Speeches  and  Debates  in  the  United  Parliament. 

These  are  the  chief  authorities  for  all  the  time  previous  to  the  Catholic  Relief 
Act.  As  to  the  sketch  which  follows,  of  transactions  still  later,  it  would  be 
obviously  impossible  to  enumerate  the  multifarious  authorities :  but  the  speeches 
of  O'Connell  and  of  William  Smith  O'Brien  are  still,  for  the  Irish  history  of  their 
own  time,  what  the  orations  of  Grattan  were  for  his  ;  and  what  the  vivid  writings 
of  Swift  were  for  the  earlier  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  newspapers  and 
Parliamentary  Blue  Books  also  come  in,  as  essential  materials  (though  sometimes 
questionable)  for  this  later  period  :  and  for  the  Repeal  Agitation,  the  State  Trials, 
the  terrible  scenes  of  the  Famine,  and  the  consequent  extirpation  of  millions  of  the 
Irish  people,  we  have,  without  scruple,  made  use  (along  with  other  materials)  of 
the  facts  contained  in  *'  The  Last  Conquest  of  Ireland  (perhaps)" — excluding  gen- 
erally the  inferences  and  opinions  of  the  writer,  and  his  estimate  of  his  contempo- 
i-aries.  Indeed,  the  reader  will  find  in  the  present  work  very  few  opinions  or 
theories  put  forward  at  all ;  the  genuine  object  of  the  writer  being  simply  to 


INTRODUCTION. 


present  a  clear  narrative  of  the  events  as  they  evolved  themselves  one  out  of 
the  others. 

Neither  does  this  History  need  comment;  and  indignant  declamation  would 
but  weaken  the  effect  of  the  dreadful  facts  we  shall  have  to  tell.  If  the  writer  has 
succeeded — as  he  has  earnestly  desired  to  do — in  arranging  those  facts  in  good 
order,  and  exhibiting  the  naked  truth  concerning  English  domination  since  the 
Treaty  of  Limerick,  as  our  fathers  saw  it,  and  felt  it ; — if  he  has  been  enabled  to 
picture,  in  some  degree  like  life,  the  long  agony  of  the  Penal  Days,  when  the  pride 
of  the  ancient  Irish  race  was  stung  by  daily,  hourly  humiliations,  and  their  passions 
goaded  to  madness  by  brutal  oppression  ; — and  further  to  picture  the  still  more 
destructive  devastations  perpetrated  upon  our  country  in  this  enlightened  nine- 
teenth century ;  then  it  is  hoped  that  every  reader  will  draw  for  himself  such 
general  conclusions  as  the  facts  will  warrant,  without  any  declamatory  appeals  to 
patriotic  resentment,  or  promptings  to  patriotic  aspiration  : — the  conclusion,  in 
short,  that,  while  England  lives  and  flourishes,  Ireland  must  die  a  daily  death,  and 
suflfer  an  endless  martyrdom  ;  and  that  if  Irishmen  are  ever  to  enjoy  the  rights  of 
human  beings,  the  British  Empire  must  first  perish. 

As  the  learned  Abbe  MacGeoghegan  was  for  many  years  a  chaplain  to  the  Irish 
Brigade  in  France,  and  dedicated  his  work  to  that  renowned  corps  of  exiles,  whose 
dearest  wish  and  prayer  was  always  to  encounter  and  overthrow  the  British  power 
upon  any  field,  it  is  presumed  that  the  venerable  author  would  wish  his  work  to  be 
continued  in  the  same  thoroughly  Irish  spirit  which  actuated  his  noble  warrior- 
congregation  ; — and  he  would  desire  the  dark  record  of  English  atrocity  in  Ire- 
land, which  he  left  unfinished,  to  be  duly  brought  down  through  all  its  subse- 
quent scenes  of  horror  and  slaughter,  which  have  been  still  more  terrible  after  his 
day  than  they  were  before.    And  this  is  what  the  present  Continuation  professes 

to  do. 

J.  M. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

PROM  THE  TKEATY  OF  LIMERICK  TO  THE  END  OF  1691.  PXO« 

Treaty  of  Limerick — ^Violated  or  not? — Arguments  of  Macaulay — Doctor  Dopping,  Bisihop  of 
Meath — No  faith  to  be  kept  with  Papists — First  act  in  violation  of  the  treaty — Situation  of  thd 
Catholics — Chai'ge  against  Sarsfield 1 

CHAPTER    II. 

1692—1693. 

■William  III.  not  bigoted — Practical  toleration  for  four  years— First  Parliament  in  this  reign — 
Catholics  excluded  by  a  resolution — Extinction  of  civil  existence  for  Catholics — Irish  Protes- 
tant Nationality — Massacre  of  Glencoe — Battle  of  Steinkirk — Court  of  St.  Germains — "Dec- 
laration " — Battle  of  Landen,  and  death  of  Sarsfield 7 

CHAPTER    III. 

1693—1698. 

Capel  Lord-Lieutenant — War  in  the  Netherlands — Capture  of  Namur — Grievances  of  the  Protes- 
tant Colonisto — Act  for  disarming  Papists — Laws  against  education — Against  priests — 
Against  intermarrying  with  Papists— Act  to  "  confirm  "  Articles  of  Limerick— Irish  on  the 
Continent 13 

CHAPTER    lY. 

1698—1702. 

Predominance  of  the  English  Parliament — Molyneux^ — Decisive  action  of  the  English  Parliament 
— Court  and  country  parties — Suppression  of  woolen  manufacture — Commission  of  confiscated 
estates — Its  revelations — Vexation  of  King  "William — Peace  of  Eyswick — Act  for  establish- 
ing the  Protestant  succession — Death  of  William 17 

CHAPTER    V. 

1702—1704. 

Queen  Anne — Rochester  Lord-Lieutenant — Ormond  Lord-Lieutenant — War  on  the  Continent — 
Successes  under  Marlborough — Second  formal  breach  of  the  Treaty  of  Limerick — Bill  to 
prevent  the  further  growth  of  Popery — Clause  against  the  Dissenters — Catholic  lawyers 
heard  against  the  bill — Pleading  of  Sir  Toby  Butler — Bill  passed — Object  of  the  Penal  lawa 
— To  get  hold  of  the  property  of  Catholics — Recall  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes— Irish  on  the 
Continent — Cremona 22 

CHAPTER    VI. 

1704—1714, 

Enforcement  of  the  Penal  Laws — Making  informers  honorable — Pembroke  Lord-Lieutenant — 
Union  of  England  and  Scotland — Means  by  which  it  was  carried — Irish  House  of  Lords  in 
favor  of  an  Union — Laws  against  meeting  at  Holy  Wells — Catholics  excluded  from  Juries — 
Wharton  Lord-Lieutenant — Second  act  to  prevent  growth  of  Popery — Rewards  for  "  discov- 
erers " — Jonathan  Swift — Nature  of  his  Irish  Patriotism — Papists  the  "  common  enemy  " — 
The  Dissenters — Colony  of  the  Palatines — Disasters  of  the  French,  and  Peace  of  Utrecht — 
The  "  Pretender  " 34 

CHAPTER    VII. 

1714^1723, 

George  I. — James  IH. — Perils  of  Dean  Swift — Tories  dismissed — Ormond,  Oxford,  and  Boling- 
broke  impeached — Insurrection  in  Scotland — Calm  in  Ireland — Arrests — Irish  Parliament— 
"Loyalty"  of  the  Catholics— "No  Catholics  exist  in  Ireland" — Priest-catchers — Bolton  Lord- 
Lieutenant — Cause  of  Sherlock  and  Anuesley — Conflict  of  jurisdiction — Declaratory  act 
establishing  dependence  of  the  Irish  Parliament — Swift's  pamphlet — State  of  the  country — 
Qrafton  Lord-Lieutenant — Courage  of  the  priests — x\.trocious  liill 41 


Viii  CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

1723—1727.  Paob. 

Swift  and  Wood's  Copper — Drapier's  Letters — Claim  of  Independence — Primate  Boulter — Swift 
popular  with  the  Catholics — His  feeling  towards  Catholics — Desolation  of  the  Country — 
Rack-rents — Absenteeism — Great  Distress — Swift's  modest  proposal — Death  of  George  I. . . .     49 

CHAPTER    IX. 

1727—1741. 

Lord  Carteret  Lord-Lieutenant — Primate  Boulter  ruler  of  Ireland — His  policy — Catholic  Address 
— Not  noticed — Papists  deprived  of  elective  franchise — Insolence  of  the  "Ascendancy" — 
Famine — Emigration — Dorset  Lord-Lieutenant — Agitation  of  Dissenters — Sacramental  Test 
— Swift's  virulence  against  the  Dissenters — Boulter's  policy  to  extirpate  Papists — Rage 
against  the  Catholics — Debates  on  money  bills — "Patriot  Party" — Duke  of  Devonshire 
Lord-Lieutenant — Corruption — Another  famine — Berkeley — English  commercial  policy  in 
Ireland 54 

CHAPTER    X. 

1741—1745. 

War  on  the  Continent — Doctor  Lucas — Primate  Stone — Battle  of  Dettingen — Lally — Fontenoy — 
The  Irish  Brigade 61 

CHAPTER    XI. 

1745—1753. 

Alarm  in  England — Expedition  of  Prince  Charles  Edward — "A  Message  of  Peace  to  Ireland  "^ 
Viceroyalty  of  Chesterfield — Temporary  toleration  of  the  Catholics — Berkeley — The  Scottish 
Insurrection — Culloden — "  Loyalty  of  the  Irish — Lucas  and  the  Patriots — Debates  on  the 
Supplies — Boyle  and  Malone — Population  of  Ireland 68 

CHAPTER    XII. 

1753—1760. 

Unpopularity  of  the  Duke  of  Dorset — Earl  of  Kildare — His  address — Patriots  in  power — Pen- 
sion List — Duke  of  Bedford  Lord-Lieutenant — Case  of  Saul — Catholic  meeting  in  Dublin — 
Commencement  of  Catholic  agitation — Address  of  the  Catholics  received — First  recognition 
of  the  Catholics  as  subjects— Lucasian  mobs — Project  of  Union — Thurot's  expedition — Death 
of  George  II. — Population — Distress  of  the  country — Operation  of  the  Penal  Laws — The 
Geoghehans — Catholic  Petition — Berkeley's  "  Querist " 73 

CHAPTER    XIII. 

1760—1762. 

George  III. — Speech  from  the  Throne — "  Toleration  " — France  and  England  in  India — Lally's 
campaign  there — State  of  Ireland — The  Revenue — Distress  of  Trade — Distress  in  the  Coun- 
try— Oppression  of  the  Farmers — White-Boys — Riots — "A  Popish  Conspiracy" — Steel-Boys 
and  Oak-Boys — Emigration  from  Ulster — Halifax,  Viceroy — Flood  and  the  Patriots — Extra- 
vagance and  Corruption — Agitation  for  Septennial  Parliaments 85 

CHAPTER    XIV. 

1762—1768. 

Tory  Ministry — Failures  of  the  Patriots — Northumberland,  Viceroy. — Mr.  Fitzgerald's  speech  on 
Pension  List— Mr.  Perry's  address  on  same  subject — -Effort  for  mitigation  of  the  Penal  Laws 
— Mr.  Mason's  argument  for  allowing  Papists  to  take  mortgages — Rejected — Death  of  Stone 
and  Earl  of  Shannon — Lord  Hartford,  Viceroy — Lucas  and  the  Patriots  —Their  continued 
failures — Increase  of  National  Debt — Townshend,  Viceroy — New  system — The  "Under- 
takers " — Septennial  bill  changed  into  Octennial — And  passed — Joy  of  the  people — Conse- 
quences of  this  measure — Ireland  still  "standing  on  her  smaller  end" — Newspapers  of  Dub- 
lin—Grattan 92 

CHAPTER    XV. 

1762—1767. 

Reign  of  Terror  in  Munster — Murder  of  Father  Sheehy — "  Toleration,"  under  the  House  of  Han- 
over— Precarious  condition  of  Catholic  clergy — Primates  in  hiding — Working  of  the  Penal 
Laws— Testimony  of  Arthur  Young 99 


CONTENTS.  ix 


CHAPTER    XYI. 

1767—1773.  PAOB 

ToTVTishend,  Viceroy — Augmentation  of  the  army — Embezzlement — Parliament  prorogued— 
Again  prorogued — Townshend  buys  bis  majority — Triurjph  of  the  "English  Interest" — New 
attempt  to  bribe  the  Priests — Townsbend's  •*  Golden  Drops  " — Bill  to  allow  Papists  to  re- 
claim bogs — Townshend  recalled — Ilarcourt,  Viceroy — Proposal  to  tax  absentees — Defeated 
— Degraded  condition  of  the  Irish  Parliament — American  revolution,  and  new  era 107 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

1774—1777. 

American  affairs — Comparison  between  Ireland  and  the  Colonies — Contagion  of  American  opin- 
ions in  Ireland — Paltry  measure  of  relief  to  Catholics — Congress  at  Philadelphia — Address 
of  Congress  to  Ireland — Encouragement  to  Fisheries — Four  thousand  "  armed  negotiators  " 
—Financial  distress — First  Octennial  Parliament  dissolved — Grattan — Lord  Buckingham, 
Viceroy — Successes  of  the  Americans 114 

CHAPTER    XVIII. 

1777—1779. 

Buckingham,  Viceroy — Misery,  and  Decline  of  Trade — Discipline  of  Government  Supporters — 
Lord  North's  first  measure  in  favor  of  Catholics — Passed  in  England— Opposed  in  Ireland — 
"What  it  amounted  to — Militia  bill — The  Volunteers — Defenceless  state  of  the  country — 
Loyalty  of  the  Volunteers — Their  uniforms — Volunteers  Protestant  at  first — Catholics  de- 
sirous to  join — Volunteers  get  the  Militia  arms — Their  aims— Military  system — Numbers 
in  1780 120 

CHAPTER    XIX. 

1779—1780. 

Free  Trade  and  Free  Parliament— Meaning  of  "  Free  Trade  " — Non-importation  agreements — 
Rage  of  the  English — Grattan's  motion  for  free  trade — Hussey  Burgh — Thanks  to  the  Vol- 
unteers— Parade  in  Dublin — Lord  North  yields — Free  Trade  act — Next  step — Mutiny  bill — 
The  lyth  of  April — Declaration  of  Right — Defeated  in  Parliament,  but  successful  in  the 
country — General  determination — Organizing — Arming — Reviews — Charlemont — Briberies 
of  Buckingham — Carlisle,  Viceroy 128 

CHAPTER    XX. 

1781—1782. 

Parliament — Thanks  to  the  Volunteers— Habeas  Corpus — Trade  with  Portugal — Grattan's  finan- 
cial expose— Gardiner's  measure  for  Catholic  relief— Dungannon — The  15th  of  February, 
1782 — Debates  on  Gardiner's  bill — Grattan's  speech — Details  of  this  measure — Burke's  opin- 
ion of  it— Address  to  the  King  asserting  Irish  independence — England  yields  at  once — Act 
repealing  the  6th  George  I. — Repeal  of  Poynings'  law — Irish  independence 139 

CHAPTER    XXI. 

1783—1784. 

Effects  of  independence — Settlement  not  final— English  plots  for  the  Union— Corruption  of  Irish 
Parliament — Enmity  of  Flood  and  Grattan — Question  between  them — Renunciation  act — 
Second  Dungannon  Convention — Convention  of  delegates  in  Dublin — Catholics  excluded 
from  all  civil  rights — Lord  Kenmare — Lord  Kenmare  disavowed — Lord  Temple — Knights  of 
St.  Patrick — Portland,  Viceroy — Judicature  bill — Hapeas  Corpus — Bank  of  Ireland — Repeal 
of  Test  act — Proceedings  of  Convention — Flood's  Reform  bill — Rejected — Convention  dis- 
Bclved — End  of  the  Volunteers — Militia 152 

CHAPTER    XXII. 

•  1784—1786. 

Improvement  of  the  country — Political  position  anomalous — Rutland,  Viceroy — Petitions  for 
Parliamentary  reform — Flood's  motion — Rejected — Grattan's  bill  to  regulate  the  revenue — • 
Protective  duties  demanded — National  Congress — Dissensions  as  to  rights  of  Catholics — 
Charlemont's  intolerance — Orde's  commercial  propositions — New  propositions  of  Mr.  Pitt 
— Burke  and  Sheridan — Commercial  propositions  defeated  Mr.  Conolly — The  national 
debt — General  corruption — Court  majorities — Patriots  defeated — Ireland  after  five  years 
of  independence 16* 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

1787—1789.  PAoa 

Alarms  and  rumors  of  disturbances — Got  up  by  Government — Act  against  illegal  combinations 
— Mr.  Grattau  on  tithes — Failure  of  his  efforts — Death  of  Duke  of  Rutland — Marquis  of 
Buckingham,  Viceroy — Independence  of  Mr.  Curran — Mr.  Forbes  and  the  Pension  list — Fail- 
ure of  his  motion — Triumph  of  corruption— Troubles  in  Armagh  County — '•  Peep  of  Day 
Boys  " — "  Defenders  "—Insanity  of  the  King— The  Regency 177 

CHAPTER    XXI  Y. 

1789. 

Unpopularity  of  Buckingham — Formation  of  an  Irish  character — Efforts  of  Patriots  in  Parlia- 
ment— All  in  vain — Purchasing  votes — Corruption — Whig  Club — Lord  Clare  on  Whig  Club 
— Buckingham  leaves  Ireland — Pension  list — Peep  of  Day  Boys  and  Defenders— Westmore- 
land, Viceroy — Unavailing  efforts  ag<ainst  corruption — Material  prosperity — King  William's 
birthday — French  i-evolution 188 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

1790—1791. 

New  election — New  peers- — Sale  of  peerages — Motion  against  Police  bill — Continual  defeats  of 
patriots — Insolence  of  the  Castle — Progress  of  French  revolution — Horror  of  French  prin- 
ciples— Burke — Divisions  amongst  Irish  Catholics — Wolfe  Tone — General  Committee  of 
Catholics — Tone  goes  to  Belfast — Establishes  first  United  Irish  Club — Parliamentary  patriots 
avoid  them — Progress  of  Catholic  Committee — Project  of  a  Convention — Troubles  in 
County  Armagh 199 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

1791—1792. 

Principles  of  United  Irish  Society — Test — Addresses — Meeting  of  Parliament — Catholic  relief 
— Trifling  measure  of  that  kind — Petition  of  the  Catholics — Rejected — Steady  majority  of 
two-thirds  for  the  Castle — Placeholding  members — Violent  agitation  upon  the  Catholic  claims 
— Questions  put  to  Catholics  Universities  of  the  Continent — Their  answers — Opposition  to 
project  of  Convention — Catholic  question  in  the  Whig  Club — Catholic  Convention  in  Dublin 
National  Guard 211 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

1792—1793. 

The  Catholic  Convention — Reconciliation  of  differences  amongst  the  Catholics — Their  ueputa- 
tion  to  the  King — Successes  of  the  French  fortunate  for  the  Catholics — Dumouriez  and  Je- 
mappes — Gracious  reception  of  the  Catholic  deputation — Belfast  mob  draw  the  carriage  of 
Catholic  delegates — Secret  Committee  of  the  Lords — Report  on  Defenders  and  United  Irish- 
men— Attempt  of  committee  to  connect  the  two — Lord  Clare  creates  "alarm  among  the  bet- 
ter classes  " — Proclamation  against  unlawful  assemblies — Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald — French 
republic  declares  war  against  England — Large  measure  of  Catholic  relief  immediately  pro- 
posed— Moved  by  Secretary  Hobart — Act  carried — Its  provisions — What  it  yields,  and  what 
it  withholds — Ai'ms  and  Gunpowder  act — Act  against  conventions — Lord  Clare  the  real 
author  of  British  policy  in  Ireland  as  now  established — Effect  and  intention  of  the  "  Conven- 
tion act " — No  such  law  in  England — Militia  bill — Catholic  Committee — No  reform — Close 
of  session 220 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

1793—1795. 

Small  results  of  Catholic  Relief  bill — Distinctions  still  kept  up — Excitement  against  the  Catho-  • 
lies — Trials  of  Defenders — Packing  Juries — Progress  of  United  Irishism — Opposed  by 
Catholic  Bishops — Arrests  of  Bond  and  Butler — Prosecution  of  A.  Hamilton  Rowan — Last 
effort  for  Parliamentary  reform— Defeated — United  Irish  meeting  in  Dublin  dispersed  by  the 
police — Rev.  William  Jackson  and  Wolfe  Tone — Rowan  charged  with  treason — Rowan 
escapes — Tone  allowed  to  quit  the  country — Vow  of  the  Cave  Hill — Fitzwilliam's  adminis- 
tration— Fitzwilliam  deceived  by  Pitt — Dismissal  of  Mr.  Beresford— Plan  of  Mr.  Pitt — Insur- 
rection first — "  Union  "  afterwards — Fitzwilliam  recalled — Great  despondency — •'  The 
**  Orangemen  '-' — Beginning  of  coercion  and  anarchy 231 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

,  1793—1797.  PAOU 

;  "  To  Hell  or  Coonanght " — "Vigor  beyond  the  Law  " — Lord  Carhamptnn's  "Vigor — Insurrection 
Act — Indemnity  Act — The  latter  an  invitation  to  Magistrates  to  breali  the  law — Mr.  Grattan 
on  the  Orangemen — His  resolution — The  Acts  Passed — Opposed  by  Grattan,  Parsons,  and 
Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald — Insurrection  Act  destroys  Liberty  of  the  Press — Suspension  of 
Habeas  Corpus — U.  I.  Society — New  Members — Lord  E.  Fitzgerald — MacNeven — Emmet — 
Wolfe  Tone  at  Paris — His  Journal — Clarke — Carnot — Hoche — Bantry  Bay  Expedition — 
Account  of,  in  Tone's  Journal — Fleet  Anchors  in  Bantry  Bay — Account  of  the  affair  by 
Secret  Committee  of  the  Lords — Government  fully  Informed  of  all  the  Projects 240 


CHAPTEH    XXX. 

1797. 

Beign  of  Terror  in  Armagh  County — No  Orangemen  ever  Punished — "  Defenders  "  called  Ban- 
ditti— "  Faulkner's  Journal,"  Organ  of  the  Castle— Cheers  on  the  Orangemen — Mr.  Curran's 
Statement  of  the  Havoc  iu  Armagh — Increased  Rancor  against  Catholics  and  U.  I.  after  the 
Bantry  Bay  Affair — Efforts  of  Patriots  to  Establish  Permanent  Armed  Force — Opposed  by 
Government — And  Why — Proclamation  of  Counties— Bank  Ordered  to  Suspend  Specie  Pay- 
ments— Alarm — Dr.  Duigenan — Secession  from  Parliament  of  Grattan,  Curran,  &c. — General 
Lake  in  the  North — "  Northern  Star  " — Office  Wrecked  by  Troops — Proclamation — Outrages 
in  the  Year  1797 — Salutary  Effect  of  the  United  Irish  System  on  the  Peace  of  the  Country — 
Armagh  Assizes — Slanderous  Report  of  a  Secret  Committee — Good  Effects  of  United  Irishism 
in  the  South — Miles  Byrne — AVexford  County 267 


CHAPTER    XXXI. 

1797—1798.  J 

<Volfe  Tone's  Negotiations  in  France  and  Holland — Lewins — Expedition  of  Dutch  Government         j 
Destined  for  Ireland — Tone  at  the  Texel — His  Journal — Tone's  Uneasiness  about  Admitting 
Foreign  Dominion  over  Ireland — MacNeven's  Memoir — Discussion  as  to  Proper  Point  for  a 
Landing — Tone  on  Board  the  Vryheid — Adverse  Winds — Rage  and  Impatience  of  Tone — 
Disastrous  Fate  of  the  Batavian  Expedition — Camperdown 268 


CHAPTER    XXXII. 

1798. 

Spies — Secret  Service  Money — Press  Prosecution — "  Remember  Orr  !" — Account  of  Orr — 
Curran's  Speech — His  Description  of  Informers — Arts  of  Government — Sowing  Dissensions 
- — Forged  Assassination  List—"  Union  "  Declines — Addresses  of  "  Loyalty  " — Maynooth 
Grant  Enlarged — Catholic  Bishops  *'  Loyal  " — Forcing  a  "  Premature  Explosion  " — Camden 
and  Carhampton — Outrages  on  the  People,  to  Force  Insurrection — Testimony  of  Lord  Moira 
— Inquiry  Demanded  in  Parliament — Repulsed  and  Defeated  by  Clare  and  Castlereagh — 
Insolence  and  Unlimited  Power  of  Ministers— General  Abercrombie  Resigns— Remarkable 
General  Order — Pelham  Quits  Ireland — Castlereagh's  Secretary — The  Hessians' Free  Quarters 
— The  Ancient  Britons — Proclamation  of  Martial  Law — Grattan's  Picture  of  the  Times — 
Horrible  Atrocities  in  Wexford — Massacres — The  Orangemen — Their  Address  of  Loyalty — 
All  these  Outrages  before  any  Insurrection 277 


CHAPTER    XXXIII. 

1798. 

Reynolds,  the  Informer — Arrests  of  U.  I.  Chiefs  in  Dublin — The  Brothei's  Sheares — Their  Eflforts 
to  Delay  Explosion — Clare  and  Castlereagh  Resolve  to  Hurry  it — Advance  of  the  Military — 
■  Half-Hanging — Pitch  Caps — Scourging  Judkin  Fitzgerald — Sir  John  Moore's  Testimony — 
His  Disgust  at  the  Atrocities — General  Napier's  Testimony — Catholic  Bishop's  and  Peers 
Profess  their  "  Loyalty  " — Armstrong.  Informer — Arrest  of  the  Sheares — Arrest  and  Death 
of  Lord  Edward — Mr.  Emmet's  Evidence  before  Secret  Committee — Insurrection  Breaks  Out 
— The  23d  of  May — Naas— Prosperous— Kilcullen — Proclamation  of  Lake— Of  the  Lord 
Mayor  of  Dublin — Skirmishes  at  Carlow — Hacketstown,  &c.— Insurgents  have  the  Advantage 
at  Dunboyne — Attack  on  Carlow — Executions — Sir  E.  Crosbie — Massacre  at  Gibbet  Rath  of 
Kildare— Slaughter  on  Tara  Hill— Suppression  of  Insurrection  in  Kildare,  Dublin  and  Meath  2^'i 


Xll  CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 

1798.  PAOB 

Wexford  a  Peaceable  County — Lord  Castlereagb's  Judicious  Measures — Catholics  Driven  out  of 
Yeomanry  Corps — Treatment  of  Mr.  Fitzgerald — United  Irish  in  Wexford — The  Priests  Op- 
pose that  Society — How  they  were  Requited — Miles  Byrne — Torture  in  Wexford— Orangemen 
in  Wexford — North  Cark  Militia — Hay's  Account  of  the  Ferocity  of  the  Magistrates — 
Massacre  of  Carnew — Father  John  Murphy — Burning  of  his  Chapel — Miles  Byrne's  Account 
ct  First  Rising — Oulard — Storm  of  Enniscorthy — Wexford  Evacuated  by  the  King's  Troops 
— Occupied  by  Insurgents — All  the  County  now  in  Insurrection — Estimated  Numbers  of 
Insurgents — Population  of  the  County 307 


CHAPTER    XXXV. 

1798. 

Camp  on  Vinegar  Hill — Actions  at  Ballycannoo — At  Newtownbarry — Tubberneering— Fall  of 
Walpole — Two  Columns— Bagenal  Harvey  Commands  Instirgents — Summons  New  Rosa  to 
Surrender — Battle  of  New  Ross — Slaughter  of  Prisoners — Retaliatioil — ScuUabogue — 
Bagenal  Harvey  Shocked  by  Atfair  of  ScuUybogue — Resigns  Command — Father  Philip  Roche 
General — Fight  at  Arklow — Claimed  as  a  Victory  by  King's  Troops — Account  of  it  by  Miles 
Byrne — The  insurgents  Execute  some  Loyalists  in  Wexford  Town — Dixon — Retaliation — 
Proclamation  by  '•  People  of  Wexford  " — Lord  Kingsborough  a  Prisoner — Troops  Concen- 
trated round  Vinegar  Hiil — Battle  of  Vinegar  Hill — Enniscorthy  and  Wexford  Recovered — 
Military  Executions — Ravage  of  the  Country— Chiefs  Executed  in  Wexford — Treatment  of 
Women — Outrages  in  the  North  of  the  County — Fate  of  Father  John  Murphy's  Column — 
Of  Antony  Perry's — Combat  at  Ballyellis — Miles  Byrne's  Account  of  it— Extermination  of 
Ancient  Britons — Character  of  Wexford  Insurrection — Got  up  by  the  Government 310 


CHAPTER    XXXVI. 

1798. 

Rising  in  Ulster — Antrim — Saintfield — Ballinahinch — Insurgents  Defeated — McCracken  and  Mon- 
roe Hanged — Skirmish  in  Cork  County — Courts-Martial — Many  Executions — Hanging  of 
Father  Redmond — Surrender  of  Fitzgerald  and  Aylmer — Compact  between  Prisoners  and 
Government — In  order  to  Save  the  Lives  of  Byrne  and  Bond — Compact  Violated  by 
Government— Byrne  Hanged — Bond  Dies  Suddenly  in  Prison — Reign  of  Terror  in  Dublin — 
Brothers  Sheares  Tried — Hanged — Other  State  Trials — Curran  in  Court — "  The  Three  Majors" 
— Sirr,  Swan,  and  Sandys — The  "Major's  People" — John  Claudius  Beresford — Tortures  in 
Dublin — Country  in  Wild  Alarm — Spiked  Heads — Fit  Time  to  Propose  Legislative  Union — 
Marquis  Cornwallis  comes  as  Viceroy — To  bring  about  the  Union — "'Impression  of  Horror" 
— Apparent  Measures  to  End  the  Devastations — Offers  of  •'  Protection  "' — Not  EfQcacious — 
Testimony  of  Lord  Camden  himself:— True  Account  of  the  '•  Compact " — United  Irishmen 
sent  to  Fort  George 332 


CHAPTER    XXXVII. 

1798. 

Parliament — The  Acts  of  Attainder — French  Landing  under  Humbert — Killala — Conduct  of  the 
little  French  Army — Ballina — The  Races  of  Castlebar — Panic  and  Rout  of  the  British  Force 
— French  give  a  Ball — Lord  Cornwallis  Collects  a  Great  Army — Marches  to  meet  the  French 
• — Encounters  them  at  Ballinamuck — Defeat  and  Capture  of  the  French — Recovery  of  Ballina 
— Slaughter — Courts-Martial,  «fec. — End  of  the  Insurrections  of  17H8 — New  French  Expedi- 
tion— Commodore  Bompart — ^T.  W.  Tone — Encounter  British  Fleet  at  mouth  of  Lough 
Swilly — Battle — The  Hoche  Captured — Tone  a  Prisoner — Recognized  by  Sir  George  Hill- 
Carried  to  Dublin  in  Irons — Tried  by  Court-Martial— Condemned  to  be  Hanged— His  Address 
to  the  Court — Asks  as  a  Favor  to  be  Shot — Refused  by  Cornwallis — Suicide  in  Prison 348 


CHAPTER    XXXVIII. 

1798—1799. 

Examination  of  O'Connor,  Emmet,  and  MacNeveu — Lord  Enniskillen  and  his  Court-Martial^ 
Project  of  Union — Bar  Meeting — Speech  from  the  Throne — Union  Proposed — Reception  in 
the  Lords — In  the  Commoas— Ponsonby^-Fitzgerald — Sir  Jonah  Barrington — Castlereagb's 
Explanation — Speech  of  Plunket — First  Division  on  the  Union — Majority  of  One — Mr. 
Trench  and  Mr.  Fox — Methods  of  Conversion  to  Unionism — First  Contest  a  drawn  Battle — 
Excitement  la  Dublin 863 


CONTENTS.  XIU 


CHAPTER    XXXIX. 

1799.  PAau 

Second  Debate  on  Union— Sir  Lawrence  Parsons — Mr.  Smith— Ponsonby  and  Phinket — Division 
— Majority  Against  Government — Fonsonby's  Resolution  for  Perpetual  Independence — De- 
fection of  Fortescue  and  Others — Resolution  Lost — "Possible  Circumstances" — Tumult — 
Danger  of  Lord  Clare — Second  Debate  in  the  Lords— Lord  Clare  Triumphant — "  Loyalists'  ^ 
Claim-Bill  "— "  Rebels  Disqualification  Bill  "— "  Flogging  Fitzgerald  "—Asks  Indemnity — 
Regency  Act — Opposed  by  Castlereagh 374 

CHAPTERXL. 

1799. 

Union  Proposed  in  British  Parliament — Opposed  by  Sheridan— Supported  by  Canning— Great 
Speech  of  Mr.  Pitt— Ireland  to  be  Assured  of  English  Protection— Of  English  Capital- 
Promises  to  the  Catholics— Mr.  Pitt's  Resolutions  for  Union— Sheridan— Dundas— Resolu- 
tions Passed— In  the  House  of  Lords— Labors  of  Cornwallis  and  Castlereagh— Corruption- 
Intimidation — Onslaught  of  Troops  in  Dublin — Lord  Cornwallis  makes  a  Tour — Lord  Down- 
shire  Disgraced— Handcock  of  Athlone— His  Song  and  Palinode— Opposition  Inorganic — 
The  Orangemen— The  Catholics— Arts  to  Delude  Them— Dublin  Catholics  against  Union — 
O'Counell— System  of  Terror— County  Meeting  Dispersed  by  Troops— Castlereagh's  An- 
nouncement of  '•  Compensation  " 381 


CHAPTER    XLI. 

1799—1800. 

Progress  of  Union  Conspiracy — Grand  Scale  of  Bribery — Castlereagh  Organizes  "  Fighting  Men" 
■ — Dinner  at  his  House — Last  Session  of  the  Irish  Parliament — Warm  Del)ate  the  First  Day — 
Daly  Attacks  Bushe  and  Plunket — Reappearance  of  Grattan — His  Speech — Corry  Attacks 
Him — Division — Majority  for  Government — Castlereagh  Proposes  "Articles  "  of  Union — 
His  Speech— Promises  Great  Gain  to  Ireland  from  Union— Ireland  to  "  Save  a  Million  a 
Year  " — Proposed  Constitution  of  United  Parliament — Irish  Peerage— Ponsonby — Grattan — 
Again  a  Majority  for  the  Castle — Lord  Clare's  Famous  Speech— Duel  of  Grattan  and  Corry 
— Torpor  and  Gloom  in  Dublin— The  Catholics— "Articles  "  finally  Adopted— By  Commons 
—By  Lords 39 1 


CHAPTER    XLII. 

1800 

The  Union  in  English  Parliament — Opposed  by  Lord  Holland— Mr.  Grey— Sheridan— Irish  Act 
for  Electors — Distribution  of  Seats — Castlereagh  brings  in  bill  for  the  Union — Warm  Debates 
— Union  Denounced  by  Plunket,  Bushe,  Saurin,  Grattan— Their  Earnest  Language — Last 
Days  of  the  Parliament^ — Last  Scene — Passes  the  Lords — The  Protesting  Peers— The  Com- 
pensation Act — The  King  Congratulates  the  British  Parliament — Lord  Cornwallis — The  Irish 
— Union  to  date  from  January  1,  1801 — Irish  Debt— History  of  it 401 


CHAPTER    XLIII. 

1800—1803. 

The  Catholics  Duped — Resignation  of  Pitt — Mystery  of  this  Resignation — First  Measure  of  Unit- 
ed Parliament — Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus — Report  of  Secret  Committee — Fate  of  Lord 
Clare — Lord  Hardwicke,  Viceroy — Peace  of  Amiens^Treaty  Violated  by  England — Malta — 
War  again  Declared  by  England — Mr.  Pitt  Resumes  OfiQce — Coalition  against  France 410 


CHAPTER    XLIY. 

1802—1803. 

First  Year  of  the  Union— Distress  in  Ireland— Riot  in  Dublin— Irish  Exiles  in  France— Renewed 
Hopes  of  French  Aid — The  two  Emmets,  MacNeven,  and  O'Connor  in  France— Apprehen- 
sions of  Invasion  in  England — Robert  Emmet  comes  from  France  to  Ireland — His  Associates 
— His  Plans— Miles  Byrne — Despard's  Conspiracy  in  England — Emmet's  Preparations — Ex- 
plosion in  Patrick  Street— The  23d  of  July— Failure— Bloody  Riot— Murder  of  Lord  Kil- 
warden— Emmet  sends  Miles  Byrne  to  France— Retires  to  Wicklow — Ret\irns  to  Dublin — 
Arrested — Tried — Convicted — Hanged — Fate  of  Russell •  •  •  *17 


XIV  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    XLV. 

1803—1804.  "  ■  PAOB 

Reason  to  believe  that  Government  was  all  the  time  aware  of  the  Conspiracy — "  Striking  Terror  " 
—Martial  Law — Catholic  Address — Arrests— Informers — Vigorous  Measures — In  Cork — In 
Belfast — Hundreds  of  Men  Imjjrisoned  without  Charge — Brutal  Treatment  of  Prisoners — 
Special  Commission — Eighteen  Persons  Hung — Debate  in  Parliament — Irish  Exiles  in  France 
— First  Consul  Plans  a  New  Expedition  to  Ireland — Formation  of  the  "  Irish  Legion  " — 
Irish  Legion  in  Bretagne— OfiScial  Reply  of  the  First  Consul  to  T.  A.  Emmet — Designs  of 
the  French  Government — Buonaparte's  Mistake — French  Fleet  again  Ordered  Elsewhere — 
The  Legion  goes  to  the  Rhine,  and  to  Walcheren— End  of  the  Addington  Ministry — Mr.  Pitt 
Returns  to  Office — Condition  of  Ireland — Decay  of  Dublin — Decline  of  Trade — Increase  of 
Debt — Ruinous  Eiiects  of  the  Union — Presbyterian  Clergy  Pensioned,  and  the  Reason 427 

CHAPTER    XLYI. 

1804—1805. 
Mr.  Pitt  in  Office — Royal  Speech — No  Mention  of  Ireland — Alarm  about  Invasion — Martello 
Towers — Reliance  of  the  Irish  Catholics  on  Mr.  Pitt— Treatment  of  the  Prisoners— Mr. 
James  Tandy — Mr.  Pitt  Raises  a  Storm  against  the  Catholics — Catholic  Meeting  in  Dublin — ■ 
Habeas  Corpus  Act  again  Suspended — Ireland  "Loyal" — Duplicity  of  Lord  HardwicUe — 
Catholic  Deputies  go  to  Mr.  Pitt — A  "  Sincere  Friend  " — Mr.  Pitt  Refuses  to  Present  Catholic 
Petition — Declares  he  will  Resist  Emancipation — Lord  Grenville  and  Mr.  Fox  Present  it — 
Debate  in  the  Lord.s — In  the  Commons — Speeches  of  Fox,  Doctor  Duigenan,  Grattan — Per- 
ceval, Pitt,  Sir  John  Newport— Emancipation  Refused,  both  by  Lords  and  Commons — Great 
Majorities 434 

CHAPTER    XLYII. 

1804—1806. 
Prosecution  of  Judge  Fox — His  Offence,  Enforcing  Law  on  Orangemen— Prosecution  of  Judge 
Johnson — His  Offence,  Censuring  the  Irish  Government — Decline  of  Pitt's  Power — Castte- 
reagh  Defeated  in  Down  County — Successes  of  Buonaparte — Cry  for  Peace — Death  of  Mr. 
Pitt — Whig  Ministry — Mr.  Fox — His  Opinion  of  the  Union — First  Whisper  of  "  Repeal  "^ 
Release  of  State  Prisoners — Dismissal  of  Lord  Redesdale  as  Chancellor — Duke  of  Bedford, 
Viceroy — The  Catholics  Cheated  Again — Equivocation  of  the  Viceroy— Ponsonby — Curran's 
Promotion — The  Armagh  Orangemen — Mr.  Wilson  the  Magistrate 442 

CHAPTER    XLYIII. 

1806—1807. 
Revenue  and  Debt  of  Ireland— Rapid  Increase  of  Debt — Drain  of  Wealth  from  Ireland — Charac- 
ter of  the  Imports  and  Exports — Rackrents,  Tithes,  &c. — Distress  of  the  People — The 
"  Threshers  " — Threshers  Hung — Catholic  Meetings — Increase  of  Maynooth  Grant — From 
Apprehension  of  the  Irish  College  in  France — Catholic  Officers'  Bill — To  Promote  Depopu- 
lation— Bill  Abandoned — Change  of  Ministry — The  King  Demands  a  No-Popery  Pledge^ 
Duke  of  Cumberland — Perceval  Administration — Camden  and  Castlereagh  in  Office — No- 
Popery — Recruiting  in  Ireland — John  Keogh  on  Catholic  Officers'  Bill — O'Connell — Too- 
Easy  Gratitude  of  the  Irish  towards  AVhigs — Populace  Draw  the  Duke  of  Bedford's  Coach. ,   451 

CHAPTER    XLIX. 

1807—1808. 
Duke  of  Richmond,  Viceroy — Sir  A.  Wellesley,  Secretary — Their  System — Depression  of  Catho- 
lics— Insolence  of  Orangemen — Government  Interference  in  Elections — Ireland  Gets  a  New 
Insurrection  Act — And  an  Arms  Act— Grattan  Advocates  Coercion  Acts — Sheridan  Opposes 
Them — ^Acts  Passed — The  Bishop  of  Quimper — Means  Used  to  Create  Exasperation  against 
Catholics — '•  Shanavests  "  and  -'Caravats" — ''Church  in  Danger  " — Catholic  Petition — In 
fluence  of  O'Connell — Lord  Fingal — Growing  Liberality  amongst  Protestants — Maynooth 
Grant  Curtailed — Doctor  Duigenan  Privy-Councillor — Catholic  Petition  Presented — The 
"Feto"  Offered — Mr.  Ponsonby  and  Mr.  Grattan — They  Urge  the  Veto  as  a  Security — Peti- 
tion Rejected — Controversies  on  the  Veto — Bishops'  Resolutions — No  Catholics  in  Bank  of 
Ireland— Dublin  Police 457 

CHAPTER    L. 

1808—1809. 
The  Duke  of  Richmond's  Anti-Catholic  Policy — The  Orangemen  Flourish — Their  Outrages  and 
Murders — Castlereagh  and  Perceval  Charged  with  Selling  Seats — Corruption — Sir  Arthur 
Wellesley — Titlies — Catholic  Committee  Reorganized — John  Keogh  on  Petitioning  Parlia- 
ment— O'Connell  and  the  Convention  Act — Orangemen  also  Reorganized — Orange  Conven- 
tion— More  Murders  by  Orangemen — Crooked  Policy  of  the  Castle — Defection  of  the  Bandou 
Orangemen — Success  of  the  Castle  Policy  in  Preventing  Union  with  irishmen 4()"7 


CONTENTS.  XT 


CHAPTER    LI. 

1810—1812.  PAGE 

Duke  of  Richmond's  "Conciliation" — Orange  Oppression — Treatment  of  Catholic  Soldiers — 
The  Veto  again — Debate  on  Veto  in  Parliament — Catholic  Petition  Presented  by  Grattan — 
Rejected — O'ConnelFs  Leadership — New  Organization  of  Catholics — Repeal  of  the  Union 
First  Agitated — Insanity  of  the  King — Treachery  of  the  Regent — Prosecution  of  the  Catho- 
lic Committee — Convention  Act — Suppression  of  the  Committee — New  Measures  of  O' 
Connell — Mr.  Curran  at  Newry  Election — Effects  of  the  Union 473 

CHAPTER    LII. 

1813—1821. 

Grattan's  Emancipation  Bill — More  Veto — Quarantotti— Unanimity  in  Ireland  against  Veto — 
Mr.  Peel  and  hia  New  Police — Stipendiary  Magistrates — Close  of  the  War — Restoration  of 
the  Bourbons — Waterloo — Evil  EU'ects  on  Ireland — The  Irish  Legion  in  France — Its  Fate — 
Miles  Byrne  and  his  Friends — Elfects  of  the  Peace  in  Impoverishing  the  Irish — Cheap  Eject- 
ment Law  Passed — Beginning  of  Extermination — "  Surplus  Population  " — Catholic  Claims 
Ruined  by  tfie  Peace — 0"Couuell  and  Catholic  Board — Board  Suppressed — O'Connell  in 
Court — His  Audacity — His  Scorn  of  the  Dublin  Corporation — Duel  with  D'Esterre — Distress 
in  Ireland— Famine  of  1817 — Coercion  in  Ireland — "  Six  Acts"  in  England — Mr.  Piunket's 
Emancipation  Bill — Peel  and  the  Duke  of  York — Royal  Visit  to  Ireland — Catholics  Cheated 
Again 481 

CHAPTER    LIII. 

1822—1825. 

Famine  of  1822 — Its  Causes — Financial  Frauds  upon  Ireland — Horrors  of  the  Famine — Extermi- 
nation— Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus  Act — Castlereagh  Cuts  his  Throat — Marquis  Wei lesley, 
Viceroy — Sir  Harcourt  Lees — The  Bottle  Riot — Catholic  Association  Formed — Dr.  Doyle  ; 
"J.  K.  L." — Progress  of  Catholic  Association — "Catholic  Rent" — Maynooth  Professors 
"  Loyal"— Rage  of  the  Orangemen^" O'Connell,  the  Pope,  and  the  Devil" — Passiveness  of 
the  Dissenters — O'Connell's  Appeals  to  Them — Intellectual  and  Literary  Power  of  the 
Movement — Act  to  Suppress  "  Unlawful  Associations" — First  Attempt  to  Cheat  the  Catho- 
lics— A  Relief  Bill,  with  •' Wings  " — Defeated — Catholic  Deputation  in  London — O'Connell 
and  the  Whigs — Strong  Feeling  in  Ireland  against  "  Wings  " 490 

CHAPTER    LIY. 

1825—1829. 

Action  of  the  Catholic  Association — Waterford  Election — Louth  Election — Change  of  Ministry — 
Canning,  Premier — Lord  Anglesea.  Viceroy — The  •'  New  Reformation  " — Pope  and  Maguire 
— Death  of  Canning — Goderich  Cabinet — Catholic  Petition  for  Repeal  of  Test  and  Corpora- 
tion Acts — Acts  Repealed — Clare  Election — O'Connell  Returned — Its  Results — Suppression 
of  Catholic  Association — Peel  and  Wellington  Prepare  Catholic  Relief  Bill — Rage  of  the 
Bigots — Reluctance  of  the  King — O'Connell  at  the  Bar  of  the  House— Passage  of  the  Eman- 
cipation Act— Disfranchisement  of  the  Forty-Shilling  Freeholders — Abstract  of  the  Relief 
Act — The  New  Oath— Meaning  and  Spirit  of  the  Relief  Act 499 

CHAPTER    LV. 

1829—1840. 

Results  of  the  Relief  Act — O'Connell  Reelected  for  Clare — Drain  of  Agricultural  Produce — 
Educated  Class  of  Catholics  Bought — The  Tithe  War— Lord  Anglesea,  Viceroy — O'Connell's 
Associations — Anglesea's  Proclamations — Prosecution  of  O'Connell — National  Education— 
Tithe-Tragedies — Newtownbarry — Carrickshock — Change  of  Dynasty,  in  France — Reform 
Agitation  in  England — What  Reform  Meant  in  Ireland — Cholera — Resistance  to  Tithe — Lord 
Grey's  Coercion  Act — Abolition  of  Negro  Slavery — Church  Temporalities  Act — Repeal  De- 
bate— Surplus  Population — Surplus  Produce — Tithe-Carnage  at  Rathcormack — Queen  Vic- 
toria's Accession — Three  Measures  Against  Ireland — Poor  Law — Tithe  Law — Municipal 
Reform— Castle-Sheritfs 510 

CHAPTER    L  YI. 

1840—1843. 

Spirit  of  Legislation  for  Ireland— More  Spying  in  the  Post  Office— Savings  Banks— "  Precursor 
Society  "—Support  to  the  Whigs— Whigs  Go  Out— Peel  Comes  In— Repeal  A.ssociation— Ex- 
port of  Food — Extermination— The  Repeal  Year — Corporation  Debate — The  Younger 
Nationalists — New  "Arms  Bill" — O'Brien  Moves  for  Inquiry— Preparations  for  Coercion- 
All  England  against  Repeat— Monster  Meetings— Mallow— Tara—Mullaghmast—Cloutarf— 
Proclamation 522 


Xvi  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    LVII. 

1843—1844.  PAaa 

Why  England  could  not  Yield— Cost  to  her  of  Repeal— Intention  of  Government  at  Clontarf— The 
♦'  Projected  Massacre  "—Meeting  Prevented— State  Proseciition— O'Brien  Declares  for  Re- 
peal  Packing  of  the  Jury — Verdict  of  Guilty — Debate  in  Parliament— Russell  and  Macaulay 

on  Packing  of  Juries — O'Connell  in  Parliament — Speculation  of  the  Whigs — Sentence  and 
Imprisonment  of  "  Conspirators  " — Effects  on  Repeal  Association— Appeal  to  the  House  of 
Lords— Whig  Law  Lords — Reversal  of  the  Sentence — Enthusiasm  of  the  People — Their  Pa- 
tience and  ISelf-Denial — Decline  of  the  Association 535 

CHAPTER    LYIII. 

1844. 

Decadence  of  Repeal  Association — Land  Tenure  Commission — Necessity  of  exterminating  "  Sur- 
plus Population  " — Report  of  the  ''  Landlord  and  Tenant  Commission  " — Tenant  Right  to 
be  DisaZZoiced— Farms  to  be  Consolidated — People  to  be  Extirpated — Methods  of  the  Minis- 
ter to  Divide  Repealers — Grant'  to  Mayuooth— Queen's  Colleges — Secret  Ageats  at  Rome- 
American  Slavery — Distraction  in  Repeal  Ranlvs— Bill  for  •'  Compensation  to  Tenants  "— 
Defeated— Death  of  Thomas  Davis— The  Famine— Commission  of  Chemists  to  Gain  Time— 
Deinauds  of  Ireland— Of  the  Corporations— Of  O'Connell  and  O'Brien— Repudiation  of  Alms 
—Coercion  Bill— Repeal  of  Corn  Laws— Irish  Harvests  go  to  England — "Relief  Measures" — 
Delays— Fraud— Havoc  of  the  People— Peel's  System  of  Famine-Slaughter  Fully  Established 
—Peel  Resigns  Office. 543 

CHAPTER     LIX. 

1846—1847. 

Progress  of  the  Famine  Carnage — Pretended  Relief  Measures— Imprisonment  of  O'Brien— Dis- 
sensions in  Repeal  Association — Break  up  of  that  Body — Ravages  of  Famine — "Labor-Rate 
Act" — Useless  Public  Works —Extermination — Famine  of  1847 — How  they  lived  in  Eng- 
land—Advances from  the  Treasury — Attempts  of  Foreign  Countries  to  relieve  the  Famine — 
Defeated  by  British  Government — Vagrancy  Act— Parish  Coffins— Constant  Repudiation  of 
Alms — An  Englishman's  Petition  for  Alms  to  Ireland— "Ingratitude  "  of  the  Irish — Death 
of  O'Connell— Preparations  to  Insure  the  Next  Year's  Famine— Emigration— British  Famine 
Policy — New  Coercion  Act  called  for — Famine  in  Ireland 560 

CHAPTER    LX. 

1847—1848. 

Lord  Clarendon  Viceroy— His  means  of  Insuring  the  Shipment  to  England  of  the  Usual  Tribute 
— Bribes  the  Baser  Sort  of  Editors — Patronage  for  Catholic  Lawyers — Another  Coercion  Act 
— Projects  for  Stopping  Exports  of  Grain — Arming — Alarm  of  Government— Whigs  active  in 
CSercion— French  Revolution  of  February— Confederate  Clubs — Deputation  from  Dublin  to 
Paris— O'Brien's  Last  Appearance  in  Parliament — Trials  of  O'Brien  and  Meagher — Trial  of 
Mitchel — Packing  of  the  Jury — Reign  of  Terror  in  Dublin 574 

CHAPTER     LXI. 

1848—1849. 

Reconstitution  of  the  Irish  Confederation — New  National  Journals  Established — The  Tribune — 
The  Felon — New  Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus — Numerous  Arrests — O'Brien  attempts  Insur- 
rection—Ballingarry — Arrest  and  Trial  of  O'Brien  and  Others — Conquest  of  the  Island — 
Destruction  of  the  People— Incumbered  Estates  Act— Its  Effects— No  Tenant-Right— "  Rate- 
in- Aid  "—Queen's  Visit  to  Ireland— Places  given  to  Catholics— Catholic  Judges— Their 
Office  and  Duty— Ireland  "  Prosperous  "—Statistics  of  the  Famine  Slaughter— Destruction  of 
Three  Millions  of  Souls — Flying  from  "  Prosperity  " 686 

CHAPTER     LXII. 

1850—1851. 

Depopulation— Emigration— "  Plea  for  the  Celtic  Race  "—Decay  of  the  Irish  Electoral  Body- 
Act  to  Amend  Representation — *•  Papal  Aggression  " — Rage  in  England — Ecclesiastical  Titles 
Bill — Never  Enforced— And  Why — Orange  Outrage  in  Down  County — •'  Dolly's  Brae" — 
Style  of  Orange  Processions — Condition  of  the  Country^Further  Emigration — Still  more 
Extermination — Crime  and  Outrage — Plenty  and  Prosperity  in  England — Conclusion 597 

Appendix 611 

iKOKX 6^7 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FROM    THE  TREATY  OF  LIMERICK   TO    THE    END 
OF  1691. 

Treaty  of  Liineriek. — Violated  or  not  ? — Arernments 
of  Macaulay. — Dr.  Dopping,  Bishop  of  Meath. — 
No  faith  to  be  kept  with  Papists.  — First  act  in 
violation  of  the  treaty. — Situation  of  the  Catholics. 
— Charge  against  Sarsfield. 

The  Articles  of  Limerick  were  signed  on 
the  3d  October,  1691,  and  the  city  was  sur- 
,rendered  to  the  army  of  King  William,  who 
was  then,  for  the  first  time,  recognized  by 
the  body  of  the  Irish  nation  as  King  of  Ire- 
land '.  and  when  the  Irish  forces,  who  had 
held  Limerick  and  Galway  so  gallantly, 
were  shipped  off  to  France,  pursuant  to  the 
capitulation,  there  was  not  left  in  all  Ire- 
land the  slightest  semblance  of  any  power 
capable  of  resisting  or  troubling  the  new 
settlement  of  the  kingdom.  The  timely 
.^uireuder  had  also  enabled  William  to  bring 
to  a  close  this  most  ti-onblesome  and  costly 
war,  at  a  moment  when  it  was  urgently 
needful  for  him  to  concentrate  all  his  force 
against  the  great  power  of  Fi'ance. 

It  is  therefore  evident,  and  has  alwavs 
been  admitted,  that  in  return  for  the  en- 
gagements of  the  treaty  purporting  to  pro- 
tect Catholic  right'',  the  king  and  the 
English  colonists  received  most  valuable 
consideration.  "In  Ii'eland  there  was 
]reace  :  the  domination  of  the  colonists  was 
p.bsoUite."  These  are  the  words  of  Lord 
Macaulay,  who,  of  all  modern  historians, 
has  unifortnly  exhibited  the  most  inveterate 
malignity  against  the  Irish  nation. 

Before  proceeding  to  narrate  in  detail 
the  manner  in  which  the  articles  were  ob- 
served on  the  part  of  the  king  and  the 
dominant  colony  of  English,  it  will  be  well 


to  exhibit  some  other  facts  proving  what  a 
very  valuable  consideration  the  Catholics 
gave  for  the  poor  guaranty  they  thought 
they  were  receiving  on  their  side.  At  the 
beginning  of  October  the  winter  was  closely 
approaching,  and  the  army  of  Ginkell  was 
almost  certain  to  be  forced  to  raise  the 
siege  on  that  account  alone.  The  same 
Macaulay,  in  his  estimate  of  the  chances  of 
Ginkell's  success,  thus  sums  them  up — 

"  Yet  it  was  possible  that  an  attempt  to 
storm  the  city  might  fail,  as  a  similar  at- 
tempt had  failed  twelve  months  before.  If 
the  siege  should  be  turned  into  a  blockade, 
it  was  probable  that  the  pestilence  which 
had  been  fatal  to  the  army  of  Schomberg, 
which  had  compelled  William  to  retreat, 
and  which  had  all  but  prevailed  even 
against  the  genius  and  energy  of  Marl- 
borough, might  soon  avenge  the  carnage  of 
Aghrim.  The  rains  had  lately  been  heavy. 
The  whole  plain  might  shortly  be  an  im- 
mense pool  of  stagnant  water.  It  might  be 
necessary  to  move  the  troops  to  a  healthier 
situation  than  the  banks  of  the  Shannon, 
and  to  provide  for  them  a  warmer  shelter 
than  that  of  tents.  The  enemy  would  be 
safe  till  the  spring.  In  tlie  spring  a  French 
army  might  land  in  Ireland — the  natives 
might  again  rise  in  arms  from  Donegal  to 
Kerry — and  the  war,  which  was  now  all 
but  extinguished,  might  blaze  forth  fiercer 
than  ever." 

This  historian,  whose  work  enjoys  much 
more  popularity  than  credit,  does  not  men- 
tion a  circumstance  which  made  it,  in  fact, 
certain  that  the  war  would  soon  have 
blazed  forth  fiercer  than  ever,  beyond  all 
doubt.  It  is  that,  before  the  signing  ot 
those  articles,  assurances  had  been  sent  from 
France  to  the  defenders  of  Limerick  that  a 
considerable  expedition  was  then  on  its  way 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


to  tlieir  aid,  under  command  of  Chateau 
Ilenault ;  which  re-enforcement  did  actually 
arrive  in  Dingle  Bay  two  days  after  the 
treaty  was  signed,  "  consisting,"  says  Harris, 
in  his  Life  of  King  William,  "as  appears 
from  the  minutes  of  a  letter  from  the  lords- 
justices  to  the  king,  of  eighteen  ships  of 
war,  six  fire-ships,  and  twenty  great  ships  of 
burthen,  and  brought  on  board  eight  or  ten 
thousand  arras,  two  hundred  ofEcers,*  and 
three  thousand  men."  Whether  the  Irish 
commanders  were  or  were  not  justified  in 
surrendering  a  city  which  they  weie  still 
capable  of  defending,  and  while  in  daily  ex- 
pectation of  so  powerful  succor,  is  a  ques- 
tion which  need  not  here  be  discussed.  The 
sequel  of  the  story  will  show  that  they  had 
soon  cause  to  regret  not  having  held  out  to 
the  last  extremity,  though  they  should  have 
been  buried  in  the  ruins  of  their  ancient 
city. 

It  was  afterwards  known,  too,  that  Wil- 
liam was  himself  so  sensible  of  the  necessity 
of  finishing  this  struggle  and  bringing  his 
troops  to  re-enforce  his  army  on  the  conti- 
nent, that  he  had  sent  instructions  to  the 
lords-justices  to  i?sue  a  proclamation  assin- 
ing  the  Irish  of  much  more  favorable  con- 
ditions than  they  afterwards  obtained  by 
the  Articles  of  Limerick.  And  the  justices 
actually  framed  these  instructions  into  a 
proclamation,  afterwards  called  the  secret 
proclamation,  because,  though  printed,  it 
was  never  published  ;  for  their  lordships, 
learning  that  the  defenders  of  Limerick 
were  offering  to  capitulate,  hastened  to 
Ginkell's  camp,  that  they  might  hold  the 
Irish  to  as  iiard  terms  as  could  possibly  be 
■wrung  from  them.  So  that,  as  Lord 
Macaulay  complacently  observes,  the  Dutch 
general  "  had  about  him  persons  who  were 
competent  to  direct  him." 

In  return  for  this  full  and  final  surrender 
of  the  last  fortress  which  held  for  King 
James,  and  of  the  whole  cause  of  that 
monarch,  the  Irish  Catholic  leaders  stipu- 
lated, it  must  be  confessed,  for  but  a  poor 
measure  of  civil  and  religious  freedom  when 
they  put  their  hands  to  the  clause  engaging 
that  "The  Roman  Catholics  of  this  king- 
dom shall  enjoy  such  privileges  in  the  exer- 
cise of  theii  leligion  as  are  consistent  with 
the  laws  of  Ireland  ;  or,  as  they  did  enjoy 


in  the  reign  of  King  Charle>  the  Secciid." 
But  it  is  probable  that,  placing  more  re- 
liance^on  the  good  faith  of  King  William 
than  events  afterwards  justified,  they  be- 
lieved themselves  secured  by  the  remaining 
words  of  that  article — "And  their  majesties, 
as  soon  as  their  affairs  will  permit  them  to 
summon  a  parliament  in  this  kingdom,  will 
endeavor  to  procure  the  said  Roman  Catho- 
lics such  further  security  in  that  particular 
as  may  preserve  them  from  any  disturbance 
upon  the  account  of  their  said  religion." 
All  which  was  duly  ratified  by  their  majes- 
ties' letters-patent.  Sarsfield  and  Wauchop 
then,  with  their  French  brother-officers,  in 
marching  out  of  Limerick,  thought  that 
they  were  leaving,  as  a  barrier  against  op- 
pression of  the  Catholics,  at  least  the  honor 
of  a  king. 

The  whole  history  of  Ireland,  fiom  that 
day  until  the  year  1793,  consists  of  one  long 
and  continual  breach  of  this  treaty. 

But  as  there  has  been,  both  among  Irish 
and  English  political  writers,  a  great  deal 
of  wild  declamation  and  unwarranted  state- 
ment on  this  subject,  it  seems  needful  to 
give  a  precise  view  of  the  real  purport  and 
limitations  of  the  engagements  taken  to- 
wards the  Irish  Catholics  upon  this  occa- 
sion. Independently,  then,  of  the  royal 
promise  of  future  parliamentary  relief  to 
"  protect  Catholics  from  all  disturbance," 
there  was  the  general  engagement  for  such 
privileges  to  Catholics  in  the  exercise  of 
their  religion  "as  were  consistent  with  the 
laws  of  Ireland  ;  o?*,  as  they  did  enjoy  in 
the  reign  of  Charles  II."  And  also  the 
ninth  article  of  the  treaty,  that  "  The  oath 
to  be  administered  to  such  Roman  Catholics 
as  submit  to  their  majesties'  government 
shall  be  the  oath  above-mentioned  (namely, 
the  oath  of  allegiance),  and  no  other." 
These  provisions  were  applicable  to  all 
Catholics  living  in  any  part  of  Ireland. 
Other  articles  of  the  treaty,  from  the  second 
to  the  eighth  inclusive,  related  only,  first, 
to  the  people  of  Limerick  and  other  garri- 
sons then  held  by  the  Irish  ;  second,  to  offi- 
cers and  soldiers  then  serving  King  James, 
in  the  counties  of  Limerick,  Clare,  Kerry, 
Cork,  and  Mayo ;  third,  to  "  all  such  as 
were  under  their  protection  in  the  said 
counties,"   meaning  all   the   inhabitants   of 


FROM   THE   TREATY    OF    LUrERICK    TO   THE    END    OF    1601. 


those  counties.  These  three  chisses  of  per- 
sons were  to  be  secured  their  properties  and 
•  their  rights,  privileges,  and  immunities  (as 
in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Second),  and  to 
be  permitted  to  exercise  their  several  call- 
ings as  freely  as  Catholics  were  permitted 
to  do  in  that  reign.  We  need  not,  at  this 
day,  occupy  ouiselves  at  great  length  with 
these  latter  specific  stipulations  ;  but  attend 
to  the  general  proviso  in  favor  of  all  Catho- 
lics. What,  then,  wei'e  the  rights  of  Cath- 
olics under  King  Charles  the  Second  ? — for 
this  seems  to  be  what  is  meant  by  the  other 
phrase,  "consistent  with  the  laws  of  Ire- 
land." 

Now  it  is  true  that  penal  laws  against 
Catholic  priests  and  Catholic  worship  did 
exist  in  Ireland  during  the  reign  of  Charles 
the  Second :  Catholics,  for  example,  could 
not  be  members  of  a  corporation  in  Ireland, 
nor  hold  certain  civil  offices  in  that  reign. 
But  there  was  no  law  to  prevent  Catholic 
peers  and  commons  from  sitting  in  parlia- 
ment. There  was  also  in  practice  so  gen- 
eral a  toleration  as  allowed  Catholic  lawyers 
and  physicians  to  practice  their  professions. 
At  the  very  lowest,  therefore,  this  practical 
toleration  must  have  been  what  the  Catho- 
lics thought  they  were  stipulating  for  in  the 
Articles  of  Limerick.  Neither  did  there  ex- 
ist in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Second  that 
long  and  sanguinary  series  of  enactments 
concerning  education,  the  holding  of  land, 
the  owning  of  horses,  and  the  like,  which 
were  elaborated  by  the  ingenuity  of  more 
modern  chiefs  of  the  Protestant  Ascen- 
dency. The  first  distinct  breach  of  the 
Articles  of  Limerick  was  perpetrated  by 
King  William  and  his  parliament  in  Eng- 
land, just  two  months  after  those  Articles 
were  signed. 

King  William  was  in  the  Netherlands 
when  he  heard  of  the  sui  render  of  Limerick, 
and  at  once  hastened  to  London.  Three 
days  later  he  summoned  a  parliament. 
Very  early  in  the  session  the  English 
House  of  Commons,  exercising  its  customary 
power  of  binding  Ireland  by  acts  passed  in 
London,  sent  up  to  the  House  of  Lords  a 
bill  providing  that  no  person  should  sit  in 
the  Irish  parliament,  nor  should  hold  any 
Irish  office,  civil,  military,  or  ecclesiastical, 
Dor  should  practise  law  or  medicine  in  Ire- 


land, till  he  had  t;iken  the  oaths  of  allegi- 
ance and  suprenwct/  and  subscribed  the  de- 
claration against  transubstantiation.  The 
law  was  passed,  only  reserving  the  right  of 
such  lawyers  and  physicians  as  had  been 
within  the  walls  of  Galway  and  Limerick 
when  those  towns  capitulated.  And  so  it 
received  the  royal  assent.  This  law  has 
given  rise  to  keen  debates  ;  especially  during 
the  Catholic  Relief  Agitation  ;  the  Catholics 
insisting  that  disabilities  imposed  by  law  on 
account  of  religion,  are  an  invasion  of  those 
privileges  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion, 
which  purported  to  be  secured  by  treaty  ; 
the  Ascendency  Party  arguing  that  the  first 
article  of  the  treaty  meant  only  that  Cath- 
olic worship  should  be  tolerated.  The  Cath- 
olics pointed  out  that  by  Article  Nine,  onlv 
the  oath  of  allegiance  was  to  be  imposed  on 
them,  while  this  new  law  required  those  who 
should  practise  law  or  sit  in  the  House  of 
Parliament,  to  take  a  certain  other  oath, 
which  they  could  not  do  without  peijuring 
themselves.  The  Ascendency  Party  replied 
that  on  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance  alone. 
Catholics  were  tolerated  in  theij'  worship, 
and  that  this  was  all  they  had  stipulated  for; 
that  it  still  belonged  to  the  Legislature  to 
prescribe  suitable  formalities  to  be  observed 
by  those  who  aspired  to  exercise  a  public 
trust  or  a  responsible  profession.  It  is  ap- 
parent that  on  this  principle  of  interpreta- 
tion, parliament  might  require  the  oath  of 
supremacy  from  a  baker  or  a  wine-merchant, 
as  well  as  from  a  lawyer  and  doctor,  and  then 
it  would  be  lawful  for  a  Catholic  to  go  and 
hear  Mass,  but  it  would  be  lawful  for  him  to 
do  nothing  else.  As  might  be  expected,  the 
Baron  Macaulay  takes  the  Ascendency  view 
of  the  question,  as  will  appear  from  this 
specimen  of  his  reasoning: 

"  The  champions  of  Protestant  ascendency 
were  well  pleased  to  see  the  debate  diverted 
from  a  political  question  about  which  they 
were  in  the  wrong,  to  a  historical  question 
about  which  they  were  in  the  right.  They 
had  no  difficulty  in  proving  that  the  first  ar- 
ticle, as  understood  by  all  the  contracting 
parties,  meant  only  that  the  Roman  Catholic 
worship  should  be  tolerated  as  in  time  past. 
That  article  was  drawn  up  by  Ginkell ;  and, 
jnst  before  he  drew  it  up,  he  had  declared 
that  he  would  rather  try  the  chance  of  arras 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


tban  consent  that  Irish  Papists  should  be 
capable  of  holding  civil  and  military  offices, 
of  exercising  liberal  professions,  and  of  be- 
coming members  of  municipal  corporations. 
How  is  it  possible  to  believe  that  he  would, 
of  his  own  accord,  have  promised  that  the 
House  of  Lords  and  the  House  of  Commons 
should  be  open  to  men  to  whom  he  would 
not  open  a  guild  of  skinners  or  a  guild  of 
cordwainers?  How,  again,  is  it  possible  to 
believe  that  the  English  peers  would,  while 
professing  the  most  punctilious  respect  for 
public  faith,  while  lecturing  the  Commons 
on  the  duty  of  observing  public  faith,  while 
taking  counsel  with  the  most  learned  and 
upright  jurist  of  the  age  as  to  the  best  mode 
of  maintaining  public  faith,  have  committed 
a  flagrant  violation  of  public  faith,  and  that 
not  a  single  lord  should  have  been  so  honest 
or  so  factious  as  to  protest  against  an  act  of 
monstrous  perfidy  aggravated  by  hypocrisy?" 
Whereupon  it  may  be  remarked  that  mere 
toleration  of  Catholic  worship  was  not  under- 
stood, by  all  the  contracting  parties,  as  being 
all  which  was  meant  by  the  treaty,  inasmuch 
as  many  Catholic  peers  and  commoners  did 
attend  in  their  places  in  the  Irish  parliament 
the  very  next  year  after  this  law  was  passed 
in  London  ;  and  the  slavish  Irish  parliament 
then,  for  the  first  time,  excluded  them  by 
resolutions  in  obedience  to  the  law  enacted 
in  the  English  Houses.  As  for  the  argument 
which  seems  intended  to  be  conveyed  in  the 
string  of  questions  contained  in  the  above 
extract,  we  answer  that  "  it  is  possible  to  be- 
lieve" almost  any  thing  of  the  men  and  the 
times  we  are  now  discussing;  and  that  this 
narrative  will  tell  of  many  other  things  which 
will  seem  impossible  to  believe,  and  which 
any  good  man  would  wish  it  were  impossible 
to  believe. 

Macaulay,  indeed,  before  quitting  this 
question,  does  admit,  as  it  were  incidentally, 
and  in  the  obscurity  of  a  note,  that  although 
the  Treaty  of  Limerick  was  not  broken  at 
that  particular  moment,  nor  by  that  particu- 
lar statute  of  the  3d  Willium  and  Mary,  c.  2, 
v^t,  "  The  Irish  Koman  Catholics  compliiined, 
and  with  but  too  much  reason,  that  at  a  later 
period  the  Treaty  of  Limerick  was  violated." 
And  it  is  remarkable  that  this  historian  en- 
deavors to  sustain  his  position  by  the  author- 
ity of  the  Abbe  MacGeoghegan.      He  says. 


"The  Abbe  MacGeogliegan  complains  thiit 
the  treaty  was  violated  some  years  after  it 
was  made,  but  he  does  not  pretend  that  it 
was  violated  by  Statute  3d,  William  and 
Mary,  c.  2."  This  is  extremely  uncandid. 
The  Abb6  MacGeoghegan  did  not  profess 
to  continue  his  History  of  Ireland  beyond 
the  Treaty  of  Limerick  ;  before  quitting  his 
subject,  however,  the  venerable  author  does 
incidentally  mention  that  this  treaty  was 
afterwards  violated  by  many  statutes,  which 
it  was  not  his  province  to  arrange  in  chro- 
nological order;  and  after  noticing  some  of 
the  hardships  thus  inflicted  upon  the  Irish 
people,  he  adds  :  "  By  other  acts,  the  Irish 
nobility  were  deprived  of  their  arms  and 
horses  ;  they  were  debarred  from  purchasing 
land,  from  becoming  viemhers  of  the  bar,  or 
filling  any  public  office  ;  and,  contrary  to  the 
ninth  article  of  the  treaty,  they  were  made 
subject  to  infamous  oaths."* 

Notwithstanding  the  very  slender  conces- 
sions which  were  apparently  granted  to  the 
Catholic  people  by  tliis  memorable  treaty, 
however,  the  Protestant  English  colony  in 
Ireland  was  immediately  agitated  by  the  bit- 
terest indignation  against  both  the  general 
and  the  lords-justices.  They  thought  the 
Irish  entitled  to  no  articles  or  conditions  but 
what  would  expose  them  to  the  severest  rig- 
ors of  war ;  and  the  "  Protestant  Interest," 
and  "Ascendency"  thought  themselves  de- 
frauded of  a  legitimate  vengeance,  to  say 
nothing  of  their  natural  expectations  of  plun- 
der ;  a  most  unfounded  apprehension,  as  will 
presently  appear. 

After  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty,  the 
lords-justices  returned  to  Dublin ;  and  on 
the  following  Sunday  attended  service  in 
Christ  Church  Cathedral.  The  preacher  was 
Doctor  Dopping,  bishop  of  Meath;  and  he 
took  for  the  subject  of  his  sermon  the  late 
important  events  at  Limerick.  He  argued 
that  no  terms  of  peace  ought  to  be  observed 
with  so  perfidious  a  people  ;f  a  fact  which, 
if  it  were  not  notorious  and  well-attested, 
might  seem  incredible ;  seeing  that  one  of 
the  worst  charges  brought  against  the  Cath- 
olics at  that  period  was  that  ^Aey  taught  that 
faith  was  not  to  be  kept  with  heretics.  The 
doctrine  of  the  Bishop  of  Meath,  however, 

*  See  page  613  of  Sadlier's  Edition, 
t  Harris's  Life  of  King  William. 


FROM    TIIK   TREATY    OF    LIMERICK    TO   THE    END    OF    1691. 


Wiis  not  approved  by  all  tlie  divines  of  liis 
party,  for  on  the  next  Sunday,  in  tlie  same 
church,  Doctor  Moreton,  bisliop  of  Kildare, 
demonstrated  the  obligation  of  keeping  pub- 
lic faith.  It  seems  that  this  important  ques- 
tion greatly  occupied  men's  minds  at  that 
time  ;  for  it  was  judged  necessary  to  settle 
and  quiet  public  opinion  ;  and  to  this  end, 
on  the  third  Sunday,  in  the  same  church, 
Dean  Synge  preached  a  conciliatory  sort  of 
discourse,  neither  absolutely  insisting  on  ob- 
serving the  treatj',  nor  distinctly  advising 
that  it  should  be  broken.  His  text  was, 
"Keep  peace  with  all  men,  if  it  be  possible^' 
After  this  we  hear  no  more  of  any  discussions 
of  the  grand  controversy  in  the  pulpit;  but 
in  Parliament  and  in  Council  the  difference 
subsisted,  until  tlie  English  Act  of  Resump- 
tion of  Estates  quieted  the  disputants,  who 
then  saw  they  lost  nothing  by  the  articles, 
as  the  Catholics  gained  nothing. 

While  these  debates  were  proceeding  in 
Publin,  the  Pi'otestant  magistrates  and  sher- 
iffs had  no  doubt  upon  the  point,  whether 
faith  was  to  be  kept  with  Catholics  or  not ; 
they  universally  decided  in  the  negative; 
and  in  less  than  two  months  after  the  capit- 
ulation was  confirmed  by  the  king,  as  we 
learn  on  the  authority  of  William's  own  par- 
tial biographer,  Harris,  "  the  justices  of  peace, 
sheriffs,  and  other  magistrates,  presuming  on 
their  power  in  the  country,  did,  in  an  illegal 
manner,  dispossess  several  of  their  majesties' 
subjects,  not  only  of  their  goods  and  chattels, 
but  of  their  lands  and  tenements,  to  the 
gieat  disturbance  of  the  peace  of  the  king- 
dom, subversion  of  the  law,  and  reproach  of 
their  majesties'  government."  It  is  a  much 
heavier  reproach  to  their  majesties'  govern- 
ment that  no  person  appears  to  have  been 
prosecuted,  nor  in  any  way  brought  to  jus- 
tice for  these  outrageous  oppressions.  It  ap- 
pears by  a  letter  of  the  loids-justices  of  the 
19lh  November,  1691  (six  weeks  after  the 
surrender  of  Limerick),  "that  their  lordships 
had  received  complaints  from  all  parts  of 
Ireland  of  the  ill-treatment  of  the  Irish  who 
Lad  submitted,  had  their  majesties'  protec- 
tion, or  were  included  in  articles  ;  and  that 
they  were  so  extremely  terrified  with  appre- 
hensions of  the  continuance  of  that  usage, 
that  some  thousands  of  them  who  had  quit- 
ted the  Irish  army,  and  had  gone  home  with 


a  resolution  not  to  go  for  France,  were  then 
come  back  again  [come  back,  it  is  presumed. 
to  Cork,  Limeiick,  and  other  sea}»orts],  ajid 
pressed  earnestly  to  go  thither,  rather  than 
stay  in  Ireland,  where,  contrary  to  the  public 
faith  (add  these  justices),  as  well  as  law  and 
justice,  they  were  robbed  of  their  substance 
and  abused  in  their  persons."  But,  still  no 
effectual  means  were  used  by  the  govern- 
ment for  repressing  such  wrong ;  so  that  we 
may  well  adopt  the  language  of  Dr.  Curry, 
that  these  representations  made  by  the  lords- 
justices  were  only  a  "pretence."  Indeed, 
Harris  affirms,  and  every  statement  of  this 
nature  made  by  Harris  is  an  unwilling  ad- 
mission, that  Capel,  one  of  these  very  lords- 
justices,  did,  shortly  after,  proceed  as  far  as 
it  was  in  his  power,  to  infringe  the  Articles 
of  Limerick. 

The  prospect  which  now  opened  before 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland  was  gloomy  indeed. 
Already  they  were  made  to  feel  in  a  thou- 
sand forms  all  the  bitterness  of  subjugation, 
and  to  perceive  that  in  this  reign  of  King 
William,  so  vaunted  for  its  liberality,  the 
blessings  and  liberties  of  the  British  Consti- 
tution, if  any  such  there  were,  existed  not  for 
them  ;  that  they  had  no  security  for  even  such 
remnants  of  property  as  had  been  left  them, 
no  redress  by  the  laws  of  the  laud,  and  no 
refuge  from  their  enemies  even  in  the  pledged 
faith  of  a  solemn  treaty.  Yet  we  have  only 
arrived  at  the  beginning  of  the  system  of 
grinding  oppression  which  was  soon  to  be 
put  in  operation  against  them.  This  prelim- 
inary chapter  is  devoted  to  an  account  of  the 
immediate  breaches  of  the  Articles  of  Lim- 
erick which  were  perpetrated  within  the 
three  months  after  their  signature.  We  are 
next  to  trace  the  development  of  that  great 
code  of  Penal  Laws,  which  Dr.  Samuel 
Johnson  described  as  more  grievous  than  all 
the  Ten  Pagan  persecutions  of  the  Christians. 

Before  finishing  this  chapter,  it  is  proper 
to  allude  to  one  other  instance  of  the  deter- 
mined mendacity  of  Baron  Macaulay.  Re- 
specting the  embarkation  of  Sarsfield  and 
the  Irish  troops  from  Cork,  that  historian 
compiles  from  several  sources  the  following 
narrative  : 

"  Sarsfield  perceived  that  one  chief  cause  ot 
the  desertion  which  was  thinning  his  army 
was  the  natural  unwillingness  of  the  men  ic 


6 


HISTORY    OF    IRKLAXI). 


leave  tlieir  families  in  a  state  of  destituliou. 
Cork  and  its  neighborhood  were  filled  with 
the  kindred  of  those  who  were  going  abroad. 
Great  numbers  of  women,  many  of  them  lead- 
ing, carrying,  suckling  their  infants,  cover- 
ed all  the  roads  which  led  to  the  place  of  em- 
barkation. The  Irish  general,  apprehensive 
of  the  effect  which  the  entreaties  and  lamen- 
tations of  these  poor  creatures  could  not  fail 
to  produce,  put  forth  a  proclamation,  in  which 
he  assured  his  soldiers  that  they  should  be 
permitted  to  carry  their  wives  and  families  to 
France.  It  would  be  injurious  to  the  mem- 
ory of  so  brave  and  loyal  agentleinan  to  sup- 
pose that  when  he  made  this  promise  he  meant 
to  break  it.  It  is  much  more  probable  that 
he  had  formed  an  erroneous  estimate  of  the 
number  of  those  who  would  demand  a  pas- 
sage, and  that  he  found  himself,  when  it  was 
too  late  to  alter  his  ai'rangements,  unable  to 
keep  his  word.  After  the  soldiers  had  em- 
barked, room  was  found  for  the  families  of 
many.  But  still  there  remained  on  the  wa- 
ter-side a  great  multitude,  clamoring piteously 
to  be  taken  on  board.  As  the  last  boats  put 
off  there  was  a  rush  into  the  surf.  Some  wo- 
men caught  hold  of  the  ropes,  were  dragged 
out  of  their  depth,  clung  till  their  fingers  were 
cut  through,  and  perished  in  the  waves.  The 
ships  began  to  move.  A  wild  and  terrible 
wail  rose  from  the  shore,  and  excited  un- 
wonted compassion  in  hearts  steeled  by  ha- 
tred of  the  Irish  race  and  of  the  Eomish  faith. 
Even  the  stern  Cromwellian,  now  at  length, 
after  a  desperate  struggle  of  three  years,  left 
the  undisputed  lord  of  the  blood-stained  and 
devastated  island,  could  not  hear  unmoved 
that  bitter  cry,  in  which  was  poured  forth  all 
the  rage  and  all  the  sorrow  of  a  conquered  na- 
tion." 

The  sad  scene  here  related  did  really  take 
place ;  and  in  afier-times,  when  those  Irish 
soldiers  were  in  the  armies  of  France,  and 
saw  before  them  the  red  ranks  of  King  Wil- 
liam's soldiery,  that  long,  terrible  shriek 
rung  in  their  ears,  and  made  their  hearts 
like  fire  and  their  nerves  like  steel.  We 
know  that  when  their  officers  sought  to 
rouse  their  ardor  for  a  charge,  no  recital  of 
the  wrongs  their  country  had  endured  could 
kindle  so  fierce  a  flame  of  vengeful  passion 
as  the   mention   of  "  the  women's  parting 


cry."  But  the  dishonesty  of  Lord  Mac- 
aulay's  account  is  in  ascribing  that  cruel 
parting  to  the  noble  Sarsfield,  and  in  dis- 
tinctly charging  him  with  breaking  his  word 
to  the  soldiers,  though  he  did  not  mean  to 
break  it  when  he  gave  it.      , 

Now,  by  referring  back  to  the  "Military 
Articles"  cf  the  Treaty,  we  see  that  it  was 
not  Saisfield,  but  General  Ginkell,  on  the 
part  of  King  William,  who  was  to  furnish 
shipping  for  the  emigrants  and  their  fami- 
lies— "  all  other  persons  belonging  to  them  ;" 
— that  it  was  not  Sarsfield,  but  Ginkell,  who 
was  to  "form  an  estimate"  of  the  amount 
of  shipping  required ;  and  that  it  was  not 
Sarsfield,  therefore,  but  Ginkell,  who  could 
"  alter  the  arrangements"  at  the  last  mo- 
ment. As  to  General  Sarsfield's  proclama- 
tion to  the  men,  "  that  they  should  be  per- 
mitted to  carry  their  wives  and  families  to 
France,"  he  made  that  statement  on  the  faith 
of  the  First  and  several  succeeding  articles 
of  the  treaty,  not  being  yet  aware  of  any 
design  to  violate  it.  But  this  is  not  all : 
the  historian  who  could  not  let  the  hero  go 
into  his  sorrowful  exile  without  seeking  to 
plunge  this  venomous  sting  into  his  reputa- 
tion, had  before  him  the  Life  of  King  Wil- 
liam, by  Harris,  and  also  Curry's  Historical 
Review  of  the  Civil  Wars,  wherein  he  must 
have  seen  that  the  loids-justices  and  General 
Ginkell  are  charged  with  endeavoiing  to 
defeat  the  execution  of  that  First  Article. 
For,  says  Harris,  "as  great  numbers  of  the 
officers  and  soldiers  had  resolved  to  enter 
into  the  service  of  France,  and  to  cany  their 
families  with  them,  Ginkell  would  not  suft'er 
their  wives  and  children  to  be  shipped  off 
with  the  men ;  not  doubting  that  by  de- 
taining the  former  he  would  have  prevented 
many  of  the  latter  from  going  into  that  ser- 
vice. This,  I  say,  was  confessedly  an  in- 
fringement of  the  Articles." 

To  this  we  may  add,  that  no  Irish  officer 
or  soldier  in  France  afterwards  attributed 
the  cruel  parting  at  Cork  to  any  fault  of 
Sarsfield,  but  always  and  only  to  a  breach 
of  the  Treaty  of  Limerick.  And  if  he  had 
deluded  them  in  the  manner  represented  by 
the  English  historian,  they  would  not  havo 
followed  him  so  enthusiastically  on  tha 
fields  of  Steinkirk  and  Landen. 


1692-1693. 


CHAPTER  II. 

1G9'2— 1693. 

William  the  Third  not  hitroted. — Practical  toleration 
for  four  years. — First  Parliament  in  this  reign. — 
Catholics  excluded  by  n  resolution.  — E.xtinction 
of  civil  existence  for  Catholics. — Irisii  Protestant 
Nationality.  —  Massacre  of  Glencoe. — Battle  of 
Steinkirk.— Court  of  St.  Geni.aitis. — "  Deelara- 
liou." — Battle  of  Landeu,  and  deatli  of  Sarstield. 

King  "William  the  Third  was  not  per- 
sonally fanatical  or  illiberal ;  and  never  de- 
sired to  punish  or  mulct  bis  subjects,  whether 
in  Ireland,  in  Enghmd,  or  in  Holland,  for 
mere  differences  of  religion,  about  which 
this  king  cared  little  or  nothing.  But  he 
was  king  by  the  support  of  the  Protestant 
party ;  was  the  recognized  head  of  that 
party  in  Europe ;  was  obliged  to  sustain 
that  party,  and  avenge  it  upon  its  enemies, 
or  it  would  soon  have  deserted  his  interests 
and  his  cause.  For  the  first  four  years  of 
Lis  reign  in  Ireland,  we  have  even  the  too 
favorable  testimony  of  some  Irish  writers  to 
the  leniency  and  beneficence  of  his  admin- 
istration, which  the  reader  will  find  hard  to 
conciliate  with  the  actual  facts.  Mr.  Matthew 
O'Conor,  a  worthy  member  of  the  "  Catholic 
Board,"  gives  this  very  remarkable  testi- 
mony : 

"  In  matters  of  religion,  King  William  was 
liberal,  enlightened,  and  philosophic.  Equal- 
ly a  friend  to  religious  as  to  civil  liberty,  he 
granted  toleration  to  dissenters  of  all  de- 
scriptions, regardless  of  their  speculative 
opinions.  In  the  early  part  of  his  reign, 
the  Irish  Catholics  enjoyed  the  full  and  free 
exercise  of  their  religion.  They  were  pro- 
tected in  their  persons  and  properties;  their 
industry  was  encouraged ;  and  under  his 
mild  and  fostering  administration,  the  deso- 
lation of  the  late  war  began  to  disappear, 
and  prosperity,  peace,  and  confidence  to 
smile  once  more  on  the  country." 

To  those  who  are  disposed  to  be  thankful 
for  very  small  favors,  the  beginning  of  Wil- 
liam's reign  in  Ireland  was  certainly  accept- 
able. There  was  a  practical  toleration  of 
Catholic  worship,  though  it  was  against  the 
law ;  priests  were  not  hunted,  though  by 
law  they  were  felons ;  and  for  a  short  while 
it  seemed  as  if  "the  Ascendency"  would 
content  itself  with   the  forfeitures    of  rich 


estates,  and  the  exclusion  of  Catholic  gi-n'le- 
men  from  Parliament,  from  the  Bar,  and  the 
practice  of  medicine,  and  Catholic  tra<lers 
from  the  guilds  of  their  trade,  and  from  the 
corporate  bodies  of  the  towns  they  dwelt 
in.  This  was  actually  the  amount  of  the 
toleration  granted  to  the  Irish  Catholic  na- 
tion during  those  early  vears  of  this  reign. 

In  1692,  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  Lord  Syd- 
ney, convened  the  first  Irish  ParliMUient  of 
William's  reign.  It  was  the  first  Parliament 
in  Ireland  (except  that  convened  by  James) 
for  twenty-six  years.  As  there  was  then  no 
Irish  Act  disqualifying  Catholics  from  sitting 
in  Parliament,  certain  peers  and  a  few  com- 
moners of  that  faith  attended,  and  took 
their  seats ;  but  the  English  Parliament  of 
the  year  before  having  provided  against  this, 
they  were  at  once  met  by  the  oath  of  su- 
premacy, declaring  the  king  of  England 
head  of  the  Church,  and  aflSrming  the  sacri- 
fice of  the  Mass  to  be  damnable.  The  oath 
was  put  to  each  member  of  both  house.«, 
and  the  few  Catholics  present  at  once  re- 
tired, so  that  the  Parliament,  when  it  pro- 
ceeded to  business,  was  purely  Protestant. 
Here  then  ended  the  last  vestige  of  consti- 
tutional right  for  the  Catholics :  from  this 
date,  and  for  generations  to  come,  they  could 
no  longer  consider  themselves  a  part  of  the 
existing  body  politic  of  their  native  land  ; 
and  the  division  into  two  nations  became 
definite.  There  was  the  dominant  nation, 
con.sisting  of  the  British  colony ;  and  the 
subject  nation,  consisting  of  five  sixths  of  the 
population,  who  had  thereafter  no  more  in- 
fluence upon  public  affairs  than  have  the 
red  Indians  in  the  L^'^nited  States. 

Before  quitting  the  subject  of  this  total 
abolition  of  civil  existence  for  the  Catholics, 
we  may  anticipate  a  little  to  observe  that, 
by  another  act  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  in 
1697,*  it  was  enacted,  that  "a  Protestant 
marrying  a  Catholic  was  disabled  from  sit- 
ting or  voting  in  either  house  of  Parliament." 
But  as  Catholics  could  still  vote  at  elections 
(though  they  could  now  vote  for  none  but 
mortal  enemies),  even  this  poor  privilege 
was  taken  away  from  them  a  few  years  later. 
In  1727,  it  was  enacted  that  "no  Catholic 
shall  be  entitled  or  admitted  to  vote  at  the 

*  9th  Wm.  III.,  chap.  3. 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


election  of  any  meraber  to  serve  in  Parlia- 
ment as  a  knight,  citizen,  or  burgess ;  or  at 
the  election  of  any  magistrate  for  any  city, 
or  other  town  corporate ;  any  law,  statute, 
or  usage  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding."* 
By  the  operation  of  these  statutes  alone, 
•without  taking  account  for  the  present  of 
the  more  directly  penal  code,  the  great  mass 
of  the  population  of  this  country  was  de- 
based to  a  point  which  it  now  requires  an 
effort  fully  to  comprehend.  No  man  had 
to  court  their  votes,  nor  consult  their  inter- 
est or  their  feelings.  They  had  no  longer 
any  one  to  stand  up  for  them  in  the  halls  of 
legislation,  to  oppose  new  oppressions  (and 
the  oppressions  were  always  new  and  heavier 
from  day  to  day),  nor  to  expose  and  refute 
calumnies,  and  these  were  in  plenty.  They 
were  nob  only  shut  out  from  the  great  coun- 
cils of  the  nation,  but  every  one  of  them,  in 
every  town  and  parish  in  Ireland,  felt  him- 
self the  inferior  and  vassal  of  his  Protestant 
neighbors,  and  the  victim  of  a  minute,  spite- 
ful, and  contemptuous  tyranny,  at  the  hands 
of  those  who  were  often  morally  and  phys- 
ically far  his  inferiors.  Of  the  exclusion 
from  Parliament,  the  able  author  of  the 
Statement  of  the  Penal  Laws  has  truly  ob- 
served : 

"  The  advantages  flowing  from  a  seat  in 
the  Legislature,  it  is  well  known,  are  not  con- 
fined to  the  individual  representative.  They 
extend  to  all  his  family,  friends,  and  con- 
nections ;  or,  in  other  words,  to  every  Prot- 
estant in  Ireland.  Within  his  reach  are  all 
the  honors,  offices,  emoluments  :  every  sort 
of  gratification  to  avarice  or  vanity  :  the 
means  of  spreading  a  great  personal  inter- 
est by  innumerable  petty  services  to  indi- 
viduals. He  can  do  an  infinite  number  of 
acts  of  kindness  and  generosity,  and  even 
of  public  spirit.  He  can  procure  advantages 
in  trade,  indemnity  from  public  burdens, 
preferences  in  local  competitions,  pardons 
for  offences.  He  can  obtain  a  thousand  fa- 
vors, and  avert  a  thousand  evils.  He  may, 
whilst  he  betrays  every  valuable  public  in- 
terest, be,  at  the  same  time,  a  benefactor,  a 
patron,  a  father,  a  guardian  angel  to  his 
political  adherents.  On  the  other  hand, 
how  stands  the  Catholic  gentleman  or  tra- 

*  1  Geo.  II.,  chap.  9. 


der?  For  his  own  person,  no  office,  no 
power,  no  emolument ;  for  his  children, 
brothers,  kindred,  or  friends,  no  promotion, 
ecclesiastical  or  civil,  military  or  naval.  Ex- 
cept from  his  private  fortune,  he  has  no 
means  of  advancing  a  child,  of  making  a 
single  friend,  or  of  showing  any  one  good 
quality.  He  has  nothing  to  off"er  but  harsh 
refusal,  pitiful  excuse,  or  despondent  repre- 
sentation." 

And  the  effect  of  the  exclusion  from  cor- 
porations was  a  thousand  times  more  galling 
still ;  because  that  disability  presses  upon  in- 
dividuals everywhere,  in  their  own  homes, 
and  in  every  daily  action  of  their  lives.  The 
same  accurate  author,  writing  more  than  a 
century  after  King  William's  death,  thus  de- 
scribes the  condition  of  Catholic  tradesmen 
and  artificers  throughout  the  towns  of  Ire- 
land : — it  will  show  how  thoroughly  these 
penal  laws  did  their  work  for  generations  : 

"  They  are  debased  by  the  galling  ascen- 
dency of  privileged  neighbors.  They  are  de- 
pressed by  partial  imposts  ;  by  undue  pref- 
erences and  accommodation  bestowed  upon 
their  competitors  ;  by  a  local  inquisition  ;  by 
an  uncertain  and  unequal  measure  of  justice  ; 
by  fraud  and  favoritism  daily  and  openly 
practised  to  their  prejudice.  The  Catholic 
gentleman,  whose  misfortune  it  may  be  to 
reside  in  or  near  to  any  of  these  cities  or 
towns  in  Ireland,  is  hourly  exposed  to  all  the 
slights  and  annoyances,  that  a  petty  secta- 
rian oligarchy  may  think  proper  to  inflict. 
The  professional  man  risks  continual  inflic- 
tions of  personal  humiliation.  The  farmer 
brings  the  produce  of  his  lands  to  market 
under  heavier  tolls.  Every  species  of  Cath- 
olic industry  and  mechanical  skill  is  checked, 
taxed,  and  rendered  precarious. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  every  species  of  Prot- 
estant indolence  is  cherished  and  maintained  ; 
every  claim  is  allowed  ;  every  want  supplied  ; 
every  extortion  sanctioned :  nay,  the  very 
name  of  '  Protestant'  secures  a  competence, 
and  commands  patrician  pre-eminence  in 
Ireland." 

But  though  the  inhabitants  of  Ireland  were 
now,  counting  from  the  year  1692,  definitive- 
ly divided  into  two  castes,  there  arose  imme- 
diately, strange,  to  say,  a  strong  sentiment  of 
Irish  nationality;  not,  indeed,  amongst  the 
depressed  Catholics — they  were  done  with 


1692-1G93. 


9 


national  seiitiiueiit  and  aspiration  tor  a  time; 
but  the  Protestants  of  Ireland  had  lately 
grown  nuniorous,  wealthy,  and  strono;.  Tiicir 
numbers  had  been  largely  increased,  partly 
by  English  settlers  coming  to  enjoy  the  plun- 
der of  the  forfeited  estates,  and  very  much 
by  conversions,  or  pretended  conversions  of 
Catholics  who  had  recanted  their  faith  to 
eave  their  property  or  their  position  in  so- 
ciet}',  and  who  generally  ;dtered  or  disguised 
their  family  names  when  these  had  too  Cekic 
ft  sound.  The  Irish  Protestants  also  prided 
themselves  on  having  saved  the  kingdom  for 
William  and  "  the  Ascendency  ;"  and  hav- 
ing now  totally  put  down  the  ancient  nation 
under  their  feet,  they  aspired  to  take  its 
place,  to  rise  from  a  colony  to  a  nation,  and 
to  assert  the  dignity  of  an  independent  king- 
dom. 

Even  in  this  Parliament  of  1692  the  spirit 
of  independence  ventured  to  show  itself. 
Two  money-bills,  which  had  not  originated 
iu  Ireland,  were  sent  over  from  England  to 
be  pnssed,  or  rather  to  be  accepted  and  regis- 
tered. One  of  these  bills  was  for  raising 
additional  duty  on  beer,  ale,  and  other  li- 
quors ;  and  this  they  passed,  to  an  amount 
not  exceeding  £70,000;  but  grounding  their 
fiction  upon  the  alleged  urgency  of  the  case, 
find  declaring  that  it  should  not  be  drawn 
into  a  precedent.  This  was  on  the  21st  of 
October,  1692.  Much  constitutional  discus- 
sion took  place  upon  this  occasion  ;  and  hon- 
orable members  stimulated  one  another's 
patriotism  by  recalling  the  rights  and  pre- 
rogatives of  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Ireland. 
So,  a  few  days  after,  on  the  28th  of  October, 
the  House  of  Commons  rejected  altogether 
the  second  English  bill;  which  was  to  grant 
to  their  mnjesties  the  produce  of  certain  du- 
ties for  one  year.  On  the  3d  of  November 
Sydney  prorogued  Parliament  with  a  very 
angry  speech  ;  and  at  the  same  time  requiied 
the  clerk  to  enter  his  formal  protest  against 
the  dangerous  doctrine  asserted  in  the  Com- 
mons' resolutions,  and  haughtily  affirming 
the  right  and  power  of  the  English  Parlia- 
ment to  bind  Ireland  by  acts  passed  in  Lou- 
don. After  two  prorogations,  this  Parliament 
was  dissolved  on  the  5th  of  September,  1793. 

Not  only  did  King  William  give  his  royal 
assent  to  the  laws  of  exclusion  made  by  this 
Parliament,  but  he  did  not  make  any  propo- 


sal or  any  eHoit  to  gain  for  the  Irish  Catho- 
lics those  "further  securities"  as  engaged  by 
the  Treaty  of  Limerick,  which  were  to  pro- 
tect them  from  "  all  disturbance"  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  their  religion.  Yet  this  was  but  a 
trifling  matter  couipared  with  what  tlie  same 
king  did  in  the  course  of  the  next  following 
Parliament,  that  convened  in  1695.  It  is 
often  alleged,  on  his  behalf,  that  he  was 
provoked  and  distressed  by  the  fuiious  big- 
otry and  violence  of  his  Irish  Protestant  sub- 
jects ;  and  that  he  even  endeavored  to  mod- 
erate them  by  the  influence  of  Sydney,  his 
lord-lieutenant ;  in  short,  that  he  was  so 
wholly  dependent  on  his  Parliaments,  both 
of  England  and  of  Ireland,  that  he  could  not 
venture  to  thwart  their  one  great  policy, 
purpose,  and  passion — to  crush  Papists ; 
and  that  such  opposition  on  his  part  would 
have  cost  him  his  crown.  That  was  unfor- 
tunate for  him  ;  inasmuch  as  the  actual  con- 
duct which  these  headstrong  supporters  of 
his  obliged  him  to  adopt,  has  cost  him  more 
than  a  crown,  his  reputation  for  good  faith. 
It  was  in  February  of  this  year,  1692,  that 
the  massacre  of  Glencoe  befel  in  a  remote 
valley  of  the  highlands  of  Scotland.  King 
William,  we  are  assured,  did  not  wish  to  per- 
petrate this  iniquity,  any  more  than  to  break 
the  Treaty  of  Limerick  ;  but  certain  wicked 
advisers  in  Scotland  forced  him  to  do  the 
one  deed,  just  as  his  furious  Protestants  of 
Ireland  obliged  him  to  commit  the  other. 
In  Scotland  it  was  the  wicked  Master  of 
Stair,  together  with  the  vindictive  Marquis 
of  Breadalbane,  who  planned  the  slaughter  ; 
and  Stair,  the  Secretary  for  Scotland,  pre- 
sented to  the  king,  iu  his  closet,  and  then 
and  there  induced  his  majesty  to  sign  a  paper 
in  these  words:  "As  for  Maclan  of  Glencoe, 
and  that  tribe,  if  they  can  be  well  distin- 
guished from  the  other  Highlanders,  it  will 
be  proper,  for  the  vindication  of  public  jus- 
tice, to  extirpate  that  set  of  thieves."  And 
this  order  was  directed  to  the  Commander  of 
the  Forces  in  Scotland.  What  was  intended, 
therefore,  was  military  execution,  without 
judge  or  jury,  to  be  inflicted  upon  unarmed 
and  unsuspecting  country-people,  with  their 
wives  and  children.  The  crime,  or  alleged 
crime,  was  having  been  late  in  coming  iu 
and  giving  their  submission.  The  king  did 
not  read  the  order  above  cited  says  Arch- 


10 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


bisliop  Biiniet,  but  he  signed  it;  Jind  snys 
liis  eloquent  eulogist,  Macaulay,  "Whoever 
has  seen  any  thing  of  public  business  knows 
that  princes  and  ministers  daily  sign,  and  in- 
deed must  sigu  documents  which  they  have 
not  read  ;  and  of  all  documents,  a  document 
relating  to  a  small  tribe  of  mountaineers,  liv- 
ing in  a  wilderness,  not  set  down  in  any  map, 
was  least  likely  to  interest  a  sovereign  whose 
mind  was  full  of  schemes  on  which  the  fate 
of  Europe  might  depend."  Yet  the  order 
was  not  a  long  one ;  about  three  seconds,  if 
his  majesty  could  have  spared  so  long  a  time 
from  meditating  on  the  fate  of  Europe,  would 
have  shown  him  what  fate  he  was  decreeing 
to  the  MacDonalds  of  Gleucoe.  It  seems 
he  could  not  give  so  much  of  his  leisure,  so 
the  order  was  sent ;  and  accordingly,  the 
king's  troops,  having  first  quartered  them- 
selves amongst  the  simple  people,  in  the 
guise  of  friends,  and  partaken  of  their  moun- 
tain hospitality;  and  having  taken  the  pre- 
caution, as  they  believed,  to  guard  all  the 
outlets  of  the  valley,  arose  before  dawn  one 
winter's  morning,  and  butchered  every  Mac- 
Donald,  man,  woman,  and  child,  whom  they 
could  find.  A  few  details  of  this  performance 
may  be  interesting;  they  are  given  by  Lord 
Macaulay,  an  author  who  was  certainly  not 
disposed  to  exaggerate  their  atrocity : 

"  But  the  orders  which  Glenlyon  had  re- 
ceived were  precise,  and  he  began  to  exe- 
cute them  at  the  little  village  where  he  was 
himself  quartered.  His  host,  Inverriggen,  and 
nine  other  Macdonalds,  were  dragged  out  of 
their  beds,  bound  hand  and  foot,  and  mur- 
dered. A  boy  twelve  years  old  clung  round 
the  captain's  legs,  and  begged  hard  for  life. 
He  would  do  any  thing:  he  would  go  any- 
where :  he  would  follow  Glenlyon  round  the 
world.  Even  Glenlyon,  it  is  said,  showed 
signs  of  relenting :  but  a  ruffian  named 
Drummond  shot  the  child  dead. 

"  At  Auchnaion  the  tacksman  Auchintriater 
was  up  early  that  morning,  and  was  sitting 
with  eight  of  his  family  round  the  fire,  when 
a  volley  of  musketry  laid  him  and  seven  of 
his  companions  dead  or  dying  on  the  floor. 
His  brother,  who  alone  had  escaped  unhurt, 
called  to  Sergeant  Barbour,  who  commanded 
the  slayers,  and  asked  as  a  favor  to  be  al- 
lowed to  die  in  the  open  air.  '  Well,'  said 
the  sergeant,  'I  will  do  you  that  favor  for  the 


sake  of  your  meat  which  I  have  eat-n.'  'J'lie 
mountaineer,  bold,  athletic,  and  favored  by 
the  darkness,  came  forth,  rushed  on  tlie  sol- 
diers who  were  about  to  level  their  piecres  at 
him,  flung  his  plaid  over  their  faces,  and  was 
gone  in  a  moment. 

"Meanwhile  Lindsay  had  knocked  at  the 
door  of  the  old  chief,  and  had  asked  for  ad- 
mission in  friendly  language.  The  door  was 
opened.  Maclan,  while  putting  on  his 
clothes  and  calling  to  his  servants  to  bring 
some  refreshments  for  his  visitors,  was  shot 
through  the  head.  Two  of  his  attendants 
were  slain  with  him.  His  wife  was  already 
up  and  dressed  in  such  finery  as  the  prin- 
cesses of  the  rude  Highland  glens  were  ac- 
customed to  wear.  The  assassins  pulled  off 
her  clothes  and  trinkets.  The  rings  were 
not  easily  taken  from  her  fingers ;  but  a  sol- 
dier tore  them  away  with  his  teeth.  She  died 
on  the  following  day." 

Os^er  thirty  persons  were  killed  there  that 
morning,  but  owing  to  the  "  blunder,"  as 
Macaulay  calls  it,  of  commencing  the  mnssa- 
cre  with  a  volley  of  musketry,  instead  of  giv- 
ing them  the  cold  steel,  three-fourths  of  the 
MacDonalds  of  Glencoe  escaped  the  slaugh- 
ter, but  only  to  perish  in  the  snowy  moun- 
tains for  want  of  food  and  shelter.  Such, 
and  so  sad  may  be  the  effects  of  evil  counsels 
upon  the  minds  of  benevolent  monarchs,  who 
are  too  deeply  occupied  in  revolving  projects 
on  which  the  fate  of  Europe  might  depend. 

Another  event  befell  in  the  summer  of  this 
year,  1692,  which  deserves  record.  On  a 
July  morning,  about  the  time  when  the  Prot- 
estant Parliament  in  Dublin  was  devising 
cunning  oaths  against  Transubstantiation  and 
Invocation  of  Saints,  to  drive  out  its  few 
Catholic  members,  Patrick  Sarsfield,  and 
some  of  his  comrades,  just  fresh  from  Lim- 
erick, had  the  deep  gratification  to  meet  King 
William  on  the  glorious  field  of  Steinkirk. 
Sarsfield  and  Berwick  were  then  ofiicers 
high  in  command  under  Marshal  Luxem- 
bourg, when  King  William,  at  the  head  of  a 
great  allied  force,  attacked  the  French  en- 
campment. The  attacking  force  was  under 
the  banners  of  England,  of  the  United  Prov- 
inces, of  Spain  and  of  the  Empire  ;  and  it 
had  all  the  advantage  of  effecting  a  surprise. 
The  battle  was  long  and  bloody,  and  was  fin* 
ished  by  a  splendid  chaige  of  French  cavalry, 


KING   JAMES'S    DECLARATION    OF    1G93. 


11 


flinoiig  the  foremost  of  whose  leadei's  was 
the  same  glorious  Sarsfieki,  whose  sword 
had  once  before  driven  back  the  same  Wil- 
liam from  before  the  walls  of  Limerick.  The 
English  and  their  allies  were  entirely  defeat- 
ed in  that  battle,  with  a  loss  of  about  ten 
thousand  men.  Once  more,  and  before  very 
long,  Sarsfield  and  King  William  were  des- 
tined to  meet  again. 

King  James  was  at  this  time  residing  at 
the  palace  of  St.  Germain-eu-laye,  near  Paris, 
upon  a  pension  allowed  him  by  Louis  XIV., 
and  waiting  on  the  result  of  the  war  between 
France  and  the  Allies.  As  William  had  now 
become  very  unpopular  in  England,  it  was 
believed  by  the  advisers  of  the  exiled  mon- 
arch that  a  suitable  "Declaration"  issued 
from  St.  Germains,  and  promising,  as  the 
Siuarts  were  always  ready  to  promise,  such 
reforms  and  improvements  in  administration 
as  should  conciliate  public  opinion  in  Eng- 
land, might  once  more  turn  the  minds  of  his 
British  subjects  towards  their  legitimate  dy- 
nasty, and  open  a  way  for  his  return  to  his 
throne.  His  great  counsellor  on  this  occa- 
sion was  Charles,  Earl  of  Middleton,  a  Scotch- 
man. On  the  17th  of  April,  1693,  this  fa- 
mous Declaration  was  signed  and  published. 
It  promised,  on  the  part  of  James,  a  free 
pardon  to  all  his  subjects  who  should  not  op- 
pose him  after  his  landing ;  that  as  soon  as 
he  was  restored  he  would  call  a  parliament ; 
that  he  would  confirm  all  such  laws  passed 
during  the  usurpation  as  the  Houses  should 
present  to  him  for  confirmation ;  that  he 
would  protect  and  defend  the  Established 
Church  in  all  her  possessions  and  privileges  ; 
that  he  would  not  again  violate  the  Test 
Act ;  that  he  would  leave  it  to  the  Legisla- 
ture to  define  the  extent  of  his  dispensing 
power;  and  that  he  would  maintain  the  Act 
of  Settlement  in  Ireland.  This  Declaration, 
then,  was  an  appeal  to  his  English  subjects 
exclusively  ;  and  to  propitiate  them,  he  prom- 
ised to  leave  the  Irish  people  wholly  at  their 
mercy — to  undo  all  the  measures  in  favor  of 
religious  liberty  and  common  justice  which 
had  been  enacted  by  his  Irish  Parliament  of 
1689,  and  to  leave  the  holders  of  the  confis- 
cated estates,  his  own  deadly  enemies  in  Ire- 
land, in  undisturbed  possession  of  all  their 
spoils.  It  is  asserted,  indeed,  in  the  Life  of 
King  James,  that  he  struggled  against  com- 


mitting himself  to  such  unqualified  support 
of  the  Protestant  interest,  but  he  was  finally 
induced  to  sign  the  document  as  it  stood. 
It  was  sent  toEngland,  printed,  and  published, 
but  produced  no  effect  whatever  of  the  kind 
intended.  It  did  produce,  however,  a  great 
and  just  indignation  among  the  Irish  sol- 
diers and  gentlemen  who  had  lost  all  their 
possessions,  and  encountered  so  many  peril.-i 
to  vindicate  the  right  of  this  cowardly  and 
faithless  king.  Serious  discontent  was  man- 
ifested among  the  Irish  regiments  then 
serving  in  the  Netherlands  and  on  the  fron- 
tiers of  Germany  and  Italy  ;  and  we  find  that 
the  treacheious  Middleton,  his  Scottish  and 
Protestant  adviser,  who  had  led  the  king  in- 
to this  act  of  ingratitude,  as  useless  as  it  was 
base,  made  great  efforts  to  soothe  the  feelings 
of  these  fine  troops.  A  letter  is  extant  from 
Lord  Middleton  to  Justin  MacCartliy,  then 
on  active  service  in  Germany,  endeavoring 
to  explain  away  the  obnoxious  points  of  the 
Declaration,  and  soliciting  MacCarthy's  in- 
fluence to  pacify  other  officers.  In  this  let- 
ter Secretary  Middleton  has  the  assurance  to 
say,  "The  king  promises  in  the  foresaid  Dec- 
laration to  restore  the  Settlement,  but  at  the 
same  time  declares  that  he  will  recompense 
all  those  who  may  suff'er  by  it,  in  giving  them 
equivalents."*  There  was  no  such  promiso 
in  the  Declaration,  and  his  correspondent 
must  have  known  it;  but,  in  truth,  the  Irish 
troops  in  the  army  of  King  Louis,  the  fierce 
exiles  of  Limerick,  were  at  that  time  too 
busy  in  the  camp  and  the  field,  and  too  keen- 
ly desirous  to  meet  the  English  in  battle,  to 
pay  much  attention  to  any  thing  coming  from 
King  James.  They  had  had  enough  of  Righ 
Seamus  at  the  Boyne  Water. 

A  portion  of  them  soon  had  their  wish ; 
for  neither  Luxembourg  nor  King  William 
allowed  the  grass  to  grow  under  their  horses' 
hoofs.  On  the  19th  of  July,  in  this  year, 
1693,  they  were  in  presence  again  on  the 
bank  of  the  little  river  Landen,  and  close 
by  the  village  of  Neerwinden.  The  Eng- 
lish call  that  memorable  battle  by  the  first 
name,  and  the  French  by  the  second.  It 
was  near  Liege  in  the  Netherlands,  that 
famous  battle-ground  which  had  seen,  and 
was   again   to  see,    so  many  bloody  days. 

*  The  letter  is  in  Macphereon's  Collection. 


12 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


This  time  it  was  the  French  who  attacke(l 
the  Allies  in  an  intrenched  position.  After 
lieavy  artillery  firing  for  some  time,  the 
French  made  a  desperate  attack  on  the  vil- 
lage of  Neerwinden  ;  and  the  Duke  of  Ber- 
wick, at  the  head  of  some  Irish  troops,  led 
the  onset,  supported  and  followed  by  the 
left  wing  of  the  French  aimy,  commanded 
bj'  Moutchevreuil.  The  slaughter  in  the 
village  was  tremendous,  and  here  Berwick  was 
taken  prisoner.  This  first  attack  failed,  and 
after  a  furious  struggle  the  French  and  Irish 
were  forced  back.  A  fresh  division,  under 
the  Duke  de  Bourbon,  renewed  the  attack, 
and  was  again  repulsed ;  but  as  this  was  the 
important  point,  Luxembourg  resolved  to 
make  a  final  struggle  for  it,  and  the  chosen 
forces  of  King  Louis,  led  on  by  his  re- 
nowned household  troops,  were  launched  in 
a  resistless  mass  against  the  village.  A 
third  time  it  was  entered,  and  a  third  time 
there  was  a  scene  of  fearful  carnage  iu  its 
streets.  Among  the  French  officers  in 
this  final  struggle  was  Patrick  Sarsfield.* 
King  William  fought  his  army  to  the  last; 
but  Neerwinden  being  gone,  the  key  of  the 
position  was  lost,  and  at  length  the  whole 
English  and  allied  army  gave  way  all  along 
the  line.  The  pursuit  was  furious  and  san- 
guinary, as  the  Allies  kept  tolerable  order, 
and  fought  every  step  of  the  way.  In  the 
army  of  William  was  the  Duke  of  Ormond, 
and  in  the  wild  confusion  he  was  unhorsed ; 
but  the  French  soldier  who  brought  him 
down  espied  on  his  finger  a  precious  diamond, 
and  saved  his  life  as  being  certainly  a  pris- 
oner of  rank.  He  was  soon  after  exchanged 
for  Berwick.  At  length  the  flying  army  of 
William  arrived  at  the  little  river  Gette ; 
and  here  the  retreat  was  in  danger  of  be- 
coming a  total  rout.  Arms  and  standards 
were  flung  away,  and  multitudes  of  fugitives 
were  choking  up  the  fords  and  bridges  of 
the  river,  or  perishing  in  its  waters,  so  fierce- 
ly did  the  victors  press  upon  their  rear.  It 
was  here  that  Patrick  Sarsfield,  Earl  of  Lu- 

*  It  does  not  seein  certain  that  Berwick  and  Sars- 
field had  any  Irish  regiments  under  tlieir  command 
atLanden.  O'Connor  (Military  Memoir)  says  that 
Sarsfield  fell  in  leading  a  charge  of  French  troops. 


can,  who  had  that  day,  as  well  as  at  Stein- 
kirk,  earned  the  admiration  of  the  whole 
French  aimy,  received  his  death-shot  at  the 
head  of  his  men.  It  was  in  a  happy  mo- 
ment. Before  he  fell,  he  could  see  the 
standards  of  England  swept  along  by  the  tide 
of  headlong  flight,  or  trailing  in  the  muddy 
waters  of  the  Gette — he  could  see  tlte  scar- 
let ranks  that  he  had  once  hurled  back  from 
the  ramparts  of  Limerick,  now  rent  and 
riven,  fast  falling  in  their  wild  flight,  while 
there  was  sent  pealing  after  them  tlie  venge- 
ful shout,  '■''Remember  Limerick  P^ 

The  victory  of  the  French  was  complete ; 
and  after  two  such  defeats,  so  closely  follow- 
ing each  other,  the  affairs  of  King  William 
went  badly  for  a  time.  There  was,  there- 
fore, a  certain  mildness  and  mercy  observ- 
able in  the  administration  of  Ireland  towards 
the  Catholics;  for  as  Lawless  has  justly  ob- 
served, "The  rights  of  Irishmen  and  the 
prosperity  of  England  cannot  exist  together 
— a  melancholy  truth  which  the  evt-nts  of 
the  present  day  only  contribute  to  confirm, 
and  which  is  still  left  to  the  enlightened 
English  Government  of  future  days  to  re- 
fute. The  lights  of  history  cannot  be  ex- 
tinguished, nor  her  powerful  voice  silenced. 
The  conclusions  we  have  drawn  are  irresist- 
ible, and  the  idle  violence  which  attempts  to 
punish  their  publication  only  impresses  those 
truths  more  deeply  on  the  mind.  The  glo- 
ries of  William  and  of  Anne — the  victories 
of  Marlborough,  and  the  universal  conquests 
of  Chatham,  have  been  the  most  disastrous 
epochs  of  Ireland.  Never  was  the  heart  of 
our  country  so  low  as  when  England  was  the 
envy  and  the  terror  of  her  enemies.  The 
sounds  of  English  triumphs  were  to  her  the 
sounds  of  sorrow — the  little  tyrants  who  ruled 
her  were  inflamed  with  courage,  and  urged 
on  with  increased  rancor — the  unhappy  Cath- 
olics of  Ireland,  who  always  constituted  the 
nation,  were  doomed  to  be  again  insulted  and 
tortured  with  impunity." 

Accordingly,  it  will  soon  be  seen  that  the 
apparent  gentleness  used  at  this  time  towards 
the  ancient  Irish  nation,  was  destined  to  be 
of  short  continuance. 


THE   LORDS   JUSTICES. 


13 


CHAriER  III. 

1693—1693. 

Capel  lord-lieutenant.— War  in  the  Netherlands.— 
Capture  of  Namur. — Grievances  of  the  Protestant 
colonists. — Act  for  disarming  Papists. — Laws 
atrainst  education. — Against  priests. — Against  in- 
termarrying with  Papists. — Act  to  "  confirm" 
Articles  of  Limerick. — Irish  on  the  continent. 

SvDXEY,  the  lord-lieutenant,  became  ex- 
ceedingly unpopular  with  the  people  of  the 
English  colony  in  Ireland,  in  consequence 
of  his  continued  assertion  of  the  supreme 
powers  of  the  British  Parliament,  and  his 
opposition  to  the  assertion  of  this  new  Anglo- 
Irish  nationality.  But  his  unpopularity  was 
gtill  greater  on  account  of  his  known  repug- 
nance to  still  further  and  more  searching  pe- 
nal laws  against  the  Catholics.  He  was 
soon,  therefore,  recalled,  and  the  is»land  was 
ruled  for  a  time  by  three  lords-justices,  Lord 
Capel,  Sir  Cyril  Wyche,  and  Mr.  Duncombe. 
■  Between  these  three,  serious  differences  of 
policy  soon  manifested  themselves;  the  two 
latter  being  in  ftivor  of  a  continuance  of  the 
toleration,  and  of  showing  some  slight  regard 
to  the  rights  of  the  Catholic  people  under 
the  Treaty  of  Limerick ;  while  Capel,  as 
Harris  confesses,  was  desirous  of  doing  all  in 
his  power  to  infringe  thattreaty.  The  intrigues 
of  the  intolerant  party  finally  prevailed  so 
far  as  to  procure  the  appointment  of  Capel 
as  lord-lieutenant;  and  in  1(595,  he  sum- 
moned a  parliament,  the  second  of  this  reign. 

In  the  mean  time.  King  William  and  his 
allies  had  been  prosecuting  the  war  against 
France  with  varying  success,  but  on  the 
whole,  the  advantage  had  rested  with  the 
French,  at  least,  in  the  campaigns  by  land. 
In  1695,  however,  the  tide  began  to  turn  in 
the  Netherlands;  and  on  the  26th  of  Au- 
gust, in  that  year,  the  town  and  fortress  of 
Namur,  one  of  the  strongest  places  in  Europe, 
defended  by  Marshal  Boufflers,  was  surren- 
dered to  the  allies  after  an  arduous  siege. 
For  the  first  time,  since  first  there  were  mar- 
shals of  France,  a  French  marshal  delivered 
up  a  fortress  to  a  victorious  enemy.  There 
was  high  rejoicing  in  England  over  this  great 
event ;  it  was,  therefore,  an  event  of  evil 
omen  for  Ireland. 

During   the   three   years   preceding    the 


meeting  of  this  parliament,  there  had  been 
continual  complaints  made  by  the  Protestant 
"Ascendency,"  of  the  favors  shown  to  "Pa- 
pists," and  the  consequent  discouragement 
and  depression  of  the  Protestant  interest. 
The  great  theme  of  discussion  in  Ireland  at 
that  day  was  whether,  and  how  far,  the  Ar- 
ticles of  Limerick  ought  to  be  considered 
binding;  and  the  parliament,  in  1692,  had 
addressed  the  king,  complaining  of  the  res- 
toration of  certain  confiscated  estates  to 
Catholics  in  the  five  counties  specified  in 
the  articles  ;  which  restoration  was  expressly 
stipulated  for  in  the  treaty  ;*  and  fur- 
ther requesting  his  majesty  "to  have  the  ar- 
ticles of  the  Treaty  of  Limerick  laid  before 
us  [the  parliament],  in  order  that  we  may 
learn  by  what  means,  and  under  what  pre- 
text they  have  been  granted,"  etc.  Consid- 
erably over  a  million  of  acres  had  been  ad- 
judged confiscated  in  consequence  of  the  last 
"  rebellion,"  and  of  this  land,  about  one 
quarter  had  been  restored  to  its  right  owners 
in  pursuance  of  the  treaty.  In  short,  the 
"  Irish  nation,"  as  the  handful  of  colonists 
called  themselves,  was  suffering  under  griev- 
ous distress  and  oppression ;  and  a  Mr. 
Stone,  member  of  the  Irish  House  of  Com- 
mons, being  examined  at  the  bar  of  the  Eno-- 
lish  House,  gave  in  his  evidence  so  sad  an 
account  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Protestants, 
as  produced  a  seiious  effect  upon  public 
opinion  in  England.  "There  never  was,"  he 
declared,  "a  Hoise  of  Commons  of  that 
kingdom  of  greater  property  or  better  prin- 
ciples than  those  which  met  under  Lord 
Sydney's  administration."  He  boasted  of 
their  loyalty  and  zeal  for  his  majesty's  ser- 
vice, and  alleged  that  their  opposition  to  the 
money  bills  had  been  occasioned  by  Lord 
Sydney's  arrogance  in  insisting  upon  the 
supreme  sovereignty  of  the  English  crown 
and  Parliament;  and  last,  and  worst  of  all, 
he  complained  "that  the  Papists  were  in 
actual  possession  of  that  liberty  which,  if  ex- 
tended to  Protestants,  would  have  prevented 
the  necessity  of  rendering  the  Irish  Com- 
mons obnoxious  by  the  rejection  of  so  many 
bills."  In  short,  the  pathetic  narration  of 
these  pretended  grievances  and  oppressions 


*  See  the  Address  in  full,  in    MacGeoghegan : 
Sudlier's  Edition. 


14 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


had  brought  about,  first,  the  recall  of  Lord 
Sydney,  and  afterwards  the  appointment  of 
Lord  Capel  as  lord-lieutenant.     The  compar- 
ative success  of  William's  arms  in  the  Netli- 
erlands  contributed  still  more  effectually  to 
give  a  complete  triumph  to  the  Ascendency 
party ;  and  accordingly  the  Protestant  col- 
onists were  highly  gmtified  when  Lord  Capel, 
in    opening   the    parliament    of    1695,    an- 
nounced that  the  king  was  intent  on  a  firm 
settlement  of  Ireland  "  upon  a  Protestant  in- 
terest."    It  might  have  been  supposed  that 
Ireland  was  already  pretty  well  settled  in  the 
interest  of  Protestants  ;  but  the  ingenuity  of 
this  parliament  found  means  of  still  further 
extending  and  improving  the  laws  which  al- 
ready made  Catholics  outlaws  in  their  native 
land. 

There  was  no  more  factious  opposition  to 
the  government ;  the  parliament  was  obse- 
quious, and  readily  passed  all  bills  that  were 
required  at  its  hands.  All  it  asked  was  to 
have  the  Papists  delivered  up,  body  and 
goods,  into  the  hands  of  the  Ascendency. 
It  will  give  an  idea  of  the  grievances  and  op- 
pressions which  the  Protestants  now  plain- 
tively represented  to  parliament  in  petitions 
which  poured  in  from  all  quarters,  if  we  men- 
tion that  one  of  these  petitions  was  from  the 
mayor,  sheriffs,  and  Protestant  aldermen  of 
the  city  of  Limerick,  complaining  that  "  they 
were  greatly  damaged  in  their  trade  by  the 
great  numbers  of  Papists  residing  there,  and 
praying  to  be  relieved  therein."  And,  in 
fact,  those  honest  Protestants  were  relieved 
by  express  enactment.  Another  petition, 
gravely  presented  to  parliament,  was  "A  peti- 
tion of  one  Edward  Sprag,  and  others,  in 
behalf  of  themselves  and  other  Protestant 
porters,  in  and  about  the  city  of  Dublin, 
complaining  that  one  Darby  Ryan,  a  Papist, 
employed  porters  of  his  own  persuasion."* 
This  petition  was  referred,  like  others,  to  the 
"Committee  on  Grievances."  The  griev- 
ances of  persecuted  Protestants,  however, 
were  soon  to  have  an  end. 

Catholics  had  been  already  excluded  from 
the  legislature,  from  the  corporations,  and 
from  the  liberal  professions ;  but  we  have 
seen  that  they  could  still  damage  the  trade 
of  Protestant  artificers  in  Limerick,  and  even 


•  Commons  Journal*. 


compete'with  Protestant  coal-porters  in  Dub- 
lin.    The  parliament  of  Lord  Capel  W;u  now 
about  to  take  such  order  with  them  that  it 
was  hoped  they  would    never   trouble    the 
Protestant  interest  any  more.     The  first  re- 
quisite was  to  effectually  disarm  them.    Ac- 
cordingly, one  of  the  first  enactments  is  en- 
titled "An  Act  for  the  better  securing  the 
government   by  disarming   the    Papists."  * 
By  this  act,  all  Catholics  within  the  king- 
dom of   Ireland  were  required  to  discover 
and  deliver  up  by  a  certain  day,  to  the  jus- 
tices or  civil  officers,  all  their  arms  and  am- 
munition.    After  that  day  search  might  be 
made  in  their  houses  for  concealed  arms  and 
ammunition ;    and    any   two  justices,   or   a 
mayor  or  sheriff,  might   grant  the  search- 
warrant,  and  compel  any  Catholic  suspected 
of  having  concealed  arms,  etc.,  to  appear  be- 
fore them  and  answer  the  charge  or  suspicion 
upon  his  oath  f      The  punishments  were  to 
be  fine    and    imprisonment,  or,  at  the  dis- 
cretion of  the  court,  the  pillory  and  whip- 
ping.   It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  minute 
and  curious  tyranny  to  which  this   statute 
gave  rise  in  every  parish  of  the  island.     Es- 
pecially in  districts  where  there  was  an  armed 
yeomanry,  exclusively  Protestant,  it  fared  ill 
with  any  Catholic  who  fell,  for  any  reason, 
under  the  displeasure  of  his  formidable  neigh- 
bors.    Any  pretext  was  sufficient  for  point- 
ing him  out  to  suspicion.     Any  neighboring 
magistrate  might  visit  him  at  any  hour  of 
the  night,  and  search  his  bed  for  arms.    No 
Papist  was  safe  from  suspicion  who  had  any 
money  to  pay  in  fines  ;  and  woe  to  the  Papist 
who  had  a  handsome  daughter! 

It  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  any  method 
of  degrading  human  nature  more  effectual 
than  the  prohibition  of  arms;  but  the  par- 
liament resolved  to  employ  still  another  way. 
This  was  to  prohibit  education.  Catholics 
were  already  debarred  from  being  tutors  or 
teachers;  and  many  Catholic  young  men 
were  sent  for  education  to  the  schools  and 
universities  of  the  continent.  It  was  there- 
fore enacted  "  that  if  an}'^  subjects  of  Ireland 
should,  after  that  session,  go,  or  send  any 
child  or  person,  to  be  educated  in  any  popish 
university,  college,  or  school,  or  in  any  pri- 


*  7  Wm.  III.  c.  5. 
t  This  enactment,  under  various  new  formp  and 
namca,  is  the  law  at  this  day. 


PKNAL   LA"WS. 


15 


vate  fjiniily  ;  or  if  such  child  should,  by  auy 
popisli  person,  be  instructed  in  the  popish 
religion  ;  or  if  any  subjects  of  Ireland  should 
send  money  or  things  towards  the  mainte- 
nance of  such  child,  or  other  person,  already 
sent,  or  to  be  sent,  every  such  offender,  being 
thereof  convicted,  should  be  forever  disabled 
to  Rue  or  prosecute  any  action,  bill,  plaint, 
or  information  in  law  or  equity ;  to  be  guar- 
dian, administrator,  or  executor  to  any  per- 
son, or  to  be  capable  of  any  legacy,  or  deed 
of  gift ;  and,  besides,  should  forfeit  all  their 
estates,  both  real  and  personal,  during  their 
lives."*  It  was  further  enacted,  that  "No  Pa- 
pist, after  the  20th  January,  1695,  shall  be 
capable  to  have,  or  keep  in  his  possession, 
or  in  the  possession  of  any  other,  to  his  use, 
or  at  his  disposition,  any  horse^  gelding,  or 
mare,  of  the  value  of  £5  or  more  ;"  with  the 
usual  clauses  to  induce  Protestants  to  inform, 
and  cause  search  to  be  made  for  the  contra- 
band horses ;  the  property  of  the  horses  to 
be  vested  in  the  discoverer. 

The  two  acts  before  mentioned  at  once 
bred  in  Ireland  a  great  swarm  of  informers 
and  detectives,  who  have  been  a  grievous 
plague  upon  the  country  ever  since.  But 
the  penal  code  was  still  far  from  complete. 
It  was  thought  needful  to  strike  at  the  Cath- 
olics more  directly  through  their  religion  it- 
self, in  which  it  was  observed  that  they  took 
much  corafoi't.  Therefore,  it  was  enacted  by 
the  same  Parliament  "That  all  popish  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  vicars-general,  deans,  Jesuits, 
monks,  friars,  and  all  other  regular  popish 
clergy,  and  all  papists  exercising  any  eccle- 
siastical jurisdiction,  sliall  depart  this  king- 
d:>m  before  the  1st  day  of  May,  1698."  If 
any  of  them  remained  after  that  day,  or  re- 
turned, the  delinquents  were  to  be  transport- 
ed, and  if  they  returned  again,  "  to  be  guilty 
of  high  treason,  and  to  suffer  accordingly." 
To  pretend  a  toleration  of  the  Catholic  re- 
ligion, but  to  banish  bishops,  and  thus  pre- 
vent orders,  can  scarcely  be  considered  a  very 
liberal  proceeding  ;  but  there  were  still  more 
minute  provisions  made,  after  banishing  the 
clergy,  for  the  continual  torture  of  the  laity. 
For  example,  this  same  parliament,  in  1695, 
enacted  a  statute  which  imposed  a  fine  of 
two  shillings  (and,  in  default  of  payment, 

•  4  Wm.  and  Mary,  c.  4. 


whipping)  upon  "every  common  Uiborer, 
being  hired,  or  other  servant  retained,  who 
shall  refuse  to  work  at  the  usual  and  accus- 
tomed wages,  upon  any  day  except  the  days 
appointed  by  this  statute  to  be  kept  holy ; 
namely,  all  Sundays  in  the  year,  and  certain 
other  days  named  therein." 

Another  act  was  passed  by  this  parlia- 
ment "  to  prevent  Protestants  intermarrying 
with  Papists,"  in  order  to  obviate  the 
possible  danger  of  the  two  nations  becoming 
gradually  amalgamated  by  affinities  and 
family  interests  ;  and  as  the  Catholics,  in  some 
places,  were  associating  together  to  place 
their  interests  in  the  hands  of  legal  advisers, 
an  act  was  passed  "  to  prevent  Papists  being 
solicitors.".  It  must  not  be  omitted  to  mention, 
that  the  parliament  which  violated,  by  so 
many  ingenious  laws,  the  conditions  made  at 
the  capitulation  of  Limerick,  did  also  gravely 
and  solemnly  pass  an  act  "for  the  confirma- 
tion of  Articles  made  at  the  surrender  of  the 
city  of  Limerick — or  so  much  thereof,"  said 
the  preamble,  "as  may  consist  with  the 
safety  and  welfare  of  your  Majesty's  sub- 
jects in  these  kingdoms."  The  greater  part, 
or  almost  the  whole  of  the  stipulations  on 
behalf  of  the  Catholics,  contained  in  those 
articles,  had  been  deliberately  and  avowedly 
violated  by  the  very  legislature  which  en- 
acted this  hypocritical  act.  It  passed  almost 
unanimously  in  the  Commons;  but  unex- 
pectedly met  with  vigorous  resistance  in  the 
House  of  Lords  ;  where,  on  its  final  passage, 
a  formal  protest  against  it  was  entered  by  a 
number  of  the  ancient  nobility,  and  even  by 
some  Anglican  bishops.  The  protest  was 
signed  by  the  lords  Duncannon,  London- 
derry and  Tyrone,  the  barons  of  Limerick, 
Howth,  Ossory,  Killaloe,  Kerry,  Strabane 
and  Kingston,  and  also  by  the  bishops  of 
Deny,  Elphin,  Clonfert,  Kildare  and  Killala. 
It  gave  these  reasons  for  the  protest : 

"  1.  Because  the  title  did  not  agree  with 
the  body  of  the  bill ;  the  title  being  an  act 
for  the  confirmation  of  the  Iiish  articles, 
whereas  no  one  of  said  articles  was  therein 
fully  confirmed.  2.  Because  the  articles 
were  to  be  confirmed  to  them  to  whom  they 
were  granted  ;  but  the  confirmation  of  them 
by  that  bill  was  such,  that  it  put  them  in  a 
worse  condition  than  they  were  in  before. 
3.    Because  the   bill   omitted    the  material 


16 


HISTOnY    OF    IRELAND. 


words,  *  and  all  such  as  are  under  their  pro- 
tection in  the  said  counties,'  which  were  by 
his  Majesty's  titles  patent,  declared  to  be 
part  of  the  second  article  ;  and  several  per- 
sons had  been  adjudjn;ed  within  said  articles 
who  would,  if  the  bill  passed  into  a  law,  be 
entirely  barred  and  excluded,  so  that  the 
words  omitted  being  so  very  material,  and 
confirmed  by  his  Majesty  after  a  solemn 
debate  in  council,  some  express  reason  ought 
to  be  assigned  in  the  bill,  in  order  to  satisfy 
the  world  in  that  omission.  4.  Because 
several  words  were  inserted  in  the  bill  which 
were  not  in  the  articles,  and  others  omitted, 
which  altered  both  the  sense  and  meaning 
thereof.  Lastly,  because  they  apprehended 
that  many  Protestants  might  and  would 
suffer  by  the  bill  in  their  just  rights  and 
pretensions,  by  reason  of  their  having  pur- 
chased, and  lent  money,  upon  the  faith  of  said 
article," 

Of  the  proceedings  of  this  parliament,  it 
is  only  necessary  to  add  one  further  detail : 
"  A  petition  of  Robert  Cusack,  gentleman. 
Captain  Francis  Segrave  and  Captain  Mau- 
rice EustMce,  in  behalf  of  themselves  and 
others,  comprised  under  the  Articles  of 
Limerick,  setting  forth,  that  in  the  said  bill 
[act  to  confirm,  &c.]  there  were  sevei-al 
clauses  that  would  frustrate  the  petitioners 
of  the  benefit  of  the  same,  and  if  passed 
into  a  law  would  turn  to  the  ruin  of  some, 
and  the  prejudice  of  all  persons  entitled  to 
the  benefit  of  the  said  articles,  and  praying 
to  be  heard  by  counsel  to  said  matters, 
having  been  presented  and  read,  it  was 
unanimously  resolved  that  said  petition 
should  be  rejected^'' 

King  William  was  all  this  while  busily 
engaged  in  carrying  on  the  war  against 
Louis  the  Fourteenth,  and  his  mind  was 
profoundly  occupied  about  the  destinies  of 
Europe.  He  seems  to  have  definitively  given 
up  Ireland,  to  be  dealt  with  by  the  Ascend- 
ency at  its  pleasure.  Yet  he  had  received 
the  benefit  of  the  capitulation  of  Limerick  : — 
he  had  engaged  his  royal  faith  to  its  ob- 
servance;— he  had  further  engaged  that  he 
would  endeavor  to  procure  said  Fioman 
Catholics  such  further  security  as  might 
preserve  them  from  any  disturbance  upon 
the  account  of  their  said  religion.  And 
be  not  only  did  not  endeavor  to  procure  any 


such  fni'ther  security,  but  he  gave  his  royal 
assent,  without  the  least  objection,  to  every 
one  of  these  acts  of  Parliament,  carefully 
depriving  them  of  such  securities  as  they 
had,  and  imposing  new  and  grievous  oppres- 
sions "  upon  the  account  of  their  said  reli- 
gion." It  is  expressly  on  account  of  this 
shameful  breach  of  faith  on  the  part  of  the 
King  that  Orange  squires  and  gentlemen, 
from  that  day  to  this,  have  been  enthusi- 
astically toasting  "  the  glorious,  pious,  and 
immortal  memory  of  the  great  and  good 
King  William." 

The  war  was  still  raging  all  over  Europe ; 
and    multitudes    of    young   Irishmen    were 
quitting  a  land  where  they  were  henceforth 
strangers  and  outlaws  on  their  own  soil,  to 
find  under  the  banners  of  France  an  oppor- 
tunity  for  such   distinction   as   exiles    may 
hope    to    win.      Brilliant    reports    of    the 
achievements  of  the  old  regiments  of  Limer- 
ick  on  many   a  field,  came   to  Ireland    by 
stray   travellers  from  the  continent,  and  in- 
spired the  high-spirited  youth  of  the  country 
with  an  ambition  to  enroll  themselves  in  the 
ranks  of  the  Irish  brigade.     They  had  heard, 
for  example,  of  the  great  victories  of  Stein- 
kirk  and  of  Landen  ;  and  how  at  Marsiglia, 
on  the  Italian  slope  of  the  Alps,  the  Fiench 
marshal,  Catinat,  obtained  a  splendid  victory 
over  the   army   of  the   Duke  of  Savoy — a 
victory,  says  Voltaire,  "so  much  the  moi'e 
glorious  as  the  Prince  Eugene  was  one  of  the 
adverse  generals  ;"  and  how  the  conduct  of 
the  Irish  troops,  who  served  under  Catinat 
on    that   occasion,  gained    the  applause  of 
Europe  and  the  thanks  of  King  Louis.     It 
is  no  wonder^  therefore,  seeing  the  depress- 
ing and  humiliating  condition  to  which  they 
were  reduced  at  home,  that  there  was  a  large 
and  continual  emigration  of  the  best  blood 
of  Ireland,  at  this  time,  and  for  a  great  part 
of  the  following  century.     These  exiles  were 
not  confined   to  the   people    of  the   Celtic 
Irish  clans ;  for  all  the  English  settlers  in  Ire- 
land, down  to  the  time  of  Henry  the  Eighth, 
had  of  course  been  Catholic,  and  these  fam- 
ilies generally  adhered  to  the   old  religion. 
Thus  these  old  English  found  themselves  in- 
cluded in  all  the  severities  of  the  penal  laws, 
along  with  the  primeval  Scotic  people,  and 
they  had  now  their  full  proportion  in  the 
ranks    of    the    military    adventurers    who 


THE   IRISH    EXILES. 


17 


sought  service  on  the  continent.  Accord- 
ingly, among  the  distinguished  names  of  the 
Irish  brigades,  by  the  side  of  the  Milesian 
Sarsfields,  O'Briens,  and  O'Donnells,  we  find 
the  Norman-descended  Dillons,  Roches,  and 
Fitzgeralds.  Of  the  amount  of  that  great 
emigration  it  is  difficult  to  procure  any  very 
exact  idea ;  but  on  this  subject  there  is  no 
better  authority  than  the  learned  Abbe 
MacGeoghegan,  who  was  chaplain  in  the 
brigade,  and  who  devoted  himself  to  the 
task  of  recording  the  history  of  his  country, 
lie  affirms  that  researches  in  the  office  of 
the  French  War  Department  show  that  from 
the  arrival  of  the  Irish  troops  in  France,  in 
1691,  to  the  year  1745  (the  year  of  Fon- 
tenoy),  more  than  four  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  Irishmen  died  in  the  service  of 
France.  The  statement  may  seem  almost 
incredible ;  especially  as  Spain  and  Austria 
bad  also  their  share  of  our  military  exiles ; 
but,  certain  it  is,  the  expatriation  of  the  very 
best  and  choicest  of  the  Irish  people  was 
now  on  a  very  large  scale ;  and  the  remain- 
ing population,  deprived  of  their  natural 
chiefs,  became  still  more  helpless  in  the 
hands  of  their  enemies.  Buron  Macaulay, 
whose  language  is  never  too  courteous  in 
speaking  of  the  Irish,  takes  evident  delight 
in  dwelling  upon  the  abject  condition  of  the 
great  body  of  the  nation  at  this  time.  He 
calls  them  "Pariahs  ;"  compares  their  posi- 
tion, in  the  disputes  between  the  English  and 
the  Irish  parliament,  with  that  of  "the  Red 
Indians  in  the  dispute  between  Old  England 
and  New  England  about  the  Stamp  Act ;" 
mentions  with  complacency,  that  Dean  Swift 
"  no  more  considered  himself  as  an  Irishman 
than  an  Englishman  born  at  Calcutta  con- 
siders himself  as  a  Hindoo  ;"  and  says,  veiy 
truly,  though  coarsely,  that  none  of  the 
"  patriots"  of  the  seventeenth  century  "  ever 
thought  of  appealing  to  the  native  popula- 
tion— they  would  as  soon  have  thought  of 
appealing  to  the  swineP  The  truth  is,  that 
most  of  the  choicest  intellect  and  energy  of 
the  Irish  race  were  now  to  be  looked  for  at 
the  courts  of  Versailles,  Madrid,  and  Vienna, 
or  under  the  standards  of  France  on  every 
battle-field  of  Europe.  The  Catholics  of 
Ireland  may  be  said,  at  this  date,  to  disap- 
pear from  political  liistory,  and  so  remained 
till  the  era  of  the  volunteering. 


Obscure  and  despised  as  they  were,  how- 
ever, they  were  not  too  humble  to  escape  the 
curious  eye  of  the  lawyers  and  legislators  of 
the  "Ascendency."  In  fact,  we  have  not  yet 
advanced  far  beyond  the  threshold  of  the 
Penal  Laws. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

1698—1702. 

Predominance  of  the  Englisb  Parliament. — Moly- 
neux. — Decisive  action  ot'theEnglisli  Parliament. — 
Court  and  country  parties. — Suppression  of  wool- 
len manufacture. — Comniis!>iou  of  confiscated  es- 
tates.— Its  revelations. — Vexation  of  King  William. 
— Peace  of  Kyswick. — Act  for  establishing  the 
Protestant  succession. — Death  of  WUliiuu. 

While  the  ancient  Irish  nation  lay  in  this 
miserable  condition  of  uttei'  ntillity,  the  Prot- 
estant colony  continued  its  efforts  to  vindi- 
cate its  independence  of  the  Imperial  Par- 
liament, but  without  miich  success.  Not 
only  was  its  parliament  compelled  to  send 
over  to  London  the  "heads"  of  its  bills,  to 
be  ratified  there,  but  the  British  Parliament 
still  persisted  in  exercising  an  original  juris- 
diction in  Ireland,  and  to  bind  that  kingdom 
by  laws  made  in  England,  without  any  con- 
currence asked  or  obtained  from  the  colonial 
legislature.  It  was  always  the  firm  resolve, 
both  of  the  king  and  of  the  people  of  Eng- 
land, to  deny  and  trample  upon  these  assumed 
pretensions  of  their  colony  in  Ireland  to  be 
an  independent  kingdom. 

The  reader  will  suppose  that  the  English 
governmentshould  not  have  been  very  jealous 
of  any  power  with  which  the  Protestant  As- 
cendency might  be  armed,  when  they  8o 
faithfully  turned  those  arms  against  the  civil 
and  religious  liberties  of  their  Catholic  coun- 
trymen. The  Irish  Parliament,  however, 
presumed  rather  too  much  on  its  past  ser- 
vices to  England.  Though  they  were  so 
obedient  as  to  forge  chains  for  the  Catholics, 
they  should  not  flatter  themselves  with  the 
liberty  of  making  their  own  laws  or  regula- 
ting their  own  slaves.  They  were,  for  the 
future,  to  consider  themselves  as  the  hum- 
bled agents  of  an  English  Government, 
prompt  at  every  call  which  national  jealousy 
would  give  to  inflict  or  to  suspend  the  tor- 
ture. 


18 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


lu  short,  the  Iiish  Protestant  Ascendency 
was  soon  to  be  taught  that  it  was  the  mere 
agent  of  Enghsh  empire,  and  must  aspire  to 
no  other  freedom  than  the  freedom  to  op- 
press and  trample  upon  the  ancient  Irish 
nation.  "  Your  ancestors,"  said  Mr.  Curran 
to  the  Irish  Parliament  a  hundred  years  af- 
ter—"Your  ancestors  thought  themselves 
the  oppressors  of  their  fellow-subjects — but 
they  were  only  their  gaolers  ;  and  the  justice 
of  Providence  would  have  been  frustrated  if 
their  own  slavery  had  not  been  the  punish- 
ment of  their  vice  and  of  their  folly."  This 
appeared  very  plainly  when  Mr.  William 
Molyneux,  one  of  the  members  for  Dublin 
University,  published,  in  1698,  his  work  en- 
titled "  The  case  of  Ireland  being  bound  by 
Acts  of  Parliament  in  England  stated,"  a 
production  which  owes  its  fame  rather  to  the 
indignant  sensation  it  made  in  England,  than 
to  any  peculiar  merits  of  its  own.  It  pro- 
fessed to  discuss  the  principles  of  government 
and  of  human  society,  and  was,  in  fact,  more 
abstract  and  metaphysical  than  legal.  It  is 
said  that  Mr.  Molyneux,  who  was  an  inti- 
mate friend  of  John  Locke,  had  found  his 
principles  in  the  writings  of  that  philosopher, 
and  had  even  submitted  his  manuscript  to 
Mr.  Locke's  approval.  The  essential  part  of 
the  book,  however,  and  the  only  practical 
part,  was  the  distinct  assertion  of  the  inde- 
pendent power  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  as  the 
legislature  of  a  sovereign  state;  and  conse- 
quent denial  of  the  right  claimed  and  exer- 
cised by  the  English  Parliament  to  bind  Ire- 
land by  its  own  enactments.  The  book  at 
once  attracted  much  attention,  and  was  speed- 
ily replied  to  by  two  writers,  named  Carey 
and  Atwood.  A  committee  of  the  English 
Parliament  was  then  appointed  to  examine 
the  obnoxious  pamphlet,  and  on  the  report 
of  that  committee,  it  was  unanimously  re- 
solved "  that  the  said  book  was  of  dangerous 
consequence  to  the  crown,  and  to  the  people 
of  England,"  etc.  The  House,  in  a  body,  pre- 
sented an  address  to  the  king,  setting  forth 
what  they  called  the  bold  and  pernicious  as- 
sertions contained  in  the  aforesaid  publica- 
tion, which  they  declared  to  have  been 
"more  fully  and  authentically  affirmed  by 
the  votes  and  proceedings  of  the  House  of 
Commons  in  Ireland,  during  their  late  ses- 
eions,  and  more  particularly  by  a  bill  trans- 


mitted under  the  great  seal  of  Ireland,  enti- 
tled 'An  act  for  the  better  security  of  his 
majesty's  person  and  government ;'  whereby 
an  act  of  parliament  made  in  England  was 
pretended  to  be  re-enacted,  and  divers  alter- 
ations therein  made  ;  and  they  assuied  his 
majesty  of  their  ready  concurrence  and  as- 
sistance to  preserve  and  maintain  the  depen- 
dence and  subordination  of  Ireland  to  the 
imperial  crown  of  this  realm  ;  and  they  hum- 
bly besought  his  majesty  that  he  would  dis- 
courage all  things  which  might  in  any  degree 
lessen  or  impair  that  dependence."  The  king 
promptly  replied  "  that  he  would  take  care 
that  what  was  complained  of  might  be  pre- 
vented and  redressed  as  the  Commons  de- 
sired." Such  was  the  extreme  political 
depression  of  Ireland,  that  this  haughty  pio- 
cedure  occasioned  no  visible  resentment  in 
her  parliament,  although  the  leaven  of  the 
doctrines  of  Molyneux  was  still  working  in 
men's  minds;  was  afterwards  improved  by 
Swift  and  Lucas,  and  at  length  became  irre- 
sistible, and  ripened  into  an  independent 
Irish  Parliament  in  1782.  Meantime  the 
proscribed  Catholics  took  no  interest  in  the 
controversy  at  all,  and  seemed  insensible  to 
its  progiess.  As  the  excellent  Charles  O'Con- 
or,  of  Belanagar,  afterwards  in  the  midst  of 
the  commotions  excited  by  Lucas,  wrote  to 
a  friend  :  "  I  am  by  no  means  interested,  nor 
is  any  of  our  unfortunate  population,  in  this 
affair  of  Lucas.  A  true  patriot  would  not 
have  betrayed  such  malice  towards  such  un- 
fortunate slaves  as  we.''  And  he  truly  adds, 
"  These  boasters,  the  Whigs,  wish  to  have 
liberty  all  to  themselves."  In  short,  the  two 
parties  then  existing  in  Ireland,  and  termed 
the  court  and  country  parties,  were  divided 
mainly  upon  this  question  :  Is  the  conquered 
nation  to  be  governed  and  exploited  for  the 
sole  benefit  of  the  colonial  interest?  or.  Are 
all  interests  in  Ireland,  both  colonial  and  na- 
tive, both  Protestant  and  Catholic,  to  be  sub- 
servient and  tributary  to  England  ?  Candor 
requires  it  to  be  stated  that  of  these  two 
parlies,  the  court  and  the  country,  the  for- 
mer was  rather  more  favorable  to  the  down- 
trodden Catholics ;  a  fact  of  which  several 
examples  will  soon  have  to  be  related.  At 
that  moment  the  court  party  held  the  sway, 
and  the  English  Parliament  ruled  all. 

The  English  were  not  disposed  to  let  their 


LA"VA'S    TO    ANNIHILATE   JUST   TRADE. 


19 


predominance  remain  withont  practical  fruits, 
as  appeared  in  the  proceedings  touching  the 
woollen-trade  of  Ireland.  During  the  few 
first  years  of  William's  reign,  there  being 
then  abundance  of  sheep  in  Ireland,  and  also 
much  cheap  labor,  considerable  progress  was 
made  in  the  manufacture  of  woollen  cloths  ; 
these  fabrics  were  exported  in  some  quantity 
to  foreign  countries,  and  in  many  cases  the 
Irish  manufacturer  was  enabled  to  undersell 
the  English.  But  England  was  then  using 
great  exertions  to  obtain  the  entire  control 
of  tliis  gainful  trade ;  and  the  competition 
of  Ireland  gave  great  umbrage.  It  is  true 
that  the  woollen-trade  in  Ireland,  and  all  the 
profits  of  its  export  and  sale,  were  in  the 
hands  of  the  English  colonists,  and  that  the 
colonial  parliament  in  Dublin  would  fain 
have  extended  and  protected  it  if  they  had 
been  permitted.  But  here,  again,  the  Eng- 
lish power  stepped  in,  and.  controlled  every 
thing  according  to  its  own  interest.  The  two 
liouses  of  Lords  and  Commons  addressed 
-King  William,  urging  that  some  immediate 
remedy  must  be  found  against  the  obnoxious 
trade  in  Ireland.  The  Lords,  after  detailing 
the  intolerable  oppression  which  was  inflicted 
upon  deserving  industrious  people  in  Eng- 
land, expressed  themselves  thus  :  "  Where- 
fore, we  most  humbly  beseech  your  most 
sacred  majesty,  that  your  majesty  would  be 
pleased  in  the  most  public  and  eftectual  way 
that  may  be,  to  declare  to  all  your  subjects 
of  Ireland,  that  the  growth  and  increase  of 
the  woollen  manufacture  there  hath  long- 
been,  and  will  be  ever,  looked  upon  with 
great  jealousy  by  all  your  subjects  of  this 
kingdom,  and  if  not  timely  remedied,  may 
occasion  very  strict  laws  totally  to  prohibit 
and  suppress  the  same."  Probably  no 
more  shameless  avowal  of  British  greediness 
was  ever  made,  even  by  the  parliament  of 
England.  But  the  king  replied  at  once  that 
"  he  would  do  all  that  in  him  lay  to  dis- 
courage the  woollen  manufacture  of  Ireland  ;" 
in  other  words,  to  ruin  his  subjects  of  that 
island.  The  Irish  Parliament  was  now  also 
assembled  in  Dublin.  The  Earl  of  Galway 
and  two  others  were  lords-justices  ;  and  they, 
pursuant  to  their  instructions,  recommended 
to  parliament  to  adopt  means  for  putting  a 
stop  to  the  woollen  manufacture  and  to  en- 
courage the  linen.     The  Commons,  in  their 


address,  meekly  replied,  that  *'they  shall 
heartily  endeavor"  to  encourage  the  linen 
trade  ;  and  as  to  the  woollen,  they  tamely 
express  their  hope  to  find  such  a  tempera- 
ment that  the  same  may  not  be  injurious  to 
England."  The  temperament  they  found 
was  in  the  acts  which  were  passed  in  the 
following  year,  1699,  which  minutely  regu- 
lated every  thing  relating  to  wool.  In  the 
first  place,  all  export  of  Irish  woollen  cloths 
was  priiliibited,  except  to  England  and  Wales. 
The  exception  was  delusive,  because  heavy 
duties,  amounting  to  a  prohibition,  prevented 
Irish  cloth  from  being  imported  into  Eng- 
land or  Wales.  Irish  wool,  thereafter,  had 
to  be  sent  to  England  in  a  raw  state,  to  be 
woven  in  Yorkshire  ;  and  even  this  export 
was  cramped  by  appointing  one  single  Eng- 
lish port,  Barnstable,  as  the  only  point  where 
it  could  legally  enter.  All  attempts  at.  for- 
eign commerce  in  Ireland  were  at  this  time 
impeded  also  by  the  "  Navigation  Laws," 
which  had  long  prohibited  all  direct  trade 
between  Ireland  and  the  colonies  ;  no  colo- 
nial produce,  under  those  laws,  could  be  car- 
ried to  Ireland  until  after  it  should  have  first 
entered  an  English  port,  and  been  unloaded 
there.  The  object  <jf  these  laws,  of  course, 
was  to  secure  to  English  merchants  and 
shipowners  a  monopoly  of  all  sxrch  trade,  and 
they  had  the  desired  effect,  so  that  a  few 
years  afterwards,  the  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's 
could  truly  write  :  "  The  conveniency  of  ports 
and  harbors,  which  nature  had  bestowed  so 
liberally  upon  this  kingdom,  is  of  no  more 
use  to  us  than  a  beautiful  prospect  to  a  man 
shut  up  in  a  dungeon." 

It  is  noticeable  that  these  navigation  acts 
were  not  new  ;  they  had  existed  before  the 
last  Revolution,  and  had  been  repealed  by 
the  excellent  parliament  of  1689,  under  King 
James,  consisting  indifi'erently  of  Catholics 
and  Protestants,  and  really  representing  an 
Irish  nation — that  same  parliament  which 
had  also  enacted  perfect  liberty  for  all  re- 
ligions, and  had  swept  away  a  most  foul  mass 
of  penal  laws  from  the  statute-book  ;  but  on 
the  failure  of  the  cause  of  the  Stuarts,  all 
the  enactments  of  that  parliament  were  ig- 
nored, and  the  penal  laws  and  restrictions 
on  trade  reappeared  in  full  force. 

With  such  a  deliberate  system  in  full 
o[>eratiou,  not  only  to  put  down  the  political 


20 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


pretensions,  but  to  destroy  the  trade  of  Ire- 
land, and  ail  enforced  directly  by  English 
statutes,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  country 
party,  which  so  proudly  claimed  national  in- 
dependence, had  but  very  slender  chances  at 
that  time.  Another  event  still  further  illus- 
trated this  fact.  The  English  Parliament, 
which  was  continually  importuned  by  the 
king  for  grants  of  money  to  carry  on  his 
darling  war  against  Louis  XIV.,  found  "that 
the  immense  amount  of  confiscated  lands, 
forfeited  by  the  "rebellion"  (as  the  national 
war  was  called),  had  been  squandered  upon 
King  William's  favorites,  or  leased  at  insuf- 
ficient rents,  also  a  small  portion  of  it  re- 
stored to  its  owners  who  had  satisfied  the 
government  that  they  were  innocent.  That 
parliament  therefore  resolved,  before  making 
any  more  grants  of  money,  to  inquire  how 
the  forfeitures  had  been  made  available  for 
the  public  service.  A  commission  was  ap- 
pointed by  a  vote  of  parliament  for  this  pur- 
pose, and  at  the  same  time  to  provide  for  a 
grant  of  a  million  and  a  half  sterling,  for 
military  and  naval  expenses.  The  form  of 
this  commission  was  itself  an  intimation  that 
nothing  less  was  contemplated  than  resump- 
tion of  all  the  lands  granted  by  special  favor, 
of  the  king.  This  was  very  hard  upon  his 
majesty,  and  he  regarded  the  proceeding 
with  sour  and  silent  displeasure  ;  for,  in  fact, 
he  had  granted  out  of  these  forfeitures  im- 
mense estates  to  William  Bentinck,  whom 
he  created  Lord  Woodstock,  to  Ginkell,  Lord 
Athlone,  and  others  of  his  Dutch  friends  ; — 
especially,  he  had  bestowed  over  95,600 
acres  on  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Villiers,  Countess  of 
Orkney,  a  lady,  who  in  the  words  of  Lord 
Macaulay,  "  had  inspired  William  with  a  pas- 
sion which  had  caused  much  scandal  and 
unhappiness  in  the  little  court  of  the  Hague" 
— where,  in  fact,  his  lawful  wife  resided.  If 
the  consideration  of  the  grant  was  of  the 
kind  here  intimated,  it  must  be  allowed  that 
William  paid  the  lady  royally,  out  of  others' 
estates.  The  commissioners  fuither  report 
great  corruption  and  bribery  in  the  matter 
of  procuring  pardons,  and  astonishing  waste 
and  destruction,  especially  of  the  fine  woods, 
which  had  covered  wide  regions  of  the 
island.  The  drift  of  their  report  is,  that  the 
whole  of  the  dealings  with  those  confiscated 
lands  were  one  foul  and  monstrous  job. 


Here,  it  is  to  be  remarked  that  this  in- 
quiry and  report  were  by  no  means  in  the 
interest  of  the  plundered  Catholics,  the 
right  owners  of  all  those  estates;  on  the 
contrary,  one  of  the  points  dwelt  on  most 
bitterly  by  the  commissioners  was  the  resto- 
ration of  a  small  portion  of  them  to  Catho- 
lic proprietors,  under  what  the  commission- 
ers considered  delusive  pretences ;  and  the 
resumption  which  they  contemplated  was 
to  have  the  effect  of  again  taking  away 
those  wrecks  and  remnants  of  the  property 
of  Catholics  which  had  been  redeemed  out 
of  the  general  ruirr.  The  English  House  of 
Commons,  in  a  violent  ferment,  immediately 
resolved  "that  a  bill  be  brought  in  to  apply 
all  the  forfeited  estates  and  interests  in  Ire- 
land, and  all  grants  thereof,  and  of  the  rents 
and  revenues  belonging  to  the  crown  within 
that  kingdom,  since  the  13th  February, 
1689,  to  the  use  of  the  public."  Then  a 
"  Court  of  Delegates"  was  appointed  to  de- 
termine claims  ;  and  it  was  resolved  by  the 
House  "that  they  would  not  receive  any 
petitions  whatever  against  the  provisions  of 
this  bill."  The  report  of  the  commission 
had  been  signed  only  by  four  commissioners 
out  of  seven,  namely,  by  Annesley,  Trench- 
ard,  Hamilton  and  Langford,  the  other  three 
having  dissented.  The  House,  therefore, 
came  to  the  resolution,  "  that  Francis  An- 
nesley, John  Trenchard,  James  Hamilton, 
and  Henry  Langford,  Esqs.,  had  acquitted 
themselves  with  understanding,  courage, 
and  integrity ;  which  was  an  implied  cen- 
sure on  the  Earl  of  Drogheda,  Sir  Francis 
Brewster,  and  Sir  Richard  Levinge,  the 
three  dissentient  commissioners;  and  the 
House  went  so  far  as  to  vote  Sir  Richard 
Levinge  to  be  the  author  of  certain  ground- 
less and  scandalous  aspersions  respecting  the 
commissioners  who  had  signed  the  report, 
and  to  commit  him,  thereupon,  prisoner  to 
the  Tower.  There  were  long  and  acrimo- 
nious debates  upon  this  question ;  a  sharp 
address  to  the  king,  in  pursuance  of  the 
sense  of  the  majority,  and  a  submissive  an- 
swer from  his  majesty,  declaring  that  he 
was  not  led  by  inclination,  but  thought  him- 
self obliged,  in  justice,  to  reward  those  who 
had  served  well,  and  particularly  in  the  re- 
duction of  Ireland,  out  of  the  estates  forfeited 
to  him   by  the  rebellion  there."     And  the 


THE    FORFEn'ED   IRISH    ESTATES, 


21 


House  resolved,  in  reply,  "  that  whoever  ad- 
vised his  majesty's  answer  to  the  Address 
of  the  House  has  used  his  utmost  endeavor 
to  create  a  misunderstanding  and  jealousy 
between  the  king  and  his  people."  The  "Bill 
of  Resumption"  of  the  forfeited  estates  finally 
passed,  after  vehement  opposition,  and  re- 
ceived the  reluctant  royal  assent,  on  the  11th 
of  April,  1700,  on  which  day  his  majesty 
prorogued  the  houses,  without  any  speech, 
thinking  there  was  no  room  for  the  usual 
expressions  of  satisfaction  and  gratitude  ;  and 
not  choosing  to  give  any  public  proof  of 
discontent  or  resentment.  In  all  these  par- 
liamentary disputes,  there  was  not  the  least 
question  of  the  rights  or  claims  of  any  Irish 
Catholic ;  nor  does  it  appear  that  thei'e 
would  have  been  the  slightest  opposition  to 
any  scheme  which  concerned  merely  the 
resumption  of  lands  restored  to  them.  The 
biographer  of  William  remarks,  "that  no 
transaction  during  the  reign  of  this  mon- 
arch so  pressed  upon  his  spirits,  or  so  hum- 
bled his  pride,  as  the  resumption  of  the 
grants  of  the  forfeited  estates  in  Ireland  by 
the  English  Parliament."  This  may  be  easily 
believed;  but  it  is  to  be  remarked,  that 
we  find  no  such  opinion  from  King  William's 
enthusiastic  biographer  when  he  was  called 
on  to  set  his  seal  to  the  legislative  violations 
of  the  Treaty  of  Limerick.  He  could  ill 
bear  to  deprive  his  Dutch  courtiers  of  their 
Irish  estates ;  but  it  was  of  small  moment  to 
him  to  beggar  and  oppress  millions  of  Irish- 
men in  violation  of  his  own  plighted  faith. 

In  his  private  despatches  to  Lord  Galway, 
shortly  after  the  rising  of  parliament,  the 
king  says  :  "  You  may  judge  what  vexation 
all  their  extraordinary  proceedings  gave  me; 
and  I  assure  you,  your  being  depiived  of 
what  I  gave  you  with  so  much  pleasure  is 
not  the  least  of  my  griefs.  I  never  had 
more  occasion  than  at  present  for  persons  of 
your  capacity  and  fidelity.  I  hope  I  shall 
find  opportunities  to  give  you  marks  of  my 
esteem  and  friendship." 

The  short  remainder  of  William's  reign 
was  occupied  chiefly  with  negotiations  on 
tie  continent;  and  with  oscillations  of  his 
policy  between  the  Whig  and  Tory  parties ; 
according  to  the  use  which  he  thought  he 
could  make  of  those  parties  respectively  in 
promoting   his  views   against   France — the 


only  use  which  he  could  ever  see  in  English 
parties,  to  say  nothing  of  Irish  ones.  The 
peace  of  Ryswiek  was  signed  in  1697;  bui 
in  1701,  King  James  died  at  St.  Germains; 
and  his  son  (afterwards  c;illed  the  Pretender) 
was  recognized  as  King  James  HI.  of  Eng- 
land by  the  king  and  court  of  France,  who 
paid  their  visits  of  condolence  and  congratu- 
lation at  the  Court  of  St.  Germains.  King 
William  immediately  recalled  his  ambas- 
sador from  Paris  ;  and  again  there  was  the 
evident  and  imminent  necessity  of  a  new 
war  with  France;  which  was  all  that  King 
W^illiara  lived  for.  He  was  not,  however, 
to  live  much  longer. 

The  death  of  the  young  Duke  of  Glou- 
cester, son  of  the  Piincess  Anne,  about  the 
same  time  with  that  of  King  James  II., 
gave  occasion  to  the  Act  of  Parliament — 
the  last  act  of  this  reign — by  which  the 
crown  of  England  was  s^^ttled  on  the  House 
of  Hanover,  after  the  demise  of  Anne.  This 
act  was  repeated,  as  it  were,  mechanically, 
by  the  servile  parliament  of  the  Irish  colony. 
But  though  a  highly  important  settlement 
of  the  sovereign  authority,  it  does  not  seem 
to  have  aroused  the  smallest  interest  in  the 
mass  of  the  Irish  people.  It  seemed  now 
to  be  their  opinion,  and  indeed  the  opinion 
was  just,  that  it  mattered  nothing  to  them 
fur  the  future  whether  Stuarts  or  Hano- 
verians should  lule  in  England.  They  had 
had  bitter  experience  of  the  one  dynasty; 
and  did  not  know  that  they  were  yet  to 
have  a  more  terrible  experience  of  the 
other. 

King  William  had  fallen  into  very  bad 
health  ;  but  still  occupied  himself  in  vast 
projects  concerning  his  great  concern,  "the 
destinies  of  Europe.''  His  speech,  on  the 
assembling  of  his  last  parliament,  the  last  day 
of  the  year  1701,  will  show  how  his  active 
mind  was  occupied  to  the  last.  "  I  persuade 
myself,"  said  the  king,  "  that  you  are  met 
together,  full  of  that  just  sense  of  the  com- 
mon danger  of  Europe,  and  that  resent- 
ment of  the  late  proceedings  of  the  French 
king,  which  has  been  so  fully  and  univer- 
sally expressed  in  the  loyal  and  seasonable 
addresses  of  my  people.  The  eyes  of  all 
Europe  are  upon  this  parliament ;  all  mat;- 
ters  are  at  a  stand  till  your  resolutions  are 
known.     Let  me  conjure  you  to  disappoint 


22 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


the  only  hopes  of  our  enemies  by  your 
unanimity.  I  have  shown,  and  will  always 
show,  how  desirous  I  am  to  be  the  common 
father  of  all  my  people.  Do  you,  in  like 
manner,  lay  aside  parties  and  divisions. 
Let  there  be  no  other  distinction  heard  of 
among  us  for  the  future,  but  of  those  who 
are  for  the  Protestant  religion  and  the 
present  establishment,  and  of  those  who 
mean  a  popish  priuce  and  a  French  govern- 
ment. If  you  do  in  good  earnest  desire  to 
see  England  hold  the  balance  of  Europe, 
and  to  be  indeed  at  the  head  of  the  Prot- 
estant interest,  it  will  appear  by  your  right 
improving  the  present  opportunity."  The 
king  meant  by  voting  large  supplies  for  war 
with  France.  But  King  William  was  at  the 
end  of  his  wars;  he  was  destined  never  to 
make  any  more  of  his  famous  reti'eats  be- 
fore French  marshals ;  and  he  died  in  little 
more  than  two  months  after  this  speech,  8th 
of  March,  1702,  his  death  having  been  has- 
tened by  a  fall  from  his  hoi'se  in  riding  from 
Kensington  to  Hampton  Court.  His  death 
was  little  regretted,  save  in  Holland,  by  any- 
body ;  even  by  the  squires  of  the  "Ascenden- 
cy" in  Ireland,  who  long  toasted  in  their 
cups  his  "glorious,  pious,  and  immortal  mem- 
ory." He  had  no  personal  quality  that  could 
endear  him  to  any  human  being,  unless  the 
common  quality  of  personal  bravery  may  be 
so  accounted.  His  religion  was  hatred  to 
Papists ;  his  fair  fame  was  stained  by  faith- 
lessness and  cruelty,  and  he  will  be  forever 
named  in  history  the  Treaty-breaker  of  Lim- 
erick and  the  assassin  of  Glencoe. 


CHAPTER  V. 

1702-1704. 

Queen  Anne. — Rochester  lord- lieutenant. — Orniond 
lord-lieutenaiit. — War  on  the  continent. — Suc- 
cesses under  Marlborough. — Second  formal  breach 
of  the  Treaty  of  Limerick. — Bill  to  prevent  the 
further  growth  of  Popery. — Clause  against  the 
Dissenters.— Catholic  lawyers  heard  against  the 
bill.— Pleading  of  Sir  Toby  Butler.— Bill  passed. 
— Object  of  the  Penal  Laws. — To  get  hold  of  the 
property  of  Catholics. — Recall  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes. — Irish  on  the  Continent. — Cremona. 

The    Princess  Anne,  generally  called  at 
that  time  Anne  of  Denmark,  because  she 


was  the  wife  of  the  Prince  of  Denmark,  suc- 
ceeded William  on  the  throne  of  the  three 
kingdoms.  She  was  the  daughter  of  King 
James  II.,  in  vindication  of  whoee  rights  the 
Irish  nation  had  fought  so  desperately,  and 
suffered  so  cruelly.  She  was  acknowledged 
as  queen,  avowedly  as  the  last  of  her  race, 
by  virtue  of  the  act  establishing  the  succes- 
sion in  the  House  of  Hanover ;  and  her  broth- 
er was  an  attainted  and  proscribed  outlaw. 
But  if  the  Irish  people  had  imagined  that 
any  Stuart,  or  indeed  any  English  sovereign, 
could  either  be  moved  by  gratitude  for 
their  loyal  service,  or  stung  by  resentment 
against  the  dominant  Whig  party,  which 
ruined  and  degraded  the  Stuart  family,  to 
the  point  of  interposing  or  interceding  on 
behalf  of  the  oppressed  Catholics,  they  would 
have  been  grossly  deceived.  In  truth,  they 
had  no  such  hope  or  expectation.  They 
were  as  indifferent  to  the  Stuarts  now  as  the 
Stuarts  were  to  them  ;  and  except  some  Irish 
officers  on  the  continent,  who  still  put  their 
trust  in  a  counter-revolution,  noue  of  the 
Irish  took  the  smallest  interest  in  the  new 
settlement  of  the  throne,  nor  cared  whether 
a  descendant  of  the  Stuarts  or  of  the  Electress 
of  Hanover  should  reign  over  England. 

King  W^illiara  had  died  just  at  the  mo- 
ment when  his  able  policy  had  succeeded 
in  uniting  the  power  of  the  Germanic  Em- 
pire with  that  of  England  and  Holland,  for 
another  war  agninst  Louis.  Three  days  after 
her  accession,  the  queen  repaired  in  person, 
with  the  usual  pomp  and  solemnity,  to  the 
House  of  Peers,  and  made  a  speech  from  th* 
throne,  expressing  her  fixed  resolution  to 
prosecute  the  measures  concerted  by  the  latf 
king,  whom  she  styled  "  the  great  support, 
not  only  of  these  kingdoms,  but  of  all  Eu- 
rope." And  she  declared  "  that  too  much 
could  not  be  done  for  the  encouragement  ol 
our  allies,  and  to  reduce  the  exorbitant  pow- 
er of  France."  In  the  conclusion  of  her 
speech  she  took  occasion  to  protest  "  that  her 
heart  was  truly  English,"  which  was  consid- 
ered a  studied  affront  to  the  memory  of  the 
late  king,  whose  heart  was  Dutch  ;  but  the 
allusion  probably  only  added  to  her  popu- 
larity. Her  most  influential  counsellors,  at 
first,  were  the  Earls  of  Marlborough  and  Go- 
dolphin,  who  were  eager  for  the  most  vigor- 
ous prosecution  of  the  war.     Lord  Godolphin 


LAWS    TO    TORTURE   THE   IRISH. 


23 


was  appointed  Lord  HiQ;h  Treasurer,  and 
Marlborough  Captain-General  of  the  forces  of 
England  at  home  and  abroad.  War  was  de- 
clared against  France  simultaneously  on  the 
same  day  at  London,  Vienna,  and  the  Hague. 

Lord  Rochester  was  then  Lord-Lieutenant 
of  L'eland,  He  was  of  the  Tory  party,  much 
averse  to  the  war,  and  loud  in  his  denuncia- 
tions of  it.  But  his  protests  at  the  council- 
board  having  been  disregarded,  he  retired  in 
high  indignation  to  his  country-seat.  Shortly 
afterwards  a  message  from  the  queen  was  dis- 
patched to  him,  commanding  him  to  repair 
to  his  government  of  Ireland,  whereupon  he 
insolently  declared  "  that  he  would  not  go 
if  the  queen  gave  him  the  whole  country." 
The  earl  then  waited  on  her  majesty  and  re- 
signed his  office,  which  was  immediately 
conferred  upon  the  Duke  of  Ormond  ;  an 
evil  omen  for  Ireland  when  one  of  the  name 
of  Butler  was  appointed  to  rule  over  her. 
But  the  duke  did  not  come  to  Dublin  for 
that  year,  as  he  was  employed  in  military 
service  abroad  ;  this  island  was  therefore,  as 
usual,  placed  under  the  government  of  three 
lords-justices,  Lord  Mount  Alexander,  Gen- 
eral Erie,  and  Mr.  Knightley. 

The  military  operations  began  witli  the 
siege  of  Kaisarswart,  a  strong  place  on  the 
Rhine.  The  Prince  of  Nassau-Saarbruck 
conducted  the  siege,  and  Ginkell,  now  "  Earl 
of  Athlone,"  commanded  the  covering  army. 
The  place  capitulated  on  the  15th  of  June. 
Shortly  after,  the  Earl  of  Mai-lborough  came 
over  from  England  to  take  command  of  the 
allied  army  ;  and  entered  upon  that  career 
of  brilliant  achievements  which  entitled  him 
to  rank  as  the  first  soldier  of  his  time.  Un- 
fortunately the  English  arms  were  successful 
in  this  campaign  ;  and  the  unfailing  result 
followed — a  new  code  of  laws  to  still  further 
beggar  and  torture  the  Irish.  It  is  an  irk- 
some and  painful  task  to  pursue  the  details  of 
that  terrible  penal  code  ;  but  the  penal  code  is 
the  history  of  Ireland.  The  Duke  of  Or- 
mond, after  an  unsuccessful  attempt  upon 
Cadiz,  and  a  prosperous  one  upon  the  Span- 
ish fleet  in  the  harbor  of  Vigo,  in  Spain, 
came  over  to  his  government  in  Ireland, 
■where  the  Irish  Commons,  in  a  body,  pre- 
sented to  him  the  first  of  the  fi^mous  bills 
"to  prevent  the  further  growth  of  Popery." 
The  House,  says  Burnett,  "pressed  the  duke 


with  more  than  usual  vehemence,  to  inter- 
cede so  effectually  that  it  might  be  returned 
back  under  the  great  seal  of  England."  His 
grace  was  pleased  to  give  his  promise  "that 
he  would  recommend  it  in  the  most  effectual 
manner,  and  do  every  thing  in  his  power  to 
prevent  the  growth  of  Popery." 

One  might  indeed  suppose  that  "Popery" 
had  been  already  sufficiently  discouraged  ; 
seeing  that  the  bishops  and  regular  clergy 
had  been  banished  ;  that  Catholics  wei'e  ex- 
cluded by  law  from  all  honorable  or  lucra^ 
tive  employments;  carefully  disarmed  and 
plundered  of  almost  every  acre  of  their  an- 
cient inheritances.  But  enough  had  not  yet 
been  done  to  make  the  "Protestant  interest" 
feel  secure.  The  provisions  of  this  bill  "  to 
prevent  the  further  growth  of  Poperv,"  which 
were  so  warmly  recommended  by  the  Duke 
of  Ormond,  are  shoitly  these :  the  third 
clause  enacts  that  if  the  son  of  a  Papist  shall 
at  any  time  become  a  Piotestant,  his  father 
may  not  sell  or  mortgage  his  estate,  or  dis- 
pose of  it,  or  any  portion  of  it,  bv  will.  The 
fourth  clause  provides  that  a  Papist  shall 
not  be  guardian  to  his  own  child  ;  and  fur- 
ther, that  if  his  child,  no  matter  how  young, 
conforms  to  the  Protestant  religion,  he  re- 
duces his  father  at  once  to  a  tenant  for  life  ; 
the  child  is  to  be  taken  from  its  father,  and 
placed  under  the  guardianship  of  the  nearest 
Protestant  relation.  The  sixth  clause  ren- 
ders Papists  incapable  of  purchasing  any 
landed  estates,  or  rents  or  profits  arising  out 
of  land,  or  holding  any  lease  of  lives,  or  anv 
other  lease  for  any  term  exceeding  thirty-one 
years ;  and  even  in  such  leases  the  reserved 
rent  must  be  at  least  "one-third  of  the  im- 
proved annual  value ;"  any  Protestant  who 
discovers  being  entitled  to  the  interest  in  the 
lease.  The  seventh  clause  prohibits  Papists 
from  succeeding  to  the  property  of  their  Prot- 
estant relations.  The  tenth  clause  provides 
that  the  estate  of  a  Papist  who  has  no  Prot- 
estant heir  shall  be  gavelled^  that  is,  parcelled 
in  equal  shares  between  all  his  children. 
Other  clauses  impose  on  Catholics  the  oath 
of  abjuration  and  the  sacramental  test,  to 
qualify  for  any  office  or  for  voting  at  any 
election.  After  several  further  clauses  rela- 
ting to  qualifications  for  office,  which  were 
not  of  very  great  importance,  as  no  Catholic 
then  aspired  to  any  office,  come  the  loth, 


24 


HISTORY    OP    IRELAND. 


16th,  and  17th  chiuses,  which  carefully  de- 
prive the  citizens  of  Limerick  and  Gahvay  of 
the  poor  privilege  promised  them  in  the 
treaty,  of  living  in  their  own  towns  and  car- 
rying on  their  trade  there,  which,  it  will  be 
remembered,  was  grievously  complained  of 
by  the  Protestant  residents  as  a  wrong  and 
oppression  upon  them. 

When  this  bill  was  sent  to  England  it 
somewhat  embarrassed  the  court.  Queen 
Anne  was  then  in  firm  alliance  with  the 
great  Catholic  power  of  Austria,  and  the 
English  Government,  with  its  usual  hypocrit- 
ical aflfectation  of  liberality,  was  ever  pressing 
the  emperor  for  certain  indulgences  to  his 
Protestant  subjects.  Yet  the  bill  was  not 
objected  to  on  the  part  of  the  crown  ;  it  was, 
in  fact,  thought  then,  as  it  is  thought  now 
— and  with  justice — that  what  is  done  in 
Ireland  is  done  in  a  corner;  and  that  Eng- 
land might  continue  to  play  her  part  as 
champion  of  religious  liberty  in  the  world, 
while  she  herself  went  to  the  uttermost  ex- 
tremities of  intolerant  atrocity  in  Ireland. 
The  bill  was  sent  back  approved,  in  order 
that  it  might  be  passed  by  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment ;  and  the  only  modification  it  received 
in  England  was  actually  an  additional  clause 
imposing  still  further  penalties  and  disabil- 
ities. This  clause  was  levelled  against  the 
Protestant  Dissenters,  who  weie  already  a 
numerous  and  wealthy  body,  especially  in 
Ulster ;  and  was  to  the  effect  that  none  in 
Ireland  should  be  capable  of  any  employ- 
ment, or  of  being  in  the  magistracy  of  any 
city,  who  did  not  qualify  by  receiving  the 
sacrament  according  to  the  rites  of  the 
Church  of  England ;  according  to  the  Test 
Act,  which  had  'till  then  been  applicable 
only  to  that  kingdom,  and  had  never  yet 
been  imposed  upon  Ireland.  It  has  been 
alleged  by  the  friends  of  the  Government  of 
Queen  Anne,  that  the  Administration  in- 
vented this  plan,  hoping  that  it  would  de- 
feat the  bill  altogether.  Bishop  Burnet,  in 
his  History  of  his  own  Times,  says,  "  It  was 
hoped,  by  those  who  got  this  clause  added 
to  the  bill,  that  those  in  Ireland  who  pro- 
moted it  most,  would  now  be  the  less  fond 
of  it,  when  it  had  such  a  weight  hung  to  it." 
If  it  be  indeed  true  that  the  government  in- 
tended to  defeat  the  bill  by  this  underhand 
method,  the  plan  did  not  succeed.     Nothing 


was  too  savage  for  the  "  Ascendency,"  pro- 
vided only  that  it  was  to  aggrieve  and  op- 
press the  Catholics  ;  and  for  the  same  great 
object,  the  Dissenters  themselves,  though  they 
remonstrated  at  first  by  petition,  soon  meekly 
acquiesced  in  their  own  exclusion  and  dis- 
abilities. The  law  was  to  ruin  the  Catho- 
lics ;  and  that  was  enough  for  them. 

On  the  return  of  the  bill  to  Ireland,  and 
before  its  passage  in  Dublin,  certain  Catho- 
lics prayed  to  be  heard  by  counsel  in  oppo- 
sition to  it.  They  were  Nicholas  Viscount 
Kingsland,  ColonelJ.  Brown,  Colonel  Burke, 
Colonel  Robert  Nugent,  Colonel  Patrick 
Allen,  Captain  French,  and  other  Catholics 
cvf  Limerick  and  Galway.  Their  petition 
was  granted  ;  and  in  pursuance  of  that  or- 
der, three  advocates  for  the  Catholics  ap- 
peared at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. They  were  Sir  Theobald  Butler, 
Counsellor  Malone,  and  Sir  Stephen  Rice  ; 
the  two  first  in  their  gowns,  the  third  with- 
out a  gown,  as  he  appeared  not  for  the  pe- 
titioners in  general,  but  for  himself  in  his 
private  capacity,  as  one  of  the  aggrieved 
persons.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  these 
Catholic  lawyers  were  themselves  "pro- 
tected persons,"  within  the  meaning  of  the 
Articles  of  Limerick ;  and  that  they  were 
pleading  on  that  day  not  only  for  their 
clients,  but  for  themselves — for  their  own 
liberty  to  plead  in  court  and  to  wear  their 
gowns.  It  was  a  very  remarkable  scene  ; 
and  as  it  forms  an  era  in  the  history  of  Irish 
penal  laws,  we  shall  insert  here  the  main 
part  of  the  excellent  argumentative  appeal 
of  Sir  Theobald  Butler,  as  it  is  abstracted  in 
several  histories  of  the  time.*  The  speaker 
opens,  of  course,  by  laying  great  stress  upon 
the  Articles  of  Limerick  ;  he  proceeds  thus: 

"That  since  the  said  articles  were  thus 
under  the  most  solemn  ties,  and  for  such  valu- 
able considerations  granted  the  petitioners, by 
nothing  less  than  the  general  of  the  army, 
the  lords-justices  of  the  kingdom,  the  king, 
queen,  and  parliament,  the  public  faith  of  the 
nation  was  therein  concerned,  obliged, 
bound,  and  engaged,  as  fully  and  firmly  as 
was  possible  for  one  people  to  pledge  faith  to 
another ;  that  therefore  this  Parliament  could 
not  pass  such  a  bill  as  that  intituled  An  Act 

*  It  will  be  found  at  f\ill  lens:th  in  Plowdeu's  Ap- 
pendix and  in  Curry's  Historical  Keview. 


ACT  TO  PREVENT  THB  GROWTH  OF  POPERY. 


25 


to  prevent  the  further  g-rowth  of  Popery,  then 
before  the  House,  into  a  law,  without  infring- 
ing those  articles,  and  a  manifest  breach  of 
the  public  faith ;  of  which  he  hoped  that 
House  would  be  no  less  regardful  and  ten- 
der than  their  predecessors  who  made  the 
act  for  confirming  those  articles  had  been. 

"That  if  he  proved  that  the  passing  that 
act  was  such  a  manifest  breach  of  tho^e  ar- 
ticles, and  consequently  of  the  public  faith, 
he  hoped  that  honorable  House  would  be 
very  tender  how  they  passed  the  said  bill 
before  them  into  a  law  ;  to  the  apparent  pi  e- 
judiceofthe  petitioners,  and  the  hazard  of 
bringing  upon  themselves  and  posterity  such 
evils,  reproach,  and  infamy  as  the  doing  the 
like  had  brought  upon  other  nations  and 
people. 

"  Now,  that  the  passing  such  a  bill  as  that 
then  before  the  House  to  prevent  the  further 
growth  of  Popery  will  be  a  breach  of  those 
articles,  and  consequently  of  the  public  faith, 
I  prove  (said  he)  by  the  following  argument : 

"  The  argument  then  is  (said  he)  whatever 
shall  be  enacted  to  the  prejudice  or  destroy- 
ing of  any  obligation,  covenant,  or  contract, 
in  the  most  solemn  manner,  and  for  the 
most  valuable  consideration  entered  into,  is  a 
manifest  violation  and  destruction  of  every 
such  obligation,  covenant,  and  contract :  but 
the  passing  that  bill  into  a  law  will  evidently 
and  absolutely  destroy  the  Articles  of  Lim- 
erick and  Galway,  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses, and  therefore  the  passing  that  bill  into 
a  law  will  be  such  a  breach  of  those  articles, 
and  consequently  of  the  public  faith,  plighted 
for  performing  those  articles ;  which  re- 
mained to  be  proved. 

"The  major  is  proved  (said  he),  for  that 
■whatever  destroys  or  violates  any  contract, 
or  obligation,  upon  the  most  valuable  con- 
siderations, most  solemnly  made  and  entered 
into,  destroys  and  violates  the  end  of  every 
such  contract  or  obligation  :  but  the  end  and 
design  of  those  articles  was,  that  all  those 
therein  comprised,  and  every  of  their  heirs, 
should  hold,  possess,  and  enjoy  all  and  every 
of  their  estates  of  freehold  and  inheritance, 
and  all  the  rights,  titles,  and  interests,  privi- 
leges, and  immunities,  which  they  and  every 
of  them  held,  enjoyed,  or  were  rightfully  in- 
tituled to,  in  the  reign  of  King  Charles  the 
Second ;  or  at  any  time  since,  by  the  laws 


and  statutes  that  were  in  force  in  the  said 
reign  in  this  realm  :  but  that  the  design  of 
this  bill  was  to  take  away  every  such  right, 
title,  interest,  &c.,  from  every  father  being  a 
Papist,  and  to  make  the  Popish  father,  who, 
by  the  articles  and  laws  aforesaid,  had  an 
undoubted  right  either  to  sell  or  otherwise 
at  pleasure  to  dispose  of  his  estate,  at  any 
time  of  his  life,  as  he  thought  fit,  only  ten- 
ant for  life :  and  consequently  disabled  from 
selling,  or  otherwise  disposing  thereof,  after 
his  son  or  other  heir  should  become  Protes- 
tant, though  otherwise  never  so  disobedient, 
profligate,  or  extravagant  :  ercfo,  this  act 
tends  to  the  destroying  the  end  for  which 
those  articles  were  made,  and  consequently 
the  breaking  of  the  public  faith,  plighted 
for  their  performance. 

"The  minor  is  proved  by  the  3d,  4th,  5th, 
6th,  Yth,  8th,  9th,  loth,  16th,  and  17th 
clauses  of  the  said  bill,  all  which  (said  he) 
I  shall  consider  and  speak  to,  in  the  order 
as  they  are  placed  in  the  bill. 

"By  the  first  of  these  clauses  (which  is 
the  third  of  the  bill),  I  that  am  the  Popish 
father,  without  committing  any  crime  against 
the  state,  or  the  laws  of  the  laud  (by  which 
only  I  ought  to  be  governed),  or  any  other 
fault ;  but  merely  for  being  of  the  religion 
of  my  forefathers,  and  that  which,  till  of 
late  years,  was  the  ancient -religion  of  these 
kingdoms,  contrary  to  the  express  words  of 
the  second  Article  of  Limerick,  and  the 
public  faith,  plighted  as  aforesaid  for  their 
performance,  am  deprived  of  my  inheritance, 
freehold,  &c.,  and  of  all  other  advantages 
which  by  those  articles  and  the  laws  of  the 
land  I  am  entitled  to  enjoy,  equally  with 
every  other  of  my  fellow  subjects,  whether 
Protestant  or  Popish.  And  though  such  my 
estate  be  even  the  purchase  of  my  own  hard 
labor  and  industry,  yet  I  shall  not  (though 
my  occasions  be  never  so  pressing)  have 
liberty  (after  my  eldest  son  or  other  heir 
becomes  a  Protestant)  to  sell,  mortgage,  or 
otherwise  dispose  of,  or  charge  it  for  pay- 
ment of  my  debts,  or  have  leave  out  of  my 
own  estate  to  order  portions  for  my  other 
children ;  or  leave  a  legacy,  though  never 
so  small,  to  my  poor  fatlier  or  mother,  or 
other  poor  relations;  but  during  my  own 
life  my  estate  shall  be  given  to  my  son  or 
other  heir  being  a  Protestant,  though  never  so 


26 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


uiidutiful,  prortigate,  extravagant,  or  other- 
wise undeserving  ;  and  I  that  am  the  pur- 
chasing father,  shall  become  tenant  for  life 
only  to  my  own  purchase,  inheritance  and 
freehold,  which  I  purchased  with  my  own 
money  ;  and  such  my  son  or  other  heir,  by 
this  act,  shall  be  at  liberty  to  sell  or  other- 
wise at  pleasure  to  dispose  of  my  estate,  the 
sweat  of  my  brows,  before  my  face ;  and  I 
that  am  the  purchaser,  shall  not  have  liberty 
to  raise  one  farthing  upon  the  estate  of  my 
own  purchase,  either  to  pay  my  debts,  or 
portion  my  daughters  (if  any  I  have),  or 
make  provisions  for  my  other  male  children, 
though  never  so  deserving  and  dutiful :  but 
my  estate,  and  the  issues  and  profits  of  it, 
shall,  before  ray  face,  be  at  the  disposal  of 
another,  who  cannot  possibly  know  how 
to  distinguish  between  the  dutiful  and 
undutiful,  deserving  and  undeserving.  Is 
not  this,  gentlemen  (said  he),  a  hard  case  ? 
I  beseech  you,  gentlemen,  to  consider, 
whether  you  would  not  think  it  so,  if  the 
scale  was  changed,  and  the  case  your  own, 
as  it  is  like  to  be  ours,  if  this  bill  pass  into 
a  law. 

"  It  is  natural  for  the  father  to  love  the 
child ;  but  we  all  know  (says  he)  that 
children  are  but  too  apt  and  subject,  with- 
out any  such  liberty  as  that  bill  gives,  to 
slight  and  neglect  their  duty  to  their  parents; 
and  surely  such  an  act  as  this  will  not  be  an 
instrument  of  restraint,  but  rather  encourage 
them  more  to  it. 

"  It  is  but  too  common  with  the  son  who 
has  a  prospect  of  an  estate,  when  once  he 
arrives  at  the  age  of  one-and-twenty,  to 
think  the  old  father  too  long  in  the  way 
between  him  and  it;  and  how  much  more 
will  he  be  subject  to  it,  when  by  this  act  he 
shall  have  liberty,  before  he  comes  to  that 
age,  to  compel  and  force  my  estate  from 
me,  without  asking  my  leave,  or  being  liable 
to  account  with  me  for  it,  or  out  of  his  share 
thereof,  to  a  moiety  of  the  debts,  portions, 
or  other  incumbrances,  with  which  the  estate 
might  have  been  charged,  before  the  passing 
this  act. 

"  Is  not  this  against  the  laws  of  God  and 
man  ;  against  the  rules  of  reason  and  justice, 
by  which  all  men  ought  to  be  governed  ?  Is 
not  this  the  only  way  in  the  world  to 
make    children    become    undutiful,     and    to 


bring  the,  gray  head  of  the  parent  to  the 
grave  with  grief  and  tears  ? 

*'  It  would  be  hard  from  any  man ;  but 
from  a  son,  a  child,  the  fruit  of  my  body, 
whom  I  have  nursed  in  my  bosom  and 
tendered  more  dearly  than  my  own  life,  to 
become  my  plunderer,  to  rob  me  of  my  estate, 
to  cut  my  throat,  and  to  take  away  my  bread, 
is  much  more  grievous  than  from  any  other  ; 
and  enough  to  make  the  most  flinty  of  hearts 
to  bleed  to  think  on't.  And  yet  this  will  be 
the  case  if  this  bill  pass  into  a  law  ;  which  I 
hope  this  honorable  assembly  will  not  think 
of  when  they  shall  more  seriously  consider, 
and  have  weighed  these  matters. 

"  For  God's  sake,  gentlemen,  will  you 
consider  Avhether  this  is  according  to  the 
golden  rule,  to  do  as  you  would  be  done 
unto?  And  if  not,  surely  you  will  not, 
nay  you  cannot,  without  being  liable  to  be 
charged  with  the  most  manifest  injustice 
imaginable,  take  from  us  our  birthrights, 
and  invest  them  in  others  before  our  faces, 

"  By  the  4th  clause  of  the  bill,  the  popish 
father  is  under  the  penalty  of  500/.  debarred 
from  being  guaidian  to,  or  having  the  tuition 
or  custody  of  his  own  child  or  children  : 
but  if  the  child  pretends  to  be  a  Protestant, 
though  never  so  young  or  incapable  of 
judging  of  the  principles  of  religion,  it  shall 
be  taken  from  its  own  father,  and  put  into 
the  hands  or  care  of  a  Protestant  relation,  if 
any  there  be  qualified  as  this  act  directs,  for 
tuition,  though  never  so  great  an  enemy  to 
the  popish  parent;  and  for  want  of  relations 
so  qualified,  into  the  hands  and  tuition  of 
such  Protestant  stranger  as  the  couit  of 
chancery  shall  think  fit  to  appoint;  who 
perhaps  may  likewise  be  my  enemy,  and  out 
of  prejudice  to  me  who  am  the  popish  fathei, 
shall  infuse  into  my  child  not  only  such 
principles  of  religion  as  are  wholly  incon- 
sistent with  my  liking,  but  also  against  the 
duty  which,  by  the  laws  of  God  and  nature, 
is  due  from  every  child  to  its  parents  :  and 
it  shall  not  be  in  my  power  to  remedy,  or 
question  him  for  it;  and  yet  I  shall  be 
obliged  to  pay  for  such  education,  how  perni- 
cious soever,  -f^av,  if  a  legacy  or  estate  lia  1 
to  any  of  my  children,  being  minors,  I  th^it 
am  the  popish  father  shall  not  have  the 
liberty  to  take  care  of  it,  but  it  shall  b(^  [nit 
into  the  hands  of  a  stranger;  and  tlicugii  I 


ACT  TO  PREVENT  THB;  GROWTH  OP  POPERY. 


27 


see  it  confounded  before  my  face,  it  shall 
not  be  in  my  power  to  help  it.  Is  not  this 
a  hard  case,  gentlemen  ?  I  am  sure  you 
cannot  but  allow  it  to  be  a  very  hard  case. 

"The  5th  clause  provides  that  no  Protes- 
tant or  Protestants,  having  any  estate,  real 
or  personal,  within  this  kingdom,  shall  at 
any  time  after  the  24th  of  March,  1703, 
intermarry  with  any  Papist,  either  in  or  out 
of  this  kingdom,  under  the  penalties  in  an 
act  made  in  the  9th  of  King  William,  inti- 
tuled, An  Act  to  prevent  Protestants  inter- 
marrying with  Papists;  which  penalties,  see 
in  the  5th  clause  of  the  act  itself 

"  Surely,  gentlemen,  this  is  such  a  law  as 
was  never  heard  of  before,  and  against  the 
law  of  right  and  the  law  of  nations ;  and 
therefore  a  law  which  is  not  in  the  power  of 
mankind  to  make  without  breaking  through 
the  laws  which  our  wise  ancestors  prudently 
provided  for  the  security  of  posterity,  and 
which  you  cannot  infringe  without  hazard- 
ing the  undermining  the  whole  legislature, 
and  encroaching  upon  the  privileges  of  your 
neighboring  nations,  which  it  is  not  reason- 
able to  believe  they  will  allow. 

"It  has  indeed  been  known,  that  there 
hath  been  laws  made  in  England  that  have 
been  binding  in  Ireland :  but  surely  it  never 
was  known  that  any  law  made  in  Ireland 
could  affect  England  or  any  other  country. 
But  by  this  act,  a  person  committing  matri- 
mony (an  ordinance  of  the  Almighty)  in 
England  or  any  other  part  beyond  the  seas 
(where  it  is  lawful  both  by  the  laws  of  God 
and  man  so  to  do),  if  ever  they  come  to 
live  in  Ireland,  and  have  an  inheritance  or 
title  to  any  interest  to  the  value  of  500/., 
they  shall  be  punished  for  a  fact  consonant 
with  the  lav/s  of  the  land  where  it  was  com- 
mitted. But,  gentlemen,  by  your  favor,  this 
is  what,  with  submission,  is  not  in  your 
power  to  do  :  for  no  law  that  either  now 
is,  or  that  hereafter  shall  be  in  force  in  this 
kingdom,  shall  be  able  to  take  cognizance 
of  any  fact  committed  in  another  nation  ; 
nor  can  any  one  nation  make  laws  for  any 
other  nation,  but  what  is  subordinate  to  it, 
as  Ireland  is  to  England  ;  but  no  other  nation 
is  subordinate  to  Ireland  ;  and  therefore  any 
laws  made  in  Ireland,  cannot  punish  me  for 
any  fact  committed  in  any  other  nation,  but 
more  especially  England,  to   whom  Ireland 


is  subordinate:  and  the  reason  is,  eveiy  free 
nation,  such  as  all  our  neighboring  nations 
are,  by  the  great  law  of  nature,  and  the 
universal  privileges  of  all  nations,  have  an 
undoubted  right  to  make,  and  be  ruled  and 
governed  by  the  laws  of  their  own  making  : 
for  that  to  subnet  to  any  other,  would  be  to 
give  away  their  own  birthright  and  native 
freedom,  and  becon)e  suboidinate  to  their 
neighbors,  as  we  of  this  kingdom,  since  the 
making  of  Poyning's  Act,  have  been  and  are 
to  England.  A  right  which  England  would 
never  so  much  as  endure  to  hear  of,  much 
less  submit  to. 

"We  see  how  careful  our  forefathers  have 
been  to  provide  that  no  man  should  be  pun- 
ished in  one  country  (even  of  the  same 
nation)  for  crimes  committed  in  another 
country;  and  surely  it  would  be  highly 
unreasonable,  and  contrary  to  the  laws  of 
all  nations  in  the  whole  world,  to  punish  me 
in  this  kingdom  for  a  fact  committed  in 
England,  or  any  other  nation,  which  was 
not  against,  but  consistent  with  the  laws  of 
the  nation  where  it  was  committed.  I  am 
sure  there  is  not  any  law  in  any  other  na- 
tion of  the  world  that  would  do  it. 

'•The  6th  clause  of  this  bill  is  likewise  a 
manifest  breach  of  the  second  of  Limerick 
Articles,  fir  by  that  article  all  per.-^ons  com- 
prised under  those  articles,  were  to  enjoy 
and  have  the  full  benefit  of  all  the  rights, 
titles,  privileges,  and  immunities  whatsoever, 
which  they  enjoyed,  or  by  the  laws  of  the 
land  then  in  force,  were  entitled  to  enjoy, 
in  the  reign  of  King  Charles  II,  And  by 
the  laws  then  in  force,  all  the  Papists  of 
Ireland  had  the  same  liberty  that  any  of 
their  fellow-subjects  had  to  purchase  any 
manors,  lands,  tenements,  hereditaments, 
leases  of  lives,  or  for  years,  rents,  or  any  other 
thing  of  profit  whatsoever:  but  by  this 
clause  of  this  bill,  every  Papist  or  person  pro- 
fessing the  popish  religion,  after  the  24th  of 
March,  1703,  is  made  incapable  of  purchasing 
any  manors^  lands,  tenements,  hereditaments, 
or  any  rents,  or  profits  out  of  the  same  ;  or 
holding  any  lease  of  lives,  or  any  other  lease 
whatsoever,  for  any  terra  exceeding  thirty- 
one  years;  wherein  a  rent,  not  less  than 
two-thirds  of  the  improved  yearly  value,  shall 
be  reserved,  and  made  payable,  during  the 
whole    term:  and    therefore    this    clause  of 


28 


HISTORY    OP   IRELAND. 


this  bill,  if  made  into  a  law,  will  be  a  man- 
ifest breach  of  those  articles. 

"The  7th  clause  is  yet  of  much  more 
general  consequence,  and  not  only  a  like 
breach  of  those  articles,  but  also  a  manifest 
robbing  of  all  the  Roman  Catholics  of  the 
kingdom  of  their  birthright :  for  by  those 
articles  all  those  therein  comprised  were 
(said  he)  pardoned  all  misdemeanors  what- 
soever, of  which  they  had  in  any  manner  of 
way  been  guilty  ;  and  restored  to  all  the 
rights,  liberties,  privileges,  and  immunities 
■whatever,  which,  by  the  laws  of  the  land, 
and  customs,  constitutions  and  native  birth- 
right, they,  any,  and  every  of  them,  were, 
equally  with  every  other  of  their  fellow- 
subjects  intituled  unto.  And  by  the  laws 
of  nature  and  nations,  as  well  as  by  the  laws 
of  the  land,  every  native  of  any  country 
has  an  undoubted  right  and  just  title  to  all 
the  privileges  and  advantages  which  such 
their  native  country  affords  :  and  surely  no 
man  but  will  allow,  that  by  such  a  native 
right  every  one  born  in  any  country  hath 
an  undoubted  right  to  the  inheritance  of  his 
father,  or  any  other  to  whom  he  or  they 
may  be  heir  at  law  ;  but  if  this  bill  pass  into 
a  law,  every  native  of  this  kingdom  that  is 
and  shall  remain  a  Papist  is,  ipso  facto,  dur- 
ing life,  or  his  or  their  continuing  a  Papist, 
deprived  of  such  inheritance,  devise,  gift, 
remainder,  or  trust  of  any  lands,  tenements, 
or  hereditaments,  of  which  any  Protestant 
now  is,  or  hereafter  shall  be  seized  in  fee- 
simple-absolute,  or  fee-tail,  which  by  the 
death  of  such  Protestant,  or  his  wife,  ought  to 
descend  immediately  to  his  son  or  sons,  or 
other  issue  in  tail,  being  such  Papists,  and 
eighteen  years  of  age  ;  or,  if  under  that  age, 
within  six  months  after  coming  to  that  age, 
shall  not  conform  to  the  Church  of  Ireland, 
as  by  law  established ;  and  every  such  de- 
vise, gift,  remainder,  or  trust  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  such  native 
right,  ought  to  descend  to  such  Papist,  shall, 
during  the  life  of  such  Papist  (unless  he  for- 
sake his  religion),  descend  to  the  nearest 
relation  that  is  a  Protestant,  and  his  heirs 
being  and  continuing  Protestants,  as  though 
the  said  popish  heir  and  all  other  popish 
relations  were  dead  ;  without  being  account- 
able for  the  same  :  which  is  nothing  less  than 
robbing  such  popish  heir  of  such  his  birth- 


right ;  for  no  other  reason,  but  his  being  and 
continuing  of  that  religion,  which  by  the  first 
of  Limerick  Articles,  the  Roman  Catholics  of 
this  kingdom  were  to  enjoy,  as  they  did  in 
the  reign  of  King  Charles  II.,  and  then  there 
was  no  law  in  force  that  deprived  any  Roman 
Catholic  of  this  kingdom  of  any  such  their 
native  birthright,  or  any  other  thing  whicV, 
by  the  laws  of  the  land  then  in  force,  any 
other  fellow-subjects  were  intituled  unto. 

"The  8th  clause  of  this  bill  is  to  erect 
in  this  kingdom  a  law  oi  gavel-kind,  a  law  in 
itself  so  monstrous  and  strange,  that  I  dare 
say  this  is  the  first  time  it  was  ever  heard  of 
in  the  world ;  a  law  so  pernicious  and 
destructive  to  the  well-being  of  families  and 
societies,  that  in  an  age  or  two  there  will 
hardly  be  any  remembrance  of  any  of  the 
ancient  Roman  Catholic  families  ktiown  in 
the  kingdom  ;  a  law  which,  therefore,  I  may 
again  venture  to  say,  was  never  before  known 
or  heard  of  in  the  universe. 

"  There  is,  indeed,  in  Kent,  a  custom  call- 
ed the  custom  of  gavel-kind  ;  but  I  never 
heard  of  any  law  for  it  till  now  ;  and  that 
custom  is  far  different  from  what  by  this 
bill  is  intended  to  be  made  a  law  ;  for  there, 
and  by  that  custom,  the  father  or  other  per- 
son, dying  possessed  of  any  estate  of  his  own 
acquisition,  or  not  entailed  (let  him  be  of 
what  persuasion  he  will),  may  by  will  be- 
queath it  at  pleasure  :  or  if  he  dies  without 
will,  the  estate  shall  not  be  divided,  if  there 
be  any  male  heir  to  inherit  it ;  but  for  want 
of  male  heir,  then  it  shall  descend  in  gavel- 
kind among  the  daughters  and  not  otherwise. 
But  by  this  act,  for  want  of  a  Protestant  heir, 
enrolled  as  such  within  three  months  after 
the  death  of  such  Papist,  to  be  divided,  share 
and  share  abke,  among  all  his  sons  ;  for  want 
of  sons,  among  his  daughters  ;  for  want  of 
such,  among  the  collateral  kindred  of  his 
father ;  and  for  want  of  such,  among  those 
of  his  mother ;  and  this  is  to  take  place  of 
any  grant,  settlement,  &c.,  other  than  sale, 
for  valuable  consideration  of  money,  really, 
bona  fide,  paid.  And  shall  I  not  call  this  a 
strange  law  ?  Surely  it  is  a  strange  law, 
which,  contrary  to  the  laws  of  all  nations, 
thus  confounds  all  settlements,  how  ancient 
soever,  or  otherwise  wairautable  by  all  the 
laws  heretofore  in  force  in  this  or  any  other 
kingdom.  • 


ACT  TO  PREVENT  THE  GROWTH  OF  POPERY. 


29 


"The  9tli  clause  of  this  act  is  another 
manifest  breach  of  the  Articles  of  Limerick; 
for  by  the  9th  of  those  articles,  no  oath  is  to 
be  adraitiistered  to,  nor  imposed  upon  such 
Roman  Catholics  as  should  submit  to  the 
Government,  but  the  oath  of  allegiance 
appointed  by  an  act  of  parliament  made  in 
England  in  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  their 
late  majesties  King  William  and  Queen 
Mary  (which  is  the  same  with  the  first  of 
those  appointed  by  the  10th  clause  of  this 
act)  :  but  by  this  clause,  none  shall  have 
the  benefit  of  this  act,  that  shall  not  con- 
form to  the  Church  of  Ireland,  subscribe  the 
declaration,  and  take  and  subscribe  the  oath 
of  abjuration,  appointed  by  the  9th  clause  of 
this  act ;  and  therefore  this  act  is  a  manifest 
breach  of  those  articles,  <fec.,  and  a  force 
upon  all  the  Roman  Catholics  therein  com- 
prised, either  to  abjure  their  religion  or  part 
with  their  birthrights ;  which,  by  those  ar- 
ticles, they  were,  and  are  as  fully  and  as 
rightfully  intituled  unto  as  any  other  sub- 
jects whatever. 

"The  10th,  11th,  12th,  13th,  and  14th 
clauses  of  this  bill  (said  he)  relate  to  oflSces 
and  employments  which  the  Papists  of  Ire- 
land cannot  hope  for  enjoyment  of,  other- 
wise than  by  grace  and  favor  extraordinary  : 
and  therefore,  do  not  so  much  affect  them, 
as  the  Protestant  Dissenters  who  (if  this 
bill  pass  into  a  law)  are  equally  with  the 
Papists  deprived  of  bearing  any  office,  civil 
or  military,  under  the  Government,  to  which, 
by  right  of  birth  and  the  laws  of  the  land, 
they  are  as  indisputably  intituled,  as  any 
other  their  Protestant  brethren ;  and  if 
what  the  Irish  did  in  the  late  disorders  of 
this  kingdom  made  them  rebels  (which  the 
presence  of  a  king  they  had  before  been 
obliged  to  own  and  swear  obedience  to  gave 
them  a  reasonable  color  of  concluding  it  did 
not),  yet  surely  the  Dissenters  did  not  do 
any  thing  to  make  them  so ;  or  to  deserve 
worse  at  the  hands  of  the  Government  than 
any  other  Protestants ;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, it  is  more  than  probable  that  if  they 
(I  mean  the  Dissenters)  had  not  put  a 
stop  to  the  career  of  the  Irish  array  at 
Enniskillen  and  Londonderry,  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Government,  both  in  England 
and  Scotland,  might  not  have  proved  so  easy 
as  it  thereby  did ;  for  if  that  army  had  got 


to  Scotland  (as  there  was  nothing  at  that 
time  to  have  hindered  them,  but  the  bravery 
of  those  people,  who  were  mostly  Dissenters, 
and  chargeable  with  no  other  crimes  since ; 
unless    their  close    adhering  to,   and    early 
appearing  for  the  then  Government,  and  the 
many  faithful  services  they  did  their  country, 
were  crimes),  I  say  (said  he)  if  they  had  got 
to  Scotland,  when  they  had  boats,  barks,  and 
all  things  else  ready  for  their  transportation, 
and  a  great  many  friends  there  in  arms  wait- 
ing only  their  coming  to  join  them,  it  is 
easy  to  think  what  the  consequence  would 
have  been  to  both  these  kingdoms:  and  these 
Dissenters  then  were  thought  fit  for  com- 
mand, both  civil  and  military,  and  were  no 
less  instrumental  in  contributing  to  the  re- 
ducing the  kingdom  than  any  other  Protes- 
tants :   and   to   pass  a  bill   novr  to  deprive 
them  of  their   birthrights  (for    those    their 
good  services),  would  surely  be  a  most  un- 
kind   return,    and    the    worst   reward    ever 
granted  to  a  people   so  deserving.     What- 
ever the  Papists  may  be  supposed  to  have 
deserved,  the  Dissenters   certainly  stand  as 
clean  in  the  face  of  the  present  Government 
as  any  other  people  whatsoever  :  and  if  this 
is  all  the  return  they  are  like  to  get,  it  will 
be  but  a  slender  encouragement,  if  ever  oc- 
casion should  require,  for  others  to  pursue 
their  example. 

"By  the  15th,  16th,  and  lYth  clauses  of 
this  bill,  all  Papists,  after  the  24th  of  March, 
1703,  are  piohibited  from  purchasing  any 
houses  or  tenements,  or  coming  to  dwell  in 
Limerick  or  Galway,  or  the  suburbs  of  either, 
and  even  such  as  were  under  the  articles, 
and  by  virtue  thereof  have  ever  since  lived 
there,  from  staying  there ;  without  giving 
such  security  as  neither  those  articles,  nor 
any  law  heretofore  in  force,  do  require ;  ex- 
cept seamen,  fishermen,  and  day-laborers, 
who  pay  not  above  forty  shillings  a  year 
rent;  and  from  voting  for  the  election  of 
members  of  Parliament,  unless  they  take  the 
oath  of  abjuration  ;  which,  to  oblige  them 
to,  is  contrary  to  the  9th  of  Limerick  Arti- 
cles ;  which,  as  aforesaid,  says  the  oath  of 
allegiance,  and  no  other,  shall  be  imposed 
upon  them  ;  and,  unless  they  abjure  their 
religion,  takes  away  their  advowsons  and 
right  of  presentation,  cortrary  to  the  privi- 
lege of  right,  the  laws  of  nations,  and  the 


30 


HISTOKY    OF   IRELAND. 


greut  charter  of  Magna  Cliarta  which  pro- 
vides that  no  man  shall  be  disseized  of  his 
b'rthright,  without  committing  some  crime 
against  the  known  laws  of  the  land  in  which 
he  is  born  or  inhabits.  And  if  there  was 
no  law  in  force,  in  tlie  reign  of  King  Charles 
the  Second,  against  these  things  (as  there 
certainly  was  not),  and  if  the  Roman  Cath- 
olics of  this  kingdom  have  not  since  forfeited 
their  right  to  the  laws  that  then  were  in 
force  (as  for  certain  they  have  not)  ;  then 
with  humble  submission,  all  the  aforesaid 
clauses  and  matters  contained  in  this  bill, 
intituled.  An  Act  to  prevent  the  further  growth 
of  Popery,  are  directly  against  the  plain 
words  and  true  intent  and  meaning  of  the 
said  articles,  and  a  violation  of  the  public 
faith  and  the  laws  made  for  their  perform- 
ance ;  and  what  I  therefore  hope  (said  he) 
this  honorable  house  will  consider  accord- 
ingly." 

It  is  but  just  to  mention  the  arguments  by 
which  this  earnest  reasoning  was  met  in  the 
Irish  House  of  Commons.  It  was  objected, 
then,  that  the  counsel  for  the  Catholics  had 
not  demonstrated  how  and  when  (since  the 
making  of  the  Articles  of  Limerick)  the  Pa- 
pists of  Ireland  had  addressed  the  queen  or 
Government,  when  all  other  subjects  were  so 
doing;  or  had  otherwise  declared  their 
fidelity  and  obedience  to  the  queen.  Fur- 
ther it  was  ni'ged,  by  way  of  reply,  "  That 
any  right  which  the  Papists  pretended  to  be 
taken  from  them  by  the  bill  was  in  their  own 
power  to  remedy,  by  conforming,  as  in  pru- 
dence they  ought  to  do ;  and  that  they 
ought  not  to  blame  any  but  themselves." 
It  was  still  further  argued  that  the  passing 
of  this  bill  would  not  be  a  breach  of  the 
Treaty  of  Limerick,  because  the  persons 
therein  comprised  were  only  to  be  put  into 
the  same  state  they  were  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  the  Second  ;  and  because  in  that 
reign  there  was  no  law  in  force  which  hin- 
dered the  passing  of  any  other  law  thought 
needful  for  the  future  safety  of  the  Govern- 
ment :  lastly,  that  the  House  was  of  opinion 
that  the  passing  of  this  bill  was  needful  at 
present  for  the  security  of  the  kingdom  ; 
and  that  there  was  not  any  thing  in  the  Kv- 
ticles  of  Limerick  to  prohibit  them  from  so 
doing.  It  is  not  needful  to  comment  on  the 
excessive  insolence  of  the  subterfuge. 


The  same  counsel  were  heard  before  the 
Lords :  and  here  it  was  admitted,  on  the 
part  of  the  petitioners,  that  the  legislative 
power  cannot  be  confined  from  altering  and 
making  such  laws  as  shall  be  thought  ne- 
cessary, for  securing  the  quiet  and  safety  of 
the  Government ;  that  in  time  of  war  or  dan- 
ger, or  when  there  shall  be  just  reason  to  sus- 
pect any  ill  designs  to  disturb  the  public  peace, 
no  articles  or  previous  obligations  shall  tie 
up  the  hands  of  the  legislators  from  provid- 
ing for  its  safety,  or  bind  the  Government 
from  disai'ming  and  securing  any  who  may 
be  reasonably  suspected  of  favoring  or  cor- 
responding with  its  enemies,  or  to  be  other- 
wise guilty  of  ill  practices:  "Or  indeed  to 
enact  any  other  law,"  said  Sir  Stephen  Rice, 
"  that  may  be  absolutely  needful  for  the  safety 
and  advantage  of  the  public ;  such  a  law 
cannot  be  a  breach  either  of  these,  or  any 
other  like  aiticles.  But  then  such  laws  ought 
to  be  in  general,  and  should  not  single  out, 
or  atFect,  any  one  particular  part  or  party  of 
the  people,  who  gave  no  provocation  to  any 
such  law,  and  whose  conduct  stood  hitherto 
unimpeached,  ever  since  the  ratification  of 
the  aforesaid  Articles  of  Limerick.  To 
make  any  law  that  shall  single  any  particu- 
lar part  of  the  people  out  from  the  rest,  and 
take  from  them  what  by  right  of  birth,  and  all 
the  preceding  laws  of  the  land,  had  been  con- 
firmed to  and  entailed  upon  them,  will  be  an 
apparent  violation  of  the  original  institution 
of  all  right,  and  an  ill  precedent  to  any  that 
hereafter  might  dislike  either  the  present  or 
any  other  settlement,  which  should  be  in 
their  power  to  alter  ;  the  consequence  of 
which  is  hard  to  imagine." 

The  Lord  Chancellor  having  then  sum- 
med up  all  that  was  offered  at  the  bar, 
the  House  of  Lords  proceeded  to  pass  the 
bill  without  delay.  And  it  is  really  remarka- 
ble that  in  neither  House  did  one  single  peer 
or  commoner  offer  a  word  of  remonstrance 
against  its  passage.  A  few  days  after,  on 
the  4th  of  March,  it  received  the  royal  assent. 

The  penal  code  might  now  be  considered 
tolerably  complete;  and  the  nine-tenths  of 
the  population  of  Ireland  was  thus  effectually 
brought  down  under  the  feet  of  the  other 
one-tenth;  so  absolutely  subjugated,  indeed, 
that  they  could  not  pos>^ib!y  be  depressed 
lower,  unless  they  had  been  actually  bought 


RECALL    OF    THE    EDICT    OF    NANTES. 


31 


and  sold  as  slaves.  Forbidden  to  teach  or 
to  be  taught,  whether  at  home  or  abroad, 
deprived  of  necessary  arms  for  self-defence, 
or  even  for  the  chase ;  disabled  from  being- 
so  much  as  game-keepers,  lest  any  of  them 
should  learn  the  use  of  firearms ;  and  pro- 
vision being  made  for  gradually  impoverish- 
ing the  Catholic  families  who  still  owned 
any  thing,  and  preventing  the  industrious 
from  makinir  themselves  independent  by  their 
labor — it  would  be  hard  to  point  out  any 
people  of  ancient  or  modern  times  who 
groaned  under  a  more  ingenious,  torturing, 
and  humiliating  oppression.  Yet  one  pecu- 
liarity is  to  be  remarked  in  the  administration 
of  these  laws  : — they  were  so  applied,  for  gen- 
erations, as  to  allow  a  bare  toleration  to  Cath- 
olic worship,  provided  that  worship  were  prac- 
tised in  mean  and  obscure  places,  provided 
there  were  no  clergy  in  the  kingdom  but 
simple  secular  priests  ;  who  were  also  com- 
pelled to  register  their  names  and  the  paiishes 
"  of  which  they  pretended  to  be  popish 
priests" — the  penalty  for  saying  mass  out  of 
those  registered  parishes  being  transportation, 
and  in  case  of  return,  death.  On  these  terms, 
then,  it  was  practically  permitted  to  Catholics 
to  attend  at  the  service  of  their  religion,  al- 
though this  was  contrary  to  an  express  law, 
namely,  to  the  "  Act  of  Uniformity,"  which 
required  all  persons  not  having  lawful  excuse 
to  attend  on  the  services  of  the  Established 
Church.  But  throughout  all  this  reign  of 
Anne,  and  the  two  succeeding  reigns,  there 
was  no  such  relaxation  as  this  allowed  in  any 
matter  relating  to  property,  privilege,  or 
trade :  in  all  these  matters  the  code  was  exe- 
cuted with  the  most  rigorous  severity.  So 
that  it  is  plain  the  object  of  the  Ascen- 
dency was  not  so  much  to  convert  Catholics 
to  Protestantism,  as  to  convei't  the  goods  of 
Catholics  to  Protestant  use.  This  is  the 
main  difference  between  the  Catholic  perse- 
cutions on  the  continent  at  that  period  and 
the  Protestant  persecutions  in  Ireland  :  and 
it  fully  justifies  the  reflection  of  a  late  writer 
— "It  maybe  a  circumstance  in  favor  of  the 
Protestant  code  (or  it  may  not),  that  whereas 
Catholics  have  really  persecuted  for  religion, 
'  enlightened'  Protestants  only  made  a  pretext 
of  religion  ;  taking  no  thought  what  became 
of  Catholic  souls,  if  only  they  could  get  pos- 
session of  Catholic  lands  and  jroods.     Also 


we  may  remark,  that  Catholic  governments 
in  their  persecutions  always  really  desired 
the  conversion  of  misbelievers  (albeit  their 
methods  were  rough) ;  but  in  Ireland,  if  the 
people  had  universally  turned  Catholic,  it 
would  have  defeated  the  whole  scheme." 

The  recall  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  whicli 
edict  had  secured  toleration  for  Protestant- 
ism in  France,  is  bitterly  dwelt  upon  by 
English  writers  as  the  heaviest  reproach 
which  weighs  on  the  memory  of  King  Louis 
the  Fourteenth.  The  recall  of  the  edict  had 
taken  place  in  1685,  only  a  few  j'ears  before 
the  passage  of  this  Irish  "  Act  to  prevent  the 
further  growth  of  Popery."  The  differences 
between  the  two  transactions  are  mainly  these 
two  :  first,  that  the  French  Protestants  had 
not  been  guaranteed  their  civil  and  religious 
rights  by  any  treaty,  as  the  Irish  Catholics, 
thought  they  held  theirs  by  the  Treaty  of  Lim- 
erick ;  necond,  that  the  penalties  denounced 
against  French  Protestants  by  the  recallinfj 
edict  bore  entirely  upon  their  religious  service 
itself,  and  were  truly  intended  to  induce  and 
force  the  Huguenots  to  become  Catholics; 
there  being  no  confiscations  except  in  cases 
of  relapse,  and  in  cases  of  quitting  the  king- 
dom ;  but  there  was  nothing  of  all  the  com- 
plicated machinery  above  described,  for  beg- 
garing one  portion  of  the  population,  and  giv- 
ing its  spoils  to  the  other  part.  We  may 
add,  that  the  penalties  and  disabilities  in 
France  lasted  a  much  shorter  time  than  in 
Ireland  ;  and  that  French  Protestants  were 
restored  to  perfect  civil  and  religious  equality 
with  their  countrymen  in  every  respect  forty 
years  before  the  "Catholic  Relief  Act"  pur- 
poiled  to  emancipate  the  Irish  Catholics,  who 
are  not,  indeed,  emancipated  yet.  Mr.  Burke, 
in  his  excellent  tract  on  the  penal  laws,  com- 
paring the  recall  of  the  Nantes  Edict  with 
our  Irish  system,  says  with  great  force — 

"This  act  of  injustice,  which  let  loose  on 
that  monarch  such  a  torrent  of  invective  and 
reproach,  and  which  threw  so  dark  a  cloud 
over  all  the  splendor  of  a  most  illustrious 
reign,  falls  far  short  of  the  case  in  Ireland. 
The  privileges  which  the  Protestants  of  that 
kingdom  enjoyed  antecedent  to  this  revoca- 
tion, were  far  greater  than  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics of  Ireland  ever  aspired  to  under  a  con- 
trary establishment.  The  number  of  th«ir 
sufferers,  if  considered  absolutely,  is  not  the 


82 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


half  of  ours ;  if  considered  relatively  to  the 
body  of  each  community,  it  is  not  perhaps 
a  twentieth  part ;  and  then  the  penalties 
and  incapacities  which  grew  from  that  rev- 
ocation are  not  so  grievous  in  their  nature, 
nor  so  certain  in  their  execution,  nor  so  ruin- 
ous by  a  great  deal  to  the  civil  prosperity 
of  the  state,  as  those  which  were  established 
for  a  perpetual  law  in  our  unhappy  country." 

Readers  will  turn  with  pleasure  from  the 
gloomy  and  painful  scene  presented  by  Ire- 
land in  that  dismal  time,  to  the  other  half 
of  Ireland,  the  choicest  of  the  whole  nation  ; 
which  was  to  be  found  in  all  the  camps  and 
fields  of  Europe,  wherever  gallant  feats  of 
arms  were  to  be  done.  The  gallant  Justin 
MacCarthy,  Lord  Mountcashel,  had  long  been 
dead,  having  fallen  on  the  field  of  Siaffardo 
under  Marshal  Catinat,  in  1790;  where  a 
brigade  of  Irish  troops  had  been  serving  in 
the  French  army  before  the  surrender  of 
Limerick.  The  arrival  of  Sarsfield,  with  so 
many  distinguished  officers  and  veteran 
troops,  gave  occasion  to  the  formation  of  the 
"  New  Irish  Brigade  ;"  and  we  have  seen 
with  how  much  distinction  that  corps  had 
fought  against  England  on  so  many  fields  of 
the  Netherlands.  In  the  new  war  which 
followed  the  accession  of  Queen  Anne,  bodies 
of  the  Irish  forces  served  in  each  of  the 
great  French  armies.  There  were  four  regi- 
ments of  cavalry,  Galway's,  Kilmallock's, 
Sheldon's,  and  Clare's — -the  last  commanded 
by  O'Brien,  Lord  Clare,  constantly  employed 
in  these  wars — and  at  least  seven  regiments 
of  infantry.  All  these  corps  were  kept  more 
than  full  by  new  arrivals  of  exiles  and  emi- 
grants. 

It  will  afford  a  relief  from  the  irksome  tale 
of  oppression  at  home,  to  tell  how  some  of 
these  exiles  acquitted  themselves  when  they 
liad  the  good  luck  to  meet  on  some  foreign 
field  either  Englishmen  or  the  allies  of 
England.  About  the  time  when  the  law- 
yers of  the  "  Ascendency"  were  elaborating 
in  Dublin  their  bill  for  the  plunder  of  Catho- 
lic widows  and  orphans,  it  happened  that 
there  were  two  regiments,  Dillon's  (one  of 
Mountcashel's  old  brigade)  and  Burke's, 
called  the  Athlone  regiment,  which  formed 
part  of  the  garrison  of  Cremona  on  the  bank 
of  the  Po.  The  French  commander  was  the 
Duke  de  Villeroy,  who  had  just  brought  his 


whole  army  into  Cremona,  after  an  unsuc- 
cessful affair  with  Prince  Eugene  at  Chiari. 
Cremona  was  then,  as  it  is  now,  a  very  strong 
fortified  town  ;  and  the  duke  intended  to 
rest  his  forces  there  for  a  time,  as  it  was  the 
depth  of  winter.  The  enterprising  Prince 
Eugene  planned  a  surprise  :  he  had  procured 
for  himself  some  traitorous  intelligence  in 
the  town,  and  some  of  his  grenadiers  had 
already  been  introduced  by  a  clever  strata- 
gem. Large  bodies  of  troops  had  appioached 
close  to  the  town  by  various  routes ;  and  all 
was  ready  for  the  grand  operation  on  the 
night  of  the  2d  of  February,  1702.  Villeroy 
and  his  subordinates  were  of  course  much  to 
blame  for  having  suffered  all  the  prepara- 
tions for  so  grand  a  military  operation  to  be 
brought  to  perfection  up  to  the  very  moment 
of  execution.  The  marshal  was  peacefully 
sleeping :  he  was  awalied  by  volleys  of 
musketry.  He  dressed  and  mounted  in 
great  haste ;  and  the  first  thing  he  met  in 
tlie  streets  was  a  squadron  of  Imperial  cav- 
alry, who  made  him  prisoner,  his  captor 
being  an  Austrian  officer  named  MacDonnell. 
Prince  Eugene,  with  Count  Stahremberg, 
Commerci,  and  seven  thousand  men,  were 
already  in  the  heart  of  the  town,  and  occu- 
pying the  great  square.  It  was  four  o'clock 
on  a  February  morning,  when  all  this  had 
been  accomplished ;  and  Prince  Eugene 
thought  the  place  already  won,  when  the 
French  troops  only  began  to  turn  out  of 
their  beds,  and  dress.  Alarm  was  soon  given. 
The  regiment  des  Vaisseaux  and  the  two 
Irish  regiments  are  the  only  corps  mentioned, 
by  M.  de  Voltaire  as  having  distinguished 
themselves  in  turning  the  fortune  of  that 
terrible  morning ;  and  as  Voltaire  is  not 
usually  favoiable,  nor  even  just  to  the  Irish, 
it  is  well  to  transcribe  first  his  narrative  of 
the  affair.  "The  Chevalier  d'Entragues 
was  to  hold  a  review  that  day  in  the  town 
of  the  regiment  des  Vaisseaux,  of  which  he 
was  colonel ;  and  already  the  soldiers  were 
assembling  at  four  o'clock  at  one  extremity 
of  the  town  just  as  Prince  Eugene  was  en- 
tering by  the  other.  D'Entragues  begins  to 
run  through  the  streets  with  the  soldiers; 
resists  such  Germans  as  he  encounters,  and 
gives  time  to  the  rest  of  the  gairison  to 
hurry  up.  Officers  and  soldiers,  pell-mell, 
some  half-armed,  others  almost  naked,  with- 


BRTr,T,IA^^^  AcniEVEMExr  of  the  Irish. 


33 


out  diroction,  without  order,  till  the  streets 
and  public  places.  They  figlit  in  confusion, 
intrench  themselves  from  street  to  street,  from 
place  to  place.  Two  Irish  regiments,  who 
made  part  of  the  garrison,  arrest  the  advance 
of  the  Imperialists,  Never  town  was  surprised 
with  more  skill,  nor  defended  with  so  much 
valor.  The  garrison  consisted  of  about  five 
thousand  men :  Prince  Eugene  had  not  yet 
brought  in  more  than  four  thousand.  A 
large  detachment  of  his  army  was  to  arrive 
by  the  Po  bridge:  the  measures  were  well 
taken  ;  but  another  chance  deranged  all. 
This  bridge  over  the  Po,  insufficiently  guarded 
by  about  a  hundred  French  soldiers,  was  to 
have  been  seized  by  a  body  of  German  cui- 
rassiers, who,  at  the  moment  Prince  Eugene 
was  entering  the  town,  were  commanded  to 
go  and  take  possession  of  it.  For  this  pur- 
pose it  was  necessary  that  having  first  en- 
tered by  the  southern  gate,  they  should  in- 
stantly go  outside  of  the  city  in  a  northern 
direction  by  the  Po  gate,  and  then  hasten  to 
the  bridge.  But  in  going  thither  the  guide 
who  led  them  was  killed  by  a  musket-ball 
fired  from  a  window.  The  cuirassiers  take 
one  street  for  another.  In  this  short  inter- 
val, the  Irish  spring  forward  to  the  gate  of  the 
Po  :  they  fight  and  repulse  the  cuirassiers. 
The  Marquis  de  Praslin  profits  by  the  mo- 
ment to  cut  down  the  bridge.  The  succor 
which  the  enemy  counted  on  did  not  arrive, 
and  the  town  was  saved."*  But  the  fighting 
was  by  no  means  over  with  the  repulse  of 
Count  Merci's  reinforcements  :  a  furious  com- 
bat raged  all  the  morning  in  the  streets ; 
and  Mahony  and  Burke  had  still  much  to 
do.  At  last  the  whole  Imperialist  force 
was  finally  repulsed ;  and  the  soldiers  then 
got  time  to  put  on  their  jackets.  Colonel 
Burke  lost  of  his  regiment  seven  oflBcers 
and  forty-two  soldiers  killed,  and  nine  offi- 
cers and  fifty  soldiers  wounded.  Dillon's 
regiment,  commanded  that  day  by  Major 
Mahony,  lost  one  officer  and  forty-nine 
soldiers  killed,  and  twelve  officers  and  sev- 
enty-nine soldiers  wounded. 

*  Some  of  tlie  Irish  accounts  of  this  achievement 
are  too  glowinjr,  perhaps,  as  is  natural.  Even  ae- 
cordinsr  to  Voltaire's  narration,  tlie  Irish  soldiers 
really  did  every  tliiner  which  he  says  was  done  at  all; 
beat  Prince  Eugene's  troops  in  the  city  itself,  and 
saved  the  I'o  Gate  from  the  other  detachment  under 
the  Count  Merci. 

6 


King  Louis  sent  formal  thanks  to  the 
two  Irish  regiments,  and  raised  their  pay 
from  that  day. 

In  the  campaigns  of  1703  the  Irish  had 
at  least  their  full  share  of  employment  and 
of  honor.  Under  Vendome,  they  made  their 
mark  in  Italy,  on  the  fields  of  Vittoria,  Luz- 
zara,  Cassano,  and  Calcinato.  On  the  Rhine, 
they  were  still  more  distinguished  ;  especially 
at  Freidlingen  and  Spires,  in  which  latter 
battle  a  splendid  charge  of  Nugent's  horse 
saved  the  fortune  of  the  day.  After  this 
year  the  military  fortune  of  France  declined  ; 
but,  whether  in  victory  or  defeat,  the  Brigade 
was  still  fighting  by  their  side  ;  nor  is  there 
any  record  of  an  Irish  regiment  having  be- 
haved badly  on  any  field. 

At  the  battle  of  Hochstet  or  Blenheim, 
in  1704,  Marshal  Tallard  was  defeated 
and  taken  prisoner  by  Marlborough  and 
Eugene.  The  French  and  Bavarians  lost 
10,000  killed,  13,000  prisoners,  and  90 
pieces  of  cannon.  Yet  amid  this  mon- 
strous disaster,  Clare's  dragoons  were  vic- 
torious over  a  portion  of  Eugene's  famous 
cavalry,  and  took  two  standards.  And  in 
the  battle  of  Ramillies,  in  1706,  where 
Villeroy  was  utterly  routed,  Clare's  dra- 
goons attempted  to  cover  the  wreck  of  the 
retreating  French,  broke  through  an  Eng- 
lish regiment,  and  followed  them  into  the 
thronging  van  of  the  Allies.  Mr.  Forman' 
states  that  they  were  generously  assisted 
out  of  this  predicament  by  an  Italian  regi- 
ment, and  succeeded  in  carrying  otf  the 
English  colors  they  had  taken. 

At  the  sad  days  of  Oudenarde  and  Mal- 
plaquet,  some  of  them  were  ako  present ;  but 
to  the  victories  which  brightened  this  time, 
so  dark  to  France,  the  Brigade  contributed 
materially.  At  the  battle  of  Almanza 
(13th  March,  1707,)  several  Irish  regiments 
served  under  Berwick.  In  the  early  part 
of  the  day  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish 
auxiliaries  of  England  were  broken,  but  the 
English  and  Dutch  fought  successfully  for 
a  long  time ;  nor  was  it  till  repeatedly 
charged  by  the  elite  of  Berwick's  army, 
including  the  Irish,  that  they  were  forced 
to  retreat.  3,000  killed,  10,000  prison- 
ers, and  120  standards,  attested  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  victory.  It  put  King  Philip 
on    the    throne    of    Spain.      In    the   siego 


34 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


of  Barcelona,  Dillon's  regiment  fought  with 
great  etfect. 

In  their  ranks  w;is  a  boy  of  twelve  years 
old  ;  lie  was  the  son  of  a  Galway  gentle- 
man, Mr.  Lally  orO'Lally,of  Tnlloch  na  Daly, 
and  his  uncle  had  sat  in  James's  Parliament  of 
1689.  This  boy,  so  early  trained,  was  after- 
wards the  famous  Count  Lally  de  Tollendal, 
whose  services  in  every  part  of  the  globe 
make  his  execution  a  stain  upon  thehonoras 
well  as  upon  the  justice  of  Louis  XVL 
When  Villars  swept  off  the  whole  of  Albe- 
marle's battalions  at  Denain,  in  1712,  the 
Irish  were  in  bis  van. 

The  tieaty  of  Utrecht  and  tbe  dismissal 
of  Marlborough  put  an  end  to  the  war  in 
Flanders,  but  still  many  of  the  Irish  contin- 
ued to  serve  in  Italy  and  Germany,  and  thus 
ibught  at  Paima,  Guastalla,  and  Philipsburg. 

It  was  not  alone  in  the  French  service  that 
our  military  exiles  won  renown.  The  O'Don- 
nells,  O'Neills,  and  O'Reillys,  with  the  relics 
of  their  Ulster  clans,  preferred  to  fight  under 
the  Spanish  flag :  and  in  the  war  of  the 
"Spanisb  Succession,"  Spain  had  five  Irish 
regiments  in  her  army ;  whose  commanders 
were  O'Reillys,  O'Gaias,  Lacys,  Wogans,  and 
Lawlesses.  For  several  generations  a  suc- 
cession of  Irish  soldiers  of  rank  and  distinc- 
tion were  always  to  be  found  under  the 
Spanish  standard ;  and  in  that  kingdom 
those  who  had  been  chiefs  in  their  own 
l.ind  were  always  recognized  as  "gran- 
dees," the  equals  of  the  proudest  nobles  of 
Castile.  Hence  the  many  noble  families  of 
Irish  race  and  name  still  to  be  found  in 
Spain  at  this  day.  The  Peninsular  War,  in 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  found 
a  Blake  generalissimo  of  the  Spanish  armies  ; 
while  an  O'Neill  commanded  the  troops  of 
Aragon  ;  and  O'Donnells  and  O'Reillys  held 
high  grades  as  general  officers.  All  these 
true  Irishmen  were  lost  to  their  own  coun- 
try, and  were  forced  to  shed  their  blood  for 
the  stranger,  while  their  kindred  at  home  so 
much  needed  their  counsels  and  their  swords  : 
but  it  was  the  settled  policy  of  England,  and 
the  English  colony,  now  and  for  long  after, 
to  make  it  impossible  for  men  of  spirit  and 
ambition  to  live  in  Ireland,  so  that  the  re- 
maining masses  of  abject  people  might  be 
the  more  helpless  in  the  hands  of  their 
enemies. 


But  it  is  time  to  turn  away  from  those 
stii  ring  scenes  of  glory  on  the  continent,  at 
least  for  the  present,  and  look  back  upon  the 
sombre  picture  presented  by  one  unvarying 
record  of  misery  and  oppression  at  home. 


CHAPTER  VL 

1704—1714. 

Enforcement  of  the  Penal  Law? — Making  informers 
honorable — Pembroke  lord-lieutenant — Union  of 
England  and  Scotland — Means  by  which  it  was 
carried — Iri.sh  House  of  Lords  in  favor  of  an 
Union — Laws  asainst  meetino^  at  Holy  Wells — 
Catholics  excluded  from  Juries— Wharton  lord- 
lieutenant — Second  Act  to  prevent  growth  of 
Popery — Rewards  for  "  discoverers"' — Jonathan 
Swift — Nature  of  his  Irish  Patriotism — Papists 
the  "  common  enemy."  The  Dissenters — Colony 
of  the   Palatines — Disasters  of  the  French,  and 

•    Peace  of  Utrecht — The  "  Pretender." 

During  all  the  rest  of  the  reign  of  Anne, 
the  law  for  preventing  the  growth  of  Popery 
was  as  rigorously  executed  all  over  the 
island,  as  it  was  possible  for  such  laws  to  be  : 
and  there  was  the  keen  personal  interest 
of  the  Protestant  inhabitants  of  every  town 
and  district,  always  excited  and  kept  on  the 
stretch  to  discover  and  inform  upon  such 
unfortunate  Catholics  as  had  contrived  to 
remain  in  possession  of  some  of  those  estates, 
leaseholds,  or  other  interests  which  were 
now  by  law  capable  of  being  held  by  Prot- 
estants alone.  Every  Catholic  suspected  his 
Protestant  neighbor  of  prying  into  his  affairs 
and  dealings  for  the  purpose  of  plundering 
him.  Every  Protestant  suspected  his  Catho- 
lic neighbor  of  conceahng  some  property,  or 
privately  receiving  the  revenue  of  some  trust, 
and  thus  keeping  him,  the  Protestant,  out  of 
his  own.  Mutual  hatred  and  distrust  kept 
the  two  races  apart;  and  there  was  no  social 
intercourse  or  good  neighborhood  between 
them.  Informers  of  course  were  busy,  and 
well  rewarded  ;  yet  there  were  many  of  the 
Catholic  families  who  cheated  their  enemies 
out  of  their  prey,  by  real  or  pretended  con- 
versions to  the  Established  Church,  or  else 
by  secret  trusts  vested  legally  in  some 
friendly  Protestant ;  who  ran,  however,  very 
heavy  risks  by  this  kind  proceeding. 

For  on  the  l7th  of  March,  a  few  days 
after  the  passage  of  the  Act  of  1704,  the 


MAKING    INTOKMERS    HONORABLE. 


35 


Commons  passed  unanimously  a  resolution, 
"that  all  magistrates  and  otiior  persons 
wliat=5oever,  who  neglected  or  omitted  to 
put  it  in  due  execution,  were  betniyers  of 
the  liberties  of  the  kingdom."  Again,  in 
June,  1705,  they  "resolved,  that  the  saying 
or  hearing  of  Mass,  by  persons  who  had  not 
taken  the  oath  of  abjuration,  tended  to 
advance  the  interest  of  the  Pretender^'' 
although  it  was  tlien  very  well  known  that 
tlie  Irish  Catholics  were  not  thinking  in  the 
](^ast  of  the  Pretender,  or  of  placing  their 
hopes  in  a  counter-revolutiOn  to  bring  in  the 
Stuarts.  This  resolution,  therefore,  was  sim- 
plv  intended  to  make  Papists  odious  and  to 
stimulate  the  zeal  of  informers,  against  those 
who  said  or  heard  Mass  in  any  other  manner, 
or  under  any  other  condition  than  those  pre- 
scribed for  registering  "  the  pretended  Popish 
priests."  But  as  it  was  still  difficult  to  in- 
duce men  to  discover  and  inform  upon  un- 
offending neighbors,  and  as  in  fact  the  trade 
of  infoimer  was  held  infamous  by  all  fair- 
-minded men,  the  Commons  took  care  also  to 
resolve  unanimously,  "that  the  prosecu- 
ting and  informing  against  Papists  was  an 
honorable  service  to  the  Government,"  The 
informers  being  now,  therefore,  honorable 
by  law,  and  taken  under  the  special  favor 
of  the  Government,  gave  such  new  and  ex- 
tensive development  to  their  peculiar  in- 
dustry as  made  it  for  long  after  the  most 
profitable  branch  of  business  in  this  impover- 
ished country,  and  afforded  some  compensa- 
tion for  the  ruin  of  the  woollen  manufacture 
and  other  honest  trades. 

The  Earl  of  Pembroke,  lord-lieutenant  in 
the  year  1706,  made  a  speech  to  the  Parlia- 
ment, in  which  he  endeavored  to  soothe  the 
feelings  of  the  Dissenters  disabled  by  the 
Sacramental  Test,  and  to  combine  all  Prot- 
estants in  a  cordial  union  against  the  hated 
Papists.  He  recommended  them  to  provide 
for  the  security  of  the  realm  against  their 
foreign  and  domestic  enemies — by  which 
latter  phrase  he  meant  Catholics — and  added 
"that  he  was  commanded  by  her  majesty 
to  inform  them  that  her  majesty,  consider- 
ing the  number  of  Papists  in  Ireland,  would 
be  glad  of  an  expedient  for  the  stiengthen- 
ing  the  interest  of  her  Protestant  subjects 
in  that  kingdom."  Fear  of  the  "common 
enemy"  —  the      established      parliamentary 


term  to  describe  (Catholics,  was  often  urged 
as  an  inducement  to  mitigate  the  disabilities 
of  Dissenters ;  and  this  controversy  contin- 
ued many  years.  The  Established  Church 
party  was  resolved  not  to  relax  any  part 
of  their  code  of  exclusion  ;  and  had  per- 
fect confidence  that  the  Dissenters,  though 
pressed  themselves  by  one  portion  of  the  pe- 
nal code,  would  never,  under  any  provocation, 
make  common  cause  with  Catholics.  And 
this  confidence  was  well-founded.  The  Dis- 
senters pi'eferred  to  endure  exclusion  by  the 
Test,  rather  than  weaken  in  any  way  the 
great  Protestant  interest;  and  the  few  rep- 
resentatives whom  the  Ulster  Presbyterians 
had  in  the  Commons  never,  in  a  single  in- 
stance, gave  a  voice  against  any  new  ligor 
or  penalty  imposed  upon  the  "  common 
enemy." 

It  was  in  the  year  1707  that  the  English 
Government  at  length  accomplished  its  long 
desired  project  of  an  Union  between  Eng- 
land and  Scotland.  There  was  much  indig- 
nant resistance  against  the  measure  by 
patriotic  Scotsmen ;  and  it  needed  much 
intrigue  and  no  little  bribery,  judiciously 
distributed  (as  in  Ireland  ninety-three  years 
later),  to  overcome  the  opposition.  An  Eng- 
lish historian*  gives  this  simple  account  of 
the  matter:  "Exclusive  of  the  methods  used 
to  allay  the  popular  resentment  and  the 
sacrifices  made  to  national  prejudice,  other 
means  were  adopted  to  facilitate  the  final 
passing  of  the  Act  of  Union.  By  the  re- 
port of  the  Commissioners  of  Public  Ac- 
counts, delivered  in  some  years  after  this 
time,  it  appears  that  the  sum  of  twenty 
thousand  pounds,  and  upwards,  was  remitted 
at  the  present  juncture  to  Scotland,  which 
was  distributed  so  judiciously  that  the  rage 
of  opposition  suddenly  subsided ;  and  the 
treaty,  as  originally  framed,  received,  with- 
out any  material  alteration,  the  solemn 
sanction  of  the  Scottish  Parliament — the 
general  question  being  carried  by  a  majority 
of  110  votes."  In  vain  the  patriots  fought 
against  the  influence  of  the  Court.  In  vain 
did  Fletcher  of  Saltoun  earnestly  declare  in 
his  place  in  Parliament,  "that  the  country 
was    betrayed   by    the    Commissioners.      In 

*  Beleham.  History  of  Great  Britain  from  th« 
Revolution.     Book  V. 


86 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


vain  did  Lord  Belliaven,  in  a  speech  yet 
famous  in  Scotland,  pathetically  describe 
Caledonia  as  sitting  in  the  midst  of  the 
Senate,  looking  indignantly  around  and 
coveriuor  herself  with  her  royal  robe,  attend- 

■     1 

ing  the  fatal  blow,  breathing  out  with  pas- 
sionate emotion  Et  tu  quoque,  mi  fill!  The 
measure  was  carried,  and  Scotland  became 
a  province.  How  similar  all  this  to  the 
Scenes  enacted  in  our  own  country,  almost 
a  century  later !  But  for  the  name  of  Lord 
Somers,  the  great  engineer  of  the  Scottish 
Union,  we  must  substitute  Castlereagh,  make 
the  bribery  larger,  and  the  intrigues  darker. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  the  Irish  House 
of  Lords,  when  the  Union  with  Scotland 
was  in  agitation  four  years  before,  in  1703, 
addressed  the  queen  in  favor  of  a  similar 
measure  for  Ireland.  They  now,  in  1707, 
did  so  again,  beseeching  her  majesty  to  ex- 
tend the  benefits  of  her  royal  protection 
equally  over  all  her  kingdoms.  The  House 
of  Commons  did  not  favor  this  proceeding  ; 
nor  was  it  at  that  time  regarded  with  com- 
placency in  England.  Nothing  further, 
therefore,  was  done  upon  the  suggestion 
made  by  their  lordships,  who  had  probably 
got  scent  of  bribery  going  on  in  Scotland, 
and  naturally  bethought  them  that  they  had 
a  country  to  sell  as  well  as  other  people. 
They  were  disappointed  for  that  time;  but 
many  of  their  great-grandsons  in  1800 
derived  benefit  by  the  delay  in  concluding 
that  transaction,  and  received  a  price  for 
their  services,  twenty  times  more  princely 
than  what  could  have  been  commanded  in 
the  time  of  Lord  Somers. 

The  agitation  in  Scotland  arising  from 
the  Act  of  Union,  although  entirely  con- 
fined to  the  Presbyterian  people  of  that 
kingdom,  furnished  a  new  excuse  for  out- 
rage upon  Irish  Catholics.  There  was  in 
truth  a  plot,  extending  through  the  south- 
west of  Scotland,  for  raising  an  army,  in- 
viting the  "  Pretender"  (Anne's  brother),  and 
so  getting  rid  of  the  Union  by  establishing 
again  the  dynasty  of  their  ancient  kings. 
On  the  first  discovery  of  this  project  in  1808, 
forty-one  Catholic  gentlemen  were  at  once 
arrested  and  imprisoned  in  Dublin  Castle, 
without  any  charge  against  them  whatso- 
ever, but,  as  it  appeared,  only  to  provoke  and 
humble  them.     It  is  indeed  wonderful   to 


read  of  the  ingenious  malignity  with  which 
occasions  were  sought  out  to  torment  harm- 
less country  people  by  interdicting  their 
innocent  recreations  and  simple,  obscure 
devotions.  In  the  County  Meath,  as  in 
many  other  places  in  Ireland,  is  a  holy 
well,  named  the  "  Well  of  St.  John."  From 
time  immemorial,  multitudes  of  infirm  peo- 
ple, men,  women,  and  children,  had  frequent- 
ed this  well,  to  perform  penances  and  to 
pray  for  relief  from  their  maladies.  Those 
invalids  who  had  been  relieved  of  their  in- 
firmities at  these  holy  wells,  either  by  faith 
or  by  the  use  of  cold  water,  frequently  re- 
sorted, in  the  summer-time,  to  the  same 
spot,  with  their  friends  and  relations ;  so 
that  there  was  sometimes  a  considerable 
concourse  of  people  on  the  annual  festival 
of  the  Patron  Saint  to  whom  the  wells 
were  dedicated.  Such  had  been  the  origin  of 
"  Patrons"  in  Ireland.  On  these  occasions 
the  young  and  the  old  met  together.  A 
little  fair  was  sometimes  held,  of  toys  or 
other  articles  of  small  value,  and  the  day 
was  passed  by  some  in  religious  exercises, 
by  others  in  harmless  society  and  amuse- 
ment. But  amusement,  or  recreation,  pro- 
tection of  saints,  or  benefit  of  prayers,  was 
not  presumed  to  exist  for  Catholics ;  and 
these  innocent  meetings  were  naturally  as- 
sumed to  have  some  connection  with  "  bring- 
ing in  the  Pretender,"  and  overthrowing 
the  glorious  Constitution  in  Church  and 
State.  They  were,  therefore,  strictly  forbid- 
den by  a  statute  of  this  reign,*  which  im- 
posed a  fine  of  ten  shillings  (and  in  default 
of  payment,  whipping)  upon  every  person 
"  who  shall  attend  or  be  present  at  any 
pilgrimage,  or  meeting  held  at  any  holy 
well,  or  imputed  holy  well."  The  same 
act  inflicts  a  fine  of  £20  (and  imprisonment 
until  payment)  upon  every  person  who  shall 
build  a  booth,  or  sell  ale,  victuals,  or  other 
commodities  at  such  pilgrimages  or  meet- 
ings. It  further  "requires  all  magistrates 
to  demolish  all  crosses,  pictures,  and  inscrip- 
tions that  are  anywhere  publicly  set  up,  and 
are  the  occasions  of  Popish  superstitions" — 
that  is,  objects  of  reverence  and  respect  to 
the  Catholics.  Thus,  in  Ireland,  were  made 
penal   and   suppressed   those   Patron   fairs, 

*  2d  Anne,  c  6. 


SECOND    ACT   TO    PREVENT   THE   GROWTH    OF    POPERY. 


37 


which  indeed  have  been  the  orii>-iii  of  tlie 
most  ancient  and  celebrated  fairs  of  p]iirope, 
as  tliose  of  Lyons,  Frankfort,  Leipzig,  and 
many  others. 

One  other  enactment  of  1708  will  show 
what  kind  of  chance  Catholics  had  in  courts 
of  justice ;  and  will  bring  us  down  to  the 
]ieriod  of  the  second  Act  "  to  prevent  the 
further  growth  of  Popery."  This  law  en- 
acted, "That  from  the  first  of  Michaelmas 
Term,  1708,  no  Papist  shall  serve,  or  be 
returned  to  serve,  on  any  grand-jury  in  the 
Queen's  Bench,  or  before  Justices  of  Assize, 
oyer  and  terminer,  or  gaol-delivery  or  Quarter 
Sessions,  unless  it  appear  to  the  court  that  a 
sufficient  number  of  Protestants  cannot  then 
be  had  for  the  service :  and  in  all  trials 
of  issues  [that  is,  by  petty  juries]  on  any 
presentment,  indictment,  or  information,  or 
action  on  any  statute,  for  any  offence  com- 
mitted by  Papists,  in  breach  of  such  laws, 
the  plaintiff  or  prosecutor  may  challenge 
any  Papist  returned  as  juror,  and  assign 
as  a  cause  -that  he  is  a  Papist,  which  chal- 
lenge shall  he  allowed.''''  The  spirit  of  this 
enactment,  and  the  practice  it  introduced, 
have  continued  till  the  present  moment ;  and 
at  this  very  time,  on  trials  for  political  of- 
fences, Catholics  who  have  been  summoned 
are  usually  challenged  and  set  aside. 

In  May,  1709,  Thomas  Earl  of  Wharton 
being  then  lord-lieutenant,  with  Addison,  of 
the  Spectator,  as  secretary,  there  was  intro- 
duced into  the  House  of  Commons  a  "Bill 
to  explain  and  amend  an  Act  intituled  an 
Act  to  pievent  the  further  growth  of  Po- 
pery." It  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Sergeant 
Caulfield :  was  duly  transmitted  to  England 
\}j  Wharton,  was  approved  at  once,  and  on 
its  return  was  passed,  of  course.  Its  intention 
was  cliiefly  to  close  up  any  loophole  of  es- 
cape from  the  penalties  of  former  statutes, 
and  guard  every  possible  access  by  which 
"  Papists"  might  still  attain  to  independence 
or  a  quiet  life.  Some,  for  example,  had  se- 
cretly purchased  annuities — by  this  statute, 
therefore,  a  Papist  is  declared  incapable  of 
holding  or  enjoying  an  annuity  for  life.  It 
had  been  found,  also,  that  paternal  authority 
or  filial  affection  had  prevented  from  its  full 
operation  that  former  act  of  1704  which  au- 
thorized a  child,  on  conforming,  to  reduce 
his  father  to  a  tenant  for  life.     Further  en- 


couragement to  children  seemed  desirable  : 
therefore  by  this  new  law,  upon  the  conver- 
sion of  the  child  of  any  Catholic,  the  chan- 
cellor was  to  compel  the  father  to  discover 
upon  oath  the  full  value  of  his  estate,  real 
and  personal ;  and  thereupon  make  an  order 
for  the  independent  support  of  such  conform- 
ing child,  and  for  securing  to  him,  after  hi> 
father's  death,  such  share  of  the  property  as 
to  the  court  should  seem  fit : — also  to  secure 
jointures  to  popish  wives  who  should  desert 
their  husbands'  faith.  Thus  distrust  and 
discoid  and  heartburning  in  every  family 
were  well  provided  for.  One  clause  of  the 
Act  prohibits  a  Papist  from  teaching,  as  tutor 
or  usher,  even  as  assistant  to  a  Piotestant 
schoolmaster;  and  another  offers  a  salary  of 
£30  to  such  popish  priests  as  should  con- 
form. But  one  thing  was  still  wanting  :  it 
was  known  that,  notwithstanding  the  pre- 
vious banishment  of  Catholic  archbishops, 
bishops,  &c.,  there  were  still  men  in  the  king- 
dom exercising  those  functions,  coming  from 
France  and  from  Spain  and  braving  the  ter- 
rible penalties  of  transportation  and  death, 
in  order  to  keep  up  the  indispensable  connec- 
tion of  the  Catholic  flock  with  the  Head  of 
the  Church.  It  was  known  that  this  was 
indeed  an  absolute  necessity,  at  whatsoever 
risk ;  and  that  to  pretend  a  toleration  of 
Catholic  worship  while  the  hierarchy  was 
banished,  was  as  reasonable  as  to  talk  of  toler- 
ating Presbyterianism  without  Presbyterians, 
or  courts  without  judges,  or  laws  or  juries. 
Therefore,  this  Act  for  "explaining  and 
amending,"  assigned  stated  rewards  to  inform- 
ers for  the  discoveiy  of  an  archbishop,  bishop, 
vicar-general, or  other  person  exercising  eccle- 
siastical jurisdiction.  For  such  a  prize  the 
informer  was  to  have  £50  :  for  discovering 
any  monk  or  friar,  or  any  secular  clergyman 
not  duly  registered,  £20  :  for  discovering  a 
popish  school-teacher  or  tutor,  £10.  Any 
two  justices  are  also  empowered  to  summon 
before  them  any  Papist  over  eighteen  years, 
and  examine  him  upon  oath  as  to  the  time 
and  place  he  last  heard  Mass,  and  the  names 
of  the  parties  present,  as  well  as  concerning 
the  residence  of  any  Papist  priest  or  school- 
master; and  in  case  of  the  witness  refusing 
to  testify  there  was  a  penalty  of  £20,  or 
twelve  months'  imprisonment.  The  inform- 
ers were  expected,  after  this,  to  be  more  dili- 


38 


HISTOKY    OF    lUELAND. 


geut  and  devoted  than  ever;  and  a  procl.i- 
ination  of  the  same  year  ordering  all 
registered  priests  to  take  the  abjuration  oath 
before  the  25lh  of  March,  IVIO,  under  the 
penalty  of  prcemunire,  gave  additional  stira- 
ulns  and  opportunity  to  the  discoverers. 
The  trade  of  "  priest-hunting"  now  became 
a  distinct  branch  of  the  profession  ;  and 
many  a  venerable  clergyman  was  dogged  by 
these  bloodhounds,  through  various  disguises, 
and  waylaid  by  night  on  his  way  to  baptize 
or  confiiin  or  visit  the  dying.  The  captured 
clergy  were  sometimes  brought  in  by  batches 
of  four  and  five  ;  and  the  laws  were  rigorously 
put  in  force  :  if  it  was  a  first  offence  they 
were  transported  ;  but  if  any  bishop  who  had 
once  been  transported  was  caught  in  Ireland 
again,  he  was  hanged.  Such  is  the  main 
substance  of  the  act  for  "explaining  and 
amending,''  generally  called  the  Second  Act 
"  to  prevent  the  further  growth  of  Popery." 
Lord  Wharton,  by  commission,  gave  it  the 
royal  assent;  and  for  the  zeal  he  had  shown 
in  recommending  and  hastening  the  Act,  the 
House  ui  Commons  voted  his  lordship  an 
address,  "gratefully  acknowledging  her  maj- 
esty's most  particular  care  of  them  in  ap- 
pointing his  excellency  their  chief  governor, 
and  earnestly  wishing  his  long  continuance 
in  the  government,"  (fee.  His  excellency 
desired  the  speaker  to  inform  them  "  that  he 
was  extremely  well  pleased  and  satisfied." 
Than  this  Lord  Wharton  no  more  profligate 
politician,  no  more  detestable  man,  had  ever 
been  sent  over  to  rule  in  Ireland.  It  is  true 
that  the  well-known  character  given  of  him 
by  Dean  Swift  must  be  taken  with  some 
allowance;  because  Wharton  was  a  W'hig, 
had  been  a  Dissenter,  and  was  still  favorable 
to  relaxation  of  the  code  against  Dissenters. 
These  circumstances  were  quite  enough  to 
rouse  all  the  furious  ire  of  the  Dean  of 
St.  Patrick's,  and  draw  from  him  a  torrent 
of  his  foulest  abuse.  Besides,  if  the  dean  was 
enraged  against  Lord  Wharton,  it  certainly 
was  not  for  his  tyranny  to  the  Catholics,  but 
rather  for  his  partiality  to  the  Dissenters  : 
whereby,  indeed,  as  we  shall  see,  Wharton 
soon  got  into  great  disfavor  with  that  very 
Parliainent  which  had  lately  praised  him  so 
highly. 

Jonathan   Swift  had   already  lived   many 
years  in   Ireland,  first  as  Vicar  of  Kilroot 


near  Carrickfergus,  and  afterwards  (in  1699) 
as  Rector  of  Agher  and  Rector  of  Laracoi 
and  Ralhbeggan,  in  the  diocese  of  Meath. 
He  did  not  become  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's  till 
1713  ;  nor  much  concern  himself  with  Irish 
politics  till  several  years  later:  but  he  was 
a  country  clergyman  in  Ireland  during  all 
the  period  of  the  enactment  of  the  whole 
penal  code,  both  in  William's  reign  and  iu 
Anne's ;  he  was  himself  witness  to  the  fe- 
rocious execution  of  those  laws,  and  the 
bitter  suffering  and  humiliation  of  the  Catho- 
lic people  under  them  ;  yet  neither  then, 
nor  at  any  later  time,  not  even  when  in  the 
full  tide  of  his  fame  and  popularity  as  a  "  pa- 
triot," did  he  ever  breathe  one  syllable  of 
remonstrance,  or  of  censure  against  those 
laws.  Swift  is  called  an  Irish  patriot,  and 
he  was  so,  if  zealous  vindication  of  the  claim 
of  the  English  colony  to  rule  the  nation, 
and  to  be  the  nation,  together  with  utter  and 
acrimonious  disdain  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  and  total  indifference  to  their  grievous 
wrongs,  can  constitute  a  patriot.  But  in 
truth  the  history  of  this  extraordinary  genius 
is  a  signal  illustration  of  the  position  already 
stated — that  in  Ireland  were  two  nations, 
and  that  to  be  a  patriot  for  the  one  was  to 
be  a  mortal  enemy  to  the  other.  The  period 
of  Dean  Swift's  leadership  in  Irish  (Colonial) 
politics  had  not  yet  arrived  ;  and  all  his 
writings  upon  Irish  affairs  are  dated  after 
his  appointment  to  the  deanery  :  but  it  may 
be  stated  once  for  all,  that  this  "  Irish  patriot" 
never  once,  in  his  voluminous  works  and 
correspondence,  called  himself  an  Irishman, 
but  always  an  Englishman  ;  that  he  sought 
preferment  only  in  England,  where  he 
wished  to  live  with  the  "  wits"  at  Button's 
coffee-house  ;  that  when  named  to  the  Dublin 
deanery  he  quitted  London  with  a  heavy 
heart,  to  come  over  to  his  "  exile  in  Ireland," 
over  which  he  mourned  in  his  letters  as 
pathetically  as  Ovid  exiled  to  Tomi ;  that 
he  never,  in  all  the  numerous  publications 
he  issued  on  Irish  affairs,  gave  one  word  or 
hint  betraying  the  least  consciousness  or  sus- 
picion of  any  injustice  being  done  to  the 
Catholics;  and  lastly,  that  far  from  feeling 
any  community  of  race  or  of  interest  with 
the  Irish,  we  find  him  thus  expressing  him- 
self in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Mr.  Pope,  in 
1737:  "Some  of  those  who  highly  esteem 


DEAN    SWIFT  :    NATURE    OF    HIS    IRISH    PATRIOTISM. 


39 


you  are  g-rieveJ  to  find  you  make  no  distiiic- 
tiou  between  tlie  English  gentry  of  ihis  king- 
dom and  tile  savage  old  Iri>h  (who  are  only 
the  vulgar,  and  some  gentlemen  who  live  in 
the  Irish  parts  of  the  kingdom),  hut  the  Eng- 
h'sh  colonies,  who  are  three  parts  in  four,  are 
much  more  civilized  than  many  counties  in 
England,"  &c.  Much  will  have  to  be  said 
concerning  Swift  and  his  labors,  a  few  years 
hiter  in  the  narrative.  For  the  present  it  is 
enougli  to  point  out  that  his  furious  denun- 
ciation of  Lord  Wharton  and  his  administra- 
tion iu  Ireland  was  by  no  means  on  account 
of  that  nobleman's  urging  on  the  bill  for 
crushing  Papists. 

Lord  Wharton  liad  been  brought  up  a 
Dissenter ;  though  he  had  long  ceased  to 
regard  any  form  of  religion,  or  any  lie  of 
morality.  lie  was,  however,  a  Whig,  and 
by  party  connections  in  England,  was  favora- 
ble to  some  relaxation  of  penal  laws  against 
the  Irish  Presbyterians.  In  his  speech  pro- 
roguing this  Parliament  of  1709,  he  said  to 
the  Houses  that  "  he  made  no  question  but 
they  understood  too  well  the  true  interest  of 
the  Protestant  religion  iu  that  kingdom  not 
to  endeavoi'  to  make  all  Protestants  as  easy 
as  they  could,  who  were  willing  to  contribute 
what  they  could  to  defend  the  whole  against 
the  common  enemij^  But  the  majority  of  the 
Iri^h  Commons  belonged  to  the  Tory  party  ; 
and  very  soon  dissensions  and  jealousies 
aro>e  between  them  and  the  lord-lieutenant, 
on  account  of  his  obvious  bias  in  favor  of 
the  Dissenlei's.  The  government  of  England 
also  soon  came  into  the  hands  of  the  Tory 
paity  through  a  series  of  intrigues  regarding 
foreign  politics,  which  are  not  necessary  to 
be  here  detailed  :  and  on  the  "Zth  Nov.,  1811, 
the  English  Lords  and  Commons  made  a  long- 
address  to  the  queen,  complaining  of  Whar- 
ton for  "  having  abused  her  majesty's  name, 
in  ordering  «o//e  j9/-0S('5?<i  to  stop  proceed- 
ings against  one  Fleming  and  others  for  dis- 
turbing the  peace  of  the  town  of  Drogheda 
by  setting  up  a  meeting-house" — a  thing  not 
Seen  in  Drogheda,  they  say,  for  many  years. 
They  farther  complained,  in  this  Address, 
of  Presbyterians,  "  for  tyranny  iu  threatening 
and  ruining  members  who  left  them  ;  in  de- 
nying the  common  offices  of  Christianity  ; 
in  printing  and  publishing  tliat  '  the  Sacra- 
mental Test  is  only  an  engine  to  advance  a 


State  faction,  and  to  debase  religion  toservts 
mean  and  unworthy  purposes.'  "  They  there- 
fore recommended  that  her  majesty  should 
withdraw  the  yearly  bounty  of  £l,'200,  then 
allowed  to  Dissenting  Ministers — the  small 
beginning  of  that  regium  donum,  or  royal 
bounty,  which  has  been  gradually  much  in- 
creased, to  reconcile  the  Presbyterians  some- 
what to  their  disabilities  under  the  Test 
law.  During  all  the  rest  of  this  reign,  and 
the  three  following,  no  representations  on 
the  part  of  the  Dissenters  of  the  injustice  of 
this  law,  and  no  protestations  of  their  loy- 
alty to  the  English  crown  and  House  of 
Hanover,  availed  in  the  least  to  procure  a 
relaxation  of  the  odious  Test.  Their  efforts 
in  this  direction  only  diew  upon  them,  a  few 
years  later,  the  savage  raillery  of  Swift,  who 
maintained  that  the  very  Papists  were  quite 
as  well  entitled  to  relief  as  they. 

It  was  in  this  year,  1809,  that  the  scheme 
originated,  of  inducing  Protestant  foreigners 
to  come  to  Ireland,  and  of  offering  them 
naturalization.  Accordingly,  on  the  request 
of  certain  lords  and  others  of  the  council, 
eight  hundred  and  seventy-one  Protestant 
Palatine  families  from  Germany  were  brought 
over,  and  the  sura  of  £24,850  5s.  6d.  appoint- 
ed for  their  maintenance  out  of  the  revenue,  on 
a  resolution  of  the  Commons  "that  it  would 
much  contribute  to  the  security  of  the  king- 
dom if  the  said  Palatines  weie  encouraged 
and  settled  therein."  The  German  families 
actually  were  settled  as  tenants  and  laborers 
in  various  parts  of  the  country.  The  scheme 
of  the  framers  of  this  measure  "  seems  to 
have  been,"  says  Dr.  Curry,  "to  drive  the 
Roman  Catholic  natives  out  of  the  kingdom, 
which  effect  it  certainly  produced  in  great 
numbers ;"  but  the  plan  was  not  found  to 
answer  so  far  as  the  Germans  themselves 
were  concerned.  They  were  neither  zealous 
for  the  queen's  service  nor  for  the  ascend- 
ency of  the  Anglican  Church.  It  seems  that 
only  four,  out  of  this  great  body,  enlisted  iu 
her  majesty's  army,  though  she  was  then  en- 
gaged in  a  war  with  France,  the  very  power 
which  had  ravaged  their  Palatinate,  and  left 
them  homeless.  The  lords,  in  an  address  to 
the  queen  in  1*711,  complain  of  "that  load 
of  debt  which  the  bringing  over  numbers  of 
useless  and  indigent  Palatines  had  brought 
upon  them."     As  for  Dean   Swift  and  the 


40 


IlISTOKY    OF    IRELAND. 


Tol•ie^*,  the  way  in  which  the  German  inimi- 
gratioti  was  regarded  by  them  is  apparent 
trom  a  passage  iu  the  Dean's  ''  History  of  the 
Four  Last  Years  of  Queen  Anne."  He  says, 
*••  By  this  Act,  any  foreigner  who  would  take 
the  oaths  to  the  Government,  and  profess 
himself  a  Protestant,  of  whatsoever  denomi- 
nation, was  immediately^  naturalized,  and  had 
all  the  advantages  of  an  English-born  sub- 
ject, at  the  expense  of  a  shilling.  Most 
Protestants  abroad  differ  from  us  in  the  points 
of  church  government,  so  that  all  the  ac- 
quisitions by  this  Act  would  increase  the 
number  of  Dissenters" — which  in  Dr.  Swift's 
eyes  was  as  bad  as  increasing  the  number 
of  Papists.  Accordingly,  he  indicates  his 
opinion  of  the  whole  scheme  a  little  lower 
«lown,  where  he  says,  "It  appeared  mani- 
festly, by  the  issue,  that  the  public  was  a 
loser  by  every  individual  amongst  them  ; 
and  that  a  kingdom  can  no  more  be  the 
richer  for  such  an  importation  than  a  man 
can  be  fatter  by  a  wen."  The  law  for  nat- 
\iralizHtion  of  Protestants  was  iu  fact  soon 
lepealed  ;  though  no  measures  were  spared 
to  drive  the  Catholics  away.  And  even 
jiuch  of  the  Roman  Catholic  natives  as  were 
afterwards  willing  to  return,  were  not  per- 
mitted;  for  in  I7l3  the  Commons  ordered 
that  "  an  address  should  be  made  to  her 
majesty,  to  desire  her  that  she  would  be 
pleased  not  to  grant  licenses  to  Papists  to 
return  into  the  kingdom." 

It  was  even  dangerous  for  them  to  attempt, 
or  endeavor  to  hear,  what  passed  in  the 
House  of  Commons  concerning  themselves. 
For  in  the  same  year,  an  order  was  made 
there,  "that  the  sergeant-at-arms should  take 
into  custody  all  Papists  that  were  or  should 
'presume  to  come  into  the  galleries."*  The 
Palatines,  or  their  descendants,  still  remain 
ill  Ireland.  They  generally  "  conformed  ;" 
not  having  any  particular  objection  against 
any  religion  ;  but  caring  little  for  the  As- 
cendency, or  the  Whig  or  Tory  politics  of 
the  country,  at  least  for  a  generation  or 
two. 

The  Duke  of  Shrewsbury  was  lord-lieu- 
tenant after  Wharton.  The  duke  had  de- 
serted the  Catholic  Church,  and,  like  other 
converts,  was  more  bitter  against  the  coin- 

*  Commons  Journ.,  Vol.  III. 


munion  he  had  left  than  those  who  were 
born  Protestants.  He  was  also  a  Tory.  The 
Irish  Parliament  Was  dissolved  ;  and  on  a 
new  election,  the  majority  of  the  members 
were  found  to  be  Whigs.  The  short  re- 
mainder of  this  reign,  so  far  as  affairs  of 
State  in  Ireland  are  concerned,  is  quite  bar- 
ren of  interest,  the  great  affair  being  a  quar- 
rel of  the  House  of  Commons  against  Sir 
Constantine  Phipps,  the  lord  chancellor,  be- 
cause he  was  a  noted  Tory  and  close  friend 
of  the  celebrated  Doctor  Saoheverell,  the 
clergyman  who  preached  the  divine  right  of 
kings,  and  was  therefore  held  an  enemy  to 
the  "  glorious  Revolution,"  and  friend  of  the 
*'  Pretender." 

All  these  matters  were  quite  unimportant 
to  the  great  body  of  the  nation.  The  Cath- 
olics were  either  emigrating  to  France,  or 
else  withdrawing  themselves  as  much  as 
possible  from  observation ;  some  of  them  con- 
forming and  changing  their  names ;  others 
reduced  to  the  most  pitiful  artifices  in  order 
to  preserve  the  little  patrimony  that  was  left 
iu  their  hands  ;  but  most  of  them  sinking 
into  the  condition  of  tenants  or  laborers  in 
the  country  (all  profitable  industry  in  the 
towns  being  prohibited  to  them) ;  and  it  is 
from  this  time  forward  that  thousands  of  the 
ancient  gentry  of  the  country,  and  even  chiefs 
of  powerful  clans,  stripped  of  their  dignities 
and  possessions,  and  too  poor,  or  too  old  to 
emigrate,  had  to  descend  to  the  position  of 
cottiers  and  serfs  under  the  new  possessors 
of  the  laud,  who  hated  and  oppressed  them, 
both  as  despoiled  Irish  and  as  proscribed 
Catholics ;  and  who  hate  them  quite  as  bit- 
terly to  the  present  hour. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  war  of  the  Allies 
against  France  had  been  attended  with  many 
brilliant  successes,  under  the  Duke  of  Marl- 
borough and  Prince  Eugene.  Some  of  the 
most  signal  defeats  ever  sustained  by  the 
arms  of  France  were  inflicted  by  the  duke, 
particularly  Blenheim,  Raraillies,  Oudenarde, 
and  Malplaquet.  But  on  the  Court  revo- 
lution which  displaced  the  Whigs,  Marl- 
borough was  deprived  of  his  command,  and 
the  Duke  of  Ormond  sent  out  in  bis  place. 
Shortly  afterwards  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  was 
signed  (11th  April,  1813),  by  which  treaty 
France  recognized  the  Protestant  succession 
in  England,  and  the  "Pretender"  was  com- 


THE    "  PRETEXDKR" PERILS    OF    DEAN   SWIFT. 


41 


pelled  to  depart  from  that  kiriijdom ;  the 
union  of  the  two  monarchies  of  France  and 
Spain  was  provided  against,  though  a  French 
Bourbon  remained  on  the  throne  of  Spain  ; 
and  to  the  great  loss  and  humiHation  of 
France,  it  was  agreed  that  the  harbor  of 
Dunkirk  should  be  demolished.  This  treaty 
gave  i-epose  for  a  time  to  the  Irish  soldiers 
abroad. 

The  last  year  of  Anne,  therefore,  was  a 
year  of  peace  abroad,  but  of  violent  party 
strife  and  political  conspiracy  at  home.  All 
the  world  expected  a  struggle  for  the  suc- 
cession at  the  moment  of  the  queen's  death  ; 
and  King  James  the  Third,  called  in  England 
"Pretender,"  was  known  to  have  a  large 
party  both  in  that  country  and  in  Scotland, 
ready  to  assert  his  hereditary  right.  The 
agitation  extended  to  Ireland ;  but  did  not 
reach  the  Catholic  population,  which  was 
quite  indifferent  to  Stuart  or  Hanoverian. 
The  queen  died  on  the  1st  of  August,  1814, 
the  last  of  the  house  of  Stuart  recognized  as 
sovereign  of  England,  and  leaving  behind  , 
her,  as  to  her  Irish  administration,  so  black 
a  record  that  it  would  have  been  strange  in- 
deed if  the  Irish  nation  had  ever  desired  to 
see  the  face  of  a  Stuart  again.  Yet  it  is  i 
probable  that  she  was  secretly  a  Catholic,  ; 
like  all  her  family  :  and  it  is  certain  that  she 
WHS  bitterly  displeased  at  the  "  Protestant 
succession,"  now  secured  by  law  to  the  House 
of  Hanover.  It  is  needless  here  to  enter  into  | 
the  controversy  as  to  whether  she  was  alto- 
gether a  stranger  to  the  plots  for  setting 
aside  that  succession,  and  bringing  in  her 
Catholic  brother.  She  was  known  to  be 
deeply  grieved  and  provoked  by  the  zeal  of 
politicians,  both  in  England  and  Ireland, 
who,  desirous  of  gaining  favor  with  the 
coming  dynasty,  endeavored  to  get  an  act 
of  attainder  passed  against  "the  Pretender ;" 
and  a  bill  for  that  purpose  in  Ireland,  which 
also  offered  a  large  reward  for  his  apprehen- 
sion, was  only  defeated  by  a  hasty  proroga- 
tion. Yet  "the  queen  hated  and  despised 
the  Pretender,  to  ray  knowledge,"  is  the  as- 
sertion of  Swift  in  his  "  Piemarks  on  Burnet's 
History."  Perhapsshe  did  :  most  sovereigns 
hate  their  heirs-apparent,  even  when  these 
are  their  own  sons;  but  there  is  abundant 
evidence  that  she  hated  the  Elector  of  Han- 
over and  his  mother  very  much  worse, 
ti 


CHAPTER  VII. 


1714—1723. 


George  I. — James  III. — Perils  of  Dean  Swift — Tories 
dismissed — Orrnoiid,  Oxford,  and  Bolingbroke  im- 
peached—  Insurrection  in  Scotland  —  Calm  in 
Ireland  —  Arrests  —  Irish  Parliunient — "Loytilty" 
of  the  CHtholics — "  No  Catholics  exist  in  Ireland" 
— Priest-catchers — Botton  lord-lieutenant — Cause 
of  Sherlock  and  Annesley — Conflict  of  jurisdic- 
tion— Declaratory  Act  establishing  dependence  of 
the  Irish  Parliament — Swift's  pamphlet — State  of 
the  country — Grafton  lord-lieuteuant — Courage 
of  the  priests — Atrocious  Bill. 

The  succession  of  the  Elector  of  Hanover 
had  been  in  no  real  danger,  notwithstanding 
the  plotting  of  a  few  Jacobites  in  England  ; 
although  the  Whig  party  anxiously  en- 
deavored to  represent  the  Tories  as  desirous 
of  "  bringing  in  the  Pretender."  The  dis- 
tinction, however,  between  Tories  and  Jacob- 
ites is  important  to  be  borne  in  mind  ;  and 
a  well-known  letter  of  Dean  Swift,  who,  be- 
ing a  Tory,  had  been  accused  of  Jacobitism, 
is  conclusive  upon  this  point.  In  fact,  al- 
though the  English  people  and  the  English 
colony  of  Ireland  were  at  that  time  nearly 
equally  divided  into  Whigs  and  Tories,  there 
were  but  few  Jacobites  save  in  Scotland  and 
the  northern  counties  of  England.  Accord- 
ingly, on  the  death  of  Anne,  the  Elector  of 
Hanover  was  duly  proclaimed  in  both  islands 
by  the  title  of  King  George  the  First.  In 
Ireland,  the  proclamation  was  made  by  torch- 
light, and  at  midnight;  and  great  efforts 
were  made  to  produce  the  impression  that 
there  was  imminent  danger  of  a  Jacobite  in- 
surrection "to  bring  in  the  Pretender." 
This  affectation  of  alarm  seems  to  have  been 
intended  to  bring  odium,  not  so  much  on 
the  Catholics,  as  on  the  Tories  :  some  arrests 
were  made,  and  it  was  alleged  that  on  one 
of  the  parties  arrested  letters  were  found 
written  by  Dr.  Swift.  The  populace  of 
Dublin  must  at  that  period  have  been  vio- 
lently Hanoverian  ;  for  Lord  Orrery  tells  us 
that  on  the  dean's  return  to  Ireland  afler 
the  proclamation  of  the  new  king,  he  dared 
hardly  venture  forth,  and  was  pelted  by 
mobs  when  he  made  his  appearance.  The 
bitterness  and  fury  of  party  spirit  at  that 
day  is  curiously  illustrated  by  the  story  of 
the  outrages  and  insults  which  the  dean  had 
to  encounter,  even  at  the  hands  of  persons 


42 


HISTORT    OF   IBBLAND. 


of  rank  and  lille.  Lord  Blaney  attempted 
to  diive  over  him  on  the  public  road  ;  and 
Swift  petitioned  the  legislature  for  protection 
to  his  life.  He  was  advised  by  his  physi- 
cian, he  said,  to  go  often  on  horseback,  on 
account  of  his  health  ;  "and  there  being  no 
place  iu  winter  so  convenient  for  riding  as  the 
strand  towards  Howtii,  your  petitioner  takes 
all  opportunities  that  his  business  or  the 
weather  will  permit,  to  take  that  road." 
Here  he  details  the  scene  of  Lord  Blaney's 
attempting  to  overturn  hira  and  his  horse, 
at  the  same  time  threatening  his  life  with  a 
loaded  pistol,  and  prays  protection  accord- 
ingly. There  is  no  doubt,  however  (without 
questioning  the  sincerity  of  the  dean's  zeal 
for  the  House  of  Hanover),  that  several  of 
his  most  intimate  friends,  especially  Lord 
Bolingbroke  and  Bishop  Atterbury,  were  en- 
gaged in  the  plot,  along  with  the  Duke  of 
Ormond,  to  prevent  the  succession  of  King 
George  ;  and  that  the  suspicions  as  to  Swift's 
Jacobitism  were  at  least  plausible.  Swift 
was  excessively  mortified,  or  rather  irritated, 
by  the  popular  manifestations  against  him. 
He  was  very  covetous  of  influence  and  popu- 
larity, and  his  high,  fierce  spirit  could  ill 
brook  the  least  demonstration  of  public  re- 
proach. He  denounced  the  people  of  Dublin 
as  a  vile,  abandoned  race ;  but  we  hear  no 
more  of  his  Jacobitism,  and  not  much  of  his 
Toryism,  except  that  to  the  last  hour  of  his 
life  he  hated  and  lampooned  Dissenters. 

Immediately  after  the  accession  of  George 
I.,  all  Tories  were  instantly  dismissed  from 
oflflce,  and  the  Government  placed  entirely 
in  the  hands  of  Whigs ;  which  had  been 
the  very  object  of  denouncing  Tories  as 
Jacobites.  When  the  English  Parliament 
met,  articles  of  impeachment  were  quickly 
found  against  the  Duke  of  Ormond,  and  the 
Loi  ds  Oxford  and  Bolingbroke,  for  high  trea- 
son, in  having  contributed  to  bring  about 
the  Peace  of  Utrecht  by  traitorous  means, 
and  with  a  view  of  changing  the  Protestant 
succession.  Bolingbroke  and  Ormond  avoided 
the  trial  on  the  impeachment  by  going  to 
the  continent,  where  they  both  ofiered  their 
services  to  King  James  HL  (or  the  Pre- 
tender), then  holding  a  kind  of  court  in 
Lorrain,  having  been  exiled  from  France  at 
the  peace.  The  party  which  adhered  to  the 
exiled    priuce    was    iu  fact   making  urgent 


preparations  for  a  rising  both  in  Scotland  and 
in  England  ;  and  on  the  15th  of  September, 
1715,  the  Earl  of  Mar  set  up  the  standaid 
of  insurrection,  proclaimed  King  James  the 
Third  at  Castletown  in  Scotland,  and  quickly 
collected  an  army  of  ten  thousand  men. 
These  forces  were  gathered  from  both  High- 
lands and  Lowlands,  and  consisted  both  of 
Catliolics  and  Protestants.  The  Duke  of 
Argyle,  with  his  powerful  clan  of  Campbells, 
was  zealous  for  King  George,  and  with  other 
Highland  tribes  and  some  regular  troops  met 
the  Earl  of  Mar  at  Shenfi"muir,  where  a 
bloody  but  indecisive  battle  took  place.  A 
portion  of  the  Jacobite  force,  marched  south- 
ward into  England,  were  encountered  at 
Preston,  in  Lancashire,  by  the  King's  troops, 
and,  after  a  short  fight,  obliged  to  surrender 
at  discretion.  Mar  still  kept  his  banner  dis- 
played, until  King  James  the  Third  in  per- 
son landed  at  Peterhead,  on  the  east  coast 
of  Scotland,  in  December;  but  very  soon 
afterwards,  on  the  approach  of  Argyle  with 
a  superior  force,  the  enterprise  was  aban- 
doned. The  Prince  and  the  Earl  of  Mar 
escaped  by  sea;  the  other  leaders  of  the  in- 
surrection, both  in  England  and  in  Scotland, 
were  arrested,  tried,  and  some  of  them  ex- 
ecuted. The  rebellion  was  at  an  end,  and 
from  that  day  the  exiled  Prince  may  truly 
be  termed,  not  James  the  Third,  but  the 
"  Pretender." 

This  Scottish  insurrection  is  of  small  mo- 
ment to  Irish  history,  save  in  so  far  as  it 
furnished  a  pretext  for  fresh  atrocities  upon 
the  unresisting  people.  There  was  no  in- 
surrection or  disturbance  whatever  during 
all  these  events.  We  do  not  even  hear  of 
any  Irish  officer  of  distinction  who  came 
from  the  continent  to  join  the  Pretender's 
cause  in  Scotland  ;  and  the  Earl  of  Mar,  who 
afterwards  published  a  narration  in  Paris, 
affirms  that  the  Duke  of  Berwick,  who 
was  very  popular  with  the  Irish  troops  in 
France,  had  been  urged  to  take  the  chief 
command  of  the  movement,  probably  in 
order  to  draw  some  Irish  regiments  into  it, 
but  that  "  the  Duke  of  Berwick  positively 
refused  to  repair  to  Scotland,"  though  he 
was  half-brother  to  the  Pretender.  The  in- 
surrection of  lYlo  was  therefore  exclusively 
a  Scottish  and  English  affair.  Some  writerb 
on  this  period  of  Irish  history,  who  are  en- 


SCOTTISH    INSURRECTION — IRISH    PARLIAMENT. 


43 


titled  to  respect,*  have  given  the  Irish  Catho- 
lics the  very  doubtful  praise  of  loyalty,  for 
their  extreme  quietness  and  passiveness  at 
this  time.  It  is  true  that  they  cared  not  for 
the  Smart  family  ;  yet,  considering  the  ex- 
cessive and  abject  oppression  under  which 
they  were  then  groaning,  and  the  slender 
prospect  they  had  of  any  mitigation  of  it, 
we  may  assume  that  any  revolution  which 
would  overturn  the  actual  order  of  things, 
and  give  them  a  chance  of  redeeming  their 
nationality,  would  have  been  desirable.  But 
they  were  disarmed,  impoverished,  and  dis- 
couraged;  could  not  own  a  musket,  nor  a 
sabre,  nor  a  horse  over  five  guineas'  value ; 
had  no  leaders  at  home,  nor  any  possibility 
of  organizing  a  combined  movement;  so 
closely  were  they  watched,  and  held  down 
with  so  iron  a  hand.  If  they  took  no  part, 
therefore,  in  the  insurrections  of  1815  and  of 
1845,  it  may  be  said  (in  their  favor,  not  to 
their  dishonor)  that  it  was  on  account  of  ex- 
haustion and  impotence,  not  on  account  of 
loyalty.  If  they  had  been  capable,  at  that 
time,  of  attachment  to  the  Protestant  suc- 
cession, and  of  "  loyalty"  to  the  House  of 
Hanover,  they  would  have  been  even  more 
degraded  than  they  actually  were. 

However,  as  the  Pretender  was  a  Catholic, 
and  as  the  Irish  Government  knew  that  the 
oppressed  Catholics  of  that  country,  if  not 
always  ready  for  insurrection,  ought  to  have 
been  so,  numerous  arrests  were  made  during 
the  Scottish  insurrection.  There  were  still 
some  forlorn  Catholic  peers  dwelling  in  their 
dismal  country-seats,  debarred  from  attend- 
ing Parliament,  endeavoring  to  attract  no  re- 
mark, and  too  happy  if  they  could  secretly 
keep  in  their  stables  a  few  horses  for  hunt- 
ing. There  were  also  still  some  lauded 
gentlemen,  though  sadly  stripped  of  their 
possessions,  who  tried  to  keep  one  another 
in  countenance,  and  drank  in  private  the 
health  of  King  Louis,  and  the  mole  whose 
mole-hill  killed  William  of  Orange.  It  was 
desirable  for  the  Government  to  take  pre- 
cautions against  these  sad  relics  of  the  once 
proud   nation.     Accordingly,   the    Earls   of 

*  Mr.  Plowden,  and  Doctor  Curry.  They  both 
wrote  at  a  much  later  period  ;  and  both  with  a,  view 
of  pointing  out  the  folly  of  the  Penal  Code,  us  Irish 
Catholics  had  always,  they  said,  been  "  loyal"  to 
the  HoueC  of  Hanover. 


Antrim  and  Westmeath,  Lords  NelterviUe, 
Cahir,  and  Dill>n,  with  a  great  number  of 
untitled  gentlemen,  were  suddenly  seized 
upon  and  shut  up  in  Dublin  Castle,  "  on 
suspicion."  They  were  released  when  the 
insurrection  was  over. 

In  the  mean  time  the  Irish  Parliament 
met,  and  was  opened  by  lords-justices.  The 
Hou.ses,  especially  the  Commons,  were  filled 
with  the  most  fiery  zeal  for  the  Protestant 
succession,  and  most  desirous  of  ingratiating 
themselves  with  the  new  dynasty.  They 
passed  acts  for  recognizing  the  king's  title — 
for  the  security  of  his  person  and  govern- 
ment— for  attainting  the  Pretender,  and 
offering  a  reward  of  £50,000  for  his  appre- 
hension. The  Commons  also  presented  an 
address  to  the  new  king,  entreating  his  maj- 
esty, for  the  security  of  the  Government 
and  for  the  Protestant  interest,  to  remove  the 
Earl  of  Anglesea  from  all  offices  of  honor 
and  trust.  Lord  Anglesea  was  a  member  of 
the  Council,  and  one  of  the  vice-treasurers 
of  the  kingdom :  he  was  a  Tory,  was  sus- 
pected of  being  a  Jacobite  ;  and  the  reasons 
assigned  in  the  address  for  removing  him 
were,  that  he  had  caused  or  procured  the 
disbanding  of  great  part  of  the  army  in 
Ireland ;  and  that  he  had  connived  at  the 
enrolment  of  Irish  Catholics  for  foreign  ser- 
vice. "They  had  information,"  they  said, 
"  that  many  Irish  Papists  had  been,  and 
continued  to  be,  shipped  off  from  Dublin 
and  other  ports  for  the  service  of  the  Pre- 
tender." As  usual,  the  main  business  of 
the  Parliament  was  taking  further  precau- 
tions against  the  "  common  enemy,"  for 
which  the  Pretender's  insurrection  in  Scot- 
laud  served  as  a  false  pretence.  The  lords- 
justices,  in  their  speech  to  this  Parliament, 
bear  complacent  testimony  to  the  calmness 
and  tranquillity  in  which  Ireland  had  re- 
mained during  the  troubles,  which  Mr. 
Plowden,  with  great  simplicity,  takes  as  a 
compliment  to  the  "  loyalty"  of  the  Catholics 
— instead  of  being  (what  it  was)  a  congrat- 
ulation upon  the  Catholics  being  so  effect- 
ually crushed  and  trodden  down  that  they 
could  not  rise.  This  amiable  writer  cannot 
conceal  his  surprise  at  what  be  terms  "  the 
inconsistency  of  rendering  solemn  homage 
to  the  exemplary  loyalty  of  the  Irish  nation 
in   the  most  perilous  crisis,  and  punishing 


44 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


them,  at  the  same  time,  for  a  disposition  to 
treachery,  turbulence,  and  treason."  Nay, 
he  is  still  more  astonished  at  finding  that 
"  this  very  speech,  which  bore  such  honor- 
able testimony  to  the  tried  loyalty  of  the 
Irish  Catholics,  bespoke  the  disgraceful 
policy  of  keeping  and  treating  thera,  not- 
withstanding, as  a  separate  people — '  We 
must  recommend  to  you,'  said  the  lords-jus- 
tices, *in  the  present  conjuncture,  such 
unanimity  in  your  resolutions  as  may  once 
more  put  an  end  to  all  other  distinctions 
in  Ireland  than  that  of  Protestant  and 
Papist.' " 

It  may  here  be  observed,  once  for  all,  to 
put  an  end  to  this  delusion  about  Catholic 
loyalty  in  Ireland,  that  the  Catholics  would 
not  have  been  permitted  to  be  loyal,  even  if 
they  had  been  base  enough  to  desire  it — that 
some  abject  attempts  by  some  of  them  to 
testify  their  loyalty  were  repulsed,  as  will  be 
hereafter  seen — that  when  a  viceroy  or  loid- 
justice  speaks  of  "  the  nation,"  at  the  period 
in  question,  he  means  the  Protestant  nation 
exclusively — nay,  that  the  law  was,  that  no 
Catholics  existed  in  Ireland  at  all.  It  was 
long  a  favorit<*  fiction  of  Irish  law,*  "that 
all  the  effective  inhabitants  of  Iieland  are  to 
be  pfesumed  to  be  Protestants — and  that, 
therefoie,  the  Catholics,  their  clergy,  worship, 
&c.,  are  not  to  be  supposed  to  exist,  save  for 
reprehension  and  punishment."  Indeed,  in 
the  time  of  George  II.,  Lord-Chancellor 
Bowes  declared  from  the  bench,  "  that  the 
law  does  not  suppose  any  such  person  to  ex- 
ist as  an  Irish  Roman  Catholic;"  and  Chief- 
Justice  Robinson  made  a  similar  declara- 
tion.j-  It,  appears  plain,  then,  that  the  "loy- 
alty" of  the  Catholics  towards  the  House  of 
Hanover,  if  indeed  there  has  ever  been  any 
such  loyalty,  could  not  have  sprung  up  in 
their  hearts  in  the  reign  of  George  I.,  or  of 
George  11. 

No  new  enactments  were  made  in  this 
session  of  Parliament  in  aggravation  of  the 
Penal  Code ;  but  a  resolution  was  passed 
recommending  to  magistrates  the  indispen- 
sable duty  to  put  the  existing  laws  into  im- 
mediate and  rigorous  execution,  and  de- 
nouncing those  who  neglected  to  do  so  as 
"enemies  of  the  Constitution;"  no  slight  nor 

*  See  "  Scully's  State  of  the  Penal  Laws,"  p.  333. 
+  Ibid.,  p.  334. 


harmless" imputation  at  that  period,  nor  one 
which  any  magistrate  would  willingly  incur. 
In  fact,  the  penal  laws  against  Catholics 
were  put  in  force  at  this  time,  and  during  all 
the  remainder  of  the  reign  of  George  I., 
with  even  more  than  the  customary  ferocity, 
as  a  design  to  bring  in  the  Pretender  was 
supposed  to  lurk  in  every  Mass.  In  many 
places  chapels  were  shut  up,  priests  were 
dragged  from  their  hiding-places,  sometimes 
from  the  very  altars,  in  the  midst  of  divine 
service,  hurried  into  the  most  loathsome 
dungeons,  and  from  thence  banished  forever 
from  their  native  country.*  *'  To  the  credit 
of  those  times,"  however,  observes  Brenan, 
the  ecclesiastical  historian,  "it  must  be  re- 
marked, that  the  description  of  miscreants 
usually  iQvxn&A  prient-catchers  were  generally 
Jews  who  pretended  to  be  converts  to  the 
Christian  religion,  and  some  of  them  as- 
sumed even  the  character  of  the  priesthood, 
for  the  purpose  of  insinuating  themselves 
more  readily  into  the  confidence  of  the 
clergy.  The  most  notorious  among  thera 
was  a  Portuguese  Jew,  named  Gorzia  (or 
Garcia).  By  means  of  this  wretch  seven 
priests  had  been  apprehended  in  Dublin, 
and  banished  the  kingdom.  Of  this  number, 
two  were  Jesuits,  one  was  a  Dominican,  one 
a  Franciscan,  and  three  were  secular  priests." 
These  last  were  probably  "  unregistered" 
priests;  or  else  had  not  taken  the  abjuration 
oath,  which  was  then  legally  obligatory 
upon  them  all,  under  cruel  penalties.  In- 
deed, by  means  of  the  various  statutes  made 
against  them,  it  may  be  affirmed  generally 
that  every  priest  in  Ireland,  whether  regular 
or  secular,  was  now  liable  to  transportation 
and  to  death ;  because  out  of  one  thousand 
and  eighty  "  registered"  priests,  only  thirty- 
three  ever  took  the  oath  of  abjuration.  The 
remainder  stood  firm,  and  set  at  defiance  the 
terrors  which  surrounded  them."}" 

Although  the  rebellion  of  the  Presbyte- 
rians in  Scotland  was  the  sole  pretence  for 
this  severity,  and  the  very  same  law  which 
banishes  popish  priests  prohibits  also  Dis- 
senters to  accept  of  or  act  by  a  commission 
in  the  militia  or  array,  yet  so  partial  were 
the  resolutions  of  that  parliament,  that,  at 
the  same  time  that  they  ordered  the  former 

•  Curry's  Review.    Breiiaa's  Eccl.  Hist,  of  Ireland. 
+  Hibernia  Domiaicana. 


CAUSE    OF    SHERLOCK    AND    ANNESLEY. DECLARATORY   ACT. 


45 


to  be  rigorously  prosecuted,  th^y  resolved, 
unanimously, ''  that  any  person  wlio  should 
commence  a  prosecution  against  any  of  the 
latter  who  bad  accepted,  or  should  accept 
of  a  commission  in  the  array  or  militia,  was 
an  enemy  to  King  George  and  the  Protes- 
tant interest."  Thus  of  the  only  two  main 
objects  of  the  same  law,  its  execution  as  to 
one  of  them  was  judged  highly  meritorious, 
and  it  was  deemed  equally  culpable  even  to 
attempt  it  against  the  other  ;  though  the  law 
itself  makes  no  difference  between  them. 
Such  was  the  justice  and  consistency  of  our 
legislators  of  that  period. 

In  the  year  17 19,  the  Duke  of  Bolton 
being  lord-lieutenant,  occurred  the  famous 
case  of  Sherlock  against  Annesley,  which 
provoked  the  Irish  House  of  Lords  into  a 
faint  and  impotent  assertion  of  their  priv- 
ileges, opened  up^  once  more  the  whole 
question  between  English  dominion  and  Irish 
national  pretensions,  and  ended  in  settling 
that  question  in  favor  of  England  ;  setting 
it,  in  fact,  definitively  at  rest  until  the  year 
1782. 

That  cause  was  tried  in  the  Irish  Court 
of  Exchequer,  between  Esther  Sherlock  and 
Maurice  Annesley,  in  which  the  latter  obtain- 
ed a  decree,  which  on  an  appeal  to  the  Irish 
House  of  Lords  was  reversed.  From  this 
sentence  Annesley  appealed  to  the  English 
House  of  Lords,  who  confirmed  the  judgment 
of  the  Irish  Exchequer,  and  issued  process  to 
put  him  into  possession  of  the  litigated  prop- 
erty. Esther  Sherlock  petitioned  the  Irish 
Lords  against  the  usurped  authority  of  Eng- 
land, and  they,  having  taken  the  opinion  of 
the  judges,  resolved  that  they  would  support 
their  honor,  jurisdiction,  and  privileges,  by 
giving  effectual  relief  to  the  petitioner. 
Sherlock  was  put  into  possession  by  the 
Sheriff  of  Kildare  ;  an  injunction  issued  from 
the  Court  of  Exchequer  in  Ireland,  pur- 
suant to  the  decree  of  the  English  Lords, 
directing  him  to  restore  Annesley ;  the 
sheriff  (let  his  name  be  honored !),  Alexan- 
der Burrowes,  refused  obedience.  He  was 
protected  in  a  contumacy  which  so  nobly 
contrasts  the  wonted  servility  of  the  judges, 
by  the  Irish  Lords,  who  addressed  a  power- 
ful State  paper  to  the  throne,  recapitulating 
the  rights  of  Ireland,  her  independent 
parliament,  and  peculiar  jurisdiction.     They 


went  further,  for  they  sent  the  Irish  barons 
to  jail ;  but  the  king  having  the  address  of 
the  Irish  Lords  laid  before  the  English  House, 
the  latter  reaffirmed  their  proceedings,  and 
supplicated  the  throne  to  confer  some  mark 
of  special  favor  on  the  servile  judges,  who, 
in  relinquishing  their  juiisdiction,  had  be- 
trayed the  liberties  of  their  country.  An 
Act  was  at  once  passed  in  the  English  Par- 
liament, enacting  and  declaring  that  the 
king,  with  the  advice  of  the  Lords  and 
Commons  of  England,  "  hath  had  of  right, 
and  ought  to  have,  full  power  and  authority 
to  make  laws  and  statutes  of  sufficient  force 
and  validity  to  bind  the  people  and  the 
kingdom  of  Ireland. 

"  And  be  it  further  enacted  and  declared, 
by  the  authority  aforesaid,  that  the  House 
of  Lords  of  Ireland  have  not,  nor  of  right 
ought  to  have,  any  jurisdiction  to  judge, 
affirm,  or  reverse  any  judgment,  sentence, 
or  decree,  given  or  made  in  any  court  within 
the  same  kingdom  ;  and  that  all  proceedings 
before  the  said  House  of  Lords,  upon  any 
such  judgment,  sentence,  or  decree,  are,  and 
are  hereby  declared  to  be,  utterly  null  and 
void,  to  all  intents  and  purposes  whatever." 

This  Declaratory  Act  is  the  last  of  the 
statutes  claiming  such  a  jurisdiction.  The 
Irish  Parliament  had  to  submit  for  the  time; 
but  the  principles  of  Molyneux,  soon  after 
enforced  with  far  greater  power  by  Swift, 
worked  in  men's  minds,  and  at  last  brought 
forth  Flood  and  Grattan,  and  caused  the 
army  of  the  Volunteers  to  spring  out  of  the 
earth.  Once  more,  however,  it  should  be 
borne  in  mind  that  this  constitutional  ques- 
tion was  a  question  between  Protestant 
England  and  her  Protestant  colony  alone ; 
and  that  the  Catholic  Irish  nation  had  at 
that  time  no  more  favor  or  indulgence  to 
hope  for  at  the  hands  of  a  parliament  in 
Dublin  than  of  a  parliament  in  London. 

The  Declaratory  Act  did  not  pass  the 
English  Parliament  without  opposition,  es- 
pecially in  the  Commons,  where  Mr.  Pitt 
made  himself  conspicuous  by  his  argument 
against  it.  It  was  finally  carried  by  140 
votes  against  88.  The  Duke  of  Leeds,  in 
the  Lords,  made  a  powerful  protest  against 
the  bill,  but  in  vain. 

In  the  same  year,  1 71 9,  an  act  was  passed 
in  the  Irish  Parliament  "  for  granting  some 


46 


HISTOUY    OF    IRELAND. 


ease  and  indulgence  to  the  Protestant  Dis- 
vnfcrs  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion."  The 
Duke  of  Bolton,  in  his  speech,  was  pleased 
to  couiniend  this  act  most  warmly,  as  a  step 
towards  consolidating  the  Protestant  interest 
«gainst  the  common  enemy.  The  duke 
earnestly  pleads  for  the  necessity  of  union  : 
"  in  the  words,"  he  says,  "  of  one  of  those 
excellent  bills  passed  this  day — I  mean  an 
union  in  interest  and  affection  amongst  all 
Lis  majesty's  subjects."  The  viceroy  did 
not  even  feel  it  necessary  to  say  "  all  his  maj- 
esty's Protestant  subjects,"  knowing  that  this 
would  be  understood  ;  so  firmly  established 
was  the  State  maxim,  that  the  law  knows 
not  of  the  existence  of  an  Irisb  Catholic. 

The  year  1820  is  memorable  for  the 
publication  of  Dean  Swifi's  first  pamphlet 
on  Irish  affairs — his  "  P;-oposa/ /or  the  Use 
of  Irish  Manufactured  He  had  now  been 
for  seven  years  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's  :  he  had 
witnessed  the  enactment  of  many  a  penal 
law  against  Catholics :  within  hearing  of 
his  own  deanery-house  the  Protestant  mob, 
led  on  by  priest-catchers,  had  dragged 
clergymen  in  their  vestments  out  of  obscure 
chapels  amidst  the  lamentations  of  their 
helpless  flocks,  but  he  had  never,  in  any 
of  his  numerous  writings,  uttered  a  syllable 
of  remonstrance  against  this  tyranny.  It 
might  be  supposed  that  in  this  first  of  his 
Tracts  relating  to  an  Irish  subject,  and  a 
sulgect,  too,  in  which  people  of  all  religions 
were  deeply  interested,  he  might  delicately 
convey  some  hint  that  neither  the  manufac- 
turing nor  any  other  material  interest  of  a 
country  could  be  promoted  or  developed 
while  the  great  mass  of  its  people  were  held 
in  degrading  slavery,  disquieted  in  their 
property,  and  outraged  in  their  persons  by 
the  extraordinary  laws  which  he  saw  in 
operation  around  him.  But  not  one  word 
of  all  this  does  he  write.  He  was  well 
enough  aware,  however,  of  the  growing 
misery  and  destitution  of  the  country 
people ;  and  says  in  this  tract,  "  Whoever 
travels  this  country,  and  observes  the  face 
of  nature,  or  the  faces,  and  habits,  and 
dwellings  of  the  natives,  will  hardly  think 
himself  in  a  land  where  either  law,  religion, 
or  common  humanity  is  professed." 

Again  :  "I  would  now  expostulate  a  little 
with   our    country   landlords,   who,  by  un- 


measurable  screwing  and  racking  their  ten- 
nants  all  over  the  kingdom,  have  already 
reduced  the  miserable  people  to  a  worse 
condition  than  the  peasants  in  France,  or  the 
vassals  in  Germany  and  Poland ;  so  that 
the  whole  species  of  what  we  call  substantial 
farmers  will,  in  a  very  few  years,  be  utterly 
at  an  end." 

It  is  very  singular,  also,  that  although  he 
justly  attributes  the  decay  of  manufactures 
to  the  greedy  commercial  policy  of  England 
in  suppressing  the  woollen  trade  and  other 
branches  of  industry — and  although,  at 
the  moment  he  wrote,  all  the  island  was 
ringing  with  the  Sherlock-and-Annesley 
case  and  the  Declaratory  Act,  this  future 
author  of  the  Drapier's  Letters  never  thinks 
of  suggesting  that  laws  for  governing  Ireland 
should  be  made  in  Ireland,  in  order  that 
the  English  monopolists  might  no  longer 
have  the  power  of  ruining  our  country  by 
their  own  laws.  It  seems  the  time  was  not 
yet  ripe  for  such  a  pretension  on  the  part 
of  Irish  patiiots ;  though,  that  the  dean 
very  well  knew  the  nature  of  the  grievances 
he  complains  of,  is  evident  from  his  savage  sar- 
casm about  the  fate  of  Arachne.  Ireland  was 
becoming  covered  with  herds  of  sheep,  to 
produce  wool  for  the  English  market, 
while  English  laws  prevented  its  manufac- 
ture at  home. 

"  The  fable,  in  Ovid,  of  Arachne  and 
Pallas,  is  to  this  purpose  :  The  goddess  had 
heard  of  one  Arachne,  a  young  virgin,  very 
famous  for  spinning  and  weaving :  they 
both  met  upon  a  trial  of  skill ;  and  Pallas 
finding  herself  almost  equalled  in  her  own 
art,  stung  with  rage  and  envy,  knocked  her 
rival  down,  turned  her  into  a  spider,  enjoin- 
ing her  to  spin  and  weave  forever,  out  of 
her  own  bowels,  and  in  a  very  narrow 
compass.  I  confess  that,  from  a  boy,  I 
always  pitied  poor  Arachne,  and  could  never 
heartily  love  the  goddess,  on  account  of  so 
cruel  and  unjust  a  sentence ;  which,  however, 
is  fully  executed  upon  us  by  England,  with 
further  additions  of  rigor  and  severity,  for 
the  greatest  part  of  our  bowels  and  vitals  is 
extracted  without  allowing  us  the  liberty 
of  spinning  and  weaving  them." 

Swift  had  not  yet  ventured  to  take  the 
leading  part  which  he  soon  after  bore  in 
Irish    politics ;  nor  did    he  ever   take   any 


IRISH    CATHOLICS    "  STERNLY    LOYAL. 


47 


part  in  them  with  a  broadly  national  aim. 
He  Hved  at  that  time  very  much  with  his 
friends  Sheridan  and  Doctor  Delany  ;  and 
his  friends,  as  well  as  himself,  wished  to  be 
considered  Englishmen.* 

The  Catholic  people  remained  all  these 
years  perfectly  quiet  and  subdued.  In  them, 
all  national  aspiration  seemed  dead  ;  so  that 
the  numerous  enterprises  projected  all  over 
Europe  in  favor  of  the  Pretender,  never 
counted  upon  them.  One  of  these  enter- 
prises was  undertaken  by  the  Spaniards, 
under  the  auspices  of  Cardinal  Alberoni ; 
and  the  Duke  of  Ormond  was  placed  iu 
command  of  a  Spanish  squadron,  to  effect  a 
landing  somewhere  in  the  British  Islands. 
The  Irish  Catholics  remained  quite  unmoved  : 
they  were,  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Plowden, 
"sternly  loyal,"  It  would  be  more  accurate 
to  say  they  were  utterly  prostrate,  hopeless, 
and  indifferent;  and  if  they  had  been  other- 
wise, the  name  of  the  Duke  of  Ormond 
would  have  been  enough  to  repel  them  from 
^ny  cause  in  which  he  was  to  be  a  leader. 

The  Duke  of  Grafton,  as  lord-lieutenant, 
prorogued  the  session  of  Parliament,  and 
in  his  speech  was  pleased  particularly  to 
recommend  to  them  to  keep  a  watchful  eye 
upon  the  Papists;  "since  I  have  reason  to 
believe,"  says  he,  "  that  the  number  of  popish 
priests  is  daily  increasing  iu  this  kingdom, 
and  already  far  exceeds  what  by  the  indul- 
gence of  the  law  is  allowed."  The  members 
of  Parliament,  in  times  of  recess,  and  when 
they  were  at  their  country-seats,  must  have 
followed  the  viceroy's  exhortation,  and  kept 
a  watchful  eye  upon  the  Papists ;  for  the 
horror  and  alarm  of  the  Protestant  interest 
became  more  violent  than  ever  before ;  and 
when  Parliament  assembled,  in  1723,  it  was 
in  an  excellent  frame  of  mind  to  do  battle 
with  the  common  enemy.  The  Duke  of 
Grafton,  on  meeting  Parliament,  recom- 
mended several  new  laws — "  particularly  for 

*  In  remonstrating  with  Mr.  Pope  on  "  having 
made  no  distinction  in  his  letters  between  the  Engr- 
lish  gentry  of  this  kingdom  and  the  .savage  old 
Irish,"  Swift  adds,  "  Dr.  Delany  came  to  visit  me 
three  days  ago  on  purpose  to  complain  of  those  pas- 
sages of  your  letters."  Delany  was  the  son  of  a  con- 
vert ;  and  thougli  of  pure  Irish  breed,  at  once  took 
rank,  in  his  own  opinion,  as  an  Englishman.  There 
have  always  been  many  Englishmeu  of  this  species 
in  Ireland. 


preventing  more  effectually  the  eludimr  ot 
those  in  being  against  popish  priests,"  and 
the  members  had  generally  brought  to  town 
shocking  tales  illustrating  the  audacity  of 
those  outlawed  ecclesiastics,  in  cclebratinnr 
their  worship,  sometimes  even  in  the  open 
day.  It  was  full  time,  they  said,  to  take 
decisive  measures. 

And  in  truth  the  ardent  zeal  and  con- 
stancy, utterly  unknown  to  fear,  of  the  Irish 
Catholic  priests  during  that  whole  century, 
are  as  admirable  in  the  eyes  of  all  just  and 
impartial  men  as  they  wore  abominable  and 
monstrous  in  the  eyes  of  the  Protestant  in- 
terest. They  often  had  to  traverse  the  sea 
between  Ireland  and  France,  in  fishing 
smacks,  and  disguised  as  fishermen,  carrying 
communications  to  or  from  Rome,  required 
by  the  laws  of  their  church,  though  they 
knew  that  on  their  return,  if  discovered,  the 
penalty  was  the  penalty  of  high  treason, 
that  is  death.  When  in  Ireland,  they  had 
often  to  lurk  in  caves,  and  make  fatiguing 
journeys,  never  sure  that  the  priest-hunters 
were  not  on  their  trail ;  yet  all  this  they 
braved  with  a  courage  which,  in  any  other 
cause,  would  have  been  reckless  desperation. 
The  English  colonists  could  not  comprehend 
such  chivalrous  devotion  at  all;  and  could 
devise  no  other  theory  to  account  for  it  than 
that  these  priests  must  be  continually  plot- 
ting with  foreign  Catholics  to  overthrow  the 
Protestant  interest  and  plunder  them  of  their 
newly-gotten  estates.  This  was  the  secret 
terror  that  always  urged  them  upon  fresh 
atrocities. 

Accordingly,  a  series  of  resolutions  was 
agreed  upon  and  reported  by  the  Commons ; 
that  Popery  had  increased,  partly  owing  to 
the  many  shifts  and  devices  the  priests  had 
for  evading  the  laws,  partly  owing  to  the 
neglect  of  magistrates  in  not  searching  them 
out  and  punishing  them — that  "it  is  highly 
prejudicial  to  the  Protestant  interest  that 
any  person  married  to  a  popish  wife  should 
bear  any  office  or  employment  under  his 
majesty."  This  measure  was  thought  need- 
ful, inasmuch  as  some  magistrates,  having 
married  Catholics,  were  observed  to  be  re- 
miss in  taking  informations  against  their 
wives'  confessors,  knowing  that  they  would 
have  no  peace  in  their  houses  afterwards. 
The  resolutions  further  recommended,  that 


48 


niSTOKT    OF   IRELAND. 


no  convert  (to  the  Established  Church)  should 
be  capable  of  any  office,  nor  practise  as  a 
solicitor  or  attorney  for  seven  years  after  his 
conversion,  nor  "  unless  he  brings  a  certifi- 
cate of  having  received  the  sacrament  tlirice 
in  every  year  during  the  said  term  ;"  fur- 
ther, that  all  converts  should  duly  enroll  tlieir 
certificates  of  conversion  in  the  proper  office. 
On  the  basis  of  these  resolutions  a  bill  was 
prepared  ;  and  the  language  and  behavior  of 
Parliament  on  this  occasion  seems  to  have 
been  even  more  vindictive  and  atrocious  than 
had  ever  been  witnessed  before,  even  in  an 
Irish  legislature.  One  of  the  most  zealous 
promoters  of  this  bill,  in  a  labored  speech, 
informed  the  House,  that  of  all  countries 
wherein  the  reformed  religion  prevailed, 
Sweden  was  observed  to  be  most  free  from 
those  irreconcilable  enemies  to  all  Prot- 
estant governments,  the  Catholic  priests; 
and  that  this  happy  exemption,  so  needful 
to  the  Protestant  interest,  was  obtained  by 
a  wholesome  practice  which  prevailed  in 
that  fortunate  land,  namely,  the  practice  of 
custratinr/  all  popish  priests  who  were  found 
there.  A  clause  to  this  effect  was  intro- 
duced into  the  new  bill.*  It  passed  both 
Houses,  and  was  presented  on  the  15th  of 
November  to  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  with  an 
earnest  request  that  his  Grace  "would  recom- 
mend the  same  in  the  most  effectual  manner 
to  his  majesty."  His  Grace  was  pleased  to 
return  this  answer:  "I  have  so  much  at 
heart  a  matter  which  I  recommended  to  the 
consideration  of  Parliament,  at  the  beginning 
of  this  session,  that  the  House  of  Commons 
may  depend  upon  a  due  regard,  on  my  part, 
to  what  is  desired."  With  the  Duke's  rec- 
ommendation the  bill  was,  as  usual,  for- 
warded to  Eugland.  iSo  objection  to  it  had 
occurred  either  to  his  Grace,  or  to  any  peer 
or  commoner  in  Ireland  ;  but  an  Irish  agent 
in  France  presented  a  memorial  on  the  subject 
to  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  then  regent.  The 
two  nations  were  at  peace,  and  Cardinal 
Fleury,  French  prime  minister,  had  consid- 
erable influence  with  Mr.  Walpole.  A  strong 
representation  was  made  by  order  of  Fleury 

•  Curry's  Keview.    Plowden. 


against  the  new  bill.*  As  it  has  never  suited 
British  policy  that  its  measures  in  Ireland 
should  become  the  subject  of  discussion  and 
notoriety  amongst  the  civilized  nations  of 
the  continent  (where  English  reputation  for 
liberality  has  to  be  maintained)  ;  the  Coun- 
cil disapproved  the  bill ;  and  this  was  the 
first  occasion  on  which  any  penal  law  against 
Catholics  met  with  such  an  obstacle  in  Eng- 
land. Some  writers  on  Irish  history  have 
been  inclined  to  carry  this  failure  of  so 
atrocious  a  bill  to  the  credit  of  human  na- 
ture ;  and  Mr.  Plowden,  after  narrating  the 
French  interposition,  says,  with  his  usual 
amiable  credulity,  "but  surely  it  needed  no 
Gallic  interference,"  &c. 

At  any  rate,  the  bill  was  lost.  The  de- 
pendence of  Ireland  upon  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land saved  the  Catholics  for  once  from  at 
least  one  ignominious  outrage.  But  there 
were  already  laws  enough  in  existence  to 
satisfy,  it  might  be  thought,  the  most  san- 
guinary Protestantism. 

His  Grace  the  lord-lieutenant,  in  his  speech 
to  that  Parliament,  at  the  close  of  the  ses- 
sion, in  order  to  console  them  for  the  loss  of 
their  favorite  bill,  gave  them  to  understand, 
"  that  it  miscarried  merely  by  its  not  having 
been  brought  into  the  House  before  the  ses- 
sion was  so  far  advanced."  And  after  earn- 
estly recommending  to  them,  in  their  several 
stations,  the  care  and  preservation  of  the 
public  peace,  he  added,  "  that,  in  his  opinion, 
that  would  be  greatly  promoted  by  the  vig- 
orous execution  of  the  laws  against  popish 
priests ;  and  that  he  would  contribute  his 
part  towards  the  prevention  of  that  growing 
evil,  by  giving  proper  directions  that  such 
persons  only  should  be  put  into  the  com- 
missions of  the  peace  as  had  distinguished 
themselves  by  their  steady  adherence  to  the 
Protestant  interestP 

Everybody  knew  what  that  meant  —  in- 
creased vigilance  in  hunting  down  clergy- 
men, and  in  discovering  and  appropriating 
the  property  of  laymen  ;  nor  is  there  any 
reason  to  think  that  his  Grace's  exhortations 
were  addressed  to  unwilling  ears. 

*  Brenan,  Eccl.  Hist.    Plowden.    Cuny. 


SWIFT   AND   wood's    COPPER. 


49 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

1723-1727. 

Swift  and  Wood's  Copper — Drapier's  Letters  — 
Claim  of  Independence  —  I'riniate  P.oulter  — 
Swifi  popular  with  the  Cathofies— His  feeling  to- 
wanls  CiUhoIios — Desolation  of  the  Country — 
Rack-rents  —  Absenteeism  —  Great  Distress  — 
Swift's  modest  Proposal — Death  of  George  I. 

While  the  Irish  Parliament  was  so  earn- 
estly engaged  in  their  measures  against 
popish  priests,  Dean  Swift,  who  had  lived  in 
great  quiet  for  three  or  four  years,  writing 
Gulliver's  Travels  in  the  country,  suddenly 
plunged  impetuously  into  the  tumult  of  Irish 
politics.  His  indignation  was  inflamed  to 
the  highest  pitch — not  by  the  ferocity  of  the 
legislature  against  Catholics,  but  by  Wood's 
copper  halfpence.  The  country,  he  thought, 
was  on  the  verge  of  ruin,  not  by  reason  of 
the  tempest  of  intolerance,  rapacity,  fraud, 
and  cruelty,  which  raged  over  it  on  every 
side,  but  by  reason  of  a  ceitain  copper  coin- 
age to  the  amount  of  £108,000,  for  which 
one  William  Wood  had  taken  the  contract 
and  received  the  patent.  Here  was  the  cry- 
ing grievance  of  Ireland. 

It  is  necessary  that  the  history  of  this 
transaction  should  be  taken  out  of  the  do- 
main of  rhetoric,  and  established  upon  a 
basis  of  fact.  A  great  scarcity  and  need  of 
copper  money  was. felt  in  Ireland  ;  and  this 
is  not  denied  by  the  dean.  William  Wood, 
whom  Swift  always  calls  "  hardwareman  and 
bankrupt,"  but  who  was,  in  fact,  a  large  pro- 
prietor, and  owner  or  renter  of  several  ex- 
tensive iron  works  in  England,*  proposed  to 
contract  for  the  supply  needed,  and  his  pro- 
posal was  accepted.  The  national,  or  rather 
colonial,  jealousy  was  at  once  inflamed  ;  and 
already,  long  before  Dean  Swift's  first  letter 
on  the  subject,  the  two  Houses  had  voted 
addresses  to  the  crown,  accusing  the  patentee 
of  fraud,  affirming  that  the  terms  of  the 
patent  had  been  infringed  as  to  the  quality 
of  the  coin,  and  that  its  circulation  would 
be  highly  prejudicial  to  the  revenue  and 
comn)erce  of  the  country.  The  Commons, 
with  great  exaggeration,  declared  that  even 
had  the  terms  of  the  patent  been  complied 
with,  the  nation  would  have  suff"ered  a  loss 


Coxe.     Memoirs  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole. 

7 


of  at  least  150  per  cent.;  and  indeed  the 
whole  cUnnor  rested  on  partial  or  ignorant 
misrepresentation.  Wood's  coin  was  as 
good  as  any  other  copper  coinage  of  that 
day;  and  the  assertion  of  its  opponents  (re- 
peated by  Swift),  that  the  intrinsic  was  no 
more  than  one-eighth  of  the  nominal  value 
of  the  metal,  must  be  taken  with  great  cau- 
tion. If  this  assertion  had  even  been  true, 
the  matter  would  have  been  of  little  conse- 
quence, because  when  coinage  descends  be- 
low gold  and  silver,  it  comes  to  be  only  a 
kind  of  counters  for  the  convenience  of  ex- 
change, deriving  its  value  from  the  sanction 
of  the  government  which  issues  it ;  and 
being  receivable  in  payment  of  taxes,  it  has 
for  all  its  purposes  the  whole  value  which  it 
denotes  on  its  face.*  From  the  specimens, 
however,  of  Wood's  halfpence  preserved  in 
the  British  Museum,  and  facsimiles  of  which 
are  given  in  some  editions  of  Swift's  worLs, 
it  is  clear  that  the  coins  were  of  a  goodly 
size,  and  with  a  fair  iaipression  ;  and  by  au 
assay  made  at  the  mint,  under  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  and  his  two  associates,  it  was  proved 
that  in  weight  and  in  fineness  these  coins 
rather  exceeded  than  fell  short  of  the  con- 
ditions of  the  patent.f  However,  the  clamor 
was  so  violent,  that  "the  collectors  of  the 
king's  customs  very  honestly  refused  to  take 
them,  and  so  did  almost  everybody  else," 
says  Swift  in  his  first  letter  of  ''  M,  B.  Dra- 
pier."  So  that  the  crusade  against  Wood 
and  bis  halfpence  was  already  in  full  prog- 
ress before  the  dean  wrote  a  word  on  the 
subject. 

It  is  observable  further,  that  this  matter 
concerning  Wood  and  his  coinage  did  not 
really  touch  the  great  question  of  Irish  na- 
tional independence,  or  the  insolent  claim  of 
the  English  Parliament  to  make  laws  for 
Ireland  ;  because  thematter  of  coining  money 
belongs  to  the  royal  prerogative ;  and  not 
one  man  of  the  English  colony  in  Ireland, 
not  Swift  himself,,  pretended  to- question  the 


*  The  present  ba-^e  coiniige  of  cent  and  three-cent 
pieces  in  the  United  States  is  an  GX:inii>le  of  tliis. 
It  is  intrinsically  of  no  value  at  all,  being  conipoaed 
of  ttie  vilest  of  metal ;  yet  it  answers  ail  the  pur- 
poses of  stnall  change,  without  injury  to  anybody. 

+  Report  of  the  Committee  of  tlie  I'rivy  Council. 
Swift  replied  that  Wood  must  liave  furnished  the 
committee  with  coins  specially  made  for  examina- 
tion ;   which  is  quiie  pofsible. 


50 


HISTOKY    OF    IRELAND. 


juithoiity  of  the  King  of  England,  lu  short, 
no  more  trifliuT  occasion  ever  produced  so 
brilliant  and  memorable  a  result.  It  seemed 
to  be  but  an  occasion,  no  matter  how  silly, 
that  Swift  wanted.  Any  peg  would  do  to 
hang  his  essays  upon  ;  and  he  used  the  affair 
of  Wood,  as  Rabelais  had  used  the  legend 
of  Gargautua  and  Pantagvuel,  to  introduce 
under  cover  of  much  senseless  ribaldry,  the 
gravest  opinions  on  politics  and  government. 
Eaiiy  in  1724  appeared  the  first  letter,  writ- 
ten in  the  character  of  a  L)ubliti  shopkeeper. 
It  was  soon  followed  by  six  others,  besides 
letters  to  William  Wood  himself,  "  Observa- 
tions on  the  Report  of  the  Lords  of  the 
Council,"  "  Letter  to  the  whole  People  of 
li  eland,"  and  many  ballads  and  songs  which 
■were  calculated  for  the  Dublin  ballad-sing- 
ers. These  productions  were  remarkable 
not  only  for  their  fierce  sarcasm  and  denun^ 
ciation  directed  against  Wood  himself,  but 
for  the  constantly  insinuated,  and  sometimes 
plainly  expressed,  assertion  of  the  national 
right  of  Ireland  (namely,  of  the  English 
colony  in  Ireland)  to  manage  her  own  affairs. 
This,  in  fact,  was  always  in  his  mind,  "For 
my  own  part,"  observes  M.  B.  Drapier, 
"  who  am  but  one  man,  of  obscure  origin,  I 
do  solemnly  declare  in  the  presence  of  Al- 
mighty God,  that  I  will  suffer  the  most  iguo- 
iitinious  and  torturing  death  rather  than 
submit  to  receive  this  accursed  coin,  or  any 
other  that  is  liable  to  the  san)e  objections, 
until  they  shall  be  forced  upon  me  by  a  law 
of  my  own  country;  and  if  that  shall  even 
happen,  I  will  tiansport  myself  into  some 
foreign  land,  and  eat  the  bread  of  poverty 
among  a  free  people."  Indeed,  while  he 
seems  to  be  directing  all  the  torrent  of  his 
indignation  against  the  unlucky  hardware- 
man,  he  very  plainly  personifies  in  him  the 
relentless  domination  of  England,  and  really 
labors  to  excite,  not  personal  wrath  against 
Wood,  but  patriotic  resentment  against  the 
Biitish  Government.  A  very  admirable  ex- 
ample, both  of  his  style  of  denunciation,  and 
of  his  exquisite  art  in  insinuating  his  lead- 
ing idea  amidst  a  perfect  deluge  of  witty 
libaldry,  is  seen  in  this  excellent  passage: 
"  I  am  >  rw  sensible,"  says  the  worthy  Dra- 
pier, "that  such  a  work  as  I  have  under- 
taken might  have  worthily  employed  a  much 
better  pen  ;  but  when  a  house  is  attempted 


to  be  robbed,  it  often  happens  that  the  weak- 
est in  the  family  runs  first  to  stop  the  door. 
All  my  assistance  was  some  informations 
from  an  eminent  person,  whereof  I  am 
afraid  I  have  spoiled  a  few  by  endeavoring 
to  make  them  of  a  piece  with  my  own  pro- 
ductions, and  the  rest  I  was  not  able  to 
manage.  I  was  in  the  case  of  David,  who 
could  not  move  in  the  armor  of  Saul ;  and 
therefore  chose  to  attack  this  uncircumcised 
Philistine  (Wood  1  mean)  with  a  sling  and 
a  stone.  And  1  may  say,  for  Wood's  honor, 
as  well  as  my  own,  that  he  resembles  Go- 
liah  in  many  circumstances  very  applicable 
to  the  present  purpose.  For  Goliah  had  a 
helmet  of  brass-  on  his  head,  and  he  was 
armed  with  a  coat  of  mail,  and  the  weight  of 
the  coat  was  5000  shekels  of  brass ;  and 
he  had  greaves  of  brass  upon  his  legs,  and 
a  target  of  brass  between  his  shoulders.  In 
short,  he  was  like  Mr.  Wood,  all  over  brass, 
and  he  defied  the  armies  of  the  living  God. 
Goliah's  conditions  of  combat  were  likewise 
the  same  with  those  of  Mr,  W^ood  :  if  he 
prevail  against  us,  then  shall  we  be  his  ser- 
vants;  but  if  it  happens  that  I  prevail  over 
him,  I  renounce  the  other  part  of  the  con- 
dition. He  shall  never  be  a  servant  of  mine, 
for  I  do  not  think  him  fit  to  be  trusted  iu 
any  honest  man's  shop." 

But  in  the  fourth  letter  of  "  M.  B.  Dra- 
pier," Dean  Swift  disclosed  and  developed 
without  reserve  his  real  sentiments,  which, 
he  says,  "  have  often  swelled  in  my  breast," 
on  the  absolute  right  of  the  Irish  nation 
(that  is,  of  the  English  colony  there)  to  gov- 
ern itself  independently  of  the  English  Par- 
liament. On  this  point  he  thoroughly 
adopts  and  maintains  the  whole  doctrine  of 
Mr.  Molyneux  ("  an  English  gentleman  born 
here"),  and  denounces  the  usurpation  of  the 
London  Parliament  in  assuming  to  bind  Ire- 
land by  their  laws.  The  proof  that  Swiit, 
in  affirming  the  rights  of  the  Irish  nation^ 
meant  only  the  English  colony,  is  seen 
clearly  enough  in  a  passage  of  this  very 
letter, 

**  One  great  merit  I  am  sure  we  have 
which  those  of  English  birth  can  have  no 
pretence  to — that  our  ancestors  reduced  tiiis 
kingdom  to  the  obedience  of  England,  for 
which  we  have  been  rewarded  with  a  worse 
climate — the  privilege  of  being  governed  by 


PROSECITIOX    OF    HAKDING,    THE   PRINTER. 


61 


laws  to  which  we  do  not  consent — a  ruined 
trade — a  house  of  peers  without  jurisdiction 
■— ahnost  an  incMp;icity  for  all  employments, 
snid  the  dread  of  Wood's  halfpence."  Rising 
and  vvarinipg  as  he  proceeds,  he  at  length 
fiirly  declares,  ''  In  this  point  we  have 
iiothing  to  do  with  English  ministers,  and  I 
should  be  sorry  to  leave  it  in  their  power  to 
redress  this  grievance  or  to  enforce  it,  for  the 
report  of  the  committee  has  given  me  a  sur- 
feit. The  remedy  is  wholly  in  your  own 
liands ;  and  therefore  1  have  digressed  a  lit- 
tle in  order  to  refresh  and  continue  that  spir- 
it so  seasonably  raised  among  you,  and  to 
let  you  see  that  by  the  laws  of  God,  of  nature, 
of  nations,  and  of  your  country,  you  are  and 
ought  to  be  as  free  a  people  as  your  breth- 
ren in  England." 

For  printing  this  letter,  Harding,  the 
printer,  was  prosecuted  ;  but  when  the  iu- 
dictment  against  him  was  sent  up  to  the 
Dublin  grand-jury,  every  man  of  them  had 
ill  his  hand  a  copy  of  another  letter,  entitled 
'*  Seasonable  Advice  to  the  Grand-Jury,"  &c., 
which  it  seems  they  took  to  heart,  for  they 
threw  out  the  bill.  A  proclamation  was 
tlien  issued  from  the  Castle  offering  a  re- 
ward for  discovery  of  the  author,  and  signed 
by  Lord  Carteret,  then  viceroy.  Eveiybody 
knew  the  author ;  but  public  spirit  in  Dub- 
lin was  then  so  high  and  inflamed  that  the 
government  could  not  venture  to  arrest  the 
iJean.  On  the  very  day  the  proclamation 
was  issued,  he  publicly  taunted  Carteret  at 
the  levee  with  thus  persecuting  a  poor,  hon- 
est tradesman,  as  he  called  "  the  Drapier  ;" 
adding,  "I  suppose  your  lordship  expects  a 
statue  in  copper  for  this  service  you  have 
done  to  Wood."  In  short,  the  cause  of  the 
lialfpence  was  utterly  lost  :  nobody  would 
take  them  or  touch  them  ;  the  English  gov- 
ernment had  to  withdraw  the  patent ;  Wil- 
liam Wood  turned  his  old  copper  to  some 
other  use  in  the  hardware  line  ;  but  received 
from  the  English  Government  a  compensa- 
tion in  the  shape  of  a  pension  of  three  thou- 
sand pounds  for  eight  years.* 

From  this  time  the  Dean  was  the  most 
popular  man  in  Ireland;  he  became  the  idol 
of  the  shopkeepers  and  tradespeople.  The 
Drapier  was  a  sign  over  hundreds  of  shops ; 

•  Coxe,  Life  of  Walpole. 


the  Drapier  was  an  honored  toast  at  all  mer- 
ry-makings ;  and  precisely  as  he  grew  in 
popularity  in  Ireland,  he  became  a  more  in- 
tolerable thorn  in  the  side  of  the  king's  ser- 
vants in  that  country,  and  especially  of 
Primate  Boulter.  Boulter  was  appointed 
Primate  in  this  very  year,  and  one  of  the 
earliest  letters  published  in  his  elaborate  cor- 
respondence shows  the  extreme  uneasiness 
with  which  that  devoted  servant  of  the  Eng- 
lish interest  and  doer  of  "  the  king's  busi- 
ness" regarded  the  spirit  aroused  by  the 
common  resentment  of  all  the  people  of  all 
religions  and  races  against  the  copper  of 
Wood.  He  says  in  this  letter:  "I  tind  by 
ray  own  and  others'  inquiries  that  the  peo- 
ple of  every  religion,  country,  and  party  here, 
are  alike  set  against  Wood's  halfpence,  and 
that  their  agreement  in  this  has  had  a  very 
unhappy  influence  on  the  state  of  this  na- 
tion, by  bringing  on  intimacies  between  Pa- 
pists and  Jacobites  and  the  Whigs,  who  be- 
fore had  no  correspondence  with  them  :  so 
that  'tis  questionable  whether,  if  there  were 
occasion,  justices  of  the  peace  could  be  found 
who  would  be  strict  in  disarming  Papists." 
For  the  next  eighteen  years  this  Primate 
Boulter  was  the  real  governor  of  Ireland. 
Thirteen  times  in  that  period  he  was  one  of 
the  lords  justices,  and  as  he  had  the  full  con- 
fidence of  W^'alpole,  and  was  fully  imbued 
with  that  minister's  well-known  principle 
(the  principle,  namely,  that  all  could  be  done 
by  intrigue  and  corruption),  we  find  him 
really  dictating  to  successive  viceroys  of  Ire- 
land, and  also  warning  the  English  Govern- 
ment fiom  time  to  time  who  were  the  per- 
sons in  Ireland  that  deserved  encouragement 
and  employment  as  the  "king's  servants," 
and  who  they  were  that  merited  reprobation 
as  the  '■  king's  enemies,"  who  obstructed  him 
in  doing  the  king's  business.  It  is  ueedlesa 
to  observe  that  he  became  instantly  a  bitter 
enemy  to  Dean  Swift,  and  more  than  once 
cautioned  the  ministry  against  whatever 
representations  might  come  from  that  quar^ 
tor.* 

Whether  Swift  so  intended  or  not,  he  be- 
came, in  fact,  highly  popular  with  the  Cath- 
olics of  the  kingdom.  Not  that  he  ever 
spoke  of  them  without  disdain  and  aversion. 

*  Letter  dated  10th  Feb.,  1725,  from  the  Prirnat* 
to  Duke  of  Newcastle. 


52 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


"  The  Popish  priests,"  says  he,  "  are  all  reg- 
istered, and  without  perrnissioa  (which  I 
hope  will  not  be  granted)  they  can  have  no 
successors."  (^Letter  concerning  Sacramental 
Test.)  In  short,  whenever  he  does  alhide  to 
them  at  all,  it  is  always  with  a  view  of  inti- 
mating that  he  has  no  appeal  to  make  to 
them,  not  regarding  them  as  a  part  of  the 
nation.  In  the  famous  prosecuted  letter  it- 
self— although  it  is  addressed  "  To'  the 
Whole  People  of  Ireland" — he  takes  occasion 
thus  to  repel  one  of  the  assertions  of  Wood  : 
"  That  the  Papists  have  entered  into  an  as- 
sociation against  his  coin,  although  it  be  no- 
toriously known  that  the]/  never  once  offered 
to  stir  in  the  matter."  In  his  address,  then, 
to  the  "  Whole  People,"  he  speaks  of  the 
Papists  as  "  they."  But  notwithstanding  this, 
Catholic  farmers  had  wool  and  grain  to  sell ; 
they  also  had  their  daily  traffic,  and  if  the  in- 
troduction of  that  perilous  copper  was  to  be 
80  fatal  to  the  Protestants,  it  could  not  be 
good  for  them.  Moreover,  the  bold  assertion 
of  Ireland's  right  to  independence  pleased 
them  well.  They  knew,  it  is  true,  that  they 
were  not  for  the  present  considered  as  active 
citizens ;  yet  being  five  to  one,*  they  also 
felt  that  if  the  heavy  pressure  of  British 
domination  were  once  taken  off,  they  or  their 
children  could  not  fail  to  assert  for  them- 
selves a  recognized  place  in  a  new  Irish  na- 
tion. Up  to  the  present  date,  the  Irish 
Catholic  freeholders  voted  at  elections  to  Par- 
liament (though  their  suffrage  was  cramped 
by  oaths,  and  they  could  only  vote  for  a 
Protestant  candidate),  and  they  could  still 
make  their  weight  felt  in  the  scale  either  of 
Whig  or  Tory,  either  in  favor  of  the  king's 
servants  or  the  king's  enemies,  as  Dr.  Boul- 
ter called  them  respectively.  No  wonder, 
therefore,  that  the  primate  began  to  view 
with  great  alarm  a  community  of  feeling 
arising  between  the  Catholics  and  either  of 
the  Protestant  parties,  and  he  soon  cast 
about  for  a  remedy,  and  found  one. 

Dean  Swift  was  never  openly  attacked  by 
the  primate,  but  he  had  been  for  some,  years 
subjected  to  the  spy-system,  which  is  always 
so  essential  an  arm  of  English  goveinment 

*  Primate  Boulter  wrjtes  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  :  "  There  are  probably  in  this  kingdom 
five  Papists  at  least  to  one  Protestant."  This  was 
in  the  year  1727.  , 


in  Ireland,  and  had  found  it  necessary  to  use 
great  precautions  in  securing  his  manuscripts, 
as  well  as  his  ordinary  letters,  from  the  vigi- 
lant espionage  of  the  government.*  When 
Wood's  patent  was  withdrawn,  and  all  ap- 
prehensions were  over  concerning  the  half- 
pennies, he  was  desirous  to  withdraw  for  a 
while  from  the  capital  and  from  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Dr.  Boulter's  detectives,  and 
went  to  the  quiet  retreat  of  Quilca,  in  the 
County  Cavan,  where  his  friend  Dr.  Sheri- 
dan had  a  house.  Here  he  finished  "  Gul- 
liver," which  had  been  suspended  for  a  while, 
and  prepared  it  for  the  press ;  enjoying,  by 
the  shore  of  Lough  Ramor,  the  conversatioa 
of  Stella,  and  the  "  blessings  of  a  country 
life,"  which  he  describes  to  be 

"  Far  from  our  debtors, 
No  Dublin  letters, 
Not  fseen  by  your  betters." 

The  next  year  Swift  went  to  England,  but 
before  he  went  Primate  Boulter  wrote  to  Sir 
Robert  Walpole  a  letter  which  well  illus- 
trates the  vigilance  of  that  prelate  in  the 
king's  service,  and  also  the  estimation  in 
which  he  held  Dr.  Swift.  He  says,  "The 
general  report  is  that  Dean  Swift  designs  for 
England  in  a  little  time,  and  we  do  not  ques- 
tion his  endeavors  to  misrepresent  his  maj- 
esty's friends  here  wherever  he  finds  an  op- 
portunity. But  he  is  so  well  known,  as  well 
as  the  disturbances  he  has  been  the  foment- 
er  of  in  this  kingdom,  that  we  are  under  no 
fear  of  his  being  able  to  disserve  any  of  his 
majesty's  faithful  servants  by  anything  that 
is  known  to  come  from  him ;  but  we  could 
wish  some  eye  were  had  to  what  shall  be 
attempted  on  your  side  the  water." 

No  further  political  event  of  much  conse- 
quence occurred  in  Ireland  during  the  short 
remainder  of  the  reign  of  George  I.  All  ac- 
counts of  that  period  represent  the  country 
as  sinking  lower  in  misery  and  distress. 
Swift's  graphic  tracts  and  letters  give  a  pain- 
fully vivid  picture  of  the  desolation  of  the 
rural  districts.  He  laments  often  the  wanton 
and  utter  destruction  of  timber,  which  had 
left  bare  and  hungry-looking  great  regions 
that  had  but  lately  waved  with  ancient 
woods.     New  proprietors,  under  the  various 

*  Koscoe's  L-fe  of  Swift;   Sir  Walter  Scott's  Life, 


THE   COUNTRY    REDUCED    TO    TOTAL   DESOLATION. 


53 


coiitiscations,  had  always  felt,  in  those  times 
ot"  revoliuious,  tliat  their   possessions    were 
held  by  a  precarious  tenure  ;  there  might  at 
any  moment  be  a  new  confiscation,  or  a  new 
resumption ;  therefore,  as  the  woods  would 
bring  in  their  value  at  once  they  were  felled 
r»-moiselessly,  and  often  sold  at  a  mere  trifle 
for  the  sake  of  getting  ready  money.     It  has 
been  already  seen  that  "  the  commissioners 
of  confiscated  estates"  in    King    William's 
time*  speak  of  this  destruction  of  the  forests 
as  a  grievous  loss  to  the  nation.     They  esti- 
mate that  on  one  estate  in  Kerry  trees  to  the 
value  of  £20,000  had  been  cut  down  or  de- 
stroyed ;  on  another  estate  £27,000  worth  ;" 
and  in  some  cases  they  say, ''  Those  on  whom 
the  confiscated  estates  have  been  bestowed, 
or  their  agents,  have  been  so  greedy  to  seize 
upon  the  most  trifling  profits  that  large  trees 
have  been   cut  down  and  sold  for  sixpence 
each."     The  consequence  of  all  this  wanton 
waste  was  soon  lamentably  observable  in  the 
nakedness  of  this  once  well-wooded  island, 
where  in   Dean  Swift's  time  it  would  have 
been  impossible,  as  he  tells  us,  to  find  timber 
either  for  ship-building  or  for  the  houses  of 
the  people. 

The  condition  of  the  farmers  and  laboring 
people  was  extremely  hard  in  the  latter  years 
of  this  reign.  As  Catholics  were  subjected 
to  severe  restrictions  if  they  lived  in  trading 
and  manufacturing  towns,  their  only  resource 
was  to  become  tenants  for  short  terms,  or  at 
will,  to  an  alien  and  hostile  race  of  landlords, 
and  this  at  most  oppressive  rents,  "Another 
great  calamity,"  says  Swift,f  "is  the  exorbi- 
tant raising  of  the  rent  of  lands.  Upon  the 
determination  of  all  leases  made  before  the 
year  1G90,  a  gentleman  thinks  he  has  but  in- 
difi'erently  improved  his  estate  if  he  has  only 
doubled  his  rent-roll.  Farms  are  screwed  up 
to  a  rack-rent;  leases  granted  but  for  a 
small  term  of  years;  tenants  tied  down  to 
hard  conditions,  and  discouiaged  from  culti- 
vating the  lands  they  occupy  to  the  best  ad- 
vantage, by  the  certainty  they  have  of  the 
rent  being  raised  on  the  expiration  of  their 
lease  proportionably  to  the  improvements 
they  shall  make.     Thus  it  is  that  honest  in- 


*  See  their  report  at  the  end  of  MacGeoghegan't 
History. 
t"'The  present  miserable  state  of  Ireland." 


dustry  is  restrained  ;  the  farmer  is  a  slave  to 
his  landlord  ;  and  it  is  well  if  he  can  cover 
his  family  with  a  coarse  homespun  frieze." 
Another  of  the  evils  complained  of  by  the 
Dean  is  the  prevalence  of  absenteeism,  which 
carried  over  to  England,  according  to  his  es- 
timate, half  a  million  sterling  of  Irish  money 
per  annum,  with  no  return.  Another  still 
was  the  propensity  of  proprietors  to  turn 
great  tracts  of  land  into  sheep  pastures, 
which,  of  couise,  drove  away  tenants,  in- 
creased the  wretched  competition  for  farms, 
and  still  more  increased  rents.  It  was  this 
which  made  Swift  exclaim,  with  his  bitter 
humor,  "  Ajax  was  mad  when  he  mistook  a 
flock  of  sheep  for' his  enemies  ;  but  we  shall 
never  be  sober  till  we  are  of  the  same  way 
of  thinking."  To  all  these  miseries  must  be 
added  tlie  decay  of  tiade  and  commerce, 
caused  directly  by  the  jealous  and  greedy- 
commercial  policy  of  England ;  and  this 
grievance  pressed  quite  as  heavily  upon  the 
Protestant  as  on  tlie  Catholic. 

So  uniform  has  been  the  system  of  English 
rule  in  Ireland,  that  the  description  of  it 
given  a  century  and  a  halfy  ago  fits  with 
great  accuracy  and  with  even  heavier  ag- 
gravations at  this  day.  The  absentee  rents 
are  now  ten  times  as  great  in  amount  as  they 
weie  then ;  and  although  the  prohibition 
against  exporting  woollen  cloth  is  now  no 
longer  in  force,  yet  its  effect  has  been  per- 
petuated so  tlioroughly  that  the  Irish  do  not 
now,  as  they  did  then,  even  manufocture 
woollen  cloth  for  home  consumption.  In  the 
year  1*723  a  petition  was  presented  to  Par- 
liament from  the  woollen  drapers,  clothiers 
and  weavers  of  Dublin,  setting  ft)rth  the  de- 
cay and  almost  destruction  of  their  industry, 
the  sore  distress  and  privations  of  thousands 
of  families  that  had  once  lived  comfortably 
by  prosecuting  these  trades,  and  asking  for 
inquiry  and  relief.  But  an  Irish  Parliament, 
absolutely  controlled  by  an  English  Privy 
Council,  was  quite  incapable  of  applying  any 
remedy;  so  the  aftairs  of  trade  had  fallen 
from  bad  to  worse,  until  at  the  close  of  this 
reign  there  was  imminent  danger  of  a  de- 
structive famine,  that  scourge  which  foreign 
domination  has  made  so  familiar  to  Ireland. 
It  was  in  1729  that  Swift  wrote  and  pub- 
lished his  "  Modest  Proposal"  for  relieving 
the  miseries  of  the  people  by  cooking  and 


54 


HISTORY   OV  IRELAND. 


eating  the  cliildren  of  the  poor — a  piece  of 
the  fiercest  sarcasm,  steeped  in  all  the  con- 
centrated bitterness  of  his  soul ;  which,  how- 
ever— so  ejrave  is  the  irony — has  been  some- 
times taken  by  foieign  writers  as  a  serious 
project  of  relief. 

King  George  died  on  the  11th  of  June, 
1127,  just  after  setiling  the  preliminaries  of 
a  peace  with  the  Emperor  and  Spain,  which 
was  shortly  afterwards  signed  at  Seville  (but 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  Emperor)  by  the 
ministers  of  France,  England  and  Spain. 
Thus  our  exiles  on  the  continent  were  de- 
prived for  a  time  of  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
their  hereditary  enemies  on  the  field.  But 
further  opportunities  were  happily  to  arise 
for  them. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

1727-1741. 

Lord  Carteret  lord-lieutenant — Primate  BonlteTuler 
of  Ireland — His  policy — Catholic  Address — Not 
noticed — Papists  deprived  of  elective  franchise — 
Insolence  of  the  "  Ascendency"'— Famine — Emi- 
gration—  Dorset  lord-lieutenant — Ag'itation  of 
Dissenters  —  Sacramental  Test — Swift's  virulence 
against  the  Dissenters — Boulter's  policy  to  extir- 
pate Papists — Kajre  against  the  Catholics — Debates 
on  money  bills — "Patriot  Party"  —  Duke  of 
Devonshire  lord-lieutenant  —  Corruption  —  An- 
other famine — Berkeley — English  commercial  poli- 
cy in  Ireland. 

The  accession  of  George  II.  occasioned  no 
great  excitement  in  Ireland.  Lord  Carteret 
WHS  continued  as  lord-lieutenant,  but  the 
corrupt  and  domineering  churchman.  Pri- 
mate Boulter,  a  fit  instrument  of  the  odious 
minister,  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  still  directed 
the  course  of  government,  and  always  to  the 
same  end — the  depression  and  discourage- 
ment of  the  Patriot  party,  as  the  assertors 
of  Irish  legislative  independence  began  to 
be  termed,  the  complete  establishment  of 
English  sovereignty,  and  the  eternal  division 
of  Irish  and  English,  of  Catholic  and  Prot- 
estant. 

The  new  king  had  acquired  a  reputation 
for  a  certain  degree  of  liberality  and  toler- 
ance, as  indeed  the  first  George  also  had  be- 
fore becoming  king  of  England  ;  because,  in 
the  electoral  dominions  in  Germany,  the 
Catholic   religion   was   freely  tolerated,  and 


not  subjected  to  the  savage  penalties  and 
humiliating  oaths  which  made  that  worship 
almost  impossible  in  Ireland.  The  Irish 
Catholics,  therefore,  when  the  young  king 
mounted  the  throne,  conceived  certain  de- 
lusive hopes  of  a  relaxation  in  the  Penal 
Code.  They  were  still  smarting  under  the 
lash  of  the  Popery  laws,  which  had  never 
yet  been  so  cruelly  laid  on  as  during  the 
reign  of  George  the  First ;  but  as  they  re- 
membered that  the  two  last  and  severest  of 
these  laws  were  said  to  have  been  enacted 
as  a  punishment  for  their  neglect  in  not 
having  addressed  Queen  Anne  on  her  coming 
to  the  throne,  they  were  now  induced  to 
think  they  should  avoid  giving  the  like  of- 
fence on  the  present  auspicious  occasion. 
An  humble  congratulatory  address  was  there 
fore  prepared,  testifying  unalterable  loyalty 
and  attachment  to  the  king  and  to  his  royal 
house  ;  and  it  met  with  the  kind  of  reception 
which  might  have  been  expected.  It  was 
presented  with  all  due  respect  to  the  lords 
justices  at  the  Castle  of  Dublin,  by  Lord 
Delvin  and  other  persons  of  the  first  quality 
among  them  ;  but  so  little  notice  was  then 
taken  either  of  their  address  or  themselves, 
that  it  is  not  yet  known  whether  it  was  ever 
transmitted  to  be  laid  before  his  majesty,  as 
it  was  humbly  desired  it  should  be ;  or 
whether  even  an  answer  was  returned  by 
their  excellencies  that  it  should  be  so  trans- 
mitted. 

In  other  words,  they  and  their  abject 
"  loyalty"  were  wholly  ignored ;  and  they 
received  one  additional  lesson,  if  they  still 
needed  it,  that  they  were  to  consider  them- 
selves not  his  majesty's  subjects,  but  the 
"  common  enemy." 

They  were  soon  to  have  still  another  les- 
son. Primate  Boulter,  having  observed  with 
apprehension  that  the  "  Patriot"  party  waa 
popular  with  the  Catholics,  and  afraid  of  the 
results  of  this  influence  upon  the  next  elec- 
tions, took  care  to  have  a  bill  prepared,  which 
was  hurried  through  Parliament,  for  the  en- 
tire disfranchisement  of  "  Papists."  Plow- 
den  and  other  writers  affirm  that  the  dis- 
franchising clause  was  introduced  into  the 
bill  by  a  kind  of  surprise  or  deception  ;  but, 
however  that  may  be,  it  passed  both  Houses 
and  received  the  royal  assent,  enacting  that 
"No  Papist  shall  be  entitled  or  admitted  to 


ENTIIIE    DISFRANCHISEMENT    OF    PAPISTS. 


55 


vote  at  the  election  of  ;iny  member  to  serve 
in  Parliament  as  a  kiiiglit,  citizen  or  burgess  ; 
or  at  tlie  election  of  any  magistrate  for  any 
city  or  other  town  corporate,  any  law,  statute 
or  usage  to  tlie  contrary  notwithstanding,"* 
The  Catholics  were  liy  this  law  deprived  of 
the  very  last  vestige  of  civil  right,  and  of 
tlie  oi\lv  poor  means  they  possessed  of  mak- 
ing a  friend  or  influencing  any  public  meas- 
ure. They  remained  utterly  disfranchised 
for  sixty-six  years ;  and  during  all  that  period 
were  as  completely  helpless  as  the  beasts  of 
the  field. 

Another  transaction  of  this  year  may  be 
considered  as  a  lesson  not  only  to  the  Catho- 
lics, but  to  the  new  king,  supposing  that  they 
should  dream  of  receiving  some  indulgence, 
or  that  he  should  imagine  his  German  lib- 
erality would  do  for  Ireland.  In  the  year 
1727  application  had  been  made  by  certain 
Catholics  to  the  late  king  for  the  reversal  of 
some  outlawries  incurred  by  several  "rebel- 
lious," and  which  had  been  most  iniquitous- 
Jy  obtained,  and  had  actually  reduced  some 
of  the  most  ancient,  noble,  and  opulent 
Roman  Catholic  families  of  the  kingdom, 
with  their  numerous  descendants,  to  absolute 
beggary.  The  Commons  then  sitting,  and 
justly  apprehending  from  his  majesty's  sup- 
posed equity  and  commiseration,  that  such 
application  might  meet  with  some  success, 
lesolved  upon  a  petition,  wherein,  among 
other  things,  they  tell  his  majesty  plainly, 
and  even  with  a  kind  of  menace,  "  that 
nothing  could  enable  themio  defend  hisric/ht 
and  title  to  his  crown  so  effectually  as  the 
enjoyment  of  those  estates,  which  have  been 
the  forfeitures  of  the  rebellious  Irish,  and 
were  then  in  the  possession  of  his  Protest- 
ant subjects;  and  therefore,  that  they  were 
fnlhj  assured  that  he  would  discourage  all 
applications  or  attempts  that  should  be  made 
in  favor  of  such  traitors  or  their  descendants, 
so  dangerous  to  the  Protestant  interest  of 
this  kitigdotn."  This  petition  produced  the 
■wished-for  effect.  The  king,  in  his  answer, 
assured  the  Commons  "  that  he  would  for 
the  future  discourage  all  such  applications 
and  attempts." 

But  the  Commons,  not  content  with  this 
assurance,  atid  still  fearing  that  those  Popish 

*  1  Geo.  II.,  cliap.  9,  sec.  7. 


solicitors,  who  had  been  employed  by  the 
Catholics  in  their  late  unsucttessful  attempt, 
might  prevail  upon  their  clients  to  renew 
their  application  at  another  more  favorable 
juncture,  brought  in  a  bill  absolutely  dis- 
qualifying all  Roman  Catholics  from  prac- 
tising as  solicitors,  the  only  branch  of  the 
law  profession  whiuJi  they  were  then  permit- 
ted to  practise. 

Lord  Carteret,  in  proroguing  that  Parlia- 
ment, took  occasion  to  congratulate  it  upon 
the  several  excellent  laws  which  it  bad 
passed,  amongst  others  the  law  "  for  regula- 
tion of  elec^tions."  At  this  date,  then,  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland  may  be  said  to  disap- 
pear from  history.  But  it  was  impossible  to 
extinguish,  or  to  keep  down  everywhere  and 
forever,  the  Irish  race.  An  historian,  who 
certainly  shows  no  anxiety  to  say  any  thing 
soothing  or  flattering  of  our  countrymen, 
observes  well : 

"There  were  indeed  Irish  Roman  Catho- 
lics of  great  ability,  energy,  and  ambition  : 
but  they  were  to  be  found  everywhere  ex- 
cept in  Ireland,  at  Versailles  and  at  Saint 
Ildefonso,  in  the  armies  of  Frederic  and  in 
the  armies  of  Maria  Theresa.  One  exile  be- 
came a  marshal  of  France.  Another  became 
prime  minister  of  Spain.*  If  he  had  staid  iu 
his  native  land  he  would  have  been  regarded 
as  an  inferior  by  all  the  ignorant  and  worth- 
less squireens  who  drank  the  glorious  and 
immortal  memory.  In  his  palace  at  Madrid 
he  had  the  pleasure  of  being  assiduously 
courted  by  the  ambassador  of  George  II.  and 
of  bidding  defiance  in  high  terms  to  the  am- 
bassador of  George  III."f 

Carteret's  administration,  apart  from  the 
oppression  of  the  Catholics,  or  perhai>s,  in 
part,  on  account  of  that  very  oppression,  is 
usually  praised  by  English  historians  for  its 
wisdom  and  humanity.  He  certainly  pro- 
moted some  few  trifling  measures  tending  to 
the  improvement  of  trade ;  but  nothing 
touching,  or  in  the  slightest  degree  trench- 
ing upon,  the  domain  of  English  monopoly, 
still  less  upon  the  absolute  sovereign  powei^ 
of  the  English  Parliament  over  Ireland  and  all 
things  Irish.  The  primate,  in  fact,  maii- 
aged  both  the  Irish  Parliament  and  the  Irish 
elections  ;  besides  takijg  great  pains  to  fo- 


*  Wall. 


t  Macau  lay's  England. 


66 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


iiieiit  quarrels  and  jealousies  between  Prot- 
estants and  Protestants,  between  English  and 
Irish,  and  even  between  the  down-trodden 
Catholics.     There  had   been    differences   of 
opinion  amongst  the  latter  on  the  policy  of 
presenting   their  address    of  congratulation 
and  loyalty;  and  the  primate  writes  to  Lord 
Carteret  with  great  complacency  on  the  20th 
July:  "I  hear  this  day  that  the  address  yes- 
terday presented  by  some  Roman  Catholics 
occasions  great  heats  and  divisions  amongst 
those  of  that  religion  here  ;"  which  he  inti- 
mates may  produce  a  good  effect.     He  had 
his  agents  in  all  the  counties  canvassing  and 
intriguing  for  the  king's  friends ;  and  pre- 
vious to  an  election  he  once  writes  to  assure 
the  lord-lieutenant  that  "  the  elections  will 
generally  go  well."*     In  short,  by  the  dis- 
fianchisement  of  five-sixths  of  the  people,  by 
H  judicious  distribution   of  patronage    and 
jilace   amongst  the   rest,  and    by  the  ever- 
ready  resource  of  the  indefatigable  primate, 
the  Parliament   had  become  perfectly  man- 
ageable, and  the  "  Patriot"  party  was  effect- 
ually kept  down.     Swift  has  described  the 
Irish  Parliament  at  this  time  as  being 

"Always  firm  in  its  vocation, 
For  tlie  Court,  against  the  nation," 

So  that  Lord  Carteret's  administration  was 
naturally  considered  in  England  as  quite  a 
success. 

But  the  famine  that  had  been  so  greatly 
feared,  now  really  visited  the  country  with 
great  severity,  and  slew  its  thousands  for  two 
years.  No  register,  nor  even  approximate 
estimate  of  the  amount  of  destruction  of  hu- 
man life  caused  by  this  famine  was  made  at 
the  time,  but  in  many  counties  people  fed  on 
weeds  and  garbage.  Ireland  was  then  im- 
porting corn,  and  it  is  mentioned,  as  a  re- 
markable fact,  that  between  two  and  three 
hundred  thousand  pounds  worth  of  grain 
was  imported  in  one  year  during  the  dearth. 
The  famine  returned  a  few  years  later,  in 
1741  ;  and,  in  fact,  famine  may  be  said  to 
)iave  become  an  established  institution  of 
the  country  and  constant  or  periodical  agent 
of  British  government  from  this  time  forth. 
There  now  began  a  very  considerable  emi- 
gration to  America  and  the  West  Indies, 

*  Boulter's  Corretspoudunce. 


and  this  emigration  was  almost  exclusively 
of  Protestants  from  the  North  of  Ireland. 
Primate  Boulter,  in  one  of  his  letters,  com- 
plains of  this  circumstance,  but  takes  care, 
at  the  same  time,  to  libel  the  emigrating 
Dissenters,  alleging  that  most  of  them  were 
persons  who,  having  contracted  debts  they 
could  not  or  would  not  pay,  were  flying  the 
country  to  avoid  their  creditois.  He  takes 
care  not  to  tell  his  correspondent  in  England 
the  true  reasons  of  this  movement :  first, 
decline  of  trade  and  hunger  and  hardship; 
next,  the  oppression  of  the  Test  Act,  and  ot 
the  "Schism"  Act,  a  new  law  which  had 
been  very  lately  extended  to  Ireland  by  the 
sole  authority  of  the  British  Parliament. 
The  migration  of  Protestant  Dissenters  from 
Ulster,  which  commenced  in  Lord  Carteret's 
administration,  afterwards  took  large  pro- 
portions, and  Pennsylvania,  Western  Vir- 
ginia, North  Carolina,  and  Georgia  were  in 
a  great  measure  peopled  by  these  "  Scotch 
Irish,"  as  they  are  called  in  the  United 
States. 

Carteret  was  succeeded  by  the  Duke  of 
Dorset,  in  1731,  but  the  change  made  no 
alteration  in  the  even  tenor  of  the  Govern- 
ment, seeing  that  Primate  Boulter  was  still 
really  and  effectively  the  viceroy  of  the  coun- 
try. The  Catholics  were  now  giving  no 
trouble — too  happy  if  they  could  avoid  ob- 
servation ;  but  there  arose  a  most  vehe- 
ment agitation  on  the  part  of  the  Dissenters. 
These  Presbyterians  had  contributed  power- 
fully to  the  subjugation  of  Ulster  under  King 
William  ;  had  fought  at  Deiry  and  at  New- 
townbutler,  as  well  as  at  the  Boyne  and 
Anghrim ;  were  devoted  adherents  to  the 
Protestant  succession  and  the  House  of  Han- 
over, and  had  always  aided  and  applauded 
the  enactment  of  penal  laws  against  the 
'•  common  enemy."  Now,  when  the  com- 
mon enemy  was  put  down  under  foot,  never, 
it  was  hoped,  to  rise  again,  the  Dissenters 
naturally  enough  thought  they  should  be 
entitled  to  the  privilege  of  sitting  in  Parlia- 
ment and  entering  the  municipal  corpora- 
tions without  taking  the  sacrament  accord- 
ing to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  England, 
which  was  contrary  to  their  conscience,  but 
was  imposed  on  them  by  law.  They  even 
made  a  merit  of  not  having  made  common 
cause  with  the   Catholics,  although  joined 


FAMINE — EMIGRATION AGITATION    OF    DISSENTERS. 


57 


with  them  iti  a  common  injury  on  the  pas- 
sasje  of  the  "Act  to  prevent  the  further 
growtli  of  Popery  ;"  they  had  preferred  to 
endure  disahihties  and  insuhs  themselves 
rather  than  in  any  way  embarrass  the  Gov- 
ernment in  its  measures  against  the  common 
enemy.  For  this  base  compliance  they  had 
their  reward,  and  remained  subject  to  the 
Test  Act  for  three  generations  afterwards. 

In  their  attempts  to  obtain  a  relaxation  of 
this  code  during  Dorset's  administration,  the 
Catholics  found,  of  course,  the  sternest  and 
most  uncompromising  opponent  in  the  pri- 
mate ;  but — what  they  had  not  perhaps  ex- 
pected— the  most  indefatigable,  the  most  effi- 
cient, the  most  oflensive  and  disdainful 
enemy  they  had,  was  the  Dean  of  St.  Pat- 
rick's. For  once  the  primate  and  the  dean 
were  on  the  same  side.  It  does  not  appear, 
indeed,  that  there  was  the  least  chance  at  that 
time  of  breaking  down  in  favor  of  Dissent- 
ers the  strong  barriers  that  fenced  round  the 
interest  of  the  Established  Church  on  every 
side  ;  but  there  was  much  discussion  by  po- 
litical pamphlets,  and  for  two  years  Swift 
poured  forth  in  very  powerful  papers  his 
horror  of  Puritans  and  scorn  of  Scotchmen. 
The  most  remaikable  of  these  productions 
is  that  entitled  "Reasons;  humbly  otTered 
to  the  Parliament  of  Ireland,  for  repealing 
the  Sacramental  Test  in  favor  of  the  Catho- 
lics." This,  like  his  "Modest  Proposal,"  is 
a  master-piece  of  cold  and  biting  irony ;  in- 
tended to  show  that  the  Dissenters  could  not 
urge  a  single  plea  in  favor  of  their  own 
etnancipation  which  the  very  Papists  could 
not  bring  forward  with  still  greater  force. 
The  writer  seems  throughout  to  plead  the 
cause  of  the  Catholics,  "  called  by  their  ill- 
willeis  Papists,"  with  so  much  earnestness, 
that  very  intelligent  Catholic  writers,  as 
Plowden,  Lawless,  Curry,  and  others,  have 
quoted  it  as  a  serious  argument  on  their  be- 
half. Indeed,  it  is  not  wonderful  if  straight- 
forward, unsophisticated  minds  that  under- 
stand no  joking  on  so  grave  a  subject,  have 
been  sometimes  mystified  by  passages  like 
this : 

"  And  whereas  another  author  among  our 
brethren,  the  Dissenters,  has  very  justly  corn- 
plained  that  by  this  persecuting  Test  Act 
great  numbers  of  true  Protestants  have  been 
forced  to  leave  the  kingdom  and  fly  to  the 


plantations,  rather  than  stay  here  branded 
with  an  incapacity  for  civil  and  military 
employment  ;  we  do  affirm  that  the  Catho- 
lics can  bring  many  more  instances  of  th 
same  kind  ;  some  thousands  of  their  religion 
have  been  forced  by  the  Sacramental  Test 
to  retire  into  other  countries  rather  than  live 
here  under  the  incapacity  of  wearing  swords, 
sitting  in  Parliament,  and  getting  that  share 
of  power  and  profit  which  belongs  to  them 
as  fellow-Christians,  whereof  they  are  de- 
prived merely  upon  account  of  conscience, 
which  would  not  allow  them  to  take  the 
sacrament  after  the  manner  prescribed  in  the 
liturgy.  Hence  it  clearly  follows,  in  the 
words  of  the  same  author,  '  That  if  we  [Cath- 
olics] are  incapable  of  employment,  we  are 
punished  for  our  dissent,  that  is,  for  our  con- 
science,' "  &c. 

It  gives  us  a  singular  idea  of  the  narrow- 
ness of  this  "  Irish  patriot's"  idea  of  patriot- 
ism, that  he  could  conceive  no  more  effect- 
ual way  of  casting  odium  and  i-idicule  on 
the  pretensions  of  Dissenters,  than  by  show- 
ino-  that  even  the  Papists  themselves  might 
plausibly  urge  similar  pretensions;  and  al- 
though he  was  aware  of  the  effect  of  these 
penal  laws  in  driving  both  Catholics  and  Dis- 
senters away  from  their  native  land,  to  carry 
their  energy,  their  industry,  and  their  resent- 
ments into  foreign  countries,  he  was  yet 
earnestly  in  favor  of  retaining  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  penal  laws  unbroken  against  them 
both.  The  controversy  soon  died  out,  and 
was  only  occasionally  and  faintly  renewed 
during  the  remainder  of  the  century  ;  but  it 
is  impossible  to  refrain  from  the  expression 
of  a  regret  that  the  sovereign  genius  of  Swift 
could  not  raise  him  up  to  a  loftier  and  more 
generous  idea  of  patriotism  for  the  country 
of  his  adoption — or,  as  he  always  called  it, 
oih\s  exile — than  this  narrow  and  intolerant 
exclusiveness,  which  would  drive  from  their 
native  land  both  Catholics  and  Protestants 
who  could  not  take  the  sacrament  as  he  ad- 
ministered it.  He  opposed  English  domina- 
tion over  Ireland,  yet  equally  opposed  the 
union  of  Irishmen  to  resist  it.  Therefore 
the  verdict  of  history  must  forever  be,  that 
he  was  neither  an  English  patriot  nor  an 
Irish  one.  As  was  said  long  afterwards  of 
O'Connell,  "he  was  a  bad  subject  and  a 
worse  rebel."     Yet  the  tone  of  independent 


58 


HISTOBT   OF    IRELAND. 


thought  which  rings  through  his  inimitable 
essays,  and  the  high  and  manly  spirit  with 
which  he  showed  Irishmen  how  to  confront 
unjust  power,  did  not  pass  away ;  they  pen- 
etrated the  character  of  the  whole  English 
Colony,  and  bore  fruit  long  after  that  unquiet 
and  haughty  heart  lay  at  rest  in  the  aisle  of 
St.  Patrick's.  Ubl  sceva  indignatio  ulterius 
cor  lacerare  nequit. 

The  disfranchised  Catholics  being  now  de- 
prived of  their  last  and  only  means  of  gain- 
ing the  favor  and  indulgence  of  their  neigh- 
boring magistrates,  by  promising  to  vote  for 
their  party  (all  parlies  being  alike  to  the 
Catholics),  were  made  to  feel  the  full  atrocity 
of  the  penal  laws.  It  seems  really  to  have 
been  the  design  of  Primate  Boulter  to  wear 
down  that  population  by  ill-usage,  to  force 
them  to  fly  the  country,  to  get  rid  of  them 
somehow  altogether,,  so  that  the  island  might 
lie  open  to  be  wholly  peopled  by  English 
Protestants. 

Boulter  was  by  no  means  the  inventor  of 
this  policy;  neither  was  he  the  last  who 
acted  upon  it ;  but  none  ever  pursued  it 
with  more  diabolical  malignity.  If  any 
clergyman  desired  to  win  the  primate's 
favor,  he  forthwith  preached  furious  and 
foaming  sermons  against  the  execrated 
Papists.  If  any  pamphleteer  desired  to 
make  himself  conspicuous  as  a  "king's  ser- 
vant," and  so  gain  a  profitable  place,  he  set 
to  work  to  prove  that  all  Catholics  are  by 
nature  and  necessity  murderers,  perjurers, 
and  adulterers.  The  resolutions  passed  so 
frequently  in  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  ex- 
horting magistrates  to  be  active  in  enforcing 
the  laws  against  the  common  enemy,  had 
sometimes  been  only  partially  effective,  be- 
cause the  Catholics  had  a  way  of  influencing 
country  gentlemen  to  a  certain  extent.  But 
now,  under  the  primate's  auspices,  it  was  not 
intended  that  such  resolutions  should  be  a 
dead  letter. 

On  the  9th  of  March,  1731,  it  was  "Re- 
solved unanimously  that  it  is  the  indispens- 
able duty  of  all  magistrates  and  officers  to 
put  the  laws  made  to  prevent  the  further 
growth  of  Popery  in  Ireland  in  due  execu- 
tion." It  was  also  at  the  same  time  resolved, 
nem.  con.  (being  the  end  of  the  session), 
"  that  the  members  of  that  house,  in  their 
respective  counties  and  stations,  would  u.se 


their  utmost  endeavors  to  put  the  sev- 
eral laws  against  Popery  in  due  execu- 
tion." 

These  frequent  resolutions  of  the  Com- 
mons, aided  by  inflammatory  anniversary 
sermons  and  equally  inflammatory  pam- 
phlets, occasionally  preached  and  published, 
diff^used  such  a  spirit  of  rancor  and  ani- 
mosity against  Catholics,  among  their  Prot- 
estant neighbors,  as  made  the  generality  of 
them  believe  that  the  woi'ds  Popery,  rebel- 
lion, and  massacre  really  signified  the  same 
thing,  and  thereby  excited  such  real  terrors 
in  these  latter  as  often  brought  the  liberties 
and  sometimes  the  lives  of  the  former  into 
imminent  danger.  The  most  shocking  fables 
that  had  been  invented  concerning  the  Irish 
insurrection  in  1641,  and  of  the  Englisli  gun- 
powder treason  in  1605,  were  studiously  re- 
vived and  aggravated  in  these  seimons  and 
pamphlets,  with  a  degree  of  virulence  and 
exaggeration  which  surpassed  the  most  ex- 
travagant fictions  of  romance  or  poetry,  and 
possessed  their  uninformed,  though  often 
well-meaning,  hearers  and  readers  with  last- 
ing and  general  abhorrence  of  these  people. 
The  crimes,  real  or  supposed,  of  Catholics 
dead  more  than  a  century  before,  were  im- 
puted, intentionally,  to  all  those  who  sur- 
vived them,  however  innocent,  of  the  same 
religious  persuasion. 

Doctor  Curry  affirms  that  by  all  these 
means  the  popular  passion  was  so  fiercely  in- 
censed against  Papists  as  to  suggest  to  some 
Protestants  the  project  of  destroying  them 
by  massacre  at  once  ;  and  that  "  an  ancient 
nobleman  and  privy  councillor,"  whom  the 
author,  however,  does  not  name,  **  in  the 
year  1743,  on  the  threatened  invasion  of 
England  by  the  French,  under  the  command 
of  Marshal  Saxe,  openly  declared  in  council 
'that  as  the  Papists  had  begun  the  massacre 
on  them,  about  a  hundred  years  before,  so 
he  thought  it  both  reasonable  and  lawful, 
on  their  parts,  to  prevent  them,  at  that 
dangerous  juncture,  by  first  falling  upon 
them.' " 

The  same  respectable  author,  who  was  a 
contemporary  of  the  events  he  relates,  states 
that  "so  entirely  were  some  of  the  lower 
northern  Dissenters  possessed  and  influenced 
by  this  prevailing  prepossession  and  rancor 
against  Catholics,  that  in  the  same  3'ear,  and 


HORRIBLE    SCHEME   FOR   THE   MASSACRE    OF    CATHOLICS. 


59 


for  the  same  declared  purpose  of  prevention, 
a  conspiracy  was  actually  formed  by  some  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Lurgan  to  rise  in  the 
night-time  and  destroy  all  their  neighbors  of 
tliat  denomination  in  their  beds.  But  this 
inhuman  purpose  was  also  frustrated  by  an 
information  of  the  honest  Protestant  publi- 
can in  whose  house  the  conspirators  had  met 
to  setile  the  execution  of  their  scheme, 
sworn  before  the  Rev.  Mr.  Ford,  a  justice  of 
the  peace  in  that  district,  wlio  received  it 
with  horror,  and  with  difficulty  put  a  stop 
to  the  intended  massacre."* 

The  Irish  House  of  Commons,  during 
Lord  Doiset's  administration,  was  chiefly  oc- 
cupied by  debates  on  money  and  finances. 
The  latter  years  of  Carteret's  term  had  been 
much  disquieted  on  account  of  an  attempt, 
made  by  the  king's  servants,  to  get  a  vote  of 
£274,000  to  the  crown.  The  country  party 
resisted  vigorously  ;  and  then  began  a  series 
of  acrimonious  debates  on  monetary  aflfairs, 
which  "the  Patriots"  treated  with  a  view  to 
assert,  as  often  and  as  strongly  as  possible, 
the  right  of  the  Irish  Legislature  to  control 
at  least  the  matter  of  Irish  finances.  In 
this  first  session,  held  in  the  Duke  of  Dor- 
set's government,  the  question  came  up 
ao-ain  under  another  form  on  the  vote  for  the 
supplies.  The  national  debt,  on  Lady  Day, 
1733,  was  £371,312  13s.  2d.,f  and  for  the 
payment  of  the  principal  and  interest  the 
supplies  were  voted  from  session  to  session. 
A  gross  attempt  was  now  made  to  grant 
the  supplies,  set  aside  to  pay  the  debt  and 
the  interest,  to  the  king  and  his  successors 
forever. 

This  proposition  was  violently  resisted  by 
the  Patriots,  who  asserted  that  it  was  uncon- 
stitutional to  vote  the  sum  for  a  longer  period 
than  from  session  to  session.  The  Govern- 
ment, defeated  in  this  attempt,  sought  to 
giant  it  lor  twenty-one  years,  and  a  warm 
debate  ensued.  Just  as  the  division  was 
about  taking  place,  the  Ministeiialists  and 
Patriots  being  nearly  equal,  Colonel  Totten- 
ham, an  Oppositionist,  entered.  He  was 
dressed  in  boots,  contrary  to  the  etiquette  of 
the  House,  which  piescribed  full  dress,  llis 
vote  gave  the  majority  to  the  Patriots,  and 
the  Government  was  defeated  by  Totlenham 


'  Curry's  Historical  Eeview. 


t  Plowden. 


in  his  boots.  This  became  one  of  the  toasts 
of  patriotism,  and  was  given  in  all  the  social 
meetings. 

But  such  triumphs  of  the  country  party 
were  rai'e,  and  their  eftects  were  precarious. 
Every  such  event  as  this,  however,  stimu- 
lated and  kept  alive  the  aspiration  after  inde- 
pendent nationality ;  and  the  same  Duke  of 
Dorset,  when  he  was  iu  Iieland  as  viceroy 
for  the  second  time,  had  an  opportunity  to 
verify  and  measure  the  progress  of  that  na- 
tional spirit. 

In  1737  Dorset  was  recalled,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  a  noble- 
man of  great  wealth,  who  kept  a  splendid 
court  in   Dublin,  and  by  the  expenditures 
thereby  occasioned  made  himself  extremely 
popular  amongst  the  tradesmen  of  that  city.* 
In  fact,  the  English  Government  and  its  crafty 
chief,  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  saw  the  necessity 
of   counteracting   the    perilous  doctrines  of 
the  "Patriots,"  by  all  the  arts  of  seduction, 
by  the  charm  of  personal  popularity,  an.d 
especially  by  corruption — an  art  which,  un- 
der Sir    Robert  Walpole,  reached,  both  in 
England  and  in  Ireland,  a  degree  of  high 
development,  which  it  had  never  before  at- 
tained in  any  country.     As  it  was  that  min- 
ister's avowed  maxim  that  "every  man  has 
his  price,"  he  saw  no  reason  to  except  Irish 
patriots  from  that  general  law  ;  and  Primate 
Boulter   was   precisely  the    man  to  test  its 
accuracy  in  practice.     All  the  influence  of 
the  Government  was  now  needed  to  over- 
come the  resolute  bearing  of  the  Opposition 
upon  the  grand  subject  of  "supplies."     The 
Patriots  were  determined,  if  the  Irish  Par- 
liament was  to  be  politically  subordinate  to 
that  of  England,  that   they  would  at  least 
endeavor  to  maintain  its  privilege  of  voting 
its  own  money.     It  is  in  these  debates  we 
first    find    amongst    tlie  Patriot    party    the 
names  of  Sir  Edward  O'Brien,  of  Clare,  and 
his  son.  Sir  Lucius  O'Brien,  an  illustrious 
name  then,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  des- 
tined to  be  more  illustrious  still  before  the 
close  of  that  century,  and  to  shine  with  a 
yet  purer  fame  in  the  present  age.     Henry 
Boyle,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  afterwards  Earl  of  Shannon,  and  Antony 
Malone,  son  of  that  Malone  who  had  pleaded 

♦He  also  built  Devonshire  Quay,  at  his  own  ex- 
pense, and  presented  it  to  the  city. 


60 


HISTORY    OP    IRELAND. 


along  with  Sir  Toby  Butler  against  the  penal 
laws  of  Qr.een  Anne's  time,  were  also  leading 
members  of  the  Opposition. 

In  1 741  there  was  another  dreadful  famine. 
It  is  irksome  to  record,  or  to  read  the  de- 
tails of  this  chronic  misery  ;  but  in  the  His- 
toiy  of  Ireland  the  gaunt  spectre  of  Famine 
must  be  a  prominent  figure  of  the  picture, 
while  English  connection  continues.  The 
learned  ;ind  amiable  Dr.  George  Berkeley 
was  then  Bishop  of  Cloyne.  A  season  of 
starvation  first,  and  then,  in  due  rotation,  a 
season  of  pestilence,  thinned  the  people 
miserably  ;  and  the  good  bishop's  sympathies 
were  strongly  moved.  In  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Thomas  Prior,  of  Dublin,  he  writes  thus, 
under  date  the  19tli  May,  1741:— "The 
distresses  of  the  sick  and  poor  are  endless. 
The  havoc  of  mankind  in  the  counties  of 
Cork,  Limerick,  and  some  adjacent  places, 
hath  been  incredible.  The  nation,  probably, 
will  not  recover  this  loss  in  a  century.  The 
other  day  I  heard  one  from  the  county  of 
Limeri(!k  say  that  whole  villages  were  en- 
tirely dispeopled.  About  two  months  since 
I  heard  Sir  Richard  Cox  say  that  five  hun- 
dred were  dead  in  the  parish,  though  in  a 
county,  I  believe,  not  very  populous.  It 
were  to  be  wished  people  of  condition  were 
at  their  seats  in  the  country  during  these 
calamitous  times,  which  might  provide  relief 
and  employment  for  the  poor.  Certainly, 
if  these  perish,  the  rich  must  be  sufferers  in 
the  end." 

It  was  while  under  the  impression  of  these 
terrible  scenes  of  suffering  that  Berkeley 
wrote  his  celebrated  pamphlet,  entitled  "The 
Querist,"  which  sets  forth,  under  the  form  of 
questions,  without  answers,  the  bishop's 
views  of  the  evils  and  requirements  of  his 
country  ;  for  Berkeley',  unlike  Swift,  called 
himself  an  Irishman.  Two  or  three  of  his 
queries  will  show  the  drift  of  the  work. 
"  Whether  a  great  quantity  of  sheepwalk 
be  not  ruinous  to  a  countiy,  rendering  it 
waste  and  thinly  inhabited?"  "Whether  it 
be  a  crime  to  inquire  how  far  we  may  do 
without  foreign  trade,  and  what  would  fol- 
low on  such  a  supposition  ?"  "  Whether,  if 
there  were  a  wall  of  brass  a  thousand  cubits 
high  round  this  kingdom,  our  natives  might 
not,  nevertheless,  live  cleanly  and  comfort- 
ably, till  the  land,  and  reap  the  fruits  of  it  ?" 


Such  queries  as  these,  though  very  cautiously 
expressed,  showed  plainly  enough  that  the 
excellent  bishop  attributed  all  the  evils  of 
Ireland  to  the  greedy  commercial  policy  of 
England ;  and  accordingly  this  pamphlet 
was  quite  enough  to  stop  his  promotion. 
The  next  year  there  was  a  vacancy  for  the 
primacy ;  and  as  Berkeley  was  the  most 
learned  and  famous  man  in  the  Irish  Church 
(Swift  being  then  in  his  sad  dotage),  the 
friends  of  the  Bishop  of  Cloyne  naturally 
thought  him  entitled  to  the  place,  especially 
since  Sir  Robert  Walpole  owed  him  some 
compensation  for  having  broketi  faith  with 
him  in  the  matter  of  his  Bermuda  mission- 
ary college.  But  Berkeley  himself  expected 
no  such  favors.  He  writes  to  Mr.  Prior  with 
a  touching  simplicity  :  "For  myself,  though 
his  excellency  the  lord-lieutenant  might 
have  a  better  opinion  of  me  than  I  de- 
served, yet  it  was  not  likely  that  he  would 
make  an  Irishtiian  primate."  And  assuredly, 
Berkeley  was  not  the  kind  of  man  needed 
to  "do  the  king's  business"  in  Ireland.  Dr. 
Hoadley  was  the  person  appointed,  and  was 
soon  succeeded  by  the  notorious  George  Stone. 
It  would  require  a  large  volume  to  detail 
the  numberless  and  minutely  elaborated 
measures  by  which  the  English  Government 
has  at  all  times  contrived  to  regulate  the 
trade  and  industry  of  Ireland  in  all  their 
parts  with  a  view  to  her  own  profit;  a  svs- 
tem  whereby  periodical  famines  are  insured 
in  an  island  endowed  by  natuie  with  such 
boundless  capacity  for  wealth.  We  have 
seen  that  both  Swift  and  Berkeley  attacked 
the  extensive  "sheepwalks"  In  those  years, 
corn  was  brought  from  England  to  Ireland 
because  it  suited  the  interest  of  England 
then  to  discourage  agriculture  here,  and  to 
encourage  sheep-farms,  all  her  efforts  being 
directed  to  secure  the  woollen  trade  to  her- 
self. Accordingly  it  was  forbidden  the  Irish 
to  export  black  cattle  to  England,  and, 
therefore,  sheep  became  the  more  profitable 
stock ;  but  as  the  Irish  could  make  nothing 
of  the  wool,  they  had  to  send  it  in  the 
fleece,  and  thus  Yorkshire  was  supplied  with 
the  raw  material  of  its  staple  manufacture. 
But  afterwards,  when  England  had  full  pos- 
session of  the  woollen  manufacture,  and  that 
of  Ireland  was  utterly  destroyed,  it  became 
apparent  to  the  English,  that  the  best  use 


■WAR    ON   THE    CONTINENT — DR.   LUCAS. 


61 


tlu^y  could  tn;ike  of  Ireland  would  be  to 
turn  it  into  a  general  store  farm  for  agricul- 
tural produce  of  all  kinds.  Anderson  [His- 
tory/ of  Conunerce)  explains  tlie  matter  thus  : 
"  Concerning  these  laws,  many  think  them 
liurtful,  and  that  it  would  be  wiser  to  sufter 
the  Irish  to  be  employed  in  breeding  and 
fattening  their  black  cattle  for  us,  than  to 
turn  their  lands  into  sheepwalks  as  at  pres- 
ent; in  consequence  of  which,  in  spite  of  all 
the  laws,  they  supply  foreign  nations  with 
their  wool." 

It  is  observable  that  this  English  writer, 
when  he  says  many  think  the  laws  regulat- 
ing Irish  commerce  "  hurtful,"  means  hurt- 
ful to  the  English.  Therefore,  the  system 
was  afterwards  so  far  changed,  that  England 
was  willing  to  take  any  kind  of  agricultural 
produce  from  us,  and  to  give  us,  in  return, 
manufactured  articles  made  either  of  our 
own  or  of  foreign  materials.  So  it  has 
happened  that.  Irishmen  have  been  per- 
mitted ever  since  to  sow,  to  reap,' and  to 
feed  cattle  for  them,  as  Anderson  recom- 
mended. But  which  of  the  systems  bred 
more  Irish  famines  we  shall  have  other  and 
too  many  opportunities  of  inquiring. 


CHAPTER  X. 

1741—1745. 

War  on  the  Continent — Dr.  Lucas — Primate  Stone 
— Buttle  of  Dettingen  —  Lally —  Fonteuoy —  The 
Irish  Brigade. 

King  George  II.,  like  his  predecessor, 
felt  much  more  personal  interest  in  German 
politics  and  the  "balance  of  power"  on  the 
Continent,  than  in  any  domestic  affairs  of 
the  English  nation.  He  had  adhered  to  the 
"  Pragmatic  sanction,"  that  favorite  measure 
of  the  Austrian  Emperor  Charles  VI.,  for  se- 
curing the  succession  of  the  possessions  of 
the  House  of  Austria  to  the  Archduchess 
Maria  Theresa,  queen  of  Hungary.  On  the 
20th  of  October,  1740,  the  Emperor  Charles 
died,  and  all  Europe  was  almost  immediately 
plunged  into  general  war.  King  Frederick, 
styled  the  Great,  was  then  king  of  Prussia ; 
and  as  the  Austrian  army  and  finances  were 
then  in  great  disorder,  and  he  could  expect 
no  very  serious  opposition,  he  suddenly  set 


up  his  claim  to  the  Austrian  duchy  of  Si- 
lesia, and  marched  an  army  into  it,  in  pur- 
suance of  that  usual  policy  of  Prussia,  which 
elaborately  prepares  and  carefully  conceals 
plans  of  aggression  until  the  moment  of 
putting  them  in  execution,  and  then  makes 
the  stealthy  spring  of  a  tiger.  France  em- 
braced the  cause  of  the  Elector  of  Bavaria 
and  candidate  for  the  imperial  throne ;  sent 
an  army  into  Germany  under  Marshal  Brog- 
lie,  and  after  some  successes  over  the  Aus- 
trians,  caused  the  elector  to  be  proclaimed 
emperor  at  Prague.  In  April,  1741,  King 
George  II.  delivered  a  speech  to  both  Houses 
of  his  Parliament,  informing  them  that  the 
Queen  of  Hungary  had  made  a  requisition 
for  the  aid  of  England  in  asserting  her  title 
to  the  throne,  pursuant  to  the  Pragmatic 
sanction ;  and  thereupon  he  demanded  war 
supplies.  Some  honest  and  uncorrupted 
members  of  Parliament  protested  against  this 
new  Continental  war ;  but  Sir  Robert  Wal- 
pole  still  ruled  the  country  with  almost  ab- 
solute sway ;  and  to  hold  his  place  he  sup- 
ported the  policy  of  the  king.  So  began 
that  long  and  bloody  war:  a  war  in  which 
Ireland  had  no  concern,  save  in  so  far  as  it 
was  an  occasion  for  larger  exactions  from 
the  Irish  Parliament;  and  also  gave  to  her 
exiled  sons  some  further  opportunities  of 
meeting  their  enemies  in  battle. 

It  was  in  1741  that  the  famous  Dr.  Lucaa 
first  appeared  in  the  political  arena.  He 
was  a  man  of  great  energy  and  honesty ; 
fully  imbued  with  the  opinions  of  Swift  on 
the  rights  and  wrongs  of  his  country,  that 
is  of  the  English  colony.  He  was  even 
more  oftensively  intolerant  than  Swift  to- 
waids  the  Catholics;  but  within  the  sacred 
limits  of  the  "Protestant  interest"  he  sup- 
ported the  principles  of  freedom  ;  and  if  he 
fell  very  far  short  of  his  great  model  in 
genius,  he  perhaps  equalled  him  in  courage. 
Charles  Lucas  was  born  in  1713,  and  his 
family  was  of  the  farming  class  in  Clare 
county.  He  established  himself  as  an  apothe- 
cary in  Dublin,  where  he  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Common  Council.  He  there 
found  abuses  to  correct.  The  appointment 
of  aldermen  had  been  a  privilege  usurped 
by  the  board  of  aldermen,  while  the  right 
appertained  to  the  whole  corporate  body. 
Having  agitated  this  subject  for  a  while,  he 


62 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


p;ri'W  holder  with  his  increasing  popularity, 
;nicl  ptiblishc'l  some  political  tracts  on  the 
;<)vt'reig-n  right  of  the  Irish  Parliament. 
This  attracted  attention  and  excited  alarm  ; 
for,  "  to  make  any  man  popular  in  Ireland," 
as  the  primate  bitterly  remarks,  "it  is  only 
necessary  to  set  up  the  Irish  against  the 
English  interest."  Henceforward  Dr.  Lucas 
pursued,  in  his  own  way,  an  active  career  of 
patriotism,  as  he  understood  patriotism;  and 
the  reader  will  hear  of  him  again. 

In  1742  the  primacy  of  the  Irish  Church 
being  vacant,  by  the  death  of  Dr.  Boulter, 
lloadley  was  first  appointed  to  the  See  of 
Armagh,  but  vpas  soon  after  succeeded  by 
tliat  extraordinary  prelate,  George  Stone, 
bishop  of  Derry.  It  had  long  been  Sir 
Robert  Walpole's  policy  to  govern  Ireland 
mainly  through  the  chief  of  the  Irish  Es- 
tablished Church,  and  Stone  was  a  man  al- 
together after  his  own  heart.  He  was  English 
by  birth,  and  the  son  of  a  keeper  of  a  jail ; 
was  never  remarkable  for  learning,  and  his 
character  was  the  worst  possible;  but  he 
had  qualities  which,  in  the  minister's  judg- 
ment, peculiaily  fitted  him  to  hold  that 
wealthy  and  powerful  see — that  is  to  say,  he 
would  scruple  at  no  corruption,  would  re- 
volt at  no  infamy,  to  gain  adherents  "for 
the  court  against  the  nation  ;"  and  would 
make  it  the  single  aim  of  his  life  to  main- 
tain the  English  interest  in  Ireland;  and 
this  not  only  by  careful  distribution  of  the 
immense  patronage  of  Government,  but  by 
still  baser  acts  of  seduction.  Memoirs  and 
satires  of  that  time  have  made  but  too  no- 
torious the  mysteries  of  his  house  near  Dub- 
lin, where  wine  in  profusion  and  bevies  of 
beautiful  harlots  baited  the  trap  to  catch  the 
light  youth  of  the  metropolis.  Primate 
Stone  was  a  very  handsome  man,  of  very 
dignified  presence  and  demeanor;  and  with 
such  a  man  for  lord-justice  and  privy  coun- 
cillor, the  Duke  of  Dorset  was  able  to  pre- 
vent any  dangerous  assertion  of  indepen- 
dence during  his  viceroyalty.  There  were, 
however,  continual  debates  over  the  ques- 
tion of  supplies,  the  rapidly  increased  ex- 
penses of  the  public  establishments,  and  the 
notorious  corruption  practised  by  Govern- 
ment. 

So  long  as  the  common  interest  of  the 
Protestants  was  kept  secure  against  the  mass 


of  the  people,  all  was  well ;  but  during  the 
Devonshire  administration  alarm  was  taken 
about  that  vital  point,  on  account  of  a  bill 
to  reverse  an  attainder  which  Lord  Clancarty 
had  succeeded  in  having  presented  to  the 
Irish  Parliament  during  the  preceding  vice- 
royalty,  and  which  there  seemed  to  be  some 
danger  might  be  passed.  The  Clancarty 
estate,  which  would  have  been  restored  by 
this  attainder,  was  valued  at  £60,000  per 
annum ;  and  it  was  then  in  the  hands  of 
many  new  proprietors  who  had  purchased 
under  the  confiscation  titles,  and  who  now, 
of  course,  besieged  and  threatened  Parlia- 
ment with  their  claims  and  outcries.  It  was 
also  found  that  other  persons,  whose  lands 
had  been  confiscated  (unjustly  as  they  said 
they  were  ready  to  prove),  had  instituted 
proceedings  for  the  recovery  of  certain  pieces 
of  land  or  houses.  In  short,  there  were 
eighty-seven  suits  commenced  ;  and  the 
House .  felt  that  it  was  time  to  set  at  least 
that  afi"air  at  rest.  If  Papists  were  to  be 
allowed  to  disquiet  Protestant  possessors  by 
alleging  injustice  and  illegality  in  the  pro- 
ceedings by  which  they  had  been  despoiled, 
it  was  clearly  perceived  that  there  would  be 
an  end  of  the  Protestant  interest,  which,  in 
fact,  reposed  upon  injustice  and  illegality 
from  the  beginning.  Therefore,  a  series  of 
very  violent  resolutions  was  passed  by  the 
Commons,  denouncing  all  these  proceedings 
as  a  disturbance  of  the  public  weal,  and  de- 
claring all  those  who  instituted  any  such 
suits,  or  acted  in  them  as  lawyer  or  attorney, 
to  be  public  enemies.  It  may  be  remem- 
bered that  not  only  were  Catholic  barristers 
debarred  from  practice,  but,  by  a  late  act, 
Catholic  solicitors  too  ;  so  that  after  these 
resolutions  there  could  not  be  much  chance 
of  success  in  any  lawsuit  for  a  Catholic. 
Thus  the  Pjotestant  interest  was  quieted  for 
that  time. 

Meanwhile,  war  was  raging  over  the  Con- 
tinent, and  King  George  II.,  with  liis  son,  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland,  had  gone  over  to  take 
command  of  the  British  and  Hanoverian 
troops,  operating  on  the  French  frontier, 
while  Central  Germany  was  fiei'cely  debated 
between  the  Empress  Queen,  allied  with 
England,  and  Frederick  of  Prussia,  allied  with 
France.  The  first  considerable  battle  after 
the  king  took  command  was  at  Detlingen 


BATTLE  OF  DETTINGEN — COUNT  DE  LALLT. 


63 


tilt!  27111  of  June,  1743.  This  place  is  on 
the  Mein  or  Mayn  river,  and  very  near  tlie 
citv  of  Frankfort.  The  French  were  corn- 
n landed  by  the  Marechal  de  Noailles;  the 
allies  by  King  George  ostensibly,  but  really 
by  the  Earl  of  S;air.  The  day  went  against 
the  French,  and  ended  in  almost  a  rout  of 
their  army,  which  would  have  become  a  to- 
tal rout  but  for  the  exertions  of  the  Count 
do  Lally,  then  acting  as  aide-major-general 
to  Noailles,  The  marechal  himsf^lf  gives  him 
this  very  high  testimony  :  "  He  three  several 
times  rallied  the  army  in  its  rout,  and  saved 
it  in  its  retreat  by  his  advice  given  to  the 
council  of  war  after  the  action."*  As  this 
celebrated  soldier  will  reappear  in  the  nar- 
rative, and  especially  on  one  far  greater  and 
more  terrible  day,  it  may  be  well  to  give 
some  account  of  him.  His  father  was  Sir 
Gerard  Lally  (properly  O'MulIally),  of  Tul- 
lindal  ;  and  had  been  one  of  the  defenders 
of  Limerick,  and  one  of  those  who  volun- 
teered for  France  with  Sarsfield.  Sir  Gerard 
bt^came  immediately  an  officer  in  the  French 
service,  and  his  son,  the  Count  Lally,  was 
I'orn  at  Romans,  in  Dauphine,  when  his 
father  was  there  in  garrison.  He  first 
mounted  a  trench  at  the  siege  of  Barcelona, 
in  Spain,  when  he  was  twelve  years  of  age, 
but  already  a  captain  in  Dillon's  regiment. 
This  was  in  1714.  We  next  hear  of  him 
planning  a  new  descent  upon  some  point  of 
England  or  Scotland,  in  order  to  retrieve  the 
fortunes  of  "  the  Pretender,"  and  had  actual- 
ly a  commission  for  this  purpose  from  King 
James  HL  To  conceal  his  plans,  he  an- 
nounced that  he  was  preparing  to  make  a 
campaign  as  volunteer  under  his  near  rela- 
tive Marechal  de  Lascy  (De  Lacy),  who  then 
commanded  the  Russian  army  against  the 
Turks.  Cardinal  Fleury  induced  him  to  lay 
aside  every  other  design  and  to  go  to  Rus- 
sia, not  in  a  military  but  in  a  civil  capacity; 
in  short,  as  a  diplomatist  with  special  mis- 
sion. As  this  mission  was  to  endeavor  to 
de'ach  Russia  from  English  alliance,  aud  so 
weaken  England  in  the  war,  he  gladly  ac- 
cepted, for  the  great  object  of  Lally's  life,  to 
the  very  last,  was  to  strike  a  mortal  blow  at 
England  in  any  part  of  the  earth  or  sea.  He 


*  Letter  of  Marechal  de  Noailles,  quoted  in  Biog. 
Univ.,  art.  LaUy. 


did  not  succeed  in  his  Russian  embassv,  and 
left  St.  Petersburg  in  a  fit  of  impatience,  for 
which  the  cardinal  rebuked  him  ;  then  served 
under  Noailles  in  the  Netherlands,  who  par- 
ticularly requested  him  to  act  as  the  chief  of 
his  stafl".  It  is  tlius  we  find  him  at  the  disas- 
trous battle  of  Dettingen  ;  but  for  the  re- 
pulse that  day  both  Lally  and  the  French 
were  soon  to  have  a  choice  revenge.  After 
the, battle,  a  regiment  of  Lish  infantry  was 
created  for  him,  and  attached  to  the  L'ish 
brigade.  The  brigade  consisted  now  of 
seven  regiments,  and  it  saw  much  service 
that  year  and  the  next  under  the  Count  de 
Saxe,  who  took  the  various  towns  of  Menin, 
Ypres,  and  Furnes,  in  the  Netherlands,  all 
which  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  endeavored 
to  prevent  without  avail,  and  without  com- 
ing to  a  battle. 

In  this  year,  1744,  however,  great  prep- 
aration was  made  on  both  sides  for  a  de- 
cisive campaign.  The  French  army  was 
incieased  in  the  Netherlands,  and  on  the 
other  side  the  English  court  had  at  length 
prevailed  on  the  States-General  of  Holland 
to  join  the  alliance  against  France.  In  Sep- 
tember of  that  year,  the  allies,  then  in  camp 
at  Spire,  were  reinforced  by  20,000  Dutch, 
who  were  time  enough,  unluckily  for  them, 
to  take  a  share  in  the  great  and  crowning 
battle  of  Fontenoy. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  the  incidents 
of  this  famous  battle  have  been  sufficiently 
discussed  and  described  to  make  them  gen- 
erally known  ;  but,  in  fact,  the  plain  truth 
of  that  aftair  (especially  as  it  affects  the  Irish 
engaged)  is  very  difficult  to  ascertain  with 
precision,  and  for  the  very  reason  that  there 
are  so  many  accounts  of  it  handed  down  to 
us  by  French,  Irish,  and  English  authorities, 
all  with  different  national  prejudices  and 
predilections.  Reading  the  usual  English 
accounts  of  the  battle,  one  is  surprised  to 
find  in  general  no  mention  of  Irishmen  hav 
ing  been  at  Fontenoy  at  all ;  the  English 
naturally  dislike  to  acknowledge  th:'.t  they 
owed  that  mortal  disaster  in  great  part  to 
the  Irish  exiles  whom  the  faithlessness  and 
oppression  of  their  own  Government  had 
driven  from  their  homes  and  filled  with  the 
most  intense  passion  of  vengeance :  the 
French,  with  a  sentiment  of  national  pride 
equally    natural,    wish     to    appropriate    to 


64 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


French  soldiers,  as  far  as  possible,  the  honor 
of  one  of  their  proudest  victories;  but  if  we 
read  certain  enthusiastic  Irish  narratives  of 
Fontenoy,  we  miglit  be  led  to  suppose  that 
it  was  the  Irish  brigade  alone  which  saved 
the  French  army  and  ruined  the  redoubt- 
able column  of  English  and  Hanoverians. 
It  is  well,  then,  to  endeavor  to  establish  the 
simple  facts  by  reference  to  such  authorities 
as  are  beyond  suspicion. 

In  the  end  of  April,  1V45,  the  Marechal 
de  Saxe,  now  famous  for  his  successful  sieges 
in  the  Netherlands,  opened  trenches  before 
Tournay,  on  the  Scheldt  river,  which,  in  this 
place,  runs  nearly  from  south  to  north. 
King  Louis,  with  the  young  dauphin,  "  not  to 
speak  of  mistresses,  play-actors,  and  cookei'y- 
Mpparatus  (in  wagons  innumerable)  hastens 
to  be  there,"  says  Carlyle.*  Tournay  was 
very  strongly  fortified,  and  defended  by  a 
Dutch  garrison  of  nine  thousand  men,  and 
Saxe  appeared  before  it  with  an  army  of 
about  seventy  thousand  men.  The  allies  de- 
termined at  all  hazards  to  raise  the  siege, 
and  King  George's  son,  the  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland, liastened  over  from  England  to  take 
command  of  the  allied  forces  —  English, 
Dutch,  Hanoverian,  and  Austrian — destined 
for  that  service.  Count  Konigseck  com- 
manded the  Austrian  quota,  and  the  Prince 
of  Waldeck  the  Dutch.  The  army  was 
mustered  near  Brussels  on  the  4th  of  May, 
and  thence  set  forth,  sixty  thousand  sti'ong, 
for  Tournay,  passing  near  the  field  of  Stein- 
kirk — a  name  remembered  in  the  English 
army.  On  Suuday,  the  9ih  of  May  [neiv 
style),  the  duke  reached  the  village  of  Vazon, 
six  or  seven  miles  from  Tournay,  in  a  low, 
undulating  country,  with  some  wood  and  a 
few  streams  and  peaceable  villages.  The 
ground  which  was  to  be  the  field  of  battle 
lies  all  between  the  Brussels  road  and  the  river 
Scheldt.  Tournay  lay  to  the  north-west, 
closely  beleaguered  by  the  French,  and  the 
Marechal  de  Saxe,  aware  of  the  approach  of 
the  allies,  had  thrown  up  some  works,  to 
bar  their  line  of  advance,  with  strong  bat- 
teries in  the  villages  of  Antoine   and  Fon- 

*  Life  of  Frederick.  Mr.  Carlyle,  who  devotes 
many  pages  to  a  niinnte  account  of  the  battle  of 
Fontenoy,  dues  not  seem  to  have  been  made  aware, 
in  the  course  of  his  reading,  of  the  presence  of  any 
Irish  troops  at  all  on  that  field. 


tenoy,  and  on  the  edge  of  a  small  wood, 
called  Bois  de  JSarri,  which  spreads  out  to- 
wards the  east,  but  narrows  nearly  to  a  point 
in  the  direction  of  Tournay.  In  these  works, 
connected  by  redans  and  abatis,  and  mount- 
ed with  probably  a  hundred  guns,  the  Mare- 
chal took  his  position  with  fifty-five  thou- 
sand men,  leaving  part  of  his  force  around 
Tournay  and  in  neighboring  garrisons.  Near 
the  point  of  the  wood  is  a  redoubt  called 
"redoubt  of  Eu,"  so  called  from  the  title  of 
the  Norman  regiment  which  occupied  it  that 
day.  On  a  hill  a  liitle  farther  within  the 
French  lines  the  king  and  the  dauphin  took 
their  post. 

And  now  Saxe  only  feared  that  the  allies 
might  not  venture  to  assail  him  in  so  strono; 
a  place  ;  and  the  old  Austrian,  Konigseck, 
was  strongly  of  opinion  that  the  attempt 
ought  not  to  be  made ;  but  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland  and  Waldeck,  the  Dutch  com- 
mander, were  of  a  different  opinion,  and,  iu 
short,  it  was  determined  to  go  in.  Early  in 
the  morning  of  the  11th  the  dispositions 
were  made.  The  Dutch  and  Austrians  were 
on  the  enemy's  left,  opposite  the  French 
right,  and  destined  to  carry  St.  Antoine  and 
its  works;  the  English  and  Hanoverians  in 
the  centre,  with  their  infantry  in  front  and 
cavalry  in  the  rear,  close  by  the  wood  of 
Barri.  The  map  contained  in  the  "  Meinoiis 
of  Marechal  Saxe"  gives  the  disposition  of 
the  various  corps  on  the  French  side ;  and 
we  there  find  the  place  of  the  Irish  brigade 
marked  on  the  left  of  the  French  line,  but 
not  the  extreme  left,  and  nearly  opposite  the 
salient  point  of  the  wood  of  Barri.  The 
brigade  was  not  at  its  full  strength  ;  and  we 
know  not  on  what  authority  Mr.  Davis* 
slates  that  all  the  seven  regiments  were  on 
the  ground.  There  were  probably  four  regi- 
ments ;  certainly  three — Clare's,  Dillon's,  and 
Lally's — Lord  Clare  being  in  chief  command. 
Neither  Clare,  nor  Dillon,  nor  Lally  was 
Irish  by  birth,  but  all  were  sons  of  Limerick 
exiles.  Of  their  troops  ranked  that  day 
under  the  green  flag,  probably  not  one  had 
fought  at  Limerick  fifty-four  years  before. 
They  were  either  the  sons  of  the  original 
"  Wild-geese,"  or  Irishmen  who  had  migra- 
ted since,  to  fly  from  the  degradation  of  the 

*  Note  to  his  splendid  ballad  of  "  Fontenoy." 


THK   BATTLK     OP     FONTKNOT. 


65 


penal  laws,  and  seek  revenge  upon  theii' 
country's  enemies.  Judging  from  the  space 
which  the  brigade  is  made  to  occupy  on  the 
map,  it  appears  likely  that  its  effective  force 
at  Fontenoy  did  not  exceed  five  thousand 
men,  or  the  tenth  part  of  the  French  army. 
The  various  attacks  ordered  by  the  Duke 
of  Cumbeiland  on  tlie  seveial  parts  of  the 
French  line  were  made  in  due  form,  after 
sows  preliminary  cannonading.  None  of 
them  succeeded.  The  Dutch  and  Austrinns 
were  to  have  stormed  St.  Antoine,  their 
right  wing  at  the  same  time  joining  hands 
with  the  English  and  Hanoverians  opposite 
Fontenoy.  But  they  ftnind  the  fire  from 
Antoine  too  heavy,  and,  besides,  a  battery 
they  were  not  aware  of  opened  upon  them 
from  the  opposite  bank  of  tlie  Scheldt,  and 
cut  them  up  so  effectually  that  after  two 
gallant  assaults  they  were  fain  to  retire  to 
their  original  position.  Of  course  the  Eng- 
lish have  complained  ever  since  that  it  was 
the  Dutch  and  Austrians  who  lost  them 
Fontenoy.  In  the  mean  time  the  English 
and  Hanoverians  were  furiously  attacking 
the  village  of  Fontenoy  itself,  but  had  no 
better  success.  Before  the  attack  a  certain 
Brigadier- General  Ingoldsby  had  been  de- 
tHched  with  a  Hig-hlaud  regiment,  "  Semple's 
Highlanders,"  and  some  other  force,  to  si- 
lence the  redoubt  of  Eu,  on  the  edge  of  the 
wood,  which  seriously  incommoded  the  Eng- 
lish right.  Ingoldsby  tried,  but  could  not 
do  it  (on  which  account  he  underwent  a 
court-martial  in  England  afterwards).  So 
the  duke  had  to  make  his  attack  on  Fon- 
tenoy with  the  guns  of  that  redoubt  ham- 
mering his  right  flank.  The  attack  was 
made,  however,  and  made  with  gallantry 
and  persistency,  three  times,  but  completely 
repulsed  each  time  with  considerable  loss. 
Nothing  but  repulse  everywhere — right,  left 
and  centre  ;  but  now  the  Duke  of  Cumber- 
land perceived  that  between  Fontenoy  and 
the  wood  of  Barri,  with  its  redoubt  of  Eu, 
there  was  a  passage  practicable,  though  with 
great  peril  and  loss  from  the  cross-fire. 
"Sire,*'  said  Saxe  to  the  king  on  the  even- 
ing of  that  triumphant  day,  "I  have  one 
fault  to  reproach  myself  with — I  ought  to 
have  put  one  more  redoubt  between  the 
wood  and  Fontenoy;  but  I  thought  there 
was  no  general  bold  enough  to  hazard  a  pas- 
9 


sage  in  that  place."*  In  fact,  no  gener.il 
ought  to  have  done  so.  However,  as  C;ir- 
lyle  describes  this  advance,  ''His  Royal  High 
ness  blazes  into  resplendent  Platt-Deutacl 
rage,  what  we  may  call  spiritual  white  heat, 
a  man  sans  ^-icur  at  any  rate,  and  pretty 
much  Sana  avia — decides  that  he  must  and 
will  be  through  those  lines,  if  it  pleaso 
God;  that  he  will  not  be  repulsed  at  his  part 
of  the  attack — not  he,  for  one  ;  but  will 
plunge  through  by  what  gap  there  is  (nine 
hundred  yards  Voltaire  measures  it),  between 
Fontenoy  and  that  ledoubt,  with  its  laggaid 
Ingoldsby,  and  see  what  the  French  interior 
is  like."f  In  fact,  he  did  come  through  the 
lines,  and  saw  the  interior. 

He  retired  for  a  space,  rearranged  his 
Eno-lish  and  Hanoverians  in  three  thin  col- 
umns,  which,  in  the  advance,  under  heavv 
fire  from  both  sides,  were  gradually  crowded 
into  one  column  of  great  depth,  full  sixteen 
thousand  strong.^  They  had  with  theia 
twelve  field-pieces — six  in  front  and  six  in 
the  middle  of  their  lines.§  The  column 
had  to  pass  through  a  kind  of  hollow,  where 
they  were  somewhat  sheltered  from  the  fire 
on  each  flank,  di'aggiug  their  cannon  by 
hand,  and  then  mounted  a  rising  giound, 
and  found  themselves  nearly  out  of  direct 
range  from  the  guns  both  of  Fontenoy  and 
the  redoubt  of  Eu — fiirly  in  sight  of  the 
Fiench  position.  In  front  of  them,  as  it 
chanced,  were  four  battalions  of  the  Gardes 
Fran^aises,  with  two  battalions  of  Swiss 
guards  on  their  left,  and  two  other  French 
regiments  on  their  right.  The  French  offi- 
cers seem  to  have  been  greatly  surprised 
when  they  saw  the  English  battery  of  can- 
non taking  piosition  on  the  summit  of  the 
rising  gi'ound.  "  English  cannon  !"  they 
cried  ;  "  let  us  go  and  trdce  them."  They 
mounted  the  hill  with  their  grenadiers,  but 
were  astonislied  to  find  an  army  in  their 
front.     A  heavy  discharge,  both  of  artillery 

*  Voltaire.  Louis  XV.  His  account  oftlie  battle 
is  in  general  very  clear  andpreci>c;  but  Voltaire, 
both  in  tills  work  and  in  his  poem  of  P"iiriteno>v 
though  he  (.•annot  altocrt'tlier  avoid  M  nn-ntion  of  the 
Irisi)  troops,  takes  care  to  t-siy  as  little  about  them  us 
possible. 

+  Life  of  Frederick. 

X  Davis,  both  in  his  ballad  and  his  note  on  this 
battle,  by  some  unaccountable  oversight,  states  it  at 
six  thousand. 

§  Voltaire. 


C6 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


jind  musketry,  made  them  quickly  recoil 
witli  heavy  loss.  The  English  column  con- 
tinued to  advance  steadily,  and  the  French 
guards,  with  the  regiment  of  Courten,  sup- 
ported by  other  troops,  having  re-formed, 
came  up  to  meet  them.  It  is  at  this  point 
that  the  ceremonious  salutes  are  said  to  have 
passed  between  Lord  Charles  Hay,  who  com- 
manded the  advance  of  the  English,  and  the 
Conite  d'Auteroche,  an  officer  of  the  French 
grenadiers — the  former  taking  off  his  hat 
and  politely  requesting  Messieurs  of  the 
French  Guards  to  fiie — the  latter,  also,  vfhh 
}iat  off,  replying',  "  After  you,  Messieurs." 
D'Espagnac  and  Voltaire  both  record  this 
})iece  of  stage  -  courtesy.  But  Carlyle, 
though  he  says  it  is  a  pity,  disturbs  the 
course  of  history  by  means  of  "a  small  ii- 
refiiigable  document  which  has  come  to  him," 
namely,  an  oiiginal  letter  from  Lord  Uay  to. 
bis  brother,  of  vi^hich  this  is  an  exceipt :  "  It 
was  our  regiment  that  attacked  the  French 
Guards ;  and  when  we  came  within  twenty 
or  thirty  paces  of  them,  I  advanced  before 
our  regiment,  drank  to  them  (to  the  French), 
and  told  them  that  we  were  the  English 
Guards,  and  hoped  they  would  stand  till  we 
came  quite  up  to  tliem,  and  not  swim  the 
Scheldt,  as  they  did  the  Mayn  at  Dettingen  ; 
upon  which  I  immediately  turned  aV)Out  to 
our  own  regiment,  speeched  them,  and  made 
tliem  huzzah.  An  officer  (d'Auteroche)  came 
out  of  the  ranks,  and  tried  to  make  his  men 
liuzzah.  However,  there  were  not  above 
three  or  four  in  their  brigade  that  did,"  &c. 
Ill  fact,  it  appears  that  the  French,  who,  ac- 
cording to  that  chivalrous  legend,  "  never 
fired  first,"  did  fire  first  on  this  occasion; 
but  both  Gardes Franfaises  and  Swiss  Guards 
Were  driven  off  the  field  with  considerable 
slaughter.  And  still  the  English  column  ad- 
vanced, witli  a  terrible  steadiness,  pouring 
forth  a  tremendous  fire  of  musketry  and  ar- 
tillery, sufieiing  grievously  by  repeated  at- 
tacks, both  in  tVont  and  flank,  but  still  closing 
up  its  gapped  ranks,  and  showing  a  resolute 
face  on  both  sides.  There  was  some  con- 
fusion in  the  French  army,  owing  to  the 
surprise  at  this  most  audacious  advance,  and 
the  resistance  at  first  was  unconcerted  and 
desultory.  Regiment  after  regiment,  both 
foot  and  horse,  was -hurled  against  the  re- 
doubtable colunin,  but  all  were  repulsed  by 


an  admirably  sustained  fire,  which  the  French 
called  feu  d^enfer.  Voltaire  states  that 
among  the  forces  which  made  these  ineffec- 
tual attacks  were  certain  Irish  battalions, 
and  that  it  was  in  this  charge  that  the  Colo- 
nel Count  Dillon  was  killed.  And  still  the 
formidable  column  steadily  and  slowly  ad- 
vanced, cahnly  loading  and  firing,  "  as  if  on 
parade,"  says  Voltaire,  and  were  now  full 
thiee  hundred  paces  beyond  the  line  of  fire 
from  Fontenoy  and  the  redoubt  of  the  wood, 
resolutely  marching  on  towards  the  French 
headquarters.  By  this  time  Count  Saxe 
found  that  his  batteries  at  Fontenoy  had 
used  all  their  balls  and  were  only  answering 
the  guns  of  the  enemy  with  discharges  of 
powder.  He  believed  the  battle  to  be  lost, 
and  sent  two  several  times  to  entreat  the 
king  to  cross  the  Scheldt,  and  get  out  of 
danger,  which  the  king,  however,  steadily 
refused  to  do. 

Military  critics  have  said  that  at  this  crisis 
of  the  battle,  if  the  English  had  been  sup- 
poited  by  cavalry,  and  due  force  of  artillery, 
to  complete  the  disorder  of  the  French — or, 
if  the  Dutch,  under  Waldeck,  had  at  that 
moment  resolutely  repeated  their  assault 
upon  St.  Antoiue,  the  victory  was  to  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland,  and  the  whole  French 
army  must  have  been  flung  into  the  Scheldt 
river.  Count  Saxe  was  now  in  mortal  anxi- 
ety, and  thought  the  battle  really  lost,  when 
the  Duke  de  Richelieu  ro<le  up  at  full  gallop 
and  suggested  a  plan,  which  was  happily 
adopted.  It  was  the  thought  of  that  same 
Colonel  Count  de  Lally,  who  has  been  heard 
of  before  at  Dettingen.*  In  fact,  this  fa- 
mous plan  does  not  appear  to  have  required 
any  peculiar  strategic  genius  to  conceive, 
for  it  was  neither  more  nor  less  than  to  open 
with  a  battery  of  cannon  right  in  front  of 
the  advancing  column,  and  then  attack  it 
simultaneously  with  all  the  reserves,  includ- 
ing the  king's  household  cavalry,  and  the 
Irish  brigade,  which  still  stood  motionless 
near  the  western  j)oint  of  the  wood  of  Barri, 
and  now  abreast  of  the  English  column  on 


*  '•  It  is  said  tlie  Jacobite  Irishman,  Count  Lally, 
of  tlie  Irish  l)rigiide,  was  prime  autlior  of  lliis  no- 
tion."— Oarlyle.  Frederick.  Thi.s  is  ttie  only  indi- 
culiou  in  all  Carlyle'a  labored  account  of  the  battle 
that  he  was  aware  even  of  tlie  presence  of  ono 
Iri.shman. 


THE    IRISH    BRIGADE     AT   rONTENOY. 


r>7 


its  right  flank.  There  was  also  in  the  same 
quarter  the  French  regiment  of  Normnndie, 
and  vseveral  other  corps  which  had  already 
.  \reen  repulsed  and  broken  in  several  inef- 
fectual assaults  on  the  impregnable  column.* 
A  French  authority  f  informs  us  that  "this 
last  decisive  charge  was  determined  upon,  in 
the  very  crisis  of  the  day,  in  a  conversation 
rapid  and  sharp  as  lightning  between  Riche- 
lieu, galloping  from  rank  to  rank,  and  Lally, 
who  was  out  of  patience  at  the  thought  that 
the  devoted  ardor  of  the  Irish  brigade  was 
not  to  be  made  use  of."  He  had  his  wish, 
and  at  the  moment  when  the  battery  opened 
on  the  front  of  the  column,  the  brigade  had 
orders  to  assail  its  right  flank  and  to  go  in 
with  the  bavonet. 

The  English  mass  was  now  stationary, 
but  still  unshaken,  and  never  doubting  to 
finish  the  business,  but  looking  wistfully  back 
for  the  cavalry,  and  longing  for  the  Dutch. 
Suddenly  four  guns  opened  at  short  range 
straight  into  the  head  of  their  column  ;  and 
at  the  same  moment  the  Irish  regiments 
plunged  into  their  right  flank  with  bayonets 
levelled  and  a  hoarse  roar  that  rose  above  all 
the  din  of  battle.  The  words  were  in  an 
unknown  tongue ;  but  if  the  English  had 
understood  it,  they  would  have  known  that 
it  meant  '■''Remember  Limerick f'  That 
fierce  charge  broke  the  steady  ranks,  and 
made  the  vast  column  waver  and  reel.  It 
was  seconded  by  the  regiment  of  Normandie 
with  equal  gallantry,  while  on  the  other  flank 
the  cavalry  burst  in  impetuously,  and  the 
four  guns  in  front  were  ploughing  long  lanes 
through  the  dense  ranks.  It  was  too  much. 
The  English  resisted  for  a  little  with  stub- 
born bravery,  but  at  length  tumbled  into 
utter  confusion  and  fled  from  the  field,  leav- 
ing it  covered  thickly  with  their  own  dead 
and  their  enemies'.  They  were  not  pursued 
fir,  for,  once  outside  of  the  lines,  their  cav- 

*  The  Marquis  d'Argensoii,  miniBter  of  Foreigrn 
Atfairs,  was  present  in  tlie  battle,  and  immtdiately 
alter  wrote  a  narrative  of  it,  which  he  addressed  to 
}>\.  lie  Voltaire,  then  "  Historiot(riipher  to  the  Kiiicr." 
lie  savK  :  "  A  false  corps  de  reserve  was  then  brouiirlit 
up  ;  it  consisted  of  tiie  same  cavalry  which  had  nt 
first  charged  ineffectually,  the  liousehold  troops  of 
tlie  kintr,  tlie  carbineers  of  the  French  euards,  who 
liad  not  yet  been  engraved,  and  a  boity  of  Irish  troops, 
which  were  excellent,  especially  when  opposed  to 
the  Entrli^h  an<t  Hanoverians." 

t  Biog.   Univ.     Lally. 


ally  was  enabled  to  cover  their  retreat.  The 
allies  lost  nine  thousand  men,  including  two 
thousand  prisoners,  and  the  French  five 
thousand.  So  the  battle  of  Fontenoy  was 
fotight  and  won.* 

It  cost  the  Iri.sh  brigade  dear.  The  gal- 
lant Dillon  was  killed,  with  one-fourth  of 
the  officers  and  one  third  of  the  rank  and 
file ;  but  the  immediate  consequences  to 
France  were  immense — Tournay  at  once 
surrendered ;  Ghent,  Oudenarde,  Bruges, 
Dendermonde,  Ostend,  were  taken  in  quick 
succession  ;  and  the  English  and  their  allies 
driven  back  behind  the  swamps  and  canals 
of  Holland. 

None  of  all  the  French  victories  in  that 
age  caused  in  Paris  such  a  tumult  of  joy 
and  exidtation.  In  England  there  were 
lamentation,  and  wrath,  and  courts-martial ; 
but  not  against  the  Duke  of  Cumberland, 
for  the  king's  son  could  do  no  wrong.  In 
Ireland,  as  the  news  came  in,  first,  of  the 
British  defeat,  and,  then,  gradually,  of  the 

*Nf.  de  Voltaire,  thong'h  he  gives  a  long  account 
of  this  battle,  and  cannot  avoid  naming  at  least  the 
Irish  brigade,  has  not  one  word  of  praise  for  it. 
This  is  the  more  notable,  as  lie  had  D'Argenson's 
Memoir  before  him,  wlio  speaks  of  them  as  proving 
themselves  excellent  troops,  especially  against  the 
English.  But  Voltaire  always  grudges  any  credit  to 
the  Irish  troops,  and  never  speaks  of  tlieni  at  all  in 
his  histories  when  he  can  possibly  avoid  it.  D'Ar- 
genson  himself  was  well  known  to  be  no  friend  of 
theirs,  and  would  not  have  praised  them  on  this  oc- 
casion if  their  bravery  liad  not  attracted  the  notice 
of  all.  Indeed,  in  the  same  letter  to  Voltaire  this 
courtier  says  very  emphatically — "  The  trutli,  the 
positive  fact,  without  flattery,  is  this — the  king 
gained  the  lattle  himself.'''' 

The  services  of  the  briL'ade,  however,  on  that 
great  day,  were  too  nritorious  in  tlie  French  army  to 
be  altogether  coiicealetl.  The  Memoir  cited  before 
from  the  Biographie  C^nlve/selle  sny»  :  "It  is  noto- 
rious how  much  the  Irish  brigade  contributed  to  the 
victory  by  bursting  at  the  point  of  tlie  bayonet  into 
the  flank  of  the  terrilile  English  column,  wliila 
Kicheiieu  cannonaded  it  in  front." 

English  historians  scarce  mention  the  brigade  at 
all  on  this  occasion  ;  but  Lord  Malion  is  a  creditable 
exception.  He  says  Count  Saxe  "  drew  together  the 
household  troops,  the  whole  reserve,  and  every 
other  man  that  could  be  mustered  ;  but  foremost  of 
all  were  the  gallant  exiles  of  the  Irish  brigade." 
Voltaire,  however,  speaking  of  the  troops  wJio 
charged  on  tlie  right  flank,  takes  care  to  say  "  Z«» 
Irlandais  Us  secondait.^''  But,  perhaps,  the  best  at- 
testation to  the  services  of  the  brigade  was  the  im- 
precation on  the  Penal  Code  wrung  from  King 
George  when  he  was  told  of  the  events  of  that  day, 
"  Cursed  be  the  laws  which  deprive  me  of  such  sub- 
jects !" 


68 


HISTORY    OF   IRKLAKD. 


glorious  acliievenients  of  the  brigade  and 
tlie  honors  paid  to  Irish  soldiers,  a  sudden 
but  silent  flush  of  triumph  and  of  hope  broke 
upon  the  oppressed  race  ;  and  many  a  gloomy 
countenance  brightened  with,  a  gleam  of 
stern  joy,  in  tlie  thought  that  the  long- 
mourned  *' Wild  geese"  would  one  day  re- 
turn, with  freedom  and  vengeance  in  the 
flash  of  the  bayonets  of  Fonteaoy. 


CHAPTER  XL 

1745—1758. 

Alarm  in  England — Expedition  of  Prince  Charles 
Edward — "  A  Message  of  Peace  to  Ireland" — Vice- 
royalty  of  Chesterfitld — Temporary  Toleration  of 
the  Catholics — Berkeley — The  Scottish  Insurrec- 
tion—Cnlloden — "  Loyalty"  of  the  Irish — Lucas 
and  the  Patriots — Debates  on  the  Supplies — Boyle 
and  Malone — Population  of  Ireland. 


The  battle  of  Fontenoy  was  an  event  in  the 
history  of  Ireland — not  only  by  tlie  reflected 
glory  of  Irish  heroism,  but  because  disaster 
to  England  was  followed,  as  usual,  by  a  re- 
laxation of  the  atrocities  inflicted  upon  Irish 
Catholics,  under  the  Penal  Code.  England, 
indeed,  was  in  profound  alarm,  and  not  with- 
out cause,  for,  not  only  had  the  campaign  in 
the  Netherlands  gone  so  decidedly  against 
her,  but  almost  immediately  after  it  became 
known  that  preparations  were  on  foot  in 
France  for  a  new  invasion  on  behalf  of 
Charles  Edward,  the  "Young  Pretender." 
The  prince  was  now  twenty-five  years  of 
age.  He  had  been  wasting  away  liis  youth 
at  Rome,  where  his  father,  James  III.,  then 
resided.  In  1742  he  was  recalled  to  France, 
and  some  hopes  were  held  out  of  giving 
hira  an  armed  force  of  French,  Scotch,  and 
Irish,  to  assert  his  father's  rights  to  the  crown 
of  England.  For  three  years  he  had  waited 
impatiently  for  his  opportunity  ;  but  the 
times  were  then  so  busy  that  nobody  thought 
of  him.  It  was  the  Cardinal  de  Tencin 
who  one  day  advised  him  to  wait  no  longer, 
but  go  with  a  few  friends  to  some  point  in 
the  north  of  Scotland.  "  Your  presence 
alone,"  said  the  cardinal,  "will  create  for 
you  a  party  and  an  army ;  then  France  must 
send  you  succor."  In  short,  the  pi-ince  con- 
sulted with  a  few  of  his  friends,  chiefly  Irish 
officers ;  an  armed  vessel  of  eighteen  guns 


was  placed  at  his  disposal  by  an  Irish  mer- 
chant of  Nantes,  named  Walsh  ;  a  French 
ship-of-war  was  ordered  to  escort  him;  and 
on  the  12th  of  June,  just  one  month  after 
Fontenoy,  he  set  sail  with  only  seven  at- 
tendants upon  his  adventurous  errand.  The 
seven  who  accompanied  him  were  the  Mar- 
quis of  Tullibardine,  brother  to  the  Duke  of 
Athol,  Sir  Thomas  Sheridan,  Colonel  O'Sul- 
livan  ("  who  was  appointed,"  says  Voltaire, 
"  Mareckal  des  Logis  of  the  army  not  yet 
in  being"),  a  Scotch  officer  named  MacDon- 
ald,  an  Irish  oflScer  named  Kelly,  and  an 
English  one  named  Strickland.  They  land- 
ed on  the  bare  shore  of  Moidart,  in  th6 
highlands,  where  the  prince  was  quickly 
joined  by  some  of  the  Jacobite  clans,  the 
MacDonald,  Lochiel,  Cameron,  and  Era- 
ser. The  Dukes  of  Argyle  and  Queens- 
berry,  however,  who  controlled  other  pow"- 
erful  clans,  kept  aloof  and  prepared  to  take 
the  part  of  the  reigning  king.  King  Gyorge 
was  at  this  moment  in  Hanover;  but  tlio 
lords  of  his  council  of  regency  made  the 
best  arrangements  possible  for  resistance  in 
a  country  so  nearly  stripped  of  all  its  regu- 
lar troops,  and  set  a  price  upon  the  prince's 
head. 

In  this  emergency  it  was  necessary  to 
think  of  Ireland,  as  it  was  considered  cer- 
tain that  the  prince  must  have  had  agents 
in  that  C(nintry  to  stir  up  its  ancient  Jacobite 
spirit;  besides,  it  was  known  that  the  p:iu- 
cipal  chiefs  of  the  enterprise  were  officers  of 
the  Irish  brigade,  coming  flushed  from  Fon- 
tenoy ;  and  the  Government  thought  it  was 
not  in  the  nature  of  things  that  there  could 
be  tranquillity  in  Ireland.  There  must  sure- 
ly be  an  arrangement  either  for  stirring  an 
insurrection  in  the  island  itself  or  for  send- 
ing fighting  men  to  Scotland.  On  the 
whole,  it  was  judged  needful,  in  this  danger- 
ous crisis  of  British  affairs,  to  show  some  in- 
dulgence to  the  Irish,  and,  accordingly,  in 
the  month  of  September,  just  as  Piince 
Charles  Edward  was  leading  his  moun- 
taineers into  Edinburgh,  an  amiable  viceroy 
was  sent  to  Dublin,  bearing  what  might  be 
called  a  "  messnge  of  peace  to  Ireland." 
This  was  the  Earl  of  Chesterfield,  who  had 
a  reputation  for  gallantry,  accomplishments, 
and  an  easy  disposition.  What  Lord  Ches- 
terfield's secret  instructions    were,  we    c.aa 


A    MESSAGE    OP   PEACE    TO    IRELAND. 


69 


only  ju'laje  by  the  course  of  his  administra- 
tion. Hh  at  once  put  a  stop  to  the  business 
(if  priest-liunting,  and  allowed  the  Catholic 
chapels  in  Dublin  and  elsewhere  to  be  opened 
for  service.  On  the  8th  of  October  he  met 
Parliftnient;  and  although  in  his  speech  on 
that  occasion  .he  recommended  the  Houses 
to  tuin  their  attention  to  the  laws  against 
]\)pery  and  consider  whether  they  needed 
any  amendment,  yet  this  was  expressed  in  a 
cold  and  rather  equivocal  manner,  which 
greatly  disgusted  the  fierce  and  gloomy 
bigots  of  the  "  Ascendency."  He  recom- 
mended no  new  penal  laws,  thinking  prob- 
ably there  were  quite  enough  already,  and 
did  not  even  introduce  that  traditional  ex- 
hortation to  the  Houses — to  exercise  extreme 
vigilance  in  putting  in  force  that  Penal  Code 
which  they  already  had  in  such  high  per- 
fection. 

He  soon  made  it  evident,  in  short,  that 
active  persecution  was  to  be  suspended,  al- 
though that  indulgence  was  contrary  to  law  ; 
and  those  too  zealous  magistrates  who  had 
earned  distinction  by  active  prosecution  of 
Papists  under  former  viceroys  found  only 
discouragement  and  rebuke  at  the  Castle. 
Chancellors,  judges,  and  sheriffs  were  made 
to  understand  that  if  they  would  do  the 
king's  business  aright  this  time,  they  must 
leave  the  "common  enemy"  in  peace  for  the 
present.  But  Lord  Chesterfield,  immediate- 
ly on  coining  over,  employed  many  confi- 
dential agents,  or,  in  short,  spies,  to  find  out 
what  the  Catholics  were  doing,  thinking  of, 
and  talking  about — whether  there  were  any 
secret  meetings — above  all,  whether  there 
was  any  apparent  diminution  in  the  numbers 
of  young  men  at  fairs  and  other  gatherings ; 
in  short,  whether  there  was  any  migration 
to  Scotland,  or  any  uneasy  movement  of  the 
people,  as  if  in  expectation  of  something 
coming.*  Nothing  of  all  tliis  did  he  find, 
and,  in  truth,  nothing  of  the  kind  existed. 
The  people  were  perfectly  tranquil,  not  much 

*  Plowden.  This  worthy  ■writer,  as  ■well  as  his 
predecessor,  Dr.  Curry,  is  very  emphHtic  in  estab- 
l.sliiiig  tlie  "  loyal"  attitude  of  tlie  \nAi  people  upon 
this  occasion.  Dr.  Curry  takes  pains  to  prove  "  tli.it 
no  Irish  Catholic,  lay  or  clerical,  was  any  way  en- 
gasreil  in  the  Scottish  rebellion  of  181")."  It  is  prol)- 
able  that  Sheridan,  O'Sullivan,  Kelly,  and  otlier 
Freuoli-Irish  officers,  ■who  t'otight  in  Scotland,  were 
Frenciiineu  by  birth,  like  Lally,  Dillon,  and  Clare. 


seeming  even  to  know  or  to  care  what  was 
going  on  in  Scotland,  enjoying  quietly  their 
unwonted  exemption  from  the  actual  lash  of 
the  penal  laws,  and  even  repairing  to  holy 
wells  again  without  fear  of  fine  and  whipping. 
It  is  true  the'Jash  was  still  held  over  them, 
and  they  were  soon  to  feel  it ;  true,  also, 
that  they  were  still  excluded  from  all  rights 
and  franchises  as  strictly  as  ever.  Not  one 
penal  law  was  repealed  or  altered  ;  but  there 
was  at  least  forbearance  towards  their  wor- 
ship and  their  clergy.  They  might  see  a 
venerable  priest  now  walking,  in  davlight, 
even  from  his  "  registered"  parish  into  an- 
other, to  perform  some  rite  or  service  of  re- 
ligion, without  fear  of  informers,  of  hand- 
cuffs, and  of  transportation.  Nay,  bishops  and 
vicars  apostolic  could  venture  to  cross  the 
sea,  and  ordain  priests  and  confirm  children, 
in  a  quiet  way  ;  and  it  was  believed  that  not 
even  a  monk  could  frighten  Lord  Chester- 
field, who,  in  fact,  had  lived  for  years  in 
France,  and  respected  a  monk  quite  as  much 
as  a  rector  of  the  Establishment. 

Having  once  satisfied  himself  that  there 
was  no  insurrectionary  movement  in  the 
country,  and  none  likely  to  be,  he  was  not 
to  be  moved  from  his  tolerant  course  by  any 
complaints  or  reinonstrances.  Far  from  yield- 
ing to  the  feigned  alarm  of  those  who  soli- 
cited him  to  raise  new  regiments,  he  sent 
four  battalions  of  the  soldiers  then  in  Ireland 
to  reinforce  the  Duke  of  Cumberland.  He 
discouraged  jobs,  kept  down  expenses,  took 
his  pleasure,  and  made  himself  exceedingly 
popular  in  his  intercourse  with  Dublin  so- 
ciety ;  and  not  having  forgotten  the  pre- 
cepts which  he  had  given  to  his  son,  the  old 
beau  (he  was  now  fifty-two)  pretended,  from 
habit,  to  be  making  love  to  the  wives  of 
men  of  all  parties.  When  some  savage  As- 
cendency  Protestant  would  come  to  him 
with  tales  of  alarm,  he  usually  turned  the 
conversation  into  a  tone  of  light  badinage, 
which  perplexed  and  baffled  the  man.  One 
came  to  seriouslv  put  his  lordship  on  his 
guard  by  acquainting  him  with  the  fact  that 
his  own  coachman  was  in  the  habit  of  going 
to  Mass.  "  Is  it  possible  ?"  cried  Chester- 
field ;  "  then  I  will  take  care  the  fellow  shall 
not  drive  me  there."  A  courtier  burst  into 
his  apartment  one  morning,  while  he  was 
sipping  his  chocolate  in  bed,  with  the  st.irt- 


YO 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


ling  intelligence  that  "the  Papists  wore 
rising"  in  Counaiight.  "  Ah  !"  he  said,  look- 
ing at  his  watch,  "  'tis  nine  o'clock ;  time 
for  them  to  rise."  There  was  evidently  no 
dealing  with  such  a  viceroy  as  this,  who 
showed  such  insensibility  to  the  perils  of 
Protestantism  and  the  evil  designs  of  the 
dangerous  Papists.  Indeed,  he  was  seen  to 
distinguish  by  his  peculiar  admiration  a 
Papist  beauty,  Miss  Ambrose,  whom  he  de- 
clared to  be  the  only  "  dangerous  Papist"  he 
had  met  in  Ireland. 

It  was  during  this  period  of  quietude  and 
coniparalive  relief  that  the  excellent  Bishop 
Berkeley,  of  Cloyne,  wrote,  a  pamphlet  iu 
the  form  of  an  address  to  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics of  his  diocese  of  Cloyne.  He  had  evi- 
dently feared  that  the  Irish  Catholics  were 
seci'etly  engaged  in  a  conspiracy  to  make  an 
insurrection  in  aid  of  the  Pretender;  and 
writes  in  a  kind  and  paternal  manner,  ex- 
horting them  to  keep  the  peace  and  attend 
quietly  to  their  own  industry,  though,  in- 
deed, the  bishop  is  evidently  at  a  loss  for 
arguments  which  he  can  urge  upon  this  pro- 
scribed, disfranchised  race,  why  they  should 
take  their  lot  quietly  and  be  loyal  to  a  Gov- 
ernment that  does  not  recognize  their  exist- 
ence. 

In  the  meanwhile.  Prince  Charles  Edward, 
with  his  highlanders,  had  won  the  battle  of 
Preston-pans,  near  Edinburgh  (2d  of  Octo- 
ber), and  a  few  days  after  that  victory  ar- 
rived a  French  and  a  Spanish  ship,  bringing 
money  and  a  supply  of  Irish  officers,  who, 
having  served  in  France  and  Spain,  were  ca- 
pable of  disciplining  his  rude  troops.*  He 
marched  south-westward,  took  and  garrison- 
ed Carlisle,  advanced  through  Lancashire, 
where  a  body  of  three  hundred  English 
ioined  his  standard,  and  thence  as  far  as 
Derby,  within  thirty  leagues  of  London. 
Report,  which  exaggerates  every  thing,  rep- 
resented his  army  as  amounting  to  thirty 
thousand  men,  and  all  Lancashire  as  having 
declared  in  his  favor.  The  Habeas  Corpus 
Act  was  suspended ;  the  shops  were  closed 
for  a  day  or  two ;  and  Dutch  and  Hessian 
troops  were  brought  over  in  a  great  hurrv 
from  the  Continent.  The  Franco-Irish  sol- 
diers   in   the    service    of  France     now    be- 

*  Voltuire. 


came  violently  excited  and  impatient.  They 
imagined  that  a  descent  upon  England,  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Plymouth,  would  be 
quite  practicable,  as  the  passage  is  so  short 
from  Calais  or  Boulogne.  The  plan  was  to 
cross  by  night  with  ten  thousand  men  an<l 
some  cannon.  Once  disembarked,  a  great 
part  of  England  would  rise  to  join  them, 
and  they  could  easily  form  a  junction  with 
the  prince,  probably  near  London.  Tlie 
officers,  of  whom  the  most  active  in  this 
business  was  Lally,  demanded,  as  leader  of 
the  expedition,  the  Duke  de  Richelieu,  who 
had  fought  with  them  at  Fontenoy.  They 
urged  their  point  so  earnestly  that  at  length 
periuissiou  was  granted.  But  the  expedi- 
tion never  took  place  on  any  thing  like  the 
scale  on  which  it  was  projected.  M.  de 
Voltaire,  in  describing  the  preparations,  for 
once  departs  from  his  usual  rule  so  far  as  to 
praise  an  Iiishman.  He  says  :  "  Lally,  who 
has  since  then  been  a  lieutenant-general,  and 
who  died  so  tragic  a  death,  was  the  soul  of 
the  enterprise.  The  writer  of  this  history, 
who  long  worked  along  with  him,  can  affirm 
that  he  has  never  seen  a  man  more  full  of 
zeal,  and  that  there  needed  nothing  to  the 
enterprise  but  possibility.  It  was  impossible 
to  go  to  sea  in  face  of  the  English  squadrons  ; 
and  the  attempt  was  regarded  iu  London  as 
absurd."* 

In  fact,  only  a  handful  of  troops  was  ac- 
tually sent ;  and  those  troops  were  not  Irish, 
but  Scotch.  Lord  Drummond,  brother  of 
the  Duke  of  Perth,  an  officer  in  the  French 
service,  set  forth  iu  one  vessel,  by  way  of  the 
German  Sea,  and  arrived  safely  at  Montrose 
with  three  companies  of  the  Royal  Ecossais, 
a  Scottish  regiment  in  French  service.  But 
before  this  small  reinforcement  arrived,  the 


*  Any  attempt  of  any  kind  is  always  reearded  in 
London  as  absurd;  and  Voltaire  was  always  too 
ready  to  adopt  the  s'iew  of  Eiii^lish  affairs  which 
llie  English  chose  to  ^ive.  He  never  wished  for  the 
success  of  the  Stuarts  ;  considered  the  House  of 
Hanover  a  bleasin?  to  Enijland,  and  did  not  care  for 
Ireland  at  all.  Tiie  reasons  why  he  disliked  the 
Irish  were,  first,  'hat  they  were  good  Catholics,  and, 
next,  ttiat  the  Irish  in  France  were  not  very  niod(;st 
in  asserting  their  pretensions  and  deinanditig  recog- 
nition of  their  services.  It  was  Voltaire's  corre- 
spondent, D'Argenson,  when  minister,  tliat  said 
once  to  King  Louis,  "  Those  Irish  troops  give  more 
trouble  than  all  the  rest  of  your  majesty's  army." 
"  My  enemies  say  so,"  answered  the  king. 


BERKELEY THE    SCOTTISH     INSURRECTION. 


71 


a  I- my  of  the  Piince  had  ah-e;irly  retired 
from  the  centre  of  England  ;  it  had  been 
diminished  and  weakened  by  various  causes, 
the  principal  of  whicli  were  jealousies  of 
liighland  chiefs  against  one  another,  and  of 
lowhmd  lairds  against  them  all,  together 
with  a  general  lack  of  discipline,  and  ere 
long  alack  of  provisions  also.  The  Jacobite 
force  made  the  best  of  its  way  back  to  Scot- 
land, and  soon  after  (January  28,  1V46),  ut- 
terly defeated  an  English  force  at  Falkirk. 
This  was  the  last  of  its  successes.  The 
Duke  of  Cumberland  was  now  marching 
into  Scotland  with  a  considerable  army,  and 
arrived  in  Edinburgh  on  the  10th  of  Febru- 
ary. Prince  Charles  Edward  was  obliged  to 
raise  the  siege  of  Stirling  Castle.  The  win- 
ter was  severe,  and  subsistence  was  scarce. 
His  last  resource  was  now  in  the  northern 
highlands,  where  there  was  still  a  force  on 
foot,  watching  the  seaports  to  receive  the 
supplies  which  might  still  be  sent  from 
France  ;  but  most  of  the  vessels  destined 
to  that  service  were  captured  by  English 
cruisers.  Three  companies  of  the  Irish 
regiment  of  Fitzjumes  arrived  safely,  and 
were  received  by  the  highlanders  with  ac- 
clamations of  joy — the  women  running  down 
to  meet  them'and  leading  the  officers'  horses 
by  the  bridles.  Still  the  prince  was  now 
hard  pressed  by  the  English  ;  he  retiied  to 
Inverness,  whi(-h  he  made  his  headquarters  ; 
and  on  the  23d  of  April  he  learned  that  the 
duke,  steadily  advancing  through  the  moun- 
tains, had  crossed  the  river  Spay,  and  felt 
that  a  decisive  battle  was  now  imminent. 
On  the  2Yth  the  two  armies  were  in  presence 
at  CuUoden — the  prince  with  live  thousand 
men  or  less,  the  duke  with  ten  thousand, 
well  supplied  with  both  cavalry  and  artillery. 
The  English  were  by  this  time  accustomed 
to  the  highland  manner  of  fighting,  which 
had  so  intimidated  them  at  first,  and  with 
such  superiority  of  numbers  and  equip- 
ments the  event  could  scarcely  be  doubtful. 
The  piince's  small  army  was  totally  defeated, 
with  a  loss  of  nine  hundred  killed  and  thiee 
hundred  and  twenty  prisoners.  The  prince 
himself  made  his  way  into  the  mountains, 
accompanied  by  his  faithful  friends,  Sheri- 
dan and  O'SuUivan ;  and  his  adventures, 
concealments,  and  ultimate  escape  are  suffi- 
ciently   well    known.       This    was    the    last 


struggle  of  the  Stuai  ts,  and  their  cause  was 
now  lost  utterly  and  forever.  There  were 
still,  from  time  to  time,  plots,  and  even  at- 
tempts by  the  Scottish  Jacobites  to  make  at 
least  some  commencement  of  a  new  insuv- 
rection,  but  all  in  vain.  Ever  after  Jacobitisin 
existed  only  in  songs  and  toasts,  sung  and 
pledged  in  private  society ;  and  many  a 
house  in  Edinburgh  and  glen  in  the  high- 
lands is  yet  made  to  ring  with  those  plaintive 
or  warlike  lyrics.  So  long  as  the  prince 
lived,  the  health  of  Prince  Charlie  was  often 
drunk,  or,  "  The  King  over  the  Water  ;"  but. 
he  died  in  Florence  in  1788,  without  legiti- 
mate posterity,  and  the  cause  of  the  ancient 
family  sank  definitively  into  the  domain  of 
sentimental  associations  and  romantic  sou- 
venirs. 

Almost  at  the  very  moment  of  the  battle 
of  CuUoden  the  conciliatory  Earl  of  Ches- 
terfield was  recalled  from  Ireland.  His 
work  was  done,  and  done  well.  "  England," 
says  Plowden,  with  more  than  his  usual 
point  and  force,  *'  England  was  out  of  danger, 
and  Ireland  could  securely  be  put  again  un- 
der its  former  reyimer  After  a  short  in- 
terregnum, under  three  lords-justices,  the 
Earl  of  Harrington  was  appointed  lord-lieu- 
tenant on  the  13th  of  September. 

There  was  certainly  no  excuse  for  bring- 
ing the  Irish  back  under  the  unmitigated 
tenors  of  the  penal  laws,  on  account  of  any 
manifestation  of  turbulen(-e,  or  of  a  design 
"to  bring  in  the  Pretender"  during  the  last 
insurrection.  On  this  point  the  most  hostile 
autlioiities  agree,  and,  although  we  do  not 
take  credit  for  the  fact  as  a  proof  of  •'  loyalty" 
to  the  House  of  Hanover,  the  fact  itself  is 
indisputable.  One  remarkable  witness  is 
worth  hearing  on  this  question.  In  the 
year  1762,  upon  a  debate  in  the  House  of 
Lords  about  the  expediency  of  raising  five 
regiments  of  these  Catholics,  for  the  service 
of  the  King  of  Portugal,  Doctor  Stone  (then 
primate),  in  answer  to  some  commonplace 
objections  against  the  good  faith  and  loyalty 
of  these  people,  which  were  revived  with 
virulence  on  that  occasion,  declared  publicly, 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  that  "  in  the  year 
1747,  after  that  rebellion  was  entirely  su)*- 
pressed,  happening  to  be  in  England,  he  had 
an  opportunity  of  perusing  all  the  papers  of 
the  rebels,  and  their  correspondents,  which 


72 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


Were  seized  in  the  custody  of  Murray,  the 
Pretender's  secretary  ;  and  that,  after  having 
Kpent  much  time  and  taken  gieat  pains  in 
examining  them  (not  without  some  share  of 
the  then  common  suspicion,  tliat  there  might 
l)e  some  private  understanding  and  inter- 
course between  them  and  the  Irish  Catho- 
lics), he  could  not  discover  the  least  trace, 
liiut,  or  intimation  of  such  intercourse  or 
correspondence  in  them ;  or  of  any  of  the 
latter's  favoring,  abetting,  or  having  been  so 
much  as  made  acquainted  with  the  designs 
or  proceedings  of  these  rebels.  And  what," 
lie  said,  "  he  wondered  at  most  of  all  was, 
that  in  all  his  researches,  he  had  not  met 
with  any  passage  in  any  of  these  papers, 
from  which  he  could  infer  that  either  their 
Holy  Father  the  Pope,  or  any  of  his  cardi- 
nals, bishops,  or  other  dignitaries  of  that 
rhurch,  or  any  of  the  Irish  clergy,  had, 
either,  directly  or  indii'ectly,  encouraged, 
aided,  or  approved  of,  the  commencing  or 
carrying  on  of  that  rebellion." 

Another,  and  still  more  singular  attesta- 
tion to  the  same  fact  is  in  Chief-Justice 
Marlay's  address  to  the  Dublin  Grand-Jury, 
after  the  suppression  of  the  Scottish  insur- 
rection. "  When  posterity  read  .  .  .  that 
Ireland,  where  much  the  greatest  part  of  the 
inhabitants  profess  a  religion  which  some- 
times has  authorized,  or  at  least  justified  re- 
bellion, not  only  preserved  peace  at  home, 
but  contributed  to  restore  it  amongst  his 
subjects  of  Great  Britain,  will  they  not  be- 
lieve that  the  people  of  Ireland  were  actu- 
Kted  by  something  more  than  their  duty  and 
allegiance?  Will  they  not  be  convinced 
that  they  were  animated  b}'  a  generous  sense 
of  gratitude  and  zeal  for  their  great  bene- 
factor, and  fully  sensible  of  the  happiness  of 
being  blessed  by  living  under  the  protection 
of  a  monarch,  who,  like  the  glorious  King 
William,"  &c.  Thus,  if  Irish  Catholics  of 
the  present  day  are  willing  to  plume  them- 
selves, as  some  Catholic  writers  have  done, 
upon  the  unshaken  loyalty  of  their  ancestors 
in  1745,  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  are  fully 
entitled  to  all  the  credit  which  can  come  to 
them  from  that  circumstance. 

Un<ler  Lord  Harrington's  administration 
the  debates  on  money  bills  formed  the  chief 
gubject  of  public  interest,  and  the  only  field 
on  which  Irish  "  patriotism"  and  the  cham- 


pions of  English  domination  tried  their 
strength.  It  was  also  becoming  a  matter 
more  and  more  important  to  the  English 
Government,  because,  notwithstanding  the 
discouragements  of  trade  and  the  distresses 
of  the  country  people,  Ireland  had  now  a 
surplus  revenue  to  dispose  of,  and  the  Pa- 
triots naturally  supposed  this  to  be  fairly  aj> 
plicable  to  public  works  within  the  island. 
Primate  Stone,  however,  who  was  now  in 
possession  of  all  the  influence  of  l^oulter,  and 
imbued  with  the  same  thoroughly  British 
principles,  contended  that  all  the  surplus 
revenue  of  Ireland,  as  a  dependent  kingdom, 
belonged  of  light  to  the  Crown.  The  Pft- 
triot  party  were  led  chiefly  by  two  men — 
Henry  Boyle,  the  Speaker  of  the  House,  and 
the  Prime  Sergeant  Antony  Malone — the 
former  an  ambitious  and  intriguing  politi- 
cian, the  latter  an  eloquent  debater  and  most 
able  constitutional  lawyer.  Outside  of  the 
House  the  patriotic  spirit  of  the  people — that 
is,  the  Protestant,  people — was  inflamed  by 
the  writings  of  Dr.  Charles  Lucas,  who  had 
now,  from  petty  corporation  politics,  risen 
to  the  height  of  the  great  argument  of  na- 
tional independence.  But  it  soon  appeared 
that  the  Irish  House  of  Commons  was  not 
yet  prepared  for  the  reception  of  such  bold 
doctrines.  Lucas  and  his  writings  weie 
made  the  subject  of  a  resolutiDU  in  the 
House  of  Commons ;  he  was  but  faintly  de- 
fended by  his  own  partisans,  and  the  resolu- 
tion passed,  declaiing  him  as  "  an  enemy  to 
his  country,"  even  for  asserting  the  rightful 
independence  of  that  very  Parliament  which 
proscribed  him.  This  event  befell  in  1749; 
a  reward  was  offered  for  the  apprehension  of 
Lucas,  and  he  fled  from  the  kingdom.  As 
usual  in  such  cases,  the  persecution  directed 
against  him  attracted  more  attention  to  his 
writings  and  bred  more  sympathy  with  his 
principles  ;  so  that  when  he  returned  a  few 
years  after,  he  became  for  a  time  the  most 
popular  man  in  the  kingdom.  To  interna- 
tional questions  thus  narrowed  down  to  the 
mere  right  of  voting  or  withholding  money,  it 
was  impossible  to  give  any  high  constitutional 
interest,  and,  in  fact,  during  this  administra- 
tion not  a  single  step  in  advance  was  gained  by 
the  "  Patriot"  party.  The  struggle  for  power 
and  influence  between  Primate  Stone  and 
Speaker  Boyle  "  was   no  more,"   says  Mac 


LUCAS    AND   THE    PATRIOTS — DEBATES    ON     THE    SUPPLIlss, 


IS 


Nevin,  ''ihan  the  straggle  of  two  ambitions 
and  powerful  men  for  their  own  etids." 

In  iVol  Lord  Harrington  was  recalled. 
The  Duke  of  Dorset,  for  the  second  time, 
came  to  Ireland  as  lord-lieutenant,  and  the 
question  of  Irish  parliamentary  control  over 
tlio  revenues  of  the  country  came  at  last  to 
a  crisis,  and  received  a  solution  very  little  to 
the  comfort  of  the  Patriots.  In  the  last 
session  under  Harrington's  vieeroyalty,  as 
there  was  a  considerable  surplus  in  the  Irish 
Exchequer,  the  House  of  Commons  deter- 
mined to  applv  it  towards  the  discharge  of 
the  national  debt.  A  bill  had  been  accord- 
ingly prepared  and  transmitted  to  England 
■with  this  view,  to  which  was  affixed  the  pre- 
amble :  '*  Whereas,  on  the  25th  of  March 
last  a  considerable  balance  remained  in  the 
hands  of  the  vice-treasurers  or  receivers- 
geneial  of  the  kingdom,  or  their  deputy  or 
deputies,  unapplied  ;  and  it  will  be  for  your 
majesty's  service,  and  for  the  ease  of  your 
faithful  subjects  in  this  kingdom,  that  so 
much  thereof  as  can  be  conveniently  spaied 
should  be  paid,  agreeably  to  your  majesty's 
most  gracious  intention,  in  discharge  of  part 
of  the  national  debt,"  &c.  On  the  trans- 
mission of  this  bill  to  London  (Mr.  Pelham 
being  then  prime  minister),  it  was  urged  by 
the  warm  partisans  of  prerogative  in  the 
council  that  the  Commons  of  Ireland  had 
no  right  to  ap[)ly  any  part  of  the  unappro- 
jiriated  revenue,  nor  even  to  take  into  con- 
sideration the  propriety  of  such  appropria- 
tion, without  the  previous  consent  of  the 
crown  f  )rmally  declared.  When  the  Duke 
of  Dorset  came  over,  and  opened  the  session 
of  iTol,  he  informed  the  two  Houses  that 
he  was  commanded  by  the  king  to  acquaint 
them  that  his  majesty,  ever  thoughtful  of  the 
welfare  and  happiness  of  his  subjects,  would 
graciously  consent  and  recommend  it  to  them 
that  such  part  of  the  money  then  remaining 
in  his  treasury,  as  should  be  thought  con- 
sisteiit  with  the  public  service,  be  applied 
towards  the  fiuther  reduction  of  the  na- 
tional debt.  "  Consent"  involved  a  principle, 
and  the  Commons  took  fire  at  the  word. 
They  flamed  the  bill, appropriating  £120,000 
for  the  purpose  already  stated,  and  omitted 
in  its  preamble  all  mention  of  the  consent. 
But  ministers  returned  it  with  an  alteration 
in  the  preamble  signifving  the  consent  and 
'  10 


containing  the  indispensable  word.  And 
the  House,  unwilling  to  drive  the  matter  to 
extremities,  passed  the  bill  without  further 
notice.  Thus  was  established  a  precedent 
for  the  King  of  England  consenting  to  the 
Irish  Parliament  voting  their  own  money. 
So  far  had  the  differences  proceeded,  when 
Mr.  Pelham  died,  and  the  Duke  of  New- 
castle, who  succeeded  him  as  prime  minister, 
zealous  to  uphold  the  prerogative,  to  improve 
upon  the  precedent,  and  to  repeat  the  lesson 
just  given  to  the  aspiring  colonists  of  Ireland, 
sent  positive  directions  to  Dorset,  in  open- 
ing the  session  of  1753,  to  repeat  the  ex- 
pression of  his  majesty's  gracious  consent  in 
mentioning  the  application  of  surplus  reve- 
nue. The  House,  in  their  Address,  not  only 
again  omitted  all  reference  to  that  gracious 
consent,  but  even  the  former  expressions  of 
grateful  acknowledgment;  and  the  bill  of 
supplies  was  actually  transmitted  to  England 
without  the  usual  complimentary  preamble. 
The  ministers  of  the  (-rown  in  England, 
in  their  great  wisdom,  thought  fit  to  supply 
it  thus  :  "And  your  majesty,  ever  attentive 
to  the  ease  and  happiness  of  your  faithful 
subjects,  has  been  graciously  pleased  to  sig- 
nify that  you  would  consent,''^  and  so  forth. 

When  the  bill  came  over  thus  amended 
there  was  much  excitement  both  in  Parlia- 
ment and  in  society.  Mah^ne  was  learned 
and  convincing.  Boyle,  by  his  extensive 
influence  and  connections  in  Parliament, 
powerfully  seconded,  or  rather  led,  the  opposi- 
tion. And,  notwithstanding  the  utmost  ex- 
ertioui  of  the  king's  servants  to  do  the  king's 
business,  the  spiiit  of  independence  was 
sufficiently  roused  to  cause  the  entire  defeat 
of  the  amended  bill,  though  only  by  a  ma- 
jority of  five  votes.  The  Conmions  wished 
to  appropriate  the  money — the  king  con- 
sented, and  insisted  u]ion  consenting;  and 
then  the  Commons  would  not  appropriate  it 
at  all,  because  the  king  consented.  'J'he  de- 
feat of  the  bill  was  considered  as  a  victory  uf 
Patriotism,  and  was  celebrated  with  universal 
rejoicings — even  the  Catholics  joining  in  the 
general  joy,  for  they  felt  instinctively  that 
it  was  the  weight  of  English  predominance 
which  kept  tliem  in  their  degraded  position, 
and  necessarily  sympathized  with  every 
struggle  against  that.  Yet,  after  all,  this 
spirited  conduct  of   the  Commons  was  but 


u 


HISTORY    OP   IRELAND. 


an  impotent  protest;  for  the  public  ser- 
vice was  now  left  wholly  unprovided  for,  the 
circulation  of  money  almost  ceased,  trade 
and  business  suflfered,  and  a  clamor  soon 
arose,  not  more  against  the  Government  than 
against  the  Patriots.  Thus  the  Court  party 
had  its  revenge.  The  lord-lieutenant  took 
the  whole  surplus  revenue  out  of  the  treas- 
ury by  virtue  of  a  "  royal  letter"  ;  so  the 
kino-,  after  all,  not  only  consented  to  the  act, 
but  did  the  act  wholly  himself;  and  Speaker 
Boyle  was  removed  from  his  seat  at  the  Privy 
Council,  and  Malone's  patent  of  precedence 
as  prime  sergeant  was  annulled.  The  vice- 
loy  and  the  primate  took  care  to  put  some 
mark  of  royal  displeasure  upon  every  one 
who  had  voted  down  the  Supply  Bill  ;  and 
it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  English  in- 
terest did  not  gain  a  more  decisive  victory 
by  thus  trampling  with  impunity  upon  all 
constitutional  forms,  than  if  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment had  quietly  submitted  to  the  servile 
form  prescribed  to  it.  There  was  no  visible 
remedy  ;  the  mob  of  Dublin  might  hoot  the 
viceroy  when  his  coach  appeared  in  the 
streets ;  they  could  threaten  and  mob  the 
piimate  or  Hutchinson,  or  others  who  were 
conspicuous  in  asseiting  the  obnoxious  royal 
prerogative ;  yet  they  had  no  alternative 
but  to  submit.  In  the  discussion  of  this 
question  we  might  repeat  the  words  of  Swift 
when  speaking  of  the  case  of  Molyneux  : 
''The  love  and  torrent  of  power  prevailed. 
Indeed,  the  arguments  on  both  sides  were  in- 
vincible. For,  in  reason,  all  government 
without  the  consent  of  the  governed  is  the 
very  definition  of  slavery ;  but,  in  fact, 
eleven  men  well  armed  will  certainly  subdue 
one  single  man  in  his  shirt." 

Up  to  this  period  we  have  invariably 
found  the  struggles  of  the  colony  to  take 
rank  as  a  nation — of  its  Parliament  to  as- 
sert its  independence — successfully  resisted 
and  triumphantly  crushed  down.  The  as- 
sertion of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Irish  lords 
in  the  case  of  "  Sherlock  and  Annesley"  was 
instantly  followed  by  the  Declaratory  Act, 
which  enacted  that  the  Irish  lords  had  no 
jurisdiction  at  all.  The  more  anxiously  our 
Irish  Parliament  affirmed  its  sovereign  right, 


the  more  systematically  were  acts  passed  by 
the  English  Parliament  to  bind  Ireland. 
And  now  the  attempted  vindication  by  the 
Irish  Legislature  of  its  right  to  vote,  or  not 
vote,  its  own  money,  was  only  the  occasion 
of  a  high-handed  royal  outrage,  trampling 
upon  every  pretence  of  constitutional  law  ; 
and  Irish  "  Patriots,"  if  unanswerable  in 
their  arguments,  were  impotent  to  make 
them  good  in  fact ;  for  "  the  arguments  on 
both  sides  were  invincible."  It  is,  in  truth, 
impossible  to  avoid  assent  to  the  conclusions 
of  Lord  Clare  (not  O'Brien,  King  James's 
Lord  Clare,  but  Fitzgibbon,  King  George's 
Lord  Clare),  in  his  often-quoted  speech  fifty 
years  later,  in  so  far  as  he  demonstrated  the 
anomalous  and  untenable  relation  between 
the  two  Parliaments  of  England  and  of  Ire- 
land. This  English  Protestant  colony  in 
Ireland,  which  aspired  to  be  a  nation, 
amounted  to  something  under  half  a  million 
of  souls  in  1754.*  It  was  out  of  the  ques- 
tion that  it  should  be  united  on  a  footing  of 
equality  with  its  potent  mother  country,  by 
"  the  golden  hnk  of  the  crown,"  because 
the  wearer  of  that  crown  was  sure  to  be 
guided  in  his  policy  by  English  ministers,  in 
accordance  with  English  interests ;  and  as 
the  army  was  tlie  king's  army,  he  could  al- 
ways enforce  that  policy.  The  fatal  weak- 
ness of  the  colony  was,  that  it  would  not 
amalgamate  with  the  mass  of  the  Irish 
people,  so  as  to  form  a  true  nation,  but  set 
up  the  vain  pretension  to  hold  down  a  M'hole 
disfianchised  people  with  one  hand,  and  defy 
all  England  with  the  other. 

Still  the  colonists  were  multiplying  and 
growing  rich  ;  and  happily  for  them,  Eng- 
land was  on  the  eve  of  disaster  and  humilia- 
tion ;  and  a  quarter  of  a  century  later  a 
gracious  oppoitunity  was  to  arise  which  gave 
them  real  independence  for  at  least  a  few 
years. 

*  We  take  the  estimate  of  the  entire  population 
for  tliat  year  from  the  taijles  in  Tlioin's  official  Al- 
manac and  Directory.  For  1754  it  is  estimated  at 
2,372,634  men,  women,  and  ciiildren.  At  the  rate 
of  five  Catholics  to  one  Protestant  (which  is  Dr. 
Boulter's  estimate),  the  active  part  oi' l\\e  population 
was  under  half  a  million.  The  rest  was  assumed 
by  law  not  to  exist  in  the  world. 


EARL    OF    KILDARE:    HIS    ADDRESS, 


75 


CHAPTER  XII. 

1753—1760. 

Unpopnlnrity  of  the  Duke  of  Dorset — Earl  of  Kil- 
dare — His  Address — Patriots  in  power — Pension 
List — Duke  of  Bedford  lord-lieutenant — Case  of 
Saul— Catholic  meeting  in  Dublin — Commence- 
ment of  Catholic  agitation — Address  of  the  Catho- 
lics received — First  recognition  of  the  (Catholics 
as  subjects — Lucasian  mobs — Project  of  Union — 
Tliiirot's  expedition — Death  of  George  II. — Popu- 
lation— Distress  of  the  country — Opci'ation  of  the 
Penal  Laws — The  Geoghegans — Catholic  Petition 
— Berkeley's  "Querist." 

After  these  high-handed  measures  of  the 
English  ministry,  of  which  Dorset  was  but 
the  instrument,  he  became  iutolerabLe  to  the 
people  of  Dublin,  as  well  as  his  son,  Lord 
George  Sackville,  the  primate,  and  every 
one  professing  "  to  do  the  king's  business  in 
Ireland."  The  duke,  even  before  being  re- 
called, found  it  necessary  to  go  over  to 
England,  partly  to  avoid  the  odium  of  the 
Irish,  but  chielly  to  take  care  of  his  interests 
and  those  of  his  family  at  the  court.  The 
Colonial  patriotism  ran  high  ;  the  mob  of 
Dublin  became  '"  Lucasian."  The  primate 
durst  not  appear  on  the  streets  ;  and  the 
luanner  was  then  first  introduced  of  express- 
ing, by  toasts,  at  private  supper  parties, 
some  stirring  patrioiic  sentiment  or  keen  in- 
vective against  the  administration,  in  terse 
language,  which  would  pass  from  mouth  to 
mouth,  and  thence  get  into  the  newspapers. 
One  of  these  toasts  was,  "May  all  Secretary- 
Dashaws  and  lordly  high-priests  be  kept  to 
their  tackle,  the  sword  and  the  Bible."  An- 
other was,  "  May  the  importation  of  Gany- 
medes  into  Ireland  be  discontinued,"  which 
was  an  allusion  to  unnamable  vices  attrib- 
uted to  Primate  Stone. 

However,  the  chief  interest  of  the  struggle 
between  court  and  country  was  now,  for  the 
moment,  transferred  to  the  cabinets  and 
antechambers  of  ministers  at  London.  The 
Earl  of  Kildare,  afterwards  Duke  of  Lein- 
ster,  a  high-spirited  nobleman,  as  became  his 
Geraldine  blood,  was  moved  with  indigna- 
tion at  the  late  proceedings  in  his  country ; 
fqr  the  Geraldines  had  always  considered 
themselves  Irish,  and  long  before  these 
Cromwellian  and  Williamite  colonists  had 
appeared  iu  the  island    his    ancestors  were 


not  only  Irish  and  chiefs  of  Clan-Geralt,  but 
were  even  reproached  as  being  actually  more 
Irish  tliau  the  Irish.  Of  course,  the  family 
had  long  ago  "  conformed,"  like  most  of  the 
O'Briens  and  De  Burghos,  and  many  other 
ancient  tribes  of  French  and  Irish  stock; 
otherwise  the  earl  could  not  have  sat  iu 
Parliament,  nor  taken  the  bold  step  which 
so  much  astonished  British  courtiers  at  this 
period.  He  went  over  to  London,  had  an 
audience  of  the  king,  and  presented  him 
with  his  own  hand  an  address  of  remon- 
strance from  himself  against  the  whole  course 
of  the  Irish  Goveinment  under  Lord  Dorset. 
This  document  spoke  very  plainly  to  the 
king;  told  him  "his  loyal  kingdom  of  Ire- 
land wore  a  face  of  discontent;"  that  this 
discontent  proceeded  not  from  faction,  but 
from  the  malfeasance  of  ministers  ;  it  com- 
plained of  the  odious  duumvirate  of  the 
primate  and  the  viceroy  ;  compared  the  lat- 
ter with  Strafford,  the  foi  iner  with  Laud  and 
Wolsey,  and  especially  exposed  the  insolent 
behavior  of  Dorset's  son.  Lord  George  Sack- 
ville, iu  mischievously  meddling  with  all  the 
public  atiaiis  of  the  kingdom. 

Ministers  were  surprised  at  what  they 
considered  the  boldness  of  this  proceeding. 
The  Earl  of  Holderness  writes  to  the  Irish 
Chancellor  Jocelyn,  "  My  good  lord  chan- 
cellor— I  am  not  a  little  concerned  that  the 
noble  Earl  of  Kildare  should  take  so  bold  a 
step  as  he  may  repent  hereafter.  *  *  He 
was  but  ill  received,  and  very  coolly  dis- 
missed, as,  indeed,  the  presumption  well 
merited;  for  why  should  his  majesty  re- 
ceive any  reuioustrances  concerning  his 
kingdom  or  government,  but  from  the  proper 
ministers,  or  through  the  usual  channels, 
namely,  both  Houses  of  Parliament  ?  I  de- 
sire my  compliments  may  attend  his  grace, 
my  lord  primate,  and  wish  hira  success  in 
all  laudable  endeavors  for  poor  Ireland.''^ 
But,  in  fact,  although  the  earl's  address 
was  spoken  of  generally  as  an  act  of  temeri- 
ty "  which  nothing  but  the  extreme  mild- 
ness of  government  cotild  allow  to  remain 
unpunished,"  yet  it  appears  he  felt  extreme- 
ly easy  about  these  hiftts  of  danger  to  him- 
self. If  it  be  true  that  he  was  "  coolly  dis- 
missed" from  the  royal  audience,  yet  the 
government  of  Ireland  was  very  quickly 
modelled  upon  his  views,  or  almost  placed 


73 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


Rubstantially  in  his  hands.  Dorset  was  soon 
recalK-d,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  Lord 
Uartington,  a  personal  and  political  ally  of 
Kildare.  Mr.  Plowden  alleges,  and  the  re- 
sult seems  to  confirm  it,  that  this  viceroy 
came  over  to  Ireland  leagued  by  a  secret 
treaty  with  the  Patriot  party,  tlirough  the 
intermediation  of  Lord  Kildaie,  and  in  es- 
pecial had  a  clear  understanding  with  Boyle 
and  Malone.  Stone  was  removed  from  the 
privv  council ;  Boyle  was  made  Earl  of  Shan- 
non, and  entered  the  U[>per  Hou«e,  accept- 
ing at  the  same  time  a  pension  of  £'2,000 
fur  thirty-one  years.  Ponsonby  was  elected 
Speaker  in  his  place.  The  system  of  the 
English  Court  was  now  to  buy  up  the  Pa- 
tiiots  wiih  place  and  patronage.  Even 
Malone  was  promised  the  succession  to  Boyle 
as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer;  but  the 
public,  and  his  own  respectable  family,  raised 
such  an  outcry  against  this  that  he  was 
ashamed  to  accept  it,  and  declined.  Boyle 
continued  nominal  chancellor,  and  Malone 
condescended  to  receive  the  profits  of  the 
place.  We  hear  but  little  more  of  any 
trouble  given  to  English  rule  by  this  band  of 
Lish  Patriot?,  and  the  bitter  reflection  of 
Thomas  MacNevin  upon  the  whole  transac- 
tion seems  well  justified.  "  Despotism,  with- 
out corruption,  was  not  considered  as  a  fit 
exemplar  of  government,  and  the  matter  for 
the  present  terminated  by  a  title  and  a  pen- 
sion conf-rred  on  the  greatest  Patriot  of  the 
day.  Henry  Boyle  bore  about  the  blushing 
honoi's  of  his  public  virtue,  emblazoned  on 
the  coronet  of  the  Earl  of  Shannon.  The 
piimate  did  not  fare  so  well ;  he  was  re- 
moved from  the  privy  council.  The  rest  of 
the  Patriots  found  comfortable  retreats  in 
various  lucrative  offices,  and  the  most  sub- 
staniial  compliments  were  paid  to  those  who 
were  noisiest  in  their  patriotism  and  fiercest 
in  their  opposition." 

In  1756  the  lord-lieutenant,  now  Duke  of 
Devonshire,  after  having  thus  gratified  the 
"  Patriots,"  returned  to  England  in  delicate 
health — leaving  as  lords-justices,  Jocelyn, 
lord  chancellor,  and  the  Earls  of  Kildare  and 
Bes>boroiigli. 

It  is  painful  to  be  obliged  to  admit  that 
the  transferrence  of  the  power  and  patronage 
of  the  Irish  Government  into  the  hands  of 
the  Patriots  was  not  productive  of  any  whole- 


some effect  whatsoever — neither  in  favor  of 
the  Catholic  masses  (for  the  Patriots  were 
their  mortal  enemies),  nor  in  favor  of  pub- 
lic virtue  and  morality,  for  nobody  demands 
to  be  bought  at  so  high  a  price  as  a  patriot. 
Accordingly,  we  soon  find  the  whole  atten- 
tion of  Parliament  and  of  the  country  ab- 
sorbed by  inquiries  into  the  enormously  in- 
creased pension  list  upon  the  Irish  Estab- 
lishment. In  March,  1756,  some  member 
(unpensioned)  of  the  Commons,  introduced 
a  bill  to  vacate  the  seats  of  such  members 
of  the  House  of  Commons  as  should  accept 
any  pension  or  civil  office  of  profit  from  the 
Crown.  It  was  voted  down  by  a  vote  of 
eighty-five  to  fifty-nine — a  fatal  and  ominous 
waining  to  the  nation.  On  the  day  when 
that  measure  was  debated,  a  return  of  pen- 
sions was  brought  in  and  read.  Many  of 
the  fii'st  names  in  Ireland  appear  upon  the 
shameful  list;  many  foreigners  or  English- 
men; few  or  no  meritorious  servants  of  the 
state.  The  Countess  of  Yarmouth  stood 
upon  that  return  for  £4,000  ;  Mr.  Belling- 
ham  Boyle,  a  near  relative  of  the  illustrious 
"Patriot,"  for  £800  "during  pleasure"  (that 
is,  so  long  as  he  should  make  himself  gener- 
ally useful),  and  the  Patriot  himself,  now 
Earl  of"  Shannon,  closed  up  the  list  with  his 
pension  of  £2,000  a  year. 

Although  the  bill  to  vacate  the  seats  of 
pensioners  was  lost,  the  revelations  of  pre- 
vailing corruption  were  so  gross  that  certain 
other  members  of  Pai'liament,  not  yet  pen- 
sioned, again  returned  to  the  charge  upon 
this  popular  grievance.  A  series  of  resolu- 
tions was,  in  fact,  reported  by  the  committee 
on  public  accounts,  not,  indeed,  making  per- 
sonal and  ungracious  reference  to  the  {)rivate 
concerns  of  members  of  Parliament,  but 
stating  in  general  terms  that  the  pension 
list  had  become  altogether  too  enormous  ; 
that  it  had  been  increased  since  the  23d  of 
March,  1755 — that  is,  within  one  year — by 
no  less  than  £28,103  fer  annum;  that 
these  pensions  were  hivished  upon  foreigners^ 
and  upon  people  not  resident  in  Ireland  ; 
and  that  all  this  was  a  loss  and  injury  to  the 
nation  and  to  his  majesty's  service.  Upon 
these  I'esolutions,  which  did  not  touch  too 
closely  the  Patriots'  own  private  arrange- 
ments, there  was  a  patriotic  struggle,  and 
even  a  patriotic  triumph.     The  resolutions 


CASE    OF    SAUL CATHOLIC   MEETING   IN    DUBLIN. 


77 


weie  passeil,  and  were  presented  by  Speaker 
Ponsonby  to  the  viceroy,  with  the  usual  re- 
quest that  they  should  be  transmitted  to  the 
king.  He  only  replied  that  the  matter  was 
of  too  high  a  nature  for  him  to  promise  at 
once  that  he  would  forward  such  resolutions. 
Thereupon  the  Speaker  returned  to  the 
House  and  reported  his  reception.  It  was 
determined  to  make  a  stand,  and  next  day  a 
motion  was  made  that  all  orders  not  yet  pro- 
ceeded on  should  be  adjourned,  the  House 
not  having  yet  received  any  answer  from  the 
lord-lieutenant  as  to  the  transmission  of  their 
resolutions.  This,  of  course,  meant  that 
they  would  vote  no  supplies  until  they  should 
be  satisfied  on  that  point.  The  motion  to 
adjourn  every  thing  was  carried,  by  a  strict 
party  vote — those  in  favor  of  the  resolu- 
tivms  voting  for  the  adjournment,  and  those 
opposed  to  them  voting  against  it.  The 
lord-lieutenant  immediately  sent  a  message 
that  he  would  transmit  the  resolutions  with- 
out delay.  Thus  a  small  patriotic  victory 
was  gained  without  any  one  being  injured, 
for  nothing  whatsoever  came  of  these  reso- 
lutions. 

In  September,  1757,  the  Duke  of  Bed- 
ford came  ovej  as  lord-lieutenant — specially 
instructed  by  Mr.  Pitt  to  go  upon  the  con- 
ciliatory policy.  He  was  to  employ  all  soft- 
ening and  healing  arts  of  government.  In 
fact,  it  is  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford's  adminis- 
tration we  are  to  go  back  for  the  commence- 
ment of  that  well-known  Whig  policiy,  of 
making  use  of  the  Patriotic  Irish  party,  and 
even  of  the  Catholics  themselves,  in  support 
of  the  Whig  party  in  England.  There  had 
been  lately  a  considerable  aggravation  of  the 
suffeiings  of  the  Catholics  under  the  penal 
laws ;  the  gentleness  and  forbearance  exer- 
cised towards  them  during  Chesterfield's 
viceroyalty  had  no  longer  a  sufficient  reason 
and  motive  ;  the  halcyon  days  of  connivance 
and  extra-legal  toleration  were  over,  and  the 
Catholics  were  once  more  under  the  full 
pressure  of  the  laws  ''for  preventing  the 
growth  of  Popery." 

A  remarkable  example  of  this  low  condi- 
tion of  the  Catholics  occurred  the  year  fol- 
lowing. A  young  Catholic  girl  named 
O'Toole  was  importuned  by  some  of  her 
friends  to  conform  to  the  Established  Church  ; 
to  avoid  this  persecution,  she  took  refuge  in 


the  house  of  another  friend  and  relative,  a 
Catholic  merchant  in  Dublin,  named  Saul. 
Legal  proceedings  were  at  once  taken  against 
Mr.  Saul,  in  the  name  of  a  Protestant  con- 
nection of  the  young  lady.  Of  course,  the 
trial  went  against  Saul ;  and  on  this  occasion 
he  was  assured  from  the  bench  tliat  Papists 
had  no  rights,  inasmuch  as  "  the  law  did  not 
presume  a  Papist  to  exist  in  the  kingdom  ; 
nor  could  they  so  much  as  breathe  there  with- 
out the  connivance  of  Government^''  And 
the  court  was  right,  for  such  was  actually  the 
"  Law,"  or  what  passed  for  law  in  Ireland  at 
that  time. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford 
there  had  even  been  prepared,  by  some  mem- 
bers of  Parliament,  the  ''heads  of  a  bill"  for 
a  new  and  more  stringent  penal  law  regula- 
ting the  registration  of  priests,  and  intended 
to  put  an  eftectual  end,  by  dreadful  penalties, 
to  the  regular  course  of  hierarchical  church 
government,  which  had,  up  to  that  time, 
been  carried  on  regularly,  though  clandes- 
tinely and  against  the  law.  The  menace  of 
this  new  law  and  the  late  proceedings  re- 
specting Mr.  Saul,  caused  a  good  deal  of  agi- 
tation and  excitement  among  the  Catholics, 
and  the  leading  people  of  that  religion  in 
Dublin  even  ventured  to  hold  small  meetings 
in  an  obscure  manner,  to  consult  on  the  best 
way  of  meeting  the  fresh  atrocities  which 
were  now  threatened.  In  these  preliminary 
meetiuos  two  factions  at  once  developed 
themselves  ;  the  long  period  of  unacquaint- 
ance  with  all  political  and  civil  life  had  ren- 
dered the  Catliolic  people  almost  incapable 
of  efficient  organization  and  co-operaiion  ; 
and  so  they  divided  forthwith  into  two  par- 
ties— the  one  led  by  Loid  Trimbleston,  the 
other  by  Dr.  Fitzsimon.  At  length  certain 
of  the  more  rational  and  moderate  leaders 
of  the  Catholics,  Chailes  O'Conor,  of  Bel- 
anagar;  Dr.  Curry,  author  of  the  Historical 
Review  of  the  Civil  Wars ;  Mr.  Wyse,  a 
Wateiford  merchant,  together  with  Lords 
Fingal,  Taaffe,  and  Delvin,  originated  a  new 
movement  by  a  meeting  in  Dublin,  which 
established  the  first  "Catholic  Committee," 
and  commenced  that  career  of  "  agitation" 
which  has  since  been  carried  to  such  great 
lengths.  The  first  performances  of  tliis 
Catholic  Committee  have  been,  and  will  al- 
ways be,  very  variously  appreciated  by  Irish- 


"8 


niSTORT    OF   IRELAND. 


infill,  in  accorilance  with  tlieir  different  ideas 
vs  to  tlie  policy  and  diitj'  of  a  nation  held 
"n  so  deg-radiiig  a  bondage.  It  became 
known,  during  the  administration  of  Lord 
Bedford,  that  the  Jacobites  in  France  were 
preparing  anotlier  ex{>edition  for  a  descent 
somewhere  on  the  British  coast,  or  Ireland  ; 
and  on  the  29th  of  October,  1759,  the  lord- 
lieutenant  delivered  a  message  to  Parlia- 
ment, in  which  be  stated  that  he  had  re- 
ceived a  letter  fiom  Mr.  Secretary  Pitt, 
written  by  the  king's  express  command,  in- 
forming him  that  France  was  preparing  a 
new  invasion,  and  desiring  him  to  exhort 
the  Irish  people  to  show  on  this  occasion 
their  tiied  loyalty  and  attachment  to  the 
House  of  Hanover.  Immediately  an  ad- 
dress, testifying  the  most  devoted  "loyalty," 
was  prepared  by  the  Catholic  Committee. 
It  was  written  by  Charles  O'Conor,  and 
signed  by  three  hundred  of  the  most  respect- 
able Catholic  inhabitants  of  Dublin.  But 
here  a  difficulty  arose  ;  Catholics  were  not 
citizens,  nor  subjects ;  they  were  not  sup- 
posed to  exist  at  all;  other  attempts  they 
had  made  to  testify  their  "  loyalty"  had 
been  repulsed  with  the  most  insolent  disdain  ; 
and  they  knew  well  they  were  exposing 
themselves  to  another  huiniliation  of  the 
same  kind  on  the  present  occasion.  How- 
ever, two  bold  Papists  undertook  to  present 
the  address  to  Ponsonby,  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  These  were  Antony 
McDeiniott  and  John  Crump.  They  wait- 
ed on  the  Speaker  and  read  him  the  loyal 
manifesto.  Mr.  Ponsonby,  a  Whig  and  a 
"  Patriot,"  took  the  document,  laid  it  on  the 
tabk?,  said  not  one  word,  and  bowed  the 
delegates  out.  There  were  a  few  days  of 
agitated  suspense;  and  then,  on  the  10th  of 
December,  the  lord-lieutenant  sent  a  gra- 
cious answer.  He  did  more ;  he  caused 
his  answer  to  be  printed  in  the  Dublin 
Gazette,  thereby  officially  recognizing  the 
existence  (though  humble)  of  persons  call- 
ing themselves  Catholics,  in  Ireland.  The 
Speaker  then  sent  for  the  two  gentlemen 
who  had  presented  the  address,  and  ordered 
Mr.  McDermott  to  read  it  to  the  House. 
Mr.  McDermott  read  it,  and  then  thanked 
the  Speaker,  in  the  name  of  the  Irish  Catho- 
lics, for  his  condescension.  Mr.  Ponsonby 
most  graciously  replied  "  that  he  counted  it 


a  favor'to  be  put  in  the  way  of  serving  so 
respectable  a  body  as  the  gentlemen  who 
had  signed  that  address."  The  Catholics, 
then,  for  the  first  time  since  the  Treaty  of 
Limerick,  were  publicly  and  officially  ad- 
mitted to  be  in  a  species  of  existence.  Here 
was  a  triumph  ! 

In  fact,  this  recognition  of  Irish  Catholics 
as  a  part  of  the  King  of  England's  subjects 
was  a  kind  of  admission  of  that  body  over 
the  threshold  of  the  temple  of  civil  and 
constitutional  freedom.  We  may  feel  in- 
dignant at  the  extreme  humility  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  committee,  and  lament  that 
the  low  condition  of  our  countrymen  at  that 
time  left  them  no  alternative  but  that  of 
professing  a  hypocritical  "loyalty"  to  their 
oppressors ;  for  the  only  other  alternative 
was  secret  oi'ganization  to  prepare  an  insur- 
rection for  the  total  extirpation  of  the  Eng- 
lish colony  in  Ireland,  and,  carefully  disarmed 
as  the  Catholics  were,  they  doubtless  felt 
this  to  be  an  impossible  project.  Yet,  for 
the  honor  of  human  nature,  it  is  necessary 
to  state  the  fact  that  this  profession  of  loyal- 
ty to  a  king  of  England  was  in  realitv  in- 
sincere. Hypocrisy,  in  such  a  case,  is  less 
disgraceful  than  would  have  been  a  genuine 
canine  attachment  to  the  hand  that  smote 
and  to  the  foot  that  kicked. 

The  real  object  of  the  conciliatory  policy 
which  the  Duke  of  Bedford  was  instructed 
to  pursue  towards  the  Catholics  was  not  only 
to  give  additional  strength  to  the  Whig 
party  in  England,  but  also  to  prepare  the 
way  for  a  legislative  union  between  the  two 
countries  ;  in  other  words,  a  complete  ab- 
sorption and  extinguishment  of  the  shadowy 
nationality  of  Ireland  in  the  more  real  and 
potent  nationality  of  her  "sister  country,"  and 
even  so  early  as  the  time  of  Bedford's  admin- 
istration the  English  ministry  had  begun  to 
count  upon  the  Catholics  as  an  anti-Irish 
element  which  might  be  used  to  crush  the 
rising  aspirations  of  colonial  nationality. 
Rumors  began  to  be  current  in  Dublin  that 
a  project  was  on  foot  to  destroy  the  Irish 
Parliament  and  effect  a  union  with  Great 
Britain,  similar  to  that  which  had  been 
made  with  Scotland  ;  and  the  people  of  the 
metropolis  became  violently  excited.  On 
the  3d  of  December,  in  this  year  (1759), 
the  mob  rose  and  surrounded  the  Houses  of 


LUCASIAN   MOBS — PROJECT    OP   UNION. 


19 


r'ariianient  with  loud  outcries.  When  any 
irieinber  was  seen  arriving  they  stopped  liiin, 
iv.<\  obl'ged  him  to  swear  that  he  would  op- 
p)se  a  union.  The  lord  chancellor  and 
some  of  the  bishops  were  hustled  and  mal- 
treatei],  and  one  member  of  the  privy  coun- 
cil w;is  flung  into  the  Liftey.  The  tumult 
became  so  dangerous  that  at  length  Mr. 
Speaker  Ponsonby,  and  Mr.  Rigby,  the  sec- 
retary, were  obliged  to  make  their  appear- 
ance in  the  portico  of  tiie  House,  and  sol- 
emnly assure  the  people  that  no  union  was 
in  contemplation,  and  that,  if  such  a  meas- 
ure were  proposed,  they  would  resist  it  to 
the  last  extremity.  The  riot,  however,  was 
not  suppressed  without  military  aid,  and,  for 
the  first  time,  zealous  patriotic  Protestants 
of  the  English  colony  were  ridden  down  by 
the  king's  troops.  The  anti-union  demon- 
stration was  essentially  and  exclusively  Prot- 
estant, and  the  Catholics  of  Dublin  made 
haste  to  clear  themselves  of  all  complicity  in 
it.  An  inquirv  was  instituted  in  Parliament 
to  ascertain  who  were  the  authors  and  pro- 
moters of  the  disturbance ;  and  on  that  oc- 
casion, as  some  of  the  very  persons  guiltv  in 
that  respect  did,  by  their  interest  in  both 
Houses,  endeavor  to  fix  the  odium  of  it  on 
the  obnoxious  Papists  (to  which  conscious 
untruth  and  calumny  the  war  then  carrying 
on  against  France  gave  some  kind  of  color), 
the  Catholics  thought  it  high  time  publicly 
to  vindicate  their  characters  from  that  and 
every  other  vile  suspicion  of  disloyalty,  by 
an  address  to  his  grace  the  lord-lieiitenant, 
testifying  their  warmest  gratitude  for  the 
lenity  they  experienced  under  his  majesty's 
Government,  and  their  readiness  to  concur 
with  the  faithfulest  and  most  zealous  of  his 
majesty's  other  subjects,  in  opposing,  by 
every  means  in  their  power,  all,  both  foreign 
and  domestic,  enemies.* 

On  the  same  occasion  Prime  Sergeant 
S;annard,  of  the  "Patriot"  party,  a  gentle- 
man of  high  honor  and  probity,  in  his 
speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  contrast- 
ing the  riotous  conduct  of  the  Lucasians  (as 
they  were  then  called  after  their  chief),  with 
the  quiet  and  dutiful  behavior  of  the  Roman 
Cathcjlics,  in  that  and  other  dangerous  con- 
junctures, gave  the   following  testimony  in 

*  Curry's   Review. 


favor  of  these  latter:  "We  have  lived 
amicably  and  in  harmony  among  ourselves, 
and  without  any  material  party  distinctions, 
for  several  years  past,  till  within  these  few 
months;  and  during  the  late  wicked  rebellion 
in  Scotland,  we  had  the  comfort  and  satisfac- 
tion to  see  that  all  was  quiet  here.  And  to 
the  honor  of  the  Roman  Catholics  be  it  re- 
membered, that  not  a  man  of  them  moved 
tongue,  pen,  or  sword,  upon  the  then  or  the 
present  occasion  ;  and  I  am  glad  to  find 
that  they  have  a  grateful  and  proper  sense 
of  the  mildness  and  moderation  of  our  Gov- 
ernment. For  my  part,  while  they  behave 
with  duty  and  allegiance  to  the  present  es- 
tablishment, I  shall  hold  them  as  men  in 
equal  esteem  with  others  in  every  point  but 
one  ;  and  while  their  private  opinion  inter- 
feres not  with  public  tranquillity,  I  think 
their  industry  and  allegiance  ought  to  be  en- 
couraged." 

It  deserves  remark,  then,  that  on  this  first 
occasion  when  a  project  of  legislative  union 
was  really  entertained  by  an  English  min- 
istry, the  "  Patiioi"  pat ty,  which  opposed  it, 
was  wholly  and  exclusively  of  the  Protest- 
ant colony,  and  that  the  Catholics  of  Ireland 
were  totally  indifferent;  and,  indeed,  they 
could  not  rationally  be  otherwise,  as  it  was 
quite  impossible  for  them  to  feel  an  attach- 
ment to  a  national  legislature  in  which  they 
were  not  represented,  and  for  wliose  mem- 
bers they  could  not  even  cast  a  vote. 

The  French  naval  expedition  was  in  prep- 
aration at  the  ports  of  Brest  and  Dunkirk, 
and  the  enthusiastic  Franco-Irish  ofliceis 
did  not  doubt  that  if  it  could  once  land  in 
Ireland,  and  obtain  a  first  success,  the  whole 
Catholic  nation  would  rise  to  support  it.. 
The  anticipation  would  have  been  realized, 
if  the  two  squadrons  could  have  united,  and 
then  entered  a  southern  or  western  port. 
But  now,  as  in  other  instances,  the  fortune 
of  war  and  weather  on  the  sea  befi'iended 
England.  The  Brest  squadron  was  a  pow- 
erful one,  and  was  placed  under  command  of 
Admiral  Conflans ;  that  fitted  out  at  Dun- 
kirk was  intrusted  to  Thurot,  who  had 
giuned  distinction  as  commander  of  a  pi'i- 
vateer,  sweeping  the  Channel  and  German 
Ocean  of  British  commerce.  In  the  year 
1759,  our  excellent  and  conscientious  his- 
torian, Plowden,   was  a  boy,  and   in   com- 


80 


HISTOKY    OF    IRELAND, 


pany  with  some  other  Catholic  boys,  was  on 
board  a  vessel  bound  for  France,  to  obtain 
the  education  which  was  by  law  debarred 
them  at  home.  Their  ship  was  chased, 
boarded  and  captured,  between  Ostend  and 
Dunkirk,  by  a  French  vessel  of  war,  which 
turned  out  to  be  no  other  than  Thurot's 
ship,  the  Belle  Isle,  commanded  by  that  re- 
doubtable sea-rover.  The  boys,  along  with 
the  rest  of  the  crew,  were  carried  as  prisoners 
to  Flushing,  where  they  remained  some 
weeks,  guarded  on  board  the  Belle  Isle  while 
she  was  undergoing  repairs.  Plowden  de- 
scribes here  a  desperate  mutiny  of  the  wild 
crew  of  the  Belle  Isle,  which,  however,  was 
fiercely  suppressed  by  the  officers — Thurot 
himself  killing  two  of  the  ringleaders  and 
cutting  off  the  cheek  of  another.  The 
young  prisoners  were  shortly  after  exchanged. 
This  rude  but  gallant  seaman  was  placed, 
in  command  of  the  squadron  of  five  ships 
then  being  fitted  out  at  Dunkirk,  to  co- 
operate with  Conflans.  In  the  autumn  of 
1759  they  both  sailed  ;  their  rendezvous  was 
to  be  in  the  Irish  Sea.  Conflans  was  en- 
countered by  the  English  Hawke  and  en- 
tirely defeated,  while  Thurot,  after  long 
cruising  around  the  islands,  and  winteiingin 
Norway,  at  last,  in  February,  1760,  entered 
Lough  Foyle  with  only  three  of  his  five 
vessels.  One  had  been  lost,  and  one  had 
been  sent  back  to  France.  He  did  not 
think  fit  to  come  up  to  Derry,  which  he 
probably  imagined  to  be  a  stronger  place 
than  it  leally  was,  but  coasted  round  the 
shores  of  Antiim,  and  suddenly  appeared  be- 
fore Carrickfergus  Castle,  on  Belfast  Lough, 
upon  the  21st  of  February.  He  summoned 
the  castle  to  surrender  ;  it  was  defended  by 
a  small  garrison,  commanded  by  a  Colonel 
Jennings;  and  on  Jennings'  refusal  to  capitu- 
late, the  cannonade  began.  The  peaceable 
Piotestant  citizens  of  Belfast  could  now, 
fnjui  their  own  streets,  see  the  flash  and 
hear  the  roar  of  the  guns.  They  did  not  yet 
know  the  force  of  the  invading  squadron, 
and  for  a  time  believed  that  here  were  at 
last  the  French  "bringing  in  the  Pretender," 
overthrowing  the  "  Ascendency,"  and  taking 
back  the  forfeited  estates.  After  a  gallant 
resistance,  the  castle  and  town  of  Carrick- 
fergus were  taken,  but  with  the  loss  of  a 
considerable  number  of  French  soldiers,  and 


Clobert,  the  brigadier-general  of  their  lr,iid 
force,  was  wounded.  The  French  kept  pos- 
session of  the  town  and  castle  for  five  days, 
and  levied  some  contributions  in  Carrick- 
fergus of  such  things  as  they  needed  after 
their  long  cruise.  The  town  of  Belfast  con- 
tained at  that  time  less  than  nine  thousand 
inhabitants,  but  it  was  a  prosperous  trading 
place,  and  entirely  Protestant.  Alarm  was 
instantly  sent  out  through  the  counties  of 
Down,  Antrim,  and  Armagh,  the  most  popu- 
lous Protestant  districts  of  the  island,  and 
within  this  interval  of  five  days  two  thou- 
sand two  hundred  and  twenty  volunteers 
were  thronging  towards  Belfast,  badly  armed, 
indeed,  and  not  disciplined  at  all,  but  zealous 
for  the  "  Ascendency  "  and  the  House  of 
Hanover.  Thurot  had  little  more  than  five 
hundred  soldiers  left,  besides  his  sailors  ;  he 
knew  also  that  English  men-of-war  would 
very  soon  appear  at  the  mouth  of  Belfast 
Lough  ;  therefore  he  did  not  venture  upon 
Belfast,  especially  as  there  was  no  sign  of  a 
Catholic  rising  anywhere  to  support  him. 
He  re-embarked  on  the  26lh,  and  was  en- 
countered in  the  Irish  Sea  by  three  Engli^h 
ships  of  superior  force.  He  gave  battle,  and 
fought  with  the  utmost  desperation  ;  but  at 
last  his  three  vessels  were  captured,  after 
Thurot  himself  was  killed,  with  thiee  hun- 
dred of  his  men.  His  shattered  ships  were 
towed  into  a  port  of  the  Isle  of  Man,  Tes- 
timonies to  the  humanity  and  gallantry  of 
this  brave  officer  are  freely  accorded  by  his 
enemies. 

King  George  the  Second  died  this  year, 
after  a  long  and  eventful  reign.  His  pei- 
sonal  character  and  dispositions  were  wholly 
immaterial  to  the  course  of  events  in  this 
kingdom.  Although  his  English  subjects 
disliked  him  as  a  Gyrmau,  to  Ireland  he  was 
a  thorough  Englishman — bound  by  his 
policy,  as  Well  as  compelled  by  his  advisers, 
to  maintain  the  "  English  Interest,"  in  op- 
position to  that  of  Ireland.  And  this  point 
was  successfully  and  triumphantly  carried, 
at  every  period  of  his  reign,  sometimes  by 
strengthening  the  Court  party,  sometimes  by 
buying  up  the  "Patriots."  There  had 
been  (over  and  above  the  usual  suflering 
from  poverty)  two  famines  ;  also  a  consid- 
erable emigration  of  Presbyterians  from  the 
northern  counties,  to  escape  from  the  pay- 


THK  GKOGHEGANS. 


81 


ment  of  tithes  aud  from  the  disabilities 
created  b}'  the  Test  Act.  The  population 
of  the  island  remained  nearly  stationary 
during  the  whole  reio-n.  In  1726  it  was 
2,309,106,  and  in  1754  it  was  2,372,634— 
an  increase  of  little  more  than  sixty  thou- 
sand in  twenty  eight  years.*  The  manufac- 
ture of  woollen  cloth  had  almost  disappeared, 
bnt  in  the  eastern  part  of  Ulster  the  linen 
trade  had  taken  a  considerable  extension. 

It  is  impossible  to  exaggei-ate,  and  hard 
to  conceive  in  all  its  horror,  the  misery  and 
degradation  of  the  Catholic  people,  through- 
out this  whole  period,  although  active  per- 
secution ceased  during  the  year  of  the  battle 
of  Fontenoy  and  the  Scottish  insurrection. 
On  the  whole,  this  was  the  era  of  priest- 
hunting,  of  "discoveries,"  and  of  an  universal 
phmder  of  such  pioperty  as  remained  in  the 
liands  of  Catholics.  In  this  pitiful  struggle 
the  wild  humor  of  the  race  would  sometimes 
break  out;  and  often  desperate  deeds  were 
done  by  beggared  men.  The  story  of  two 
of  the  Geoghegans,  of  Meath,  is  so  character- 
istic of  the  time  as  to  deserve  a  place  here. 
It  is  related  by  the  author  of  "The  Irish 
Abroad  and  at  Home;"  a  very  desultory  and 
chaotic,  but  generally  both  authentic  and 
entertaining,  work. 

"  Seventy  or  eighty  years  ago,  there  re- 
sided in  Soho  Square,  London,  an  Irish  Ro- 
man Catholic  gentleman,  known  among  his 
friends  as  'Geoghegan,  of  London.'  Pre- 
tending to  be,  or  being  really,  alarmed,  lest 
a  relative  (  Mr.  Geoghegan,  of  Jamestown  ) 
should  conform  to  the  Piotestant  religion, 
and  possess  himself  of  a  considerable  prop- 
erty, situate  in  Westmeath,  he  resolved  upon  a 
proceeding  to  which  the  reader  will  attach 
any  epithet  it  may  seem  to  warrant. 

"He  repaiied  to  Dublin,  reported  himself 
to  the  ne(-essary  authorities,  aud  professed 
in  all  its  required  legal  forms,  the  Protestant 
religion  on  a  Sunday,  sold  his  estates  on 
ilondav,  and  relapsed  into  Popery  on  Tues- 
day. 

"He  did  not  effect  these  changes  unosten- 
tatiously ;  for  '  He  saw  no  reason  for  muu- 
vaise  honte^  as  he  called   it.     He  expressed 

*  There  was   no  census  taken  in  either  of  tliose 

TearK.     The  estimntes  of  the  popiihition  given    in 

Thoni's   Directory  are   founded  upon  such  returns, 

parocliial  registers,  und  tlie  like,  as  were  accessible. 

11 


admiration  of  the  same  princi|)le  of  conve- 
nient apostasy,  which  governed  Henri  IV.'s 
acceptance  of  the  French  crown.  '  Paris 
vaut  bien  une  messe,'  said  that  gay,  chival- 
rous, but  somewhat  unscrupulous  monarch. 
Thus,  when  asked  the  motive  of  his  abjura- 
tion of  Catholicism,  Geoghegan  replied  :  '  I 
would  rather  trust  my  soul  to  God  for  a  dav, 
than  my  property  to  the  fiend  forever,' 

"This  somewhat  impious  speech  was  in 
keeping  with  his  conduct  at  Christ-Church 
when  he  made  his  religious  profession  :  the 
sacramental  wine  being  presented  to  him,  he 
drank  off  the  entire  contents  of  the  cup. 
The  officiating  clergyman  rebuked  his  inde- 
corum. '  You  need  not  grudge  it  me,'  said 
the  neophyte:  'it's  the  dearest  glass  of 
wine  I  ever  diank.' 

"  In  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  he 
entered  the  Globe  Coffee  Room,  Essex  Street, 
then  frequented  by  the  niost  respectable  of 
the  citizens  of  Dublin.  The  room  was 
crowded.  Putting  his  hand  to  his  sword, 
and  throwing  a  glance  of  defiance  around, 
Geoghegan  said, 

" '  I  have  read  my  recantation  to-day,  and 
any  man  who  says  I  did  light  is  a  rascal.' 

"A  Protestant  with  whom  he  was  con- 
versing the  moment  before  he  left  home  to 
read  his  recantation,  said  to  him  :  '  For  nil 
your  assumed  Protestantism,  Geoghegan, 
you  will  die  a  Papist.' 

"'  Fi  done,  mon  ami  !'  replied  he.  *  That  is 
the  last  thing  of  which  I  am  capable.' 

"One  more  specimen  of  the  operation  of 
the  penal  laws  may  be  given. 

"Mr.  Geoghegan  had  a  relative,  ^Ir.  Ke- 
dagh  Geoghegan,  of  Donower,  in  the  county 
of  Westmeath,  who,  though  remaining  faith- 
ful to  the  creed  of  his  forefathers,  enjoyed 
the  esteetn  and  respect  of  the  Protestant 
resident  gentry  of  his  county.  Notwith- 
standing that  his  profession  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  religion  piecluded  his  performing 
the  functions  of  a  grand  juror,  he  attended 
the  assizes  at  Mullingar  regularly,  in  com- 
mon with  other  gentlemen  of  Westmeath, 
and  dined  with  the  grand  jui'ors. 

'•  On  one  of  those  occasioijs,  a  Mr.  Stepney, 
a  man  of  considerable  fortuni!  in  the  county, 
approached  him  and  remarbid  :  '  Geoghegan, 
that  is  a  capital  team  to  your  carriage.  1 
have  rarely  seen  four  finer  horses — nor  bel- 


82 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


ter  matched.  Here,  Geogliegan,  are  twenty 
pounds,'  tendering  him  a  sum  of  money  in 
gold.  '  You  understand  me.  They  are 
mine.'  And  he  moved  towards  the  door, 
apparently  with  the  intention  of  taking  pos- 
session of  his  purchase.  The  horses,  not  yet 
detached  from  Mr.  Geoghegan's  carriage, 
were  still  in  the  yard  of  the  inn  close  by. 

" '  Hold,  Stepney !'  said  Geogliegan.  '  Wait 
one  moment.  I  shall  not  be  absent  more 
than  that  time.'  He  then  quitted  the  room 
Hbiuptly,  and  w?^  seen  lunning  in  great 
haste  towards  the  inn  at  which  he  always 
put  up. 

There  was  something  in  the  scene  which 
had  just  occurred  which  shocked  the  feel- 
ings of  the  witnesses  of  it,  and  something 
in  the  manner  of  Geogliegan,  that  produced 
among  them  a  dead  silence  and  a  conviction 
that  it  was  not  to  end  there.  Not  a  word 
was  yet  spoken,  when  the  reports  of  four 
pistol  shots  struck  their  ears,  and  in  a  few 
seconds  afterwards  Geoghegan  was  perceiv- 
ed coming  from  the  direction  of  the  inn, 
laden  with  fire-arms.  He  mounted  to  the 
room  in  which  the  party  were  assembled, 
holding  by  their  barrels  a  brace  of  pistols  in 
each  hand.  Walking  directly  up  to  Step- 
ney, he  said:  'Stepney,  you  cannot  have 
the  horses  for  which  you  bid  just  now.' 
"'I  can,  and  will  have  them.' 
"  '  You  can't.  I  have  shot  them  ;  and 
Stepney,  unless  you  be  as  great  a  coward  as 
Tou  are  a  scoundrel,  I  will  do  my  best  to 
shoot  you.  Here,  choose  your  weapon,  and 
take  your  ground.  Gentlemen,  open  if  you 
please  and  see  fair  play.' 

"  He  then  advanced  upon  Stepney,  offering 
him  the  choice  of  either  pair  of  pistols. 
Stepney,  however,  declined  the  combat  and 
quitted  the  room,  leaving  Geoghegan  the 
oliject  of  the  unanimous  condoletnents  of 
the  rest  of  the  parly,  and  overwhelmed  with 
their  expressions  of  sympathy  and  of  regret 
for  the  perversion  of  the  law  of  which  Mr. 
Stepney  had  just  sought  to  render  him  the 
object. 

"In  tendering  twenty  pounds  foi-  horses 
that  were  worth  twenty  times  that  sum, 
Slepney  was  only  availing  himself  of  one  of 
the  enactments  of  the  Penal  Code,  which 
forbade  a  Papist  the  possession  of  a  horse  of 
greater  value  than  five  pounds. 


"Notwithstanding  this  incident,  old  Ke- 
dagh  Geoghegan  continued  to  visit  Mullingar 
during  the  assizes  for  many  years  afterwards  ; 
but  to  avoid  a  similar  outrage,  and  to  keep 
in  recollection  the  cruel  nature  of  the  Po- 
pery laws,  his  cattle  thenceforward  consisted 
of  four  oxen." 

Another  and  a  graver  illustration  of  the 
general  condition  of  the  Catholics  is  the 
"Petition  and  Remonstrance"  addressed  to 
King  George  H.  by  some  members  of  that 
body.  It  is  found  at  length  in  Dr.  Curry's 
excellent  collection,  and  although  it  presents 
no  new  facts  in  addition  to  those  already 
mentioned  in  the  narration,  it  is  interesting 
as  an  example  of  the  tone  and  attitude 
which  Catholics  then  thought  it  necessary 
to  assume  in  addressing  their  master. 

TO    THE    king's    most    EXCELLENT    MAJESTY. 

The  Jiunible  Petition  and  Remonstrance  of  the 
Roman  Catholics  of  Ireland. 

Most  Gracious  Soverkign  :  — We  your 
majesty's  dutiful  and  faithful  subjects,  the 
Roman  Catholics  of  the  kingdom  of  Ireland, 
beg  leave  to  lay  at  your  majesty's  feet  this 
humble  remonstrance  of  some  of  those 
grievances  and  restraints  under  which  we 
have  long  labored  without  murmuring  or 
complaint;  and  we  presume  to  make  this 
submissive  application,  from  a  sense  of  your 
Majesty's  great  and  universal  clemency,  of 
your  gracious  and  merciful  regard  to  tender 
consciences,  and  from  a  consciousness  of  our 
own  loyalty,  affection,  and  gratitude  to  your 
majesty's  person  and  government,  as  duties 
incumbent  upon  us,  which  it  is  our  unalter- 
able resolution  to  pay  in  all  events  during 
the  remainder  of  our  lives. 

And  we  are  the  more  emboldened  to  pre- 
sent this  our  humble  remonstrance,  because 
it  appeareth  unto  us,  that  the  laws  by  which 
such  grievances  are  occasioned,  and  such 
penalties  inflicted  upon  us,  have  taken  rise 
rather  from  private  views  of  expediency  and 
self-interest,  or  from  mistaken  jealousies  and 
mistrusts,  than  from  any  truly  public-spirited 
motives ;  inasmuch  as  they  seemed  to  have 
infringed  certain  privileges,  rights,  and  im- 
munities, which  had  been  freely  and  sol- 
emnly granted,  together  with  a  promise  of 
further  favor  and  indulgence  to  the  Roman 
Catholics  of  Iieland,  upon  the  most  valuable 


CATHOLIC   PETITIOX. 


8.3 


coiisidenitions.  For  we  most  humbly  offer 
to  vour  majesty's  just  and  generous  consid- 
•  eration,  that  on  the  3d  day  of  October,  1691, 
the  Roman  Catholic  nobility  and  gentry  of 
this  kingdom,  under  the  late  King  James, 
entered  into  articles  of  capitulation  at  Lim- 
erick, whereby,  among  other  things,  it  was 
stipulated  and  agreed,  that  "the  Roman 
Catholics  of  Ireland  should  enjoy  such  priv- 
ilege in  the  exercise  of  their  religion  as  they 
did  enjoy  in  the  reign  of  King  Charles  11. 
and  that  their  majesties  as  soon  as  their  af- 
fairs would  permit  them,  would  summon  a 
parliament  in  Ireland,  and  endeavor  to  pro- 
cure the  said  Roman  Catholics  such  further 
st^curity  in  that  particular,  as  might  preserve 
them  from  any  disturbance  on  account  of 
their  said  religion."  Whereupon  these 
noblemen  and  gentlemen  laid  down  their 
arms,  and  immediately  submitted  to  their 
majestie^i'  government;  at  the  same  time 
that  tliey  had  offers  of  poweiful  assistance 
from  France,  which  might,  if  accepted,  have 
greatly  obstructed  the  success  of  their  maj- 
esties' arras  in  the  war  then  carrying  on 
abroad  against  that  kingdom. 

And  although  these  articles  were  duly 
ratified  and  confirmed,  first  by  the  com- 
mander-in-chief of  their  majesties'  forces  in 
Ireland  in  conjunction  with  the  then  lords 
justices  thereof,  and  afterwards  by  an  act  of 
the  Irish  parliament,  in  the  ninth  year  of 
his  majesty  King  William's  reign,  by  which 
they  became  the  public  faith  of  the  nation, 
plighted  and  engaged  to  these  people  in  as 
full,  firm,  and  solemn  manner,  as  ever  pub- 
lic faiih  was  plighted  to  any  people ;  yet 
so  far  were  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Ireland 
from  receiving  the  just  benefit  thereof;  so 
far  from  seeing  any  steps  taken,  or  means 
used  in  the  Irish  parliament,  to  procure  them 
such  promised  security,  as  might  preserve 
them  from  any  disturbance  on  account  of 
their  religion,  that,  on  the  contrary,  several 
laws  have  been  since  enacted  in  that  parlia- 
ment, by  which  the  exercise  of  their  religion 
is  made  penal,  and  themselves  and  their 
lieirs  forever  have  forfeited  those  rights,  iin- 
nmnilies,  and  titles  to  their  estates  and  prop- 
erties, which  in  the  reign  of  King  Charles  II. 
they  were  by  law  entitled  to,  and  enjoyed  in 
common  with  the  rest  of  their  fellow-sub- 
jects. 


And  such  is  the  evil  tendency  of  these 
laws  to  create  jealousy  and  disgust  between 
parents  and  their  children,  and  especially  to 
stifle  in  the  breasts  of  the  latter  those  pious 
sentiments  of  filial  duty  and  obedience 
which  reason  dictates,  good  policy  requires, 
and  which  the  Almighty  so  strictly  enjoins, 
that  in  virtue  of  them,  a  son,  however  un- 
dutiful  or  profligate  in  other  respects,  shall 
merely  by  the  merit  of  conforming  to  the 
established  religion,  not  only  deprive  the 
Roman  Catholic  father  of  that  free  and  full 
possession  of  his  estate,  that  power  to  mort- 
gage or  otherwise  dispose  of  it,  as  the  exi- 
gencies of  his  affairs  may  require,  but  also 
shall  himself  have  full  liberty  to  mortgage, 
sell,  or  otherwise  alienate  that  estate  from 
his  family  forever;  a  liberty  most  gracious 
sovereign,  the  frequent  use  of  which  has  en- 
tailed poverty  and  despair  on  some  of  the 
most  ancient  and  opulent  families  in  this 
kingdom,  and  brought  many  a  parent's  gray 
hairs  with  sorrow  to  the  grave. 

And  although  very  few  estates  at  present 
remain  in  the  hands  of  the  Roman  Catholics 
of  Ireland,  and  therefore  little  or  no  matter 
appears  to  be  left  for  these  hiws  to  operate 
upon,  nevertheless,  we  are  so  far  from  being 
secure  in  the  possession  of  personal  property, 
so  far  from  being  preserved  from  »ny  dis- 
turbance on  account  of  our  religion,  even  in 
that  respect,  that  new  and  forced  construc- 
tions have  been  of  late  years  put  upon  these 
laws  (for  we  cannot  think  that  such  con- 
structions were  ever  originally  intended), 
by  which,  on  the  sole  account  of  our  reli- 
gion, we  are  in  many  case?,  stripped  of  that 
personal  pmperty  by  discoverers  and  inform- 
eis ;  a  set  of  men,  most  gracious  sovereign, 
once  generally  and  jnstly  despised  amongst 
us,  but  of  late  grown  into  some  repute,  by 
the  increase  of  their  numbers,  and  by  the 
frequency,  encouragement,  and  success  of 
their  practices. 

These  and  many  other  cruel  restrictions 
(such  as  no  Christian  people  under  heaven 
but  ourselves  are  made  liable  to)  are  and 
have  long  been  greatly  detrimental,  not  only 
to  us  in  particular,  but  also  to  the  commerce, 
culture,  and  every  other  improvement  of 
this  kingdom  in  general ;  and  what  is  sure- 
ly a  melancholy  consideration,  are  chiefly 
beneficial  to  the  discoveiers  and  informers 


84 


HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 


before  mentioned  ;  who  under  color  of  these 
laws,  plunder  indiscriminately,  parents, 
brethren,  kinsmen,  and  friends,  in  despite  of 
all  the  ties  of  blood,  of  affection  and  confi- 
dence, in  breach  of  the  divine  laws,  of  all 
former  human  laws,  enacted  in  this  or  per- 
haps in  any  other  kingdom,  for  the  security 
of  property,  since  the  creation  of  the  world. 

The  necessity  of  continuing  laws  in  their 
full  force  for  so  gi-eat  a  number  of  years, 
which  are  attended  with  such  shameful  and 
pernicious  consequences,  ought,  we  humbly 
conceive,  to  be  extremely  manifest,  pressing, 
and  permanent ;  but  so  far  is  this  from  being 
the  case  with  respect  to  these  disqualifying 
laws,  that  even  the  pretended  grounds  for 
those  jealousies  and  mistrusts,  which  are 
said  to  have  given  birth  to  them,  have  long 
since  disappeared;  it  being  a  well-known 
and  undeniable  truth,  that  your  majesty's 
distressed,  but  faithful  subjects,  the  Roman 
Catholics  of  Ireland,  have  neither  the  inclina- 
tion nur  the  power  to  disturb  yo\ir  majesty's 
goveMimcnt;  nor  can  (we  humbly  presume) 
that  only  pretext  now  left  for  continuing 
them  in  force,  viz.  their  tendency  to  make 
proselytes  to  the  established  religion,  in  any 
degree  justify  the  manifold  severities  and 
injuries  occasioned  by  them.  For,  alas! 
most  gracious  sovereign,  there  is  but  too 
much  reason  to  believe,  that  proselytes  so 
made  are,  for  the  most  part,  such  in  appear- 
ance only  in  order  to  become  in  reality,  what 
all  sincere  Christians  condemn  and  detest,  un- 
dutiful  children,  unnatural  brethren,  or  per- 
fidious friends  ;  and  we  submit  it  to  your  maj- 
esty's great  wisdom  and  goodness,  whether 
motives  so  repugnant  to  the  public  interest, 
and  to  all  social,  moral,  and  religious  duties, 
are  fit  to  be  confided  in  or  longer  encour- 
aged. 

And  because  we  are  sensible,  most  gra- 
cious sovereign,  that  our  professions  of  loy- 
alty have  been  often  cruelly  misrepresented, 
even  by  those  who  were  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  the  candor  and  uprightness 
of  our  dealings  in  all  other  respects,  we 
must  humbly  oifer  it  to  your  princely  and 
generous  consideration,  that  we  rest  not  the 
proof  of  our  sincerity  in  such  professions  or 
words,  but  on  things  known  and  attested  by 
ail  the  world,  on  our  dutiful,  peaceable,  and 
submissive  behavior   under  such    pressures,  j 


for  more  than  half  a  century ;  a  conduct, 
may  it  please  your  niajest}^  that  clearly 
evinces  the  reality  of  that  religious  principle, 
which  withholds  us  from  sacrificing  con- 
science or  honor  to  any  worldly  interest 
whatever;  since  rather  than  violate  either 
by  hypocritical  professions,  we  have  all  our 
lives,  patiently  suflfered  so  many  restrictions 
and  losses  in  our  temporal  concerns  ;  and 
we  most  submissively  beseech  your  majesty 
to  look  down  on  such  trials  of  our  integrity, 
not  only  as  a  proof  of  our  sincerity  in  this 
declaration,  but  also  as  an  earnest  anil  surety 
of  our  future  good  behavior ;  and  to  give  us 
leave  to  indulge  the  pleasing  hope,  that  the 
continuance  of  that  behavior,  enforced  by 
our  religious  principles,  and  of  your  mMJ(_'S- 
ty's  great  and  inherent  goodness  towards  us, 
which  it  will  be  the  business  of  our  lives  to 
endeavor  to  merit,  may  at  length  be  the 
happy  means  of  our  deliverance  from  some 
part  of  that  burden,  which  we  have  so  long 
and  so  patiently  endured. 

That  this  act  of  truly  royal  commiseration, 
beneficence  and  justice,  may  be  addi-^d  to 
your  majesty's  many  other  heroic  virtues, 
and  that  such  our  deliverance  may  be  one 
of  those  distinguished  blessings  of  your 
reign,  which  shall  transmit  its  jnemory  to 
the  love,  gratitude,  and  veneration  of  our 
latest  posterity,  is  the  humble  prayer  of,  <fcc. 

This  very  humble  petition  was  never  pre- 
sented to  the  king.  It  was  communicated, 
says  Dr.  Curry,  "  to  the  Right  Reverend  Dr. 
Stone,  and  was  approved  of  by  his  Grace, 
and  by  as  many  of  his  discerning  and  con- 
fidential friends  as  he  thought  proper  to 
show  it  to,  as  he  himself  assured  Lord  Taaffe." 
But  in  this  case  also,  the  Catholics  them- 
selves did  not  agree  as  to  the  proper  steps 
to  be  taken;  and  the  death  of  the  Primate, 
shortly  after,  seems  to  have  put  an  end  to 
all  proceedings  upon  it.  This  odious  Pri- 
mate, in  the  last  years  of  his  life,  became 
quite  friendly  to  the  Catholics.  The  "Eng- 
lish interests"  in  Ireland  needed  some  sup- 
poit  against  the  "Patriots,"  who  set  up  the 
dangerous  pretension  to  vindicate  the  na- 
tional independence  of  the  colony  ;  and  the 
Government  already  began  to  rely  upon  the 
Catholics  as  a  means  and  agent  of  perpet- 
uating British  domination. 


Berkeley's   "querist  — george  in. 


85 


As  for  the  condition  of  the  coniitry  people, 
it  continued  to  be  very  miserable.  A  few 
of  the  queries  contained  in  Bishop  Berke- 
ley's "Querist"  will  sufficiently  describe 
their  case.     He  asks  : — 

"  Whether  there  be  upon  earth  any 
Christian  or  civilized  people  so  beggarly, 
wretched,  and  destitute,  as  the  coinraou 
Irish?" — "Whether,  nevertheless,  there  is 
any  other  people  whose  wants  may  be  more 
easily  supplied  from  home?" — "Whether,  if 
there  was  a  wall  of  brass  a  thousand  cubits 
high  round  this  kingdom,  our  natives  might 
not  nevertheless  live  cleanly  and  comfort- 
ably, till  the  land,  and  reap  the  fruits  of  it?" 
— "  Whether  a  foreigner  could  imagine  that 
one-half  of  the  people  were  starving,  in  a 
country  which  sent  out  such  plenty  of  pro- 
visions?"— "Whether  it  is  possible  the  coun- 
try should  be  well  improved  while  our  beef 
is  exported  and  our  laborers  live  upon  pota- 
toes?"— "Whether  trade  be  not  then  on  a 
right  foot  when  foreign  commodities  are  im- 
ported only  in  exchange  for  domestic  super- 
fluities?"— "Whether  the  quantities  of  beef, 
butter,  wool,  and  leather  exported  from  this 
island  can  be  reckoned  the  superfluities  of  a 
country,  where,  there  are  so  many  natives 
naked  and  famished?"  From  these  queries 
ii  is  evident  enough  that  the  good  and  just- 
minded  bishop  traced  the  wretchedness  of 
liis  countrymen  to  its  true  cause,  namely,  the 
settled  determination  of  England  to  regulate 
all  the  industry  of  Ireland  for  her  own  use 
and  [irofit :  which  indeed  has  continued  to 
be  the  one  gieat  plague  of  the  country  from 
that  day  to  this. 


CHAPTER  xnr. 

1760—1762, 

George  III.— Speech  from  tlie  Throne — "Tolera- 
tion"— France  and  England  in  India — Lally's 
CanipaijfM  there— State  of  Irchiiid— The  Revenue 
— Distress  of  Trade — Distress  in  the  Country- 
Oppression  of  the  Fanners — Wliiteboys — Riots — 
"A  Popisli  Conspiracy  "—Steel-Boys  and  Oak- 
r>oys— Einiirration  from  Ulster— Halifax,  Viceroy — 
Flood  aii<l  the  Patriots — Extravagance  and  Cor- 
ruption— Agitation  for  Septennial  Farlianients. 

King  George  the  Third  mounted  the 
throne  of  England  in  October,  1760,  at 
twenty -two  years  of  age.     He  was  grandson 


to  the  late  king,  being  the  son  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  Frederick  Louis,  whom  the  old 
king  very  cordially  hated.  The  mother  of 
Geoi'ge  HI.  was  a  German  princess  of  the 
House  of  Saxe  Gotha — a  family  which  has 
since  cost  dear  to  the  three  kingdoms ;  and 
a  year  after  his  accession,  he  married  an- 
other German  princess,  ot'  the  House  of 
Mecklenburg-Strelitz.  But  the  new  king 
himself  was  born  in  England;  a  circum- 
stance which  greatly  rejoiced  the  English  of 
that  day.  He  had  been  educated  for  a  time 
in  the  choicest  Whig  principles  by  his 
father;  and  as  an  English  historian  informs 
us,  "great  and  incessant  pains  were  taken 
to  infuse  into  the  mind  of  'the  Second  Hope 
of  Britain'  just  and  elevated  sentiments  of 
government  and  of  civil  and  religious  lib- 
erty."* But  after  the  death  of  Prince 
Frederick  Louis,  his  mother,  the  Princess 
Dowager  of  Wales,  gave  quite  a  new  direc- 
tion to  the  education  of  her  son;  and  under 
the  guidance  of  the  afterwards  celebrated 
Lord  Bute,  brought  him  up  in  the  highest 
and  choicest  doctrines  of  Toryism  and  Pre- 
rogative. He  certainly  profiled  by  both 
those  systems  of  tuition,  and  united  in  his 
conduct  upon  the  throne  all  the  corruption 
and  cant  of  Whiggery  with  whatever  is  most 
coarsely  tyrannical,  dogged,  blind,  and  im- 
perious in  Toryism. 

When  he  came  to  the  tjjrone  and  met 
Parliament  for  the  first  time,  Mr.  Pitt  was 
still  prime  ministt-r;  and  we  accordingly 
find  the  Whiggish  element  to  prevail  in  the 

*  In  an  occasional  Address,  or  Prologue,  spoken 
by  Prince  George,  on  acting  a  part  in  the  tra?edy  of 
Cato,  performed  at  Leicester  House  about  the  year 
1749,  he  was  instructed  thus  to  express  himself, — 


"  The  poet's  labors  elevate  the  mind. 
Teach  our  young  hearts  with  generous  fire  to  burn, 
And  feel  the  virtuous  sentiments  we  learn. 
T'attain  those  glorious  ends,  what  play  so  fit 
As  that  wiiere  all  the  powers  of  human  wit 
Combine  to  dignify  great  (Sato's  name, 
To  deck  his  tomb  and  consecrate  his  fame? 
Where  Libektv — O  name  for  ever  dear  ! 
Breathes  fortli  in  every  line,  and  bids  us  fear 
Nor  pains  nor  death  to  guard  our  sacred  laws, 
But  bravely  perish  in  our  country's  cause. 
Should  this  superior  to  my  years  be  thought, 
Know  His  the  first  great  lest^on  I  was  taught.''^ 

Liberty,  in  the  language  of  that  day,  metmt  fhe 
Protestant  interest,  and  Protestant  ascendency  lu 
Church  and  Slate. 


86 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


fumous  royal  speech  delivered  on  that  oc- 
casion. His  first  words  took  the  heart  of 
the  nation  by  storm  : — "Born  and  educated 
in  this  country,  I  glory  in  the  name  of 
Briton."  But  one  can  well  imagine  what 
bitter  reflections  passed  through  the  miud 
of  an  educated  Irish  Catholic,  like  Charles 
O'Conor,  or  Curry,  as  he  read  the  remain- 
ing sentences  of  the  discourse.  "The  civil 
and  religious  rights"  said  the  king,  "of  my 
loving  subjects  are  equally  dear  to  me  with 
the  most  valuable  prerogatives  of  the  crown." 
It  was  his  inviolable  resolution,  he  said,  "to 
adhere  to  and  strengthen  this  excellent 
Constitution  in  Church  and  State."  "  It 
•was  his  fixed  purpose"  he  declared,  "to 
countenance  and  encourage  the  practice  of 
true  religion  and  virtue" — which  fixed  pur- 
pose of  course  bound  him  to  discourage  and 
to  punish  all  false  religions.  Finally  he  ex^ 
claimed  to  his  Parlialueut :  "The  eyes  of  all 
Europe  are  upon  you.  From  you  the  Prot- 
estant Interest  hopes  for  protection,  as  well 
as  all  our  friends  for  the  preservation  of  their 
independency.  *  *  *  la  this  expectation  I 
am  the  more  encouraged  by  a  pleasing  cir- 
cumstance which  I  look  upon  as  one  of  the 
most  auspicious  omens  of  my  reign — that 
happy  extinction  of  divisions,  and  that  union 
and  good  harmony  which  continue  to.  pre- 
vail amongst  my  subjects  afford  me  the 
most  agreeable  prospect."  His  Majesty  also 
was  pleased  to  say  "that  he  would  maintain 
the  toleration  inviolable." 

The  ''toleration"  here  spoken  of,  in  so  far 
as  it  included  Irish  Papists,  meant  simple 
connicance  at  Catholic  worship,  so  long  as 
that  was  practised  very  quietly,  in  obscure 
places.  It  did  not  mean  exemption  or  re- 
lief from  any  one  of  the  disabilities  or  pen- 
alties which  had  abolished  the  civil  exist- 
ence of  Catholics;  it  did  not  mean  that  they 
could  be  educated,  either  at  home  or  abroad  ; 
nor  that  they  could  possess  arms,  or  horses, 
or  farms  on  a  longer  lease  than  thirty-one 
years ;  nor  that  they  could  sit  in  Parlia- 
ment, or  municipal  councils,  or  parish  ves- 
tries, or  in  any  way  participate  in  the  voting 
away  of  their  own  money.  It  did  not  mean 
that  their  clergy  could  receive  orders  in  Ire- 
land, or  go  abroad  to  receive  them  without 
incurring  the  penalty  of  transportation,  and, 
if  they  returned,  death  : — nor  that  Catho- 


lics could  practise  law  or  medicine,  or  sit  on 
juries,  or  be  guardians  to  their  own  chil- 
dren, or  lend  money  on  mortgage  (if  they 
earned  any  money),  or  go  to  a  foreign  coun- 
try, or  have  any  of  the  rights  of  h^uman 
beings  in  their  own.  By  the  connivance  of 
the  government,  they  were  permitted  to 
breathe,  and  to  go  to  mass,  and  to  do  almost 
nothing  else,  except  live  by  their  labor  and 
pay  taxes  and  penal  fines.  Such  is  the  pre- 
cise limitation  of  that  "toleration,"  which 
King  George  said  would  be  inviolably  main- 
tained :  and  it  was  inviolably  maintained 
during  the  first  thirty-three  years  of  this 
reign  with  certain  trifling  alleviations  which 
are  to  be  mentioned  in  their  proper  place. 

The  accession  of  King  George  III.  took 
place  at  an  auspieious  and  prosperous  time, 
for  England,  though  not  for  Ireland.  The 
war  was  proceeding  favorably  to  Great  Brit- 
ain in  all  parts  of  the  earth  and  sea;  and  it 
was  in  this  year  1760  and  the  following 
year  that  the  great  struggle  between  France 
and  England  for  the  colonial  empire  of  India 
came  to  a  crisis  and  was  decided  against 
France,  and  therefore  disastrously  for  Ireland. 
The  war  in  India  would  not  here  much  con- 
cern us  but  for  its  connection  with  the  sad 
fate  of  Count  Lally.  He  was  now  a  lieuten- 
ant-general in  the  French  armies,  and  M.  de 
Voltaire  informs  us  that  it  was  his  well- 
known  hatred  of  the  English  which  caused 
him  to  be  selected  for  the  honor  of  com- 
manding the  force  which  was  to  encounter 
them  on  the  coast  of  Coromandel.  His  re- 
giment, that  had  fought  at  Fontenoy,  was 
with  him;  and  one  of  the  oflacers  who  held 
high  command  under  him  was  the  Clievalier 
Geoghegan.*  He  found  every  thing  in  dis- 
array at  Pondicherry,  the  capital  of  the 
French  possessions ;  very  insufficient  forces, 
but  little  provisions,  and  no  money  at  all. 
Voltaire  says  :  "Notwithstanding  the  gloomy 
views  he  took  of  every  thing,  he  had  at  first 
some  happy  success.  He  took  from  the 
English  the  fort  St.  David,  some  leagues 
from  Pondicherry  and  razed  its  walls  in  April, 
1758."  The  same  year  he  besieged  Madras, 
took  the  "black  town,"  but  failed  before  the 
fortress.  His  own  correspondence,  which  is 
in   part  given  to  us  by  Voltaire,  attributes 

*  Voltaire,  jSieele  de  Louis  XY. 


LAT.T.Y  S    CAMPAIGN    IN    INDIA. 


87 


tliis  fiiilure  to  monstrous  peculation  and 
waste  in  the  depaitment  fur  supplying  the 
army.  Indeed  he  seems  to  have  very  soon 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  nothing  eft'ect- 
ual  could  be  done ;  that  he  was  abandoned 
to  h'is  fate,  and  that  the  French  power  in 
Hindostan  was  doomed.  Nothing  can  ex- 
ceed the  passionate  outbursts  of  his  grief 
and  indignation  in  some  of  these  letters. 
"Hell,"  he  says  "has  vomited  me  out  upon 
this  land  of  iniquity ;  and  I  am  only  await- 
ing, like  Jonah,  for  the  whale  that  is  to  swal- 
low me."  Among  his  other  troubles,  the 
troops  mutinied,  and  the  revolt  was  appeased 
with  much  trouble.  Then  continues  Vol- 
taire, "the  general  led  them  into  the  prov- 
ince of  Arcot,  to  recover  the  fortress  of  Van- 
davachi,  of  which  the  English  had  possessed 
themselves  after  two  ineffectual  attempts ; 
in  one  of  which  they  had  been  completely 
defeated  by  the  Chevalier  Geoghegan.  Lally 
ventured  to  attack  them  with  inferior  forces, 
and  would  have  conquered  them  if  he  had 
been  duly  seconded.  As  it  was  he  only 
gained  in  that  expedition  the  honor  of  hav- 
ing given  a  new  proof  of  the  determined 
com  age  which  formed  his  leading  character- 
istic." This  is  the  battle  known  to  the  Eng- 
lish by  the  name  of  "  Wandewash." 

At  length  Lally  was  obliged  to  collect  all 
his  troops  in  Pondicheny,  resolved  to  defend 
it  to  the  last  extremity  ;  it  was  blockaded  at 
once  by  land  and  sea.  Here,  again,  every 
thing  seemed  to  irritate  his  impetuous  tem- 
per; he  insulted  the  governor,  and  all  the 
council,  and  threatened  to  harness  them  to 
his  provision  wagons,  if  they  did  not  provide 
horses.  "  I  had  rather,"  he  exclaims  in  one 
letter,  "go  and  command  CafFies,  than  stay 
in  this  Sodom,  which  it  is  impossible  but  the 
fire  of  the  English  must  destioy  sooner  or 
later,  for  want  of  fire  from  heaven."  The 
siege  was  long,  and  the  defence  desperate. 
Just  at  the  moment  that  King  George  HI. 
ascended  the  throne,  this  gallant  and  impet- 
uous Count  Lally  was  holding  his  post  with 
obstinate  valor  against  an  English  fleet  and 
army.  But  the  people  in  Pondicherry  were 
dying  in  the  streets  of  hunger,  and  the 
council  of  the  city  was  crying  out  to  Lally 
to  surrender.  On  the  16th  of  January,  iTGl, 
he  was  unhappily  obliged  to  yield  ;  and  so 
the  French  lost  India  in  the  east  almost  on 


the  same  day  that  they  lost  Canada  in  the 
west,  by  the  surrender  of  Montreal.  There 
was  a  delirium  of  joy  in  England,  and  the 
heart  of  the  Irish  nation  sank  low.* 

Even  the  English  colony  in  Ireland,  though 
it  sympathized  with  British  successes,  to 
which,  indeed,  it  contributed  more  than  its 
share  both  in  men  and  in  money  (meaning  tha 
earnings  of  the  subject  nation  as  well  as  its 
own),  yet  had  no  reason,  on  the  accession  of 
this  king,  to  congratulate  itself  on  its  happy 
and  prosperous  condition.  In  truth  the 
island  had  been  well  drained  of  its  revenues 
to  meet  the  increased  military  expenses  of 
Great  Britain  ;  and  it  had  become  necessary 
within  the  past  year  (1759)  to  raise  a  loan 
of  £150,000,  on  debentures  at  four  per  cent, 
transferable,  in  order  to  pay  the  increasing 
arrears  on  the  public  establishments.  Cer- 
tain duties  were  granted  to  provide  for  the 
payment  of  the  interest;  and  this  may  be 
considered  as  the  begiiming  of  the  fund- 
ed debt  of  Ireland.  But  in  the  beginning 
of  1*760,  the  king  having  again  considerably 
augmented  his  military  forces,  Ireland  was 
required  to  raise  another  loan  of  £300,000, 
and  a  vote  of  credit  passed  the  Commons  for 
this  object,  but  at  five  per  cent.  Then,  as  it 
was  found  that  the  first  loan  of  £150,000 
was  not  coming  in  at  four  per  cent.,  an  ad- 
ditional one  per  cent,  was  offered  for  that. 
Thus,  when  George  III.  came  to  the  throne, 
the  revenues  of  Ireland  were  considerably 
embarrassed  and  oppressed.  Mr,  Hely  Hut- 
chinson, a  good  authority  on  this  point,  in 
his  woik  on  the  "  commercial  restrictions  of 
Ireland,"  states,  indeed,  that  "all  Irishmen" 
felt  they  ought  to  sustain  the  efforts  of  Great 
Britain  in  that  crisis,  but  that  the  statesmen 

*  Unfortunate  Lally  had  made  many  enemies, 
chiefly  by  his  furioii.s  temper.  Tliey  were  powerful 
in  Franco,  wliile  he  was  comparatively  a  stranerer, 
though  born  in  tlie  country.  Tliey  accused  !iim  of 
misconduct,  tyranny,  exactions,  httiaying  the  inter- 
ests of  the  king.  At  length  the  outcry  airanist  liim 
became  so  strong,  that  he  was  arre.-ited,  contined  in 
the  Bastile,  kept  there  for  iiftecn  months  without 
any  specific  charge,  tlien  bronglit  to  trial  and  kept 
on  trial  two  years  ;  finally,  condemned  and  executed. 
Voltaire,  who  has  uniformly  praised  Lally,  defends  | 
him  in  his  Luuii  XV.;  and  afterwards  generously 
vindicated  his  memory,  and  aided  his  .son  to  pro- 
cure the  decree  of  the  parliament  rehabilitating  the 
name  of  this  brave  and  "murdered''  man.  Louis  • 
XV.  liimself,  after  the  deutli  of  Lally,  exclaimed:— 
"  They  have  assassinated  hiui." 


88 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


of  tlie  littter  country  always  expected  too 
much  ;  and  while  they  looked  upou  the  great 
prosperity  and  vveallh  of  their  own  couutiy, 
had  not  sufficient  consideration  for  the  pov- 
erty of  Ireland.  Two  or  three  sentences  taken 
from  this  book  (the  Commercial  Restrictions) 
give  a  clear  idea  of  the  financial  condition  of 
ihe  island.  "The  revenue  had  decreased  in 
iTSS.felllowerinlVSG.andsiilliowerinlVoV. 
In  the  last  year  the  vaunted  prosperity  of  Ire- 
land was  changed  into  misery  and  distress, 
the  lower  classes  of  the  people  wanted  food." 
Again — "The  public  expenses  were  greatly 
increased;  the  pensions  on  Ihe  civil-list,  at 
Lady-day,  1759,  amounted  to  £55,497  ; 
there  was  at  the  same  time  a  great  augmen- 
tation of  military  expense.  Six  new  regi- 
ments and  a  troop  were  raised  in  a  very 
short  space  of  time."  From  all  these  causes 
the  author  states  that  the  payment  out  of 
the  treasury  in  little  more  than  one  year 
was  £703,957.  "The  effects,"  he  continues, 
"of  these  exactions  were  immediately  and 
severely  felt  by  the  kingdom.  These  loans 
could  not  be  supplied  by  a  poor  countiy 
without  draining  the  bankers  of  their  cash  ; 
three  of  the  principal  houses  (Clements, 
Dawsons,  and  Mitcliell)  among  them,  stop- 
ped payment;  the  three  remaining  banks  in 
Dublin  discounted  no  paper,  and  in  fact  did 
no  business.  Public  and  private  credit  that 
had  been  drooping  since  the  year  1754,  had 
i;ovv  fallen  prostrate.  At  a  general  meeting 
of  the  merchants  of  Dublin  in  April,  1760, 
with  several  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, the  inability  of  the  former  to  carry  on 
business  was  universally  acknowledged,"  &c. 
The  scarcity  of  money  now  employed  in 
trade  or  improvement.*,  together  with  the 
laws  which  made  it  impossible  for  Catholics 
to  exercise  any  lucrative  industry  in  corpo- 
rate towns,  caused  more  and  more  of  the 
people  to  be  dependent  upon  agriculture  and 
sheep-farming  alone.  But  the  lot  of  these 
pour  agriculturists  was  hard,  for  the  landed 
proprietors  under  whom  they  had  to  live, 
were  an  alien  and  hostile  race,  having  no 
tiympathy  with  the  humble  people  aruund 
llieni.  This  lamentable  circumstance  is 
jieculiar  to  Ireland.  Neither  in  England 
lior  in  Scotland  was  the  ca.se  of  the  peas- 
untry  ever  rendered  bitterer  than  poverty 
makes  it  at  any  rate,  by  differences  of  race 


and  of  religion.  In  Ireland  they  found 
themselves  face  to  face,  not  two  cla.sses,  but 
two  nations  ;  of  which  the  one  had  substantial- 
ly the  power  of  life  and  death  over  the  other. 
When  we  add  to  this  that  one  of  these  two 
nations  had  despoiled  the  other  of  those 
very  lands  which  the  plundered  race  were 
now  glad  to  cultivate  as  rackrented  tenants; 
and  also  that  the  dominant  nation  felt  bound 
to  hate  the  other,  both  as  "rebels"  who 
needed  only  the  opportunity  to  rise  and  cut 
their  masters'  throats,  and  as  Papists  who 
clung  to  the  "damnable  idolatry"  of  the 
mass,  we  can  easily  understand  the  diffi- 
culty of  the  "landlord  and  tenant  question  " 
in  Ireland.  We  have  now,  in  fact,  arrived 
at  the  era  ot  the  "  Whiteboy  "  organization, 
which  was  itself  the  legitimate  oftspring  of 
the  Rapparees,  and  which  in  its  turn  has 
given  birth  to  "  Ribbonism,"  to  the"TeiTy 
Alts,"  and  finally  to  the  "Fenians."  The 
principle  and  meaning  of  all  these  various 
forms  of  secret  Irish  organization  has  been 
the  same  at  all  times,  namely,  the  instinct  of 
resistance  to  legal  oppiession  by  illegal  com- 
binations among  the  oppressed.  And  this 
has  been  inevitable,  and  far  from  blainable, 
under  the  circumstances  of  the  country. 
All  the  laws  were  made  not  for,  but  agaiust 
the  great  mass  of  the  people ;  the  courts  of 
justice  were  entirely  iu  the  possession  of  the 
oppressors;  the  proscribed  race  saw  only 
mortal  enemies  on  the  bench,  enemies 
in  the  jury-box,  enemies  everywhere  all 
around,  and  were  continually  made  to  feel 
that  law  and  justice  were  not  for  them.  This 
of  course,  in  times  of  distress  threw  them 
back  upon  the  only  resource  of  desperate 
men,  conspiracy,  intimidation,  and  vengeance. 
We  have  seen  by  the  statements  of  Mr. 
J.  Hely  Hutchinson,  that  in  the  last  year  of 
King  George  II.  "  the  lower  classes  of  the 
people  wanted  food."  The  financial  distress 
soon  made  matters  still  worse,  and  almost 
immediately  after  the  accession  of  the  new 
king,  the  whole  island  began  to  be  startled 
by  formidable  rumors  of  disturbances  ai^d 
tumults  in  the  south.  The  immediate  cause 
of  the  first  breaking  out  of  these  disorders 
was  that  many  landlords  in  Munster  began 
to  inclose  commons,  on  which  their  rack- 
rented  tenants  had,  up  to  that  time,  enjoyed 
the  right  of  commonage  as  some  compensa- 


"WUITEBOYS — PEEP-OF-DAY    BOYS. 


89 


tion  for  the  extreme  severity  of  the  terms  on 
which  they  held  tlieir  farms.  The  inck)sure 
of  the.se  commons  took  away  from  them  the 
only  means  they  bad  of  lightening  their 
burden  and  m;iking  their  bard  tenure  sup- 
port;ihle.  In  Waterford,  in  Cork,  and  in  Tip- 
peraiA",  angry  crowds  assembled,  tore  down 
the  inclosures,  and  sometimes  maltreated  the 
workmen  employed  in  putting  them  up. 
The  aggrieved  peasantry  soon  combined  their 
operations,  associated  together  by  secret 
oaths,  and  these  confederates  began  to  be 
known  as  Whiteboys.  A  second  cause  for 
the  discontents,  which  soon  swelled  the 
society  of  Whiteboys,  was  the  cruel  exac- 
tions of  the  tithe  proctors — persons  who 
farmed  the  tithes  of  a  parish  rector,  and 
theu  screwed  the  utmost  farthing  out  of  the 
parishioners,  often  selling  out  their  crops, 
their  stocks,  even  their  beds,  to  make  up 
the  subsidy  for  clergymen  whose  ministra- 
tions they  never  attended.  Resistance,  there- 
fore, to  tithes,  and  the  occasional  amputa- 
tion of  a  tithe  proctor's  eais,  formed  a 
large  part  of  the  proceedings  of  the  While- 
boys.* 

Tiie  riots  of  these  few  forlorn  men,  were 
soon  construed  .into  a  general  Popish  con- 
spiracy against  the  Government;  because, 
indeed,  the  greatest  part  of  them  were  Pa- 
pists, at  lea.st  in  name ;  although  it  was  well 
known   that   several    Protestant  gentlemen 

*  See  Dr.  Curry's  Review.  He  wa.s  a  contempo- 
rary. See  also  Arthur  Young's  "Tour  in  Ireland." 
Young  wa.H  one  of  the  most  observant  of  travellers, 
and  lias  examined  this  whole  subject  in  a  very  fair 
Bfiirit.  He  thus  speaks  of  the  state  of  the  people 
inider  their  landlords  : — "  The  execution  of  the  law 
lies  very  much  in  the  hands  of  justices  of  the  peace, 
many  of  whom  are  drawn  from  the  most  illiberal 
class  in  the  kingdom.  If  a  poor  man  lodges  a  com- 
plaint against  a  gentleman,  or  any  animal  that  clioo.-^es 
to  call  itself  a  gentleman,  and  the  justice  issues  out 
a  summons  for  his  appearance,  it  is  iuHxcd  affront, 
and  lie  will  infallibly  be  called  out.  Where  manners 
are  in  conspiracy  against  lau\  to  whom  are  the  op- 
pressed people  to  have  recourse  ?  They  know  their 
situation  too  well  to  think  of  it ;  they  can  have  no 
defence  but  by  means  of  protection  from  one  gentle- 
man against  another,  who  probably  protects  his 
va-ssal  as  he  would  the  sheep  he  intends  to  eat. 

"The  colors  of  this  picture  are  not  charged.  To 
assert  that  all  these  cases  are  couiinoti,  would  be  an 
exaggeration  ;  but  to  say  that  an  unfeeling  landlord 
will  do  ail  this  with  impunity,  is  to  keep  strictly  to 
truth  ;  a;.d  what  is  liberty  but  a  farce  and  a  jest,  if 
its  blessings  are  received  as  the  favor  of  kindness 
and  hnmanity,  instead  of  being  the  inheritance  of 
BiSUT?" — i'c/uW(/'#  2'o^ur,  Dub.  Edit. ,\ol.  ii.,  pp.  iO,  ll. 
It 


and  magistrates  of  considerable  influence  in 
that  province,  did  all  along,  for  their  own 
private  ends,  connive  at  if  not  foment  these 
tumults,  and  although  we  were  assured  by 
authority,  "that  the  authors  of  these  riots 
consisted  indiscriminately  of  persons  of  dif- 
ferent persuasions,  and  that  no  marks  of 
disaffection  to  his  majesty's  person  or  gov- 
ernment appeared  in  any  of  these  people." 
This  was  officially  published  in  the  Londo)i 
Gazette, 

This  authentic  declaration  was  grounded 
on  the  report  which  had  been  made  to  Gov- 
ernment by  persons  of  admitted  loyally  and 
eminence  in  the  law,  sent  down  and  com- 
missioned some  time  before  to  inquire  upon 
the  spot  into  the  real  causes  and  circum- 
stances of  these  riots;  which  report  was  af- 
terwards confirmed  by  the  going  judges  of 
assize,  and  by  the  dying  protestations  of  the 
first  five  of  these  unhappy  men,  who  were 
executed  in  1762  at  Waterford,  for  having 
been  present  at  the  burning  down  of  a 
cabin,  upon  the  information  of  one  of  their 
associates,  who  was  the  very  person  that 
with  his  own  hand  set  fire  to  it.  These  men 
immediately  before  their  execution,  publicly 
declared  and  took  God  to  witness,  "that  in 
all  these  tumults  it  never  did  enter  into 
their  thoughts  to  do  any  thing  against  the 
Government." 

A  considerable  force  of  regular  troops  was 
sent  to  the  south;  some  savage  military 
execution  done;  which  was  again  followed 
by  fresh  outrages ;  and  the  disorder  con- 
tinued unabated  for  several  years. 

About  the  same  time  when  Whiteboys 
first  began  to  be  heard  of,  various  other 
secret  societies  sprang  up  in  Ulster.  These 
associations  called  themselves  variously 
Ilearts-of-Sleel,  Oak- Boys,  and  Peep-of-Day 
,Boys:  but  their  membeis  were  all  Protest- 
ants; and  their  giievances  and  objects  were 
in  part  connected  with  landlord  oppression 
and  clerical  exaction,  partly  with  the  alleged 
injustice  of  the  em[)loyers  of  manufacturing 
labor.  These  latter  disturbances  were  soon 
over,  because  first  the  grievances  were  not 
so  deep-seated,  and  next  because  the  parties 
on  the  two  sides  being  mainly  of  the  same 
race  and  religion,  the  enmity  and  exaspera- 
tion were  never  so  fierce,  and  were  far  more 
easily  appeased.    While  all  these  last-named 


eo 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


conspiracies  speedily  disappeared,  White- 
boyisin  remained,  and  under  one  form  or 
smother  must  remain  till  English  domination 
iu  Ireland  shall  bo  abolished.  The  honest 
English  tourist,  Mr.  Young,  makes  some 
reflections  on  these  societies  which  show  a 
most  remarkable  spirit  of  fairness,  for  an 
Englishman  writing  about  Ireland  :  — 

"  Consequences  have  flowed  from  these 
oppressions  which  ough^  long  ago  to  have 
put  a  stop  to  them.  In  England  we  have 
heard  much  of  Whiteboys,  Steel-Boys,  Oak- 
Boys,  Peep-of-Day-Boys,  etc.  But  these 
various  insurgents  are  not  to  be  confounded, 
for  they  are  very  different.  The  proper  dis- 
tinction in  the  discontents  of  the  people  is 
into  Protestant  and  Catholic.  All  but  the 
Whiteboys  are  among  the  manufacturing- 
Protestants  in  the  north  :  the  Whiteboys, 
Catholic  laborers  in  the  south.  From  the  best, 
intelligence  I  could  gain,  the  riots  of  the 
manufacturers  had  no  other  foundation,  but 
such  variations  in  the  manufacture  as  all 
fabrics  experience,  and  which  they  had 
themselves  known  and  submitted  to  before. 
The  case,  liowever,  was  diflferent  with  the 
Whiteboys,  who  being  laboring  Catholics 
met  with  all  those  oppressions  I  have  de- 
scribed, and  would  probably  have  continued 
in  full  submission  had  not  very  severe  treat- 
ment in  respect  of  tithes,  united  with  a  great 
speculative  rise  of  rents  about  the  same 
time,  blown  up  the  flame  of  resistance ;  the 
atrocious  acts  they  were  guilty  of  made 
them  the  object  of  general  indignation;  acts 
were  passed  for  their  punishment,  which 
seemed  calculated  for  the  meridian  of  Bar- 
bary ;  this  arose  to  such  a  height,  that  by 
one  they  were  to  be  hanged  under  circum- 
stances without  the  common  formalities  of  a 
trial,  which  though  repealed  by  the  follow- 
ing session  marks  the  spirit  of  punishment; 
while  others  remain  yet  the  law  of  the 
land,  that  would,  if  executed,  tend  more  to 
raise  than  quell  an  insurrection.  From  all 
which  it  is  manifest  that  the  gentlemen  of 
Ireland  never  thought  of  a  radical  cure,  from 
overlooking  the  real  cause  of  disease,  which 
in  fact  lay  in  themselves,  and  not  in  the 
wretches  they  doomed  to  the  gallows.  Let 
them  change  their  own  conduct  entirely, 
and  the  poor  will  not  long  riot.  Treat  them 
like  men  who  ought  to  be  as  free  as  your- 


selves :.put  an  end  to  that  system  of  religious 
persecution  which  for  seventy  years  has  di- 
vided the  kingdom  against  itself;  in  these 
two  circumstances  lies  the  cure  of  insurrec- 
tion, perform  them  completely,  and  you  will 
have  an  afiectionate  poor,  instead  of  oppress- 
ed and  discontented  vassals." 

It  will  be  seen  in  the  sequel  how  little 
chance  these  indignant  and  well-meant  re- 
monstrances had  of  meeting  with  attention. 

The  troubles  in  Ulster,  though  they  w^jre 
quite  unconuected  with  Whiteboyism — and 
though  a  Catholic  would  no  more  have  been 
admitted  into  a  Heart-of-Steel  lodge  than 
into  a  vestry  meeting — were  yet  produced 
by  hardship  and  oppression.  The  Presbyte- 
rians of  the  north  were  now,  as  well  as  the 
Catholics,  suffering  not  only  by  the  Test 
Act  and  the  tithes,  but  also  by  the  difficulty 
of  earning  an  honest  livelihood,  owing  to 
the  scarcity  of  money  and  the  heavy  t;ixa- 
tion  to  meet  the  demands  of  Government. 
Emigration  to  America,  therefore,  continued 
from  the  northern  seaports ;  and  many  ac- 
tive and  energetic  families  were  every  season 
seeking  a  new  home  beyond  the  Atlantic. 
It  was  now  that  the  fathers  of  Andiew 
Jackson,  of  John  C.  Calhoun,  of  James 
Buchanan,  and  other  eminent  American 
statesmen,  established  themselves  in  various 
parts  of  the  colonies.  These  exiles  were 
the  men  who  formed  the  "Pennsylvania 
Line"  in  the  revolutionary  war,  and  had 
the  satisfaction  of  contributing  powerfully 
to  destroy  in  America  that  relentless  Brit- 
ish domination  which  had  made  their  Irish 
homes  untenable.  While  the  exiled  Catho- 
lics on  the  European  continent  were  eager  to 
encounter  the  English  power  upon  any  field, 
those  other  Protestant  exiles  in  America 
were  ardently  engaged  in  the  task  of  up- 
rooting it  in  that  hemisphere.  Yet  it  is  a 
strange  and  sad  reflection,  that  although 
their  cause  and  their  grievances,  while  at 
home,  where  veiy  similar,  if  not  identical, 
they  never  could  bring  themselves  to  com- 
bine together  there  against  their  common 
enemy  and  oppressor.  It  must  be  stated, 
however,  without  hesitation,  that  this  was 
exclusively  the  fault  of  the  Protestant  Dis- 
senters. They  hated  Popery  and  Papists 
even  more  intensely  than  did  the  English 
colonists  of  the  Anglican  church  :  they  had 


AGITATION    FOR    SEPTENNIAL   PARLIAMENTS. 


91 


submitted,  almost  'gladly,  to  disabilities 
themselves,  because  they  knew  that  the 
Catholics  were  subjected  to  still  worse,  and 
they  were  unwilling,  by  a  too  factious  re- 
sistance on  their  own  part,  to  embarrass  a 
system  of  policy  which  they  were  assured  was 
needful  to  the  great  cause  of  Protestant  as- 
cendency. They  might  suffer  themselves, 
but  they  could  not  make  common  cause 
with  the  common  enemy.  For  this  mean 
compliance  and  perverse  bigotry  they  had 
their  reward  :  they  were  now  flying  in 
crowds  from  a  fair  and  fertile  land  which 
they  might  have  held  aud  enjoyed  forever, 
if  they  had  united  their  cause  with  those 
who  were  enduring  the  same  oppressions 
from  the  same  tyrants. 

This  may  be  taken  as  completing  the 
picture  of  the  social  and  industrial  condi- 
tion of  Ireland  in  the  first  year  of  the  reign 
of  George  III.  It  is  time  to  return  to  the 
political  struggle  of  the  English  colony. 

The  Duke  of  Bedford,  who  had  been  on 
the  whole  nearly  as  popular  a  viceroy  as 
Lord  Chesterfield,  was  recalled  in  1761,  and 
succeeded  by  Lord  Halifax.  A  new  Par- 
liament was  summoned,  as  usual  for  the  new 
reign,  and  ou  -this  occasion  Dr.  Lucas,  who 
had  returned  from  his  exile,  was  returned  as 
one  of  the  members  for  Dublin  city.  Sev- 
eral other  new  members  of  great  promise 
with  "  patriotic "  aspirations,  also  came  to 
this  Parliament;  amongst  whom  appeared, 
fitr  the  first  time  in  public  life,  the  celebrated 
Henry  Flood,  as  member  for  Kilkenny. 
This  eminent  man  took  rank  very  soon  as 
an  Irish  patriot,  but  at  first  his  patriotism 
was  strictly  colonial,  that  is  to  say,  all  his 
care  was  for  the  English  Protestant  inhabi- 
tants of  the  island.  Aud  when  the  growing 
power  and  rising  spirit  of  the  colonists  soon 
after  aspired  to  and  achieved  a  national  in- 
dependence, the  nationality  he  asserted  was 
still  strictly  and  exclusively  Protestant. 
Flood  was  the  son  of  a  former  chief  justice, 
and  all  his  relatives  and  connections  were  of 
the  highest  Protestant  ascendency.  Yet, 
according  to  his  own  narrow  ideas,  it  can- 


not be  denied  that  Flood  was  a  patriot : 
that  is  to  say,  a  determined  assertor  of  the 
sovereign  right  of  the  Irish  Parliament 
against  the  domination  of  Great  Britain. 
Two  other  members  of  the  Patriot  party  ap- 
peared in  that  Parliament,  Mr.  Denis  Daly 
and  Mr.  Hussey  Burgh. 

In  January,  1762,  Mr.  Hamilton,  secretary 
to  Lord  Halifax,  communicated  to  the  Com- 
mons the  rupture  with  Spain.  It  is  not  es- 
sential to  the  history  of  Ireland  to  follow 
the  course  of  English  diplomatic  and  mili- 
tary proceedings  on  the  Continent.  All  those 
tr;msactions  were  decided  on  and  prosecu- 
ted without  the  slightest  reference  to  the 
interest  either  of  the  Irish  nation  or  of 
the  British  colony ;  Ireland's  only  concern 
with  England's  wars  being  in  the  contin- 
ual demands  for  money  and  men.  Accord- 
ingly an  immediate  augmentation  of  five 
battalions  was  now  required  by  Government, 
together  with  a  vote  of  credit  for  raising 
another  half-million  sterling.  An  address 
was  also  presented  by  the  Commons  to  the 
lord-lieutenant,  to  be  by  him  transmitted  to 
the  crown,  praying  to  have  the  salary  of 
that  oflicial  raised  to  £16,000  a  year.  Pri- 
mate Stone  was  still  influential  in  the  Irish 
government,  as  well  as  the  former  "  Patriot," 
but  now  pensioner  and  placeman,  Boyle, 
earl  of  Shannon.  The  extravagance  ol 
Govermnent  in  every  department,  the  reck- 
lessness with  which  the  people  were  loaded 
with  taxation,  and  the  immense  system  of 
bribery  resorted  to  by  the  administration 
in  order  to  break  down  opposition  and 
purchase  assured  majorities  in  Parliament, 
convinced  Lucas  and  his  friends  that  there 
could  be  no  beginning  of  redress  or  remedy 
for  these  evils  until  the  Parliament  should  be 
made  more  immediately  responsible  to  the 
people.  In  England  "Septennial  Parlia- 
ments" had  beeu  the  law  and  the  practice 
for  some  time,  but  in  Ireland  each  Parlia- 
ment was  still  elected  for  the  life  of  the 
king.  The  agitation  for  this  measure  of 
septennial  elections  occupied  the  Patriotic 
party  for  sevei'al  years. 


92 


HISTORY    OP    IRELAND. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

1762—1768. 

Tory  Ministry — Failures  of  the  Patriots — Nortluim- 
berliind,  Viceroy — Mr.  Fitzirerald's  speech  on  pen- 
sion-list—Mr. Perry's  address  on  same  subject — 
Effort  for  niitifration  of  the  Peniil  Laws— Mr. 
Mason's  argument  for  allowing  Papists  to  taive 
inorrgages — iiejected — Death  of  Stone  and  Earl  of 
Shannon — T^ord  Hartford,  Viceroy — Lucas  and  the 
Patriots — Their  continued  failure.s — Increase  of 
National  Debt — Townslieiid, Viceroy — New  system 
. — The  "  Undertakers  " — Septennial  Bill  changed 
into  Octennial — And  passed — Joy  of  the  People 
— Consequences  of  this  measure — Ireland  still 
•'standing  on  her  smaller  end" — Newspapers  of 
Dublin — Grattan. 

The  government  of  Lord  Halifax  ended 
vith  the  session  of  1762,  This  year  is  con- 
sidered an  eventful  one  in  British  annals. 
Mr.  Pitt,  and  afterwards  the  Duke  of  New- 
castle, retired  from  the  administration,  which 
came  entirely  into  the  hands  of  Lord  Bute, 
a  toiy,  as  high  and  violent  as  it  was  possible 
to  be,  without  absolute  Jacohitism ;  whose 
administration  showed  that  the  thorough- 
going doctrines  of  jtrerogativc  were  quite  as 
congenial  to  the  House  of  Hanover  as  ever 
they  had  been  to  the  House  of  Stuart,  On 
the  retirement  of  Mr.  Pitt,  the  merchants, 
traders,  and  citizens  of  Dublin,  who  had  now 
become  not  only  an  opulent  and  influential 
body,  but  thoroughly  iuibued  with  the 
political  theories  of  Lucas,  their  representa- 
tive (who  had  lately  returned  from  his  exile 
and  been  returned  for  the  city),  presented  a 
most  grateful  address  to  Mr.  Pitt,  expressive 
of  their  admiration  of  his  principles,  and 
sincere  regret  that  the  country  was  deprived 
of  his  services.  The  immediate  eftect  of  the 
change  of  administration  upon  the  conduct 
of  Parliament,  demonstrates,  however,  the 
extent  aiid  depth  of  the  corruption  which 
liad  there  penetrated  so  deep  into  the  whole 
body  politic  of  the  English  colony  in  L'e- 
lund.  On  the  very  first  day  of  the  last  ses- 
sion (22d  Oe.tobcr,  \1Q\)  the  Commons  had 
ordered  "that  leave  be  given  to  biing  in  the 
}ieaiis  of  a  bill  to  limit  the  duration  of  Par- 
Jiaments"  (the  Septennial  Bdl),  in  imitation 
of  the  Septennial  law  of  England.  Dr.  Lucas, 
iNIr.  Perry,  and  Mr.  Geoige  Lowther,  were 
ordered  to  report  and  bring  up  the  bill.  It 
Was  received,  read,  committed  ;  amendments 


were  proposed  and  accepted  ;  in  the  course 
of  December  in  that  year,  the  heads  of  the 
bill  being  reported  from  the  committee  of 
the  whole  House,  were  finally  agreed,  to. 
But  before  any  further  step  was  taken,  Lord 
Bute  and  his  tory  ministry  came  in,  a.nd 
when  a  motion  was  made  that  the  Speaker 
should  attend  the  lord-lieutenant  to  give 
him  the  bill  for  transmission  to  London,  in 
the  usual  form,  the  motion  was  lost  by  a 
vote  of  108  against  forty-three.  This  ma- 
jority of  sixty-five  upon  a  question  so  reason- 
able, so  necessary,  and  so  constitutional, 
shows  the  rapid  decline  of  the  Patriotic  in- 
terest in  Ireland  after  the  late  changes  ;  the 
reduction  of  which  was  very  artfully  effected 
by  the  two  first  of  the  lords  justices,  Pri- 
mate Stone,  the  Earl  of  Shannon,  and  Mr. 
John  Ponsonby,  the  Speaker.  Thus  was  Mr. 
Lucas's  first  Patriotic  bill  lost,  to  the  no  small 
disappointment  and  mortification  of  the  peo- 
ple out  of  doors.  It  is  highly  material  to  ob- 
serve, that  in  pioportion  as  Patriots  fell  off  in 
Parliament,  they  sprang  up  out  of  it.  This 
ministerial  triumph  was  followed  by  no  pop- 
ular disturbance,  but  by  deep  and  general 
disappointment.  A  meeting  of  the  citizens 
of  Dublin  gave  expression,  calmly  and  tem- 
perately, to  the  feelings  of  the  people,  in  a 
series  of  resolutions,  one  of  which  is  worth 
transcribing,  as  illustrating  the  strictly 
Protestant  character  of  all  this  patriutism. 
"Resolved,  That  the  clandestine  arts  which 
are  usually  practised  (and  have  been  some- 
times detected)  in  obstructing  of  bills  tend- 
ing to  promote  the  Protestant  interest,  ought 
to  make  Protestants  the  more  active  in  sup- 
porting the  Septennial  Bill ;  the  rather,  as 
no  doubt  can  remain,  that  a  septennial  lim- 
itation of  Parliaments,  would  render  the 
generality  of  landlords  assiduous  in  procur- 
ing Protestant  tenants,  and  that  the  visible 
advantage  accruing,  would  induce  others  to 
conform,"  His  failure  did  not  daunt  the  in- 
defatigable Dr,  Lucas.  He  presented  the 
heads  of  bills  for  securing  the  freedom  of 
Parliament,  by  ascertaining  the  qualifica- 
tions of  knights,  citizens,  and  burgesses, 
and  for  vacating  the  seats  of  members,  who 
would  accept  any  lucrative  office  or  employ- 
ment from  the  crown,  and  of  persons  upon 
the  establishment  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
laud.     All  these  measures  failed ;  the  Court 


MB.  Fitzgerald's  speech  on  the  pension  list. 


93 


party  under  Lord  Bute  was  now  supreme. 
But  this  Court  party  had  adopted  a  different 
languaoje.  It  \v;is  no  longer  called  the  Eng- 
lish interest,  for  Primate  Stone  was  too  good 
a  politician  to  keep  up  that  offensive  term, 
after  he  had  so  succes.^fiilly  brought  over  some 
of  the  leading  Patriots  to  his  side,  who  in  sup- 
porting all  the  measures  of  the  British  cab- 
inet, atYected  to  do  it,  still  as  Irish  Patriots. 
Among  these  Irish  Patriots  who  had  thus 
prudently  sold  themselves,  and  were  zealous 
to  give  good  value  for  their  purchase-money, 
vvMs  Bovle,  earl  of  Shannon. 

The  Earl  of  Halifax  had  been  recalled, 
and  was  succeeded  as  lord-lieutenant  by 
the  Earl  of  Northumberland.  The  new 
viceroy  opened  a  session  of  Parliament,  in 
October,  1763,  in  a  speech  wherein  he  ex- 
pressed, in  the  king's  name,  his  majesty's 
just  and  gracious  regard  for  a  dutiful  and 
loyal  people,  and  congratulated  them  on  the 
hirih  of  a  Prince  of  Wales.  They  would 
much  rather  have  had  their  Septennial  Bill. 

The  next  efforts  of  the  Patriots  were  di- 
rected against  the  pension  list,  which  had 
grown  to  be  an  enormous  evil  and  oppres- 
sion ;  but  the  first  motion  for  an  address  to 
the  king  on  this  subject,  was  negatived,  on  a 
division  of  112  against  seventy-three.      So 
weak  was  now  the  Patriotic  cause  in   the 
Commons.      Pensions  continued  to  be  lav- 
ished with  unchecked  profusion.     The  de- 
bate,   however,   on   this   motion   was   warm 
and    spirited.     Mr.  J.   Fitzgerald   took  the 
lead  on  the  Patriot  side.    He  stated  (and  was 
not    contradicted)    that  the    pensions  then 
charged  upon  the  civil  establishment  of  the 
kingdom  amounted  to  no  less  than  £72,000 
per  annum,  besides  the  French  and  military/ 
pensions,  and  besides  the  sums  paid  for  old 
and    now    unnecessary    employments,    and 
those  paid  in  unnecessary  additions  to  the 
salaries  of  ottiers:  that  the  pensions,  there- 
fore, exceeded  the  civil  list  above  £42,000  : 
that  not  only  since  the  House  in   1757  had 
voted  the  increase  of  pensions  alarming,  had 
they  been  yearly  increased  ;  but  that  in  the 
time  of  a  most  expensive  war,  and  when  the 
country    had    willingly    and    cheerfully    in- 
creased a  very  considerable  national  debt;  and 
when  the  additional  influence  of  the  crown 
from  the  levying  of  new  regiments  miglit  well 
have    prevented  the  necessity  of  new  pen- 


sionary gratifications.  He  then  drew  a  pity 
ecus  portrait  of  the  country  ;  not  one-third 
peopled  ;  two-thirds  of  the  people  unem- 
ployed, consequently  indolent,  wretched,  and 
discontented ;  neither  foreign  trade,  nor 
home  consumption  sufficient  to  distribute 
the  conveniences  of  life  among  them  witli 
reasonable  equality,  or  to  pay  any  tax  pro- 
portionable to  their  number.  What  new 
mode  of  taxation  could  be  devised  ?  Would 
they  tax  leather  where  no  shoes  weie  worn, 
or  tallow  where  no  candles  were  burned  ? 
They  could  not  tax  the  roots  of  the  eartli 
and  the  water  on  which  the  wretched  peas- 
antry existed;  they  could  tax  no  commodity 
that  would  not  defeat  itself,  by  woiking  a 
prohibition.  He  then  entered  into  the  legal 
and  constitutional  rights  of  the  crown  over 
the  public  revenue,  and  strongly  resisted  the 
assumed  right  of  charging  the  public  revenue 
with  private  pensions.  The  crown,  he  con- 
tended, had  a  public  and  private  revenue : 
the  public  it  received  as  a  trustee  for  the 
public;  the  private  it  received  in  its  own 
right ;  the  former  arose  out  of  temporary 
duties,  and  was  appropriated  by  Parliament 
to  specific  public  purposes,  and  was  not  left 
to  the  discretionary  disposal  of  the  crown. 
The  latter  did  not  in  Ireland  exceed  £7,000 
per  annum,  and  the  pensions  amounting  to 
£72,000  exceeded  the  fund,  which  could 
alone  be  charged  with  them  by  £65,000 
per  annum. 

The  Court  party  strenuously  resisted  these 
arguments,  as  an  unconstitutional  and  inde- 
cent attack  upon  the  prerogative ;  insisting 
that  the  regal  dignity  should  be  supported 
by  a  power  to  reward  as  well  as  to  punish; 
that  the  king  was  not  to  hold  a  sword  in 
one  hand  and  a  barren  sceptre  in  the  other; 
that  the  two  great  springs  of  all  actions  were 
hope  and  fear;  and  where  fear  only  operate!, 
love  could  have  no  place ;  with  many  other 
slavish  phrases  usual  in  such  a  case. 

In  this  war  against  the  pension  list  tlie 
most  active  member  of  the  Commons  was 
Mr.  Perry,  member  fur  Limerick.  He  soon 
returned  to  the  charge,  and  moved  an  ad- 
dress to  the  king — but  with  his  usual  want 
of  success— reuiour^t.atiiig  against  the  waste- 
ful extravagance  of  the  Government.  The 
address  was  not  adopted,  but  a  few  sentences 
of  it  contain  tacts  worth  recording. 


94 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


"  Thai  the  expense  of  the  present  military 
j'stablislinipnt  amounts  in  two  years  to  the 
Mim  of  £980,955  19*.  The  civil  establish- 
ment to  £242,950  10s.  9d.;  to  which  must 
De  added  at  the  most  moderate  computation 
£300,000  for  extraordinary  and  contingent 
expenses  of  Government.  That  these  sums 
added  together  amount  to  the  sum  of 
£1,523,912  9s.  9d.  That  to  answer  this 
expense,  the  whole  revenue  of  this  kingdom, 
the  additional  as  well  as  hereditary  duties, 
exclusive  of  the  loan  duties,  which  are  but 
barely  sufficient  to  pay  the  interest  of 
j£650,000,  the  present  national  debt,  amount 
to  the  sum  of  £1,209,864  at  a  medium  for 
fourteen  years ;  so  that  the  expense  of  the 
nation  for  these  last  two  years  must  exceed 
its  whole  revenue  in  a  sum  of  £314,248 
9s.  9d.,  which  deficiency  being  added  to  the 
national  debt,  must  leave  this  kingdom  at 
the  next  meeting  of  Parliament  near  £1,000- 
000  in  debt.  *  *  *  That  the  imports,  ex- 
ports, and  home  consumption  of  this  king- 
dom are  already  taxed  to  the  utmost  they 
can  bear.  That  any  addition  to  these  taxes, 
instead  of  increasing,  must  lessen  the  rev- 
enue. That  nothing  now  remains  to  be 
taxed  but  our  lands,  which  are  already 
loaded  with  quit  rents,  crown  rents,  compo- 
sition rents,  and  hearth  money.  That  if  the 
present  establishments  are  to  continue,  the 
debt  of  the  nation  must  constantly  increase, 
and  in  the  end  prove  the  utter  ruin  of  the 
kingdom." 

All  these  reclamations  against  pensions 
and  other  wasteful  or  corrupt  expenditures, 
proved  utterly  unavailing,  and  the  evil  went 
from  bad  to  worse  until  the  true  remedy 
was  discovered,  in  1782. 

But  this  year  1763  is  remai'kable  for  the 
first  Parliamentary  effort  ever  made  in  Ire- 
land to  mitigate,  in  a  very  small  degree,  the 
Penal  Code  against  Catholics.  They  had 
been  disabled,  ever  since  Queen  Anne's  time, 
from  taking  landed  security  by  way  of  mort- 
gage on  money  lent.  But  this  was  found 
inconvenient,  not  only  to  them  (which  would 
have  mattered  nothing),  but  also  to  Protes- 
ants  who  wanted  to  borrow  money.  The 
Catholics,  shut  out  from  political  power,  had 
been  industrious  and  thrifty :  many  of  them 
were  rich,  but  having  no  security  at  home, 
they  had  invested   their  money  abroad,  and 


thence  ^lad  sometimes  come  the  supplies  for 
Jacobite  invasions.  On  the  25th  November, 
1763,  Mr.  MasDU  rose  in  his  place  and  re- 
minded the  House  that  in  the  last  session 
of  Parliament  heads  of  a  bill  had  been  pass- 
ed fur  empowering  Papists  to  lend  money  on 
mortgages  of  real  estate  *  and  that  the  bill 
had  been  cushioned  by  the  English  Privy 
Council.  He  moved  accordingly  for  leave 
to  bring  in  another.  Some  of  the  arguments 
for  and  against  this  measure  are  very  notable. 
Mr.  Mason  urged  that  money  was  always 
power,  and  that  money  which  is  placed  in 
Protestant  hands,  upon  mortgage,  is  power 
in  favor  of  the  State ;  the  same  money,  in 
the  hands  of  the  Papists  uulent,  supposing 
the  Papist  to  be  an  enemy  to  the  State,  was 
power  against  it.  Besides  money  was  not  a 
local,  but  transitory  pi-operty ;  a  Papist, 
possessed  only  of  money,  had  no  local  inter- 
est in  the  country,  but  a  Papist  mortgagee 
had  ;  he  would  be  engaged  to  support  the 
Government  in  point  of  interest :  his  secur- 
ity for  his  money  was  good,  while  Govern- 
ment subsisted,  and  in  the  convulsion  that 
always  attends  the  subversion  of  Govern- 
ment, it  would  at  least  become  doubtful  ; 
besides,  the  greater  the  advantages  which 
the  Papists  receive  under  the  present  con- 
stitution, the  more  they  must  desire  its  con- 
tinuance, and  he  would  venture  to  say,  that 
if  the  Papists  were  to  be  admitted  to  all 
the  privileges  of  Protestant  subjects,  there 
would  scarce  be  a  practical  Jacobite  among 
them,  whatever  there  might  be  in  theory. 
"  I  should,  therefore,  be  glad,  that  the  bill 
should  have  another  trial,  and  shall  move 
for  leave  to  bring  in  the  heads  of  a  bill,  to 
empower  Papists  to  lend  money  on  th<j 
mortgage  of  land,  and  to  sue  for  the  same." 
Mr.  Le  Hunte  said,  that  he  thought  the 
bill  proposed  would  eventually  make  Papists 
proprietors  of  great  part  of  the  landed  in- 
terest of  the  kingdom,  which  would  cer- 
tainly extend  their  influence,  and  that  it  was 
dangerous  trusting  to  the  use  they  would 
make  of  it,  upon  a  supposition  that  their 
interests  would  get  the  better  of  their  prin- 

*  There  is  no  entry  of  this  former  bill,  referred 
to  by  Mr.  Mason,  on  the  journals  of  Parliament. 
Mr.  Plowden  "  Innients  that  those  journals  are  so 
little  to  be  relied  upon  when  matters  relating  to  the 
Catholics  are  the  sulgect  of  entry." 


DEATH    OF   PRIMATE    STONE   AND   THE   EARL    OF   SHANNON. 


95 


ciples.  That  tlie  act  mentioned  to  have 
pa'^sed  the  last  session,  did  not  pass  with- 
out a  division,  there  being  a  majority  of  no 
more  than  twelve  in  its  favor,  and  that  it 
would  not  have  passed  at  all,  if  it  had  not 
been  for  some  artful  management,  it  being 
brought  in  the  very  last  day  of  session, 
when  no  more  than  sixty-two  members  weie 
present.  He,  therefore,  begged  that  the 
honorable  gentleman  would  postpone  his 
motion  till  Monday,  as  the  House  was  then 
thin,  and  gentlemen  would  thus  have  time 
to  consider  the  subject,  which  was  of  very 
great  importance.  He  added,  that  as  theie 
was  reason  to  suppose  it  to  be  the  general 
sense  of  the  House  that  such  a  bill  should 
not  pass,  he  thought  it  would  be  better  that 
no  heads  of  such  bill  should  be  brought  in, 
as  it  was  cruel  to  raise  expectations  which 
would  probably  be  disappoiiited. 

Mr.  Mason  consented  to  postpone  his  mo- 
tion. Accordingly  on  the  3d  of  February, 
1764,  Mr.  Mason  presented  to  the  House, 
according  to  order,  heads  of  a  bill  to  ascer- 
tain what  securities  might  be  taken  by 
persons  professing  the  Popish  religion  for 
money  lent  or  to  be  lent  by  them,  and  also 
what  remedies^ they  might  enforce. 

The  House  rejected  the  bill ;  138  for  the 
.  rejection,  and  53  against  it.  Another  mo- 
tion was  then  made  to  bring  in  a  bill  en- 
abling Papists  to  take  securities  upon  lands, 
but  in  such  a  manner  that  they  could  never 
meddle  with  the  po^sesaion  thereof ;  which 
was  immediately  negatived  by  a  majority  of 
44.  Yet  this  was  a  pioposal  for  a  very 
slight  modification  of  the  Penal  Code  on 
<me  single  point;  and  on  the  express  groand 
that  such  modification  would  be  useful  to 
the  Protestants  and  wt.  uld  serve  the  Protest- 
ant interest.  Its  reception  marks  the  stage 
of  advance  which  principles  of  religious 
freedom  had  then  reached. 

In  December,  1764,  Primate  Stone  and 
the  Earl  of  Shannon,  both  happily  died. 
There  was  no  hope  of  any  mitigation  in  the 
system  of  corruption  and  oppression  so  long 
as  that  league  between  the  English  Primate 
and  the  purchased  "  Irish  Patriot "  sub- 
sisted. 

The  Earl  of  Hartford  was  appointed  lord- 
lieutenant,  and  opened  the  session  in  1765. 
In  December  of  that  year  died  at  Rome,  at 


an  advanced  age,  the  person  variously  term- 
ed King  James  HI.,  the  Pretender, the  "  King 
over  the  water.".  He  had  borne  his  misfor- 
tunes with  great  fortitude  and  equanimity  ; 
and  sometimes  went  to  pass  the  carnival  at 
Venice.  His  death  at  last  made  no  impression 
in  Ireland,  and  was  almost  unknown  there. 

The  Patriotic  party  in  Parliament  was 
now  reduced  to  its  very  lowest  ebb.  It 
would  be  wearisome  to  detail  all  the  motions 
unifoi'mly  defeated,  for  inquiries  into  the 
pension  list,  and  into  improper  and  corrupt 
appointments  to  the  judicial  bench.  The 
Patriots  tried  another  plan — an  address  to 
the  lord-lieutenant,  setting  forth  the  miser- 
able condition  of  the  kingdom,  asking  for  an 
account  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Privy 
Council  which  had  cushioned  their  Bill  fur 
better  securing  the  Freedom  of  Parliament^ 
and  asking  for  a  return  of  the  patents  grant- 
ed in  reversion,  etc.  But  the  Court  party 
moved,  and  carried,  that  in  lieu  of  the 
words  "  the  sense  of  their  miserable  condi- 
tion," they  should  insert  the  words  :  "  their 
happy  condition  under  his  majesti/^s  auspi- 
cious government.^'' 

Still,  ever  since  the  death  of  Stone  and 
the  Earl  of  Shannon,  the  party  of  indepen- 
dence was  making  some  progress  in  Parlia- 
ment. Lucas  worked  hard,  and  was  well 
sustained  by  his  constituents  in  Dublin.  He 
made  many  converts  to  his  Septennial  Bill 
amongst  the  country  gentlemen,  and  to 
puichase  back  some  of  these  converts  put 
the  Government  to  considerable  expense — 
which,  it  is  true,  they  found  means  to  charge 
to  the  people.  A  new  bill  was  transmitted, 
through  Lord  Hartford,  for  limiting  the  du- 
ration of  Parliaments,  and  again  it  was  stop- 
ped by  the  English  Privy  Council.  Another 
bill  was  introduced  this  session  ''  to  prevent 
the  buying  and  selling  of  offices  which  con- 
cern the  administration  of  justice,  or  the  col- 
lection of  His  Majesty's  revenue;"  but  it  was 
voted  down  in  the  Commons  and  ne^'er  even 
went  to  England. 

In  the  mean  time  the  national  debt  was 
steadily  increasing. 

In  the  year  1765  the  revenue  of  Ireland, 
although  considerably  increased  upon  the 
whole  receipt,  still  fell  so  far  short  of  the 
the  expenses  of  Government,  that  £100,000 
was  directed  to  be  raised  at  four  per  cent., 


96 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


and  the  principal  due  upon  the  different 
loans  was  ordered  to  be  consolidated  into 
one  sum,  making  in  the  wbole  £595,000  at 
five  per  cent,  which  remained  due  at  Laily- 
day.  The  debt  of  the  nation  then  amounted 
to  £508.874  5s.  9ld.  ,  There  was  this  year 
a  great  scarcity  of  grain,  as  likewise  a  gen- 
eral failure  of  potatoes,  which  was  very  se- 
ver*^ly  felt  by  the  lower  ranks.  The  legis- 
lature found  it  necessary  to  interpose :  they 
passed  an  act  to  stop  the  distilleries  for  a 
certain  time  (which  consequently  produced 
a  decrease  in  the  Excise),  and  also  an  act  to 
prevent  the  exportation  of  corn  ;  in  both  of 
which  acts  it  is  recited,  that  it  was  appre- 
hended there  was  not  sufficient  corn  in  the 
kingdom  for  the  food  of  the  inhabitants 
until  the  harvest. 

On  this  last  act  a  new  controversy  arose. 
When  the  bill  was  sent  to  England,  the  Privy 
Council  there  inserted  into  it  a  dispensing 
power  in  favor  of  the  crown  : — the  king 
might  by  his  simple  order  in  council  permit 
the  expoitation  of  grain  or  flour,  any  thing 
in  the  act  contained  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding. The  Patriots  vainly  resisted 
this  alteration  :  they  alleged  that  even  un- 
der the  restrictions  of  Poyning's  Law,  the 
king  had  only  power  of  assent  or  dissent; 
not  a  power  of  alteration,  which  from  its 
nature  imports  a  deliberative  power  that 
could  not  exist  save  in  the  Lords  and  Com- 
mons of  Leland.  All  resistance,  however, 
was  unavailing,  and  the  bill  was  passed  as 
alteied. 

Lord  Hartford  had  not  on  this  occasion 
asserted  the  prerogative  and  served  the  Eng- 
lish interests  so  zealouslv  as  had  been  ex- 
pected of  him.  Therefore  he  was  recalled  ; 
and  after  a  short  interregnum  under  lords 
justices  (for  the  last  time),  Lord  Townshend 
was  sent  to  Ireland,  in  October,  1767. 

This  nobleman  was  selected  to  introduce 
a  very  important  change  in  the  system  of 
governing  Ireland.  In  order  to  attempt  the 
arduous  task  of  supplanting  the  deep-rooted 
influence  of  the  Irish  oligarchy,  it  was  re- 
quisite that  the  lord-lieutenant,  to  whom 
that  power  was  to  be  transferred,  should  be 
endowed  with  those  qualities  that  were  most 
likely  to  ingratiate  him  with  the  Irish 
nation.  The  new  lord-lieutenant  excelled 
all  his  predecessors  in  that  convivial  ease, 


pleasantry,  and  humor,  so  highly  prized  by 
the  Irish  of  every  description.  The  majority 
which  had  been  so  dearly  bought  in  the 
Commons,  by  those  who  had  heretof  )re  had 
the  management  of  the  English  interest^  was 
now  found  not  altogether  so  tractable  as  it 
had  heretofore  been.  There  were  three  or 
four  grandees  who  had  such  an  influen(;e  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  that  their  coalition 
would,  at  any  time,  give  them  a  clear  ma- 
jority upon  any  question.  To  gain  these 
had  been  the  chief  anxiety  of  former  gov- 
ernors :  they  were  sure  to  bring  over  a  pro- 
portionate number  of  dependants,  and  it  had 
been  the  unguarded  maxim  to  permit  sub- 
ordinate graces  and  favors  to  flow  from  or 
through  the  hands  of  these  leaders.*  Foi- 
merly  these  principals  used  to  stipulate  wiih 
each  new  lord-lieutenant,  whose  office  was 
biennial  and  residence  but  for  six  months, 
upon  what  terms  they  would  carry  the 
king's  business  through  the  House  :  so  that 
they  might  not  improperly  be  called  under- 
takers. They  provided,  that  the  disposal  of 
all  Court  favors,  whether  places,  pensions, 
or  preferments,  should  pass  through  their 
hands,  in  order  to  keep  their  suite  in  an 
absolute  state  of  dependence  upon  them- 
selves. All  applications  were  made  by  the 
leader,  who  claimed  as  a  right  the  privilege 
of  gratifying  his  friends  in  proportion  to 
their  numbers.  Whenever  such  demands 
were  not  complied  with,  then  were  the 
measures  of  Government  sure  to  be  crossed 
and  obstructed  ;  and  the  session  of  Parlia- 
ment became  a  constant  struggle  f)r  pow^r 
between  the  heads  of  parties,  who  used  to 
force  themselves  into  the  oflfice  of  lord 
justice  according  to  the  prevalence  of  their 
interest.  This  evil  had  been  seen  and  la- 
mented by  Lord  Chesterfield,  and  his  reso- 
lution and  preparatory  steps  for  undermin- 
ing it  probably  contributed  not  a  little  to 
his  immediate  recall,  upon  the  cessation  of 
the  danger,  which  his  wisdom  was  thought 
alone  competent  to  avert. 

This  was  the  system  which  Lord  Clare 
said,  "  The  Government  of  England  at  length 
opened  their  eyes  to  the  defects  and  dangers 
of  :  they  shook  the  power  of  the  aristoc- 
racy, but  were  unable  to  break  it  down." 

•Phil.  Surv.,  p.  57. 


SEPTENNIAL    BILL    CHANGED    INTO    AN    OCTENNIAL. 


91 


The  primary  object  of  Lord  Townshciid's 
administration  was  to  break  up  tlie  monop- 
olizing system  of  this  oligarchy.  He  in 
part  succeeded,  but  by  means  ruinous  to  the 
country.  The  subalterns  were  not  to  be  de- 
tached from  their  chiefs,  but  by  similar 
though  more  powerful  means  than  tho-e  by 
which  they  had  enlisted  under  their  ban- 
ners. The  streams  of  favor  became  not 
only  multiplied,  but  enlarged.  Every  in- 
dividual now  looked  up  directly  to  the 
fountain  head,  and  claimed  and  received 
more  copious  draughts.  Thus,  under  color 
of  destroying  an  overgrown  aristocratic 
power,  all  parliamentary  independence  was 
completely  destroyed  by  Government.  The 
iunovaticn  naturally  provoked  the  deserted 
few  to  resentment.  They  took  refuge  un- 
der the  shelter  of  patriotism,  and  they  in- 
veighed with  less  eflfect  against  the  venality 
of  the  system,  merely  because  it  had  taken 
a  new  direction,  and  was  somewhat  en- 
larged. The  bulk  of  the  nation,  and  some, 
though  very  few  of  their  representatives  in 
Parliament,  were  earnest,  firm,  and  impla- 
cable against  it. 

The  arduous  task  which  Lord  Townshend 
had  assumed  wa^  not  to  be  effected  by  a 
coup  de  main  :  forces  so  engaged,  so  mar- 
shalled, and  so  commanding  rather  than 
commanded,  as  he  found  the  L'ish  Parlia- 
ment, were  not  to  be  dislodged  by  a  sudden 
charge:  regular,  gradual,  and  cautious  ap- 
proaches were  to  be  made  :  it  was  requisite 
that  the  chief  governor  should  first  be  popu- 
lar, and  then  powerful,  before  he  could  be 
efficient  and  successful.  His  lordship,  theie- 
fore,  to  those  convivial  fascinations,  to  which 
Li>h  society  was  so  sensible,  superadded  as 
many  personal  favors,  as  the  fiscal  stores 
could  even  promise  to  answer,  which  in  a 
people  of  quick  and  warm  sensibility  creates 
a  something  very  like  momentary  gratitude  ; 
and  in  order  the  more  completely  to  seat 
himself  in  that  effective  power,  which  was 
requisite  for  his  purpose,  he  judiciously  fixed 
upon  a  favorite  object  of  the  wishes  and 
atiempts  of  the  Patriots  to  sanction  with  his 
counienance  and  support. 

Tliis  was  the  long-wished-for  Septennial 
Bill.    • 

l.)r.  Lucas  had  several  times  failed  in  his 
endeavors  to  procure  a  bill  for  limiting  the 
13 


duration  of  Parliament.  Now,  however,  a 
Si'pteimial  Bill  \va^  transmitted,  and  was  re- 
turned with  an  alteration  in  point  of  time, 
having  been  changed  into  an  Octennial  one. 
There  appears  to  have  been  some  unfair 
manoeuviing  in  the  British  cabinet,  in  order 
by  a  side  wind  to  deprive  the  Irish  of  that, 
which  they  dared  not  openly  refuse  them. 
At  the  same  time  a  transmission  was  made 
of  another  popular  bill  for  the  independence 
of  the  judges,  in  which  they  had  also  inserted 
some  alteration.  It  was  expected  that  the 
violent  tenaciousness  of  the  Irish  Commons 
for  the  piivilege  of  not  having  their  heads 
of  bills  altered  by  the  English  ministers, 
would  have  induced  them  to  reject  any  bill, 
into  which  such  an  alteration  had  been  in- 
troduced. In  this  the  English  cabinet  was 
deceived :  the  Irish  Commons  waived  the 
objection  as  to  the  limitation  bill,  in  ordtr 
to  make  sure  at  last  of  what  they  had  so 
long  tried  in  vain  to  procure,  but  objected 
on  this  very  account  to  the  judges'  bill,  which 
was  transmitted  at  the  same  time  with  al- 
terations :  for  although  this  latter  bill  had 
been  particulai  ly  recommended  in  the  speech 
of  the  lord-lieutenant,  it  was,  on  account  of 
an  alteration  inserted  in  it  in  England,  unan- 
imously rejected. 

No  sooner  was  the  Octennial  Bill  return- 
ed, than  the  Commons  voted  a  respectful  and 
grateful  address  to  the  throne,  beseeching 
his  majesty  to  accept  their  unfeigned  and 
grateful  acknowledgments  for  the  conde- 
scension, so  signally  manifested  to  his  sub- 
jects of  that  kingdom,  in  returning  the  bill 
for  limiting  the  duration  of  Pailiaments 
which  they  considered  not  (jnly  as  a  gracious 
mark  of  paternal  benevolence,  but  as  a  wise 
result  of  royal  deliberation.  And  wlien  the 
royal  assent  had  been  given,  the  action  was 
so  grateful  to  the  people,  that  they  took  the 
horses  from  the  viceroy's  coach,  and  drew 
him  from  the  parliament  house  with  the 
most  enthusiastic  raptures  of  applause  and 
exultation.  But  his  lordship's  popularity 
did  not  last  long.  By  divertitig  the  channel 
of  favor,  or  rather  by  dividing  it  into  a  mul- 
titude of  little  streams,  the  gentlemen  of  the 
House  of  Commo)is  were  taught  to  look  up 
to  him,  not  oidy  as  the  source,  but  as  the 
dispenser  of  every  gratification.  Not  even 
a  commission  in  the  revenue,  worth  above 


98 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


£40  a  year,  could  be  disposed  of,  without 
liis  approbation.  Tlius  were  the  old  uiider- 
lakers  o-iven  to  understand,  that  there  was 
another  Wfiy  of  doing  business  than  through 
tliem.  It  was  not,  however,  without  much 
violence  on  both  sides,  that  he  at  length  ef- 
fected his  purpose.  The  immediate  suffer- 
trs  did  not  fail  to  call  this  alteration  in  the 
pystem  of  governing,  an  innovation,  which 
they  artfully  taught  the  people  to  resent  as 
a  national  grievance. 

It  will  be  seen  that  although  the  Patriots 
liad  now  gained  their  famous  measure,  not 
indeed  as  a  Septennial,  but  at  least  as  an 
Octennial  Bill,  vvliich  was  to  have  been  a 
j)anaeea  for  all  the  Qvils  of  the  State;  its 
t'ffticts  were  far  from  answering  their  ex- 
jiectations.  Extravagance  and  corruption 
Mill  grew  and  spread  under  Lord  Towns- 
hend's  administration.  Proprietors  of  bor-. 
oughs  found  their  property  much  eiihanced 
in  value,  because  thcie  was  a  market  for  it 
♦■very  eight  years.  The  reflections  of 
Thomas  McNevin  on  this  subject  are  very 
just: — '■  Some  doubts  arose  as  to  the  ben- 
efits produced  by  this  bill  in  the  way  de- 
signed by  its  fiamers;  but  no  one  doubted 
that  the  spirit  discovered  by  the  Patriot 
party  in  the  House  produced  effects  at  the 
time  and  somewhat  later,  which  cannot  be 
overstated  or  overvalued.  It  may,  indeed, 
be  doubted  whether  any  measure,  however 
beneficial  in  itself,  could  in  those  days  of 
venality  and  oppression,  with  a  constitution 
so  full  of  blemishes,  and  a  spirit  of  intoler- 
ance influencing  the  best  and  ablest  men  of 
the  day,  surh  as  Lucas  for  example,  could 
be  productive  of  any  striking  or  permanent 
advantage.  We  must  not  be  astonished 
then  that  the  Octennial  Bill  was  found  in- 
fommensurate  with  the  expectations  of  the 
Paniots,  who  might  have  looked  for  the 
ri-asons  of  this  and  similar  disappointments 
in  their  own  venality,  intolerance,  fickleness, 
;iiid  shortcomings,  if  they  had  chosen  to  re- 
flect on  themselves  and  their  motives.  The 
r-al  advantages  are  to  be  found  in  the  prin- 
ciples propounded  and  the  spirit  displayed 
in  the  debates.* 

In  short,  no  mere  reforms  in  parliamentary 
elections  or  procedure  could  avail  to  create 

*  McNeviu's  History  of  the  Volunlecrs. 


in  this-  English  colony,  either  a  national 
spirit  or  national  proportions,  or  to  stay  the 
corruption  and  venality  so  carefully  organ- 
ized by  English  governors  for  the  exjiress 
purpose  of  keeping  it  down,  so  long  as  the 
colony  did  not  associate  with  itself  the  mul- 
titudinous masses  of  the  Catholic  people — 
so  long  as  half  a  million  had  to  hold  down 
and  coerce  over  two  millions  of  dis- 
armed and  disfranchised  people,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  contend  with  the  insolence 
and  rapacity  of  Great  Britain.  Nationality 
in  Ireland  was  necessarily  fated  to  be  delu- 
sive and  evanescent. 

"  So  loug:  as  Ireland  did  pretend, 

Like  sii£f!ir-loaf  turned  upside  down, 
To  stand  upon  its  smaller  end."* 

In  the  year  1767,  the  whole  population  of 
the  island  was  estimated,  or  in  part  calcula- 
ted, at  2,544,276,  and  of  these  less  than  half 
a  million  were  Protestants  of  the  two  sects. 

It  must,  however,  be  acknowledged  that 
in  this  oppressive  minority  there  began  to 
be  developed  a  very  strong  political  vitality, 
chiefly  owing  to  the  strong  personal  interest 
which  every  one  had  in  public  aft'aiis,  and  to 
the  spiead  of  political  information,  through 
newspapers  and  pamphlets,  and  the  very 
able  speeches  which  now  began  to  give  the 
Irish  Parliament  a  just  celebrity.  Di'.  Lucas 
conducted  the  Freeman's  Journal,  which  was 
established  very  soon  after  the  accession  of 
George  III.  This  journal  was  soon  followed 
by  anoiher  called  the  Hibernian  Journal. 
Flood,  Hussey,  Burgh,  Yelverton,  and  above 
all,  Grat  an,  contributed  to  these  papers.  In 
the  administration  of  Lord  Townshend  ap- 
peared the  Dublin  Mercury,  a  satirical  sheet 
avowedly  patronized  by  Government.  It 
was  intended  to  turn  Patriots  and  Patriotism 
into  ridicule:  but  the  Government  had  not 
all  the  laughers  on  its  side. 

A  witty  warfare  was  carried  on  against 
Lord  Townshend  in  a  collection  of  letters  on 
the  aflfairs  and  history  of  Barataria,  by  which 
was  intended  Ireland.  The  letters  of  Pos- 
thumus  and  Pericles,  and  the  dedication, 
were  written  by  Ileniy  Grattan,  at  the  time 
of  the  publication  a  very  young  man.  The 
principal  papers,  and  all  the  history  of  Ba- 
rataria, the  latter  being  an  account  of  Lord 

»  Moore.     Memoir  of  Captain  Rock. 


CASE  OF  FATHER  SHEEHY. 


99 


TowDshend's  administration,  his  protest,  and 
his  prorogation,  were  the  composition  of 
Sir  Hercules  Langrishe.  Two  of  his  wit- 
ticisms are  still  remembered,  as  being,  in 
fact,  short  essays  on  I  lie  politics  of  Ireland. 
Riding  in  the  park  with  the  lord-heutenaiit, 
his  excellency  complained  of  his  predeces- 
sors having  left  it  so  damp  and  marshy  ;  Sir 
Hercules  observed,  "  they  were  too  much 
engaged  iu  drainiuq  the  rest  of  the  king- 
dom." Being  asked  where  was  the  best 
and  truest  history  of  Ireland  to  be  found  ? 
he    answered:     "In    the     continuation    of 


CHAPTER  XV. 

1762—1767. 

Eeign  of  Terror  in  Miinster — Murder  of  Father 
Slieehy — '•  Tolenitioii,"  uiidur  tlie  House  of  Han- 
over— Precarious  condition  of  Catliolic  Clergy — 
Primates  in  liiilins; — Working  of  the  Penal  Laws 
— Testimony  of  Arthur  Young. 

Contemporaneously  with  the  parliament- 
ary struggles  for  the  Octennial  Act,  and  for 
arresting,  if  possible,  the  public  extravagance 
and  corruption,' there  was  going  on  in  an  ob- 
scure parish  of  Tipperary,  one  of  those  dark 
transactions  which  were  so  common  in  Ire- 
land during  all  this  century  as  to  excite  no 
attention,  and  leave  scarcelv  a  record — the 
judicial  murder  of  Father  Nicholas  Sheehy. 
His  story  is  a  true  and  striking  epitome  of 
the  history  of  the  Catholic  nation  iu  those 
davs,  and  the  notoriety  of  the  facts  at  the 
time,  and  the  character  of  the  principal  vic- 
tim, have  cau-sed  the  full  details  to  be  handed 
down  to  us,  minutely  and  with  the  clearest 
evidence. 

The  bitter  distresses  of  the  people  of 
Mun.-ter,  occasioned  by  rack  rents,  by  the 
merciless  exactions  of  the  established  clergy 
and  their  tithe-proctors,  and  by  the  inclosure 
of  commons,  had  gone  on  increasing  and 
growing  more  intense  from  the  year  1760, 
until  despair  and  misery  drove  the  people 
into  secret  associations,  and  in  1762,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  VVliiteboys  had  in  some 
places  broken  out  into  unconnected  riots  to 
pull  down  the  fences  that  inclosed  their  com- 
mons, or  to  resist  the  collection  of  church- 
rates.     These  disturbances  were  greatly  ex- 


aggerated in  the  reports  made  to  Government 
by  the  neighboring  Protestant  proprietors, 
squires  of  the  Cromwellian  brood,  who  rep- 
resented that  wretched  Jacquerie  as  noth- 
ing less  than  a  Popish  rebellion,  instigated 
by  France,  supported  by  French  money,  and 
designed  to  bring  in  the  Pretender. 

The  village  of  Clogheen  lies  in  the  vallev 
between  the  Galtees  and  the  range  of 
Knockraaoldown,  in  Tipperary,  near  the 
borders  of  Waterford  and  of  Cork  counties. 
Its  parish  priest  was  the  Reverend  Nicholas 
Sheehy  :  he  was  of  a  good  Irish  family,  and 
well  educated,  having,  as  usual  at  that  pe- 
riod, gone  to  France — contrary  to  "law" — 
for  the  instruction  denied  liimathome.  On 
the  Continent  he  had  probably  mingled 
much  with  the  high-spirited  Irish  exiles, 
who  made  the  name  of  Ireland  famous  in  all 
the  courts  and  camps  of  Europe,  and  on  his 
perilous  return  (for  that  too  was  against  the 
law),  to  engage  in  the  labors  of  his  still 
more  perilous  mission,  his  soul  wasj'Stirred 
within  him  at  the  sight  of  the  degradution 
and  abject  wretchedness  of  the  once  proud 
clans  of  the  south.  With  a  noble  impru- 
dence, which  the  moderate  Dr.  Curry  terms 
"a  quixotic  cast  of  mind  towards  relieving 
all  those  within  his  district  whom  he  fan- 
cied to  be  injured  or  oppressed  ;"  he  spoke 
out  against  some  of  the  enormities  which  he 
daily  witnessed.  In  the  neighboring  parish 
of  Newcastle,  where  there  were  no  Pro:est- 
ant  parishii.*ners,  he  had  ventured  to  say 
that  there  should  be  no  church-rates,  and 
the  people  had  refused  to  pay  them.  About 
the  same  time,  the  tithes  of  two  Protestant 
clergymen  in  the  vicinity  of  Ballyporeen, 
Messrs  Fonlkes  and  Stilton,  were  farmed  to  a 
tithe-proctor  of  the  name  of  Dobbyn.  This 
proctor  forthwith  instituted  a  new  claim 
upon  the  Catholic  peo[)le  of  his  district,  of 
five  shillings  for  every  marriage  celebrated 
by  a  priest.*  This  new  impost  was  resisted 
by  the  people,  and  as  it  fell  heavily  on  the 
parishioners  of  Mr.  Sheehy,  he  denounced 
it  publicly  ;  in  fact  he  diil  not  even  conceal 
that,  he  questioned  altogether  the  divine 
right  of  a  clergy  to  the  tenth  part  of  the 

*  These  details  and  a  great  mass  of  otliers  bearing 
on  the  case  of  Mr.  Sliediy,  are  given  by  Dr.  Mad- 
den in  his  First  Series  (United  Irishmen).  He  has 
carefully  sifted  the  whole  of  the  proceedings,  and 
thrown  much  light  upon  tliem. 


100 


HISTORY    01"   IRELAND. 


produce  of  a  half-starved  people,  of  whose 
souls  they  had  uo  cure.  How  these  doctrines 
were  relished  by  the  Cromwellian  magis- 
tiiites  and  Anglican  rectors  in  his  neighbor- 
hood, may  well  be  conceived.  It  was  not 
to  be  tolerated  that  the  Catholic  people 
should  begin  to  suppose  that  they  had  any 
rights.  The  legislation  of  the  Ascendency 
had  strictly  provided  that  there  should  be  no 
Catholic  lawyers;  it  had. also  carefully  pro- 
hibited education;  nothing  had  been  omitted 
to  stifle  within  the  hearts  of  the  peasantry  every 
sentiment  of  human  dignity,  and  when  they 
found  that  here  was  a  man  amongst  the 
peasantry  who  could  both  read  and  write, 
and  who  could  tell  them  how  human  beings 
lived  in  other  lands,  and  what  freedom  and 
right  were,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
his  powerful  neighbors  resolved  they  would 
have  his  blood. 

When  in  1762,  the  troubles  in  the  south 
were  first  supposed  to  call  for  military  co- 
ercion, it  was  precisely  in  this  village  of 
Clogheen  that  the  Marquis  of  Drogheda, 
commanding  a  considerable  military  force, 
fixed  his  headquarters.  On  that  same  night 
an  assemblage  of  Whiteboys  took  place  in 
the  neighborhood,  with  the  intention  as  was 
believed,  of  attacking  the  town,  but  a  clergy- 
man named  Doyle,  parish  priest  of  Ardfinuan, 
on  learning  of  their  intention  (as  one  of  the 
informers  states  in  his  depositions),  went 
amongst  them  and  succeeded  in  preventing 
any  offensive  movement.  His  purpose,  how- 
ever, in  so  doing  was  as  usual  represented  to 
be  insidious. 

From  this  time  the  Earl  of  Drogheda  made 
several  incursions  into  the  adjacent  country, 
"and  great  numbers  of  the  insurgents,"  as 
we  are  informed  by  Sir  Richard  Musgrave, 
"  were  killed  by  his  lordship's  regiment,  and 
French  money  was  found  in  the  pockets  of 
some  of  them."  We  are  not  informed  what 
the  "insurgents"  were  doing  when  they  were 
killed,  nor  in  what  this  insurrection  consisted, 
but  we  may  here  present  the  judgment  of 
Edmund  Burke  upon  those  transactions: — 
"  I  was  three  times  in  Ireland,  from  the  year 
1760  to  the  year  1767,  where  I  had  sufl^- 
cient  means  of  information  concerning  the 
inhuman  proceedings  (among  which  were 
many  cruel  murders,  besides  an  infinity  of 
outrages  and  oppressions  unknown  befoie  in 


a  civilized  age)  which  prevailed  during  that 
period,  in  consequence  of  a  pretended  con- 
spiracy among  Roman  Catholics  against  the 
king's  government."  In  short,  there  was 
no  such  conspiracy,  and  if  the  statement  of 
Sir  Richard  Musgrave  be  true,  which  is 
highly  improbable,  that  any  coins  of  French 
money  were  found  in  the  pockets  of  the 
slain,  "  that  may  be  accounted  for,"  says  Mr. 
Matthew  O'Connor,  "as  the  natural  result  of 
a  smuggling  intercourse  with  France,  and  in 
particular  of  the  clandestine  export  of  wool 
to  that  country."* 

While  the  troops  were  established  at 
Clogheen  they  were  constantly  employed  iii 
this  well-known  method  of  pacifying  iho 
country,  and  they  were  seconded  with  san- 
guinary zeal  by  several  neighboring  gentle- 
men, especially  Sir  Thomas  Maude,  William 
Bagnell,  and  John  Bagnell,  Esquires;  many 
arrests  were  made  as  well  as  murders  com- 
mitted, and  active  preparation  was  made  for 
what  in  Ireland  is  called  "  trial  "  of  those  of- 
fenders— that  is  indictment  before  juries  of 
their  mortal  enemies.  Diligent  in  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  panels  for  these  trials,  we 
find  Daniel  Toler,  high  sheriff  of  the  county, 
who  was  either  father  or  uncle  of  that  other 
Toler,  the  bloody  judge,  afterwards  known 
under  the  execrated  title  of  Norbury. 

Amidst  all  this  we  are  not  to  suppose  that 
Father  Sheehy  was  forgotten.  In  the  course 
of  the  disturbances  he  was  several  times  ar- 
rested, indicted,  and  even  tried  as  a  "  Popish 
priest,",  not  being  duly  registered,  or  not 
having  taken  the  abjuration  oath  :  but  so 
privately  did  the  priests  celebrate  mass  in 
those  days  that  it  was  found  impossible  to 
procure  any  evidence  against  him.  We  find 
also  that  he  was  indicted  at  Clonrael  assizes, 
in  1763,  as  having  been  present  at  a  White- 
boy  assemblage,  and  as  having  foi'ced  one 
Ross  to  swear  that  he  never  would  testily 
against  Whiteboys.  At  this  same  assizes,  a 
true  bill  was  found  against  Miehael  Quiiilan, 
a  Popish  priest,  for  having  at  Aughuacarty 
and  other  places,  exercised  the  office  and 
functions  of  a  Popish  priest,  against  the 
peace  of  our  lord  the  king  and  the  statute, 
&c.  To  make  conviction  doubly  sure,  as  ia 
Sheehy's  case,  a  second  information  was  sent 

*  M.  O'Connor.      "History  of  the  Irish  Catholics." 


MURDKR  *OP   FATHER    SHEEHY. 


101 


np  on  the  same  occasion,  charging  Father 
Quinhm  with  a  riotous  assemblage  at  Augh- 
nacarty,  so  that  if  it  was  not  a  riot  it  was  a 
mass,  and  if  it  was  not  a  mass  it  was  a  riot 
— criminal  in  either  case. 

It  is  net'dless  to  state  the  details  of  all 
tliese  multifarious  legal  proceedings  extend- 
ing through  several  years.  To  pursue  the 
Btory  of  Father  Sheehy  :  he  was  acquitted 
on  the  charge  of  being  a  Popish  priest,  "  to 
his  own  great  misfortune,"  says  poor  Dr. 
Curry,  ''for  had  he  been  convicted,  his  pun- 
ishment, which  would  be  only  transporta- 
tion, might  have  prevented  his  ignominious 
death,  which  soon  atler  followed."  Can 
there  be  conceived  a  more  touching  illu-^tra- 
tion  of  the  abject  situation  of  ihe  Catholics, 
than  that  such  should  be  the  reflection 
which  suggested  itself  on  such  an  occasion 
to  the  worthy  Dr.  Curry. 

It  also  deserves  to  be  noted  in  passing, 
that  no  public  man  in  Ireland  was  more 
ferocious  in  denouncing  the  unhappy 
Whiteboys  and  calling  for  their  blood,  than 
the  celebrated  Patriot,  Henry  Flood.  On 
the  13ih  of  October,  1763,  in  moving  for 
an  instruction  to  the  committee  to  inquire 
into  the  causes  of  the  "insurrections" 
(wliit-,h  he  would  have  to  be  a  Popish  rebel- 
lion and  nothing  less),  he  expressed  his 
amazement  that  the  indictments  in  the  south 
were  only  laid  for  a  riot  and  breach  of  the 
peace,  and  animadverted  severely  on  the  le- 
nient conduct  of  the  judges.  The  solicitor- 
general  had  actually  to  modify  the  wrath  of 
the  bloodthirsty  Patriot,  and  to  assure  him 
*'  that  whenever  lenity  had  been  shown,  it  was 
only  where  reason  and  huinanity  required 
it,"*  which  we  may  be  very  sure  was  true. 

But  whosoever  might  be  allowed  to  es- 
cape, that  lot  was  not  reserved  for  Father 
Sheehv.f  For  two  whole  years,  while  the 
gibbets  were  groaning  and  the  jails  bursting 
■with  his  poor  parishioners,  he  was  enabled 
to  baflie  ;dl  prosecution;  sometimes  escaping 
out  of  the  very  toils  of  the  attorney-general 
by  default  of  evidence,  sometimes  concealing 
liimself  in  the  glens  of  the  mountains,  until 
in  the  year  1765  the  Government  Avas  pre- 
vailed upon  by  his  powerful  enemies  to  issue 

*  "  Irish  Debates."     Year  1763. 
t  The  remainder  of  the  story  of  Father  Sheehy  is 
Bubi>tuntially  ttie  uarrativc  of  Curry, 


a  proclamation  against  him,  as  a  person 
guilty  of  high  treason,  oft'ering  a  reward  of 
three  hundred  pounds  for  taking  him,  which 
Sheehy  in  his  retreat  happening  to  hear  of, 
immediately  wrote  up  to  Secretary  Waite, 
"that  as  he  was  not  conscious  of  any  such 
crime,  as  he  was  charged  with  in  the  procla- 
mation, he  was  ready  to  save  to  the  Gov- 
ernment the  money  ofTered  for  taking  him, 
by  surrendering  himself  out  of  hand,  to  be 
tried  for  th.at  or  any  other  crine  he  might 
be  accused  of;  not  at  Cloninel,  where  he 
feared  that  the  power  and  malice  of  his 
enemies  were  too  prevalent  for  justice  (as 
they  soon  after  indeed  proved  to  be),  but  at 
the  court  of  King's  Ben^h  in  Dublin."  Ilis 
proposal  having  been  accepted,  he  was  ac- 
cordingly brought  up  to  Dublin  and  tried 
there  for  rebellion,  of  which,  however,  after 
a  severe  scrrutiny  of  fourteen  hours,  he  was 
again  acquitted  ;  no  evidence  having  ap- 
peared against  him  but  a  blackguard  boy, 
a  common  prostitute,  and  an  impeached 
thief,  all  brought  out  of  Clonmel  jail,  and 
bribed  for  the  pjurpose  of  witnessing  against 
him. 

But  his  inveterate  enemies,  who,  like  so 
many  blood-hounds,  had  pursued  him  to 
Dublin,  finding  themselves  disappointed  there, 
resolved  upon  his  destruction  at  all  events. 
One  Bridge,  an  infamous  informer  against 
some  of  those  who  had  been  executed  for 
these  riots,  was  said  to  have  been  murdered 
by  their  associates,  in  revenge  (although  his 
body  could  never  be  found),*  and  a  con- 
siderable reward  was  oft'ered  for  discovering 
and  convicting  the  murderer.  Sheehy,  im- 
mediately after  his  acquittal  in  Dublin  for 
rebellion,  was  indicted  by  his  pursuers  for 
this  murder,  and  notwithstanding  the  pio- 
mise  given  him  by  those  in  office  on  sur- 
rendering himself,  he  was  transmitted  to 
Clonmel,  to  be  tried  there  for  this  new 
crime,  and,  upon  the  sole  evidence  of  the 
same  infamous  witnesses,  whose  testimony 
had  been  so  justly  i-eprobated  in  Dublin, 
was  there  condemned  to  be  hanged  and 
quartered  for  the  murder  of  a  man  who 
was  never  murdered  at  all. 

*  It  was  positively  swnrii,  by  two  une.xeeptionable 
witnesses,  that  lie  privately  left  tlie  kingdom  some 
sliort  time  before  he  whs  paid  to  have  been  mur- 
dered. !jee  notes  of  the  trial  taken  l)y  one  of  the 
jury,  in  "  Kxshaw's  Miigtizine  "  for  June,  17(5C. 


102 


IIISTOKY    OF    IKKLAND. 


What  barefaced  iiijustii--e  and  inhumanity 
were  shown  to  this  ur.foitunate  man  on  that 
occasion,*  is  known  and  testified  by  many 
thousands  of  credible  peisons,  who  were 
present  and  eye-wituesses  on  the  day  of  his 
trial.  A  party  of  horse  surrounded  the 
court,  admitting  and  excluding  wliomsoever 
they  thought  p:oper,  while  others  of  them, 
with  Sir  Thomas  Maude  at  their  head, 
scampered  the  streets  in  a  formidable  man- 
ner, breaking  into  inns  and  private  lodgings 
in  the  town,  challenging  and  questioning 
all  new-comers,  menacing  the  prisoner's 
frietids,  and  encouraging  his  enemies  :  even 
after  sentence  of  death  was  pronounced 
against  him  (which  one  would  think 
might  have  satisfied  the  malice  of  his 
enemies),  his  attorney  found  it  neces- 
sary for  his  safety,  to  steal  out  of  the  town 
by  night,  and  with  all  possible  speed 
make  his  escape  to  Dublin.  The  head 
of  the  brarv'e  murdered  priest  was  spiked 
over  the  gates  of  Clonmel  jail,  and  there 
remained  twenty  yeai's.  At  la>t  his  sister 
was  allowed  to  bury  it  where  his  body  lies, 
in  the  old  churchyaid  of  Shandraghan. 

The  night  before  bis  execution,  which 
was  but  the  second  after  his  sentence,  he 

*  To  mention  only  one  instance  out  of  many. 
Durinor  his  trial,  Mr.  Keatins:,  a  person  of  known 
property  and  credit  in  that  country,  having  given 
the  clearest  and  fullest  evidence,  th;it,  dnring  the 
whole  night  of  the  supposed  murder  of  Bridge,  the 
prisoner,  Nicholas  Slieehy,  had  lain  in  his  lionse, 
that  he  could  not  have  left  it  in  the  night-time 
witliont  his  hnowledge,  and  consequently  that  lie 
oould  not  have  been  even  present  at  the  murder; 
the  Reverend  Mr.  Hewetson,  an  active  manager  in 
these  trials,  stood  up,  and  after  looking  on  a  paper 
that  he  held  iti  his  hand,  informed  the  court  that  he 
had  Mr.  Keating's  name  on  his  list  as  one  of  those 
tliat  were  concerned  in  the  killing  of  a  corporal  and 
sergeiint,  in  a  former  rescue  of  ^ome  of  these  level- 
lers. Upon  which  he  was  immediately  hurried  away 
to  Kilkenny  jail,  where  he  lay  for  some  tii7ie,  loaded 
with  irons,  in  a  dark  and  loathsome  dungeon  :  by 
this  proceeding,  not  only  his  evidence  was  rendered 
useless  to  Sheehy,  but  also  that  of  many  others  was 
prevented,  who  came  on  purpose  to  testify  the  same 
thing,  hut  instantly  withdrew  themselves,  for  fear 
of  meeting  with  the  same  treatment.  Mr.  Keating 
Was  afterward*  tried  for  this  pretended  murder  at 
the  assizes  of  Kilkenny,  but  wns  honorably  acquit- 
ted ;  too  late,  however,  to  be  of  any  service  to  poor 
Sheehy,  who  was  hanged  and  quartered  some  time 
before  Mr.  Keating's  acquittal.  The  very  same  evi- 
dence which  was  looked  upon  at  Clotunel  as  gool 
and  snflicient  to  condl^.lun  Mr.  Sheehy,  having  been 
afterwards  rejected  at  Kilkenny,  as  prevaricatinij 
and  contradictory  witii  re.-pcct  to  Mr.  Keating. 


wrote  a  letter  to  Major  Sirr,  wherein  he  de- 
clared his  innocence  of  the  crime  for  which 
he  was  next  day  to  suffer  death  ;  and  on  the 
morning  of  that  day,  just  before  he  was 
brought  forth  to  execution,  he,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  sub-sherifl"  and  a  clergyman  who 
attended  him,  again  declared  his  innocence 
of  the  murder;  solemidy  protesting  at  the 
same  time,  as  he  was  a  dying  man,  just 
going  to  appear  before  the  most  awful  of 
tribunals,  that  he  never  had  engaged  any 
of  the  rioters  in  the  service  of  the  French 
king,  by  tendering  them  oaths,  or  other- 
wise ;  that  he  never  had  distributed  money 
among  them  on  that  account,  nor  had  ever 
received  money  from  France,  or  any  other 
foreign  court,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
for  any  such  purpose ;  that  he  never  knew 
of  any  French  or  other  foreign  officers  being 
among  these  rioters;  or  of  any  Roman  Cath- 
olics of  property  or  note,  being  concerned 
with  them.  At  the  place  of  execution  he 
solemnly  averred  the  same  things,  adding, 
"that  he  never  heard  an  oath  of  allegiance 
to  any  foreign  prince  proposed  or  admin- 
istered in  his  lifetime ;  nor  ever  knew  any 
thing  of  the  murder  of  Bridge,  until  he  heard 
it  publicly  talked  of;  nor  did  he  know  that 
there  ever  was  any  such  design  on  foot." 

Everybody  knew,  that  this  clergyman 
might,  if  he  pleased,  have  easily  made  his 
escape  to  France,  when  he  first  heard  of  the 
proclamation  for  apprehending  him  ;  and  as 
he  was  all  along  accused  of  having  been  agent 
for  the  French  king,  in  raising  and  fomenting 
these  tumults,  he  could  not  doubt  of  finding 
a  safe  retreat,  and  suitable  recompense  for 
such  services,  in  any  part  of  that  kingdom. 
Tt  seems,  therefore,  absurd  in  the  highest 
degree,  to  imagine  that  he,  or  any  man, 
being  at  the  same  time  conscious  of  the  com- 
plicated guilt  of  rebellion  and  murder,  would 
have  wilfully  neglected  the  double  oppor- 
tunity of  escaping  punishment  and  of  living 
at  his  ease  and  safety  in  another  kingdom  ; 
or  that  any  person,  so  criminally  circum- 
stanced as  he  was  thought  to  be,  would  have 
at  all  surrendered  himself  to  a  public  tri;d, 
without  friends,  money,  or  faniilv  connec- 
tions ;  and,  above  all,  without  that  conscious- 
ness of  his  innocence,  on  which,  and  the 
protection  of  the  Almighty,  he  might  pos- 
siblv  have  relied  for  his  deliverance. 


SUBORNATION    OF    WITNESSES    AND    APPROVERS. 


103 


Emboldened  by  tliis  success,  Si'r  Thomas 
Maude  published  an  advertisement,  some- 
what in  the  nature  of  a  manifesto,  wherein, 
after  having-  presumcxi  to  censure  the  admin- 
istration for  not  punishing,  with  greater  and 
unjustifiable  severity,  these  wretched  rioters, 
he  named  a  certain  day,  on  which  the  fol- 
lowing persons  of  credit  and  substance  in 
that  country,  viz.  :  Edmund  Sheehy,  James 
Buxton,  James  Farrel,  and  others,  were  to 
be  tried  by  commission  at  Clonmel,  as  prin- 
cipals or  accomplices  in  the  aforesaid  mur- 
der of  Bridge.  And,  as  if  he  meant  by  dint 
of  numbers,  to  intimidate  even  the  judges 
into  lawless  rigor  and  severity,  he  sent  forth 
a  sort  of  authoritative  summons  ''to  every 
gentleman  in  the  county  to  attend  that 
commissiuu."  His  summons  was  punctually 
obeyed  by  his  immeruus  and  powerful  ad- 
herents; and  these  men,  innocent  (as  will 
appear  hereafter),  weie  sentenced  to  be 
hanged  and  quartered  by  that  commission. 

It  will  naturally  be  asked,  upon  what  new 
evidence*   this  sentence  was   passed,   as  it 

*  James  Prendergnst,  Esq.,  a  witness  for  Mr. 
E'limuid  Slieeliy,  perfectly  miexocptionuble  in  point 
of  fortune,  cluiraeter,  and  religion,  which  was  that  of 
the  established*  elinrcii,  deposed,  that  on  the  day 
mid  hour  on  which  the  murder  of  Bridge  was  sworn 
to  liave  been  comrnitted,  viz. :  about  or  between  the 
hours  often  and  eleven  o'clock,  on  the  night  of  the 
28th  of  October,  1764,  Edmund  Sheehy,  the  prison- 
er, was  with  him  and  otiieis,  in  a  di>tant  part  of  tlie 
country  ;  that  they  and  their  wives  had,  on  the 
aforesaid  28th  of  October,  dined  at  the  house  of  Mr. 
Tcnison,  near  Ardtinan,  in  the  county  of  Tipperary, 
wiiere  they  continued  until  after  supper  ;  that  it  was 
about  eleven  o'clock  when  he  and  the  prisoner  left 
the  house  of  Mr.  Tenison,  and  rode  a  considerable 
way  together  on  tlieir  return  to  their  respective 
homes  ;  that  the  prisoner  liad  his  wife  behind  him  ; 
that  wlien  he  (Mr.  Prendergast)  got  lioiiie,  he  looked 
at  the  clock,  and  found  it  w.is  the  hour  of  twelve 
exactly."  Tliis  testimony  was  confirmed  Vjy  several 
corroborating  circuinst.lnces,  sworn  to  by  two  other 
witnesses,  ajrainst  wliom  no  exception  appears  to 
liave  been  taken.  And  yet,  because  Mr.  Tenison, 
althougli  lie  confessed  in  liis  deposition,  that  the 
prisoner  had  dined  with  him  in  October,  1764,  and 
does  not  expressly  deny  that  it  was  on  the  2Sth  of 
that  month  ;  but  says,  eonjectnrally,  that  he  was 
inclined  to  think  that  it  was  earlier  than  the  28th. 
tiie  prisoner  was  brought  in  guilty.  Thus  positive 
and  particular  proof,  produced  by  Mr.  Prendergast, 
with  the  circumstances  of  the  day  and  the  hour,  at- 
tested Ujion  oath  by  two  other  witnesses,  whose 
veracity  seems  not  to  have  been  questioned,  was 
overruled  and  set  aside  by  the  vague  and  indeter- 
minate surmise  of  Mr.  Tenison.  See  "Exshaw's 
Gentletiiaii's  and  London  iMagazine,"  for  April,  and 
June,  ITtiti." 


may  well  be  supposed,  that  no  use  was  made 
of  the  former  reprobated  witnesses  on  this 
occasion.  But  use  was  made  of  them,  and 
a  principal  use  too,  in  the  trial  and  con- 
viction of  these  devoted  men.  The  managers, 
however,  for  the  crown,  as  they  impudently 
called  themselves,  being  afraid,  or  ashamed, 
to  trust  the  success  of  their  sanguinary  pur- 
poses to  the  now  enfeebled,  because  gener- 
ally e.xploded,  testimony  of  these  miscreants, 
looked  out  for  certain  props,  under  the  name 
oi  approvers,  to  strengthen  and  support  their 
tottering  evidence.  These  they  soon  found 
in  the  persons  of  Herbert  and  Bier,  two 
prisoners,  accused,  like  the  re.st,  of  the  mtir- 
der  of  Bridge;  and  who,  thotigh  absolutely 
strangers  to  it  (as  they  themselves  had  often 
sworn  in  the  jail)  were  nevertheless  ia 
equal  danger  of  being  hanged  for  it,  if  they 
did  not  purchase  their  pardon  by  becoming 
approvers  of  the  former  false  witnesses. 
Herbert  was  so  conscious  of  his  innocence 
in  respect  to  Bridge's  murder,  that  he  had 
come  to  the  assizes  of  Clonmel,  in  order  to 
give  evidence  in  favor  of  the  priest  Sheehv  ; 
but  his  arrival  and  business  being  soon  made 
known,  effectual  meastires  were  taken  to 
prevent  his  giving  such  evidence.  Accord- 
ingly bills  of  high  treason  were  found  against 
him,  upon  the  information  of  one  of  these 
reprobate  witnesses,  and  a  party  of  light 
horse  sent  to  take  him  prisoner.  Bier,  upon 
his  removal  afterwards  to  Nev/gate,  iu 
Dublin,  declared,  in  a  dangerous  fit  of  sick- 
ness, to  the  ordinary  of  that  prison,  with 
evident  marks  of  sincere  repentance,  "that 
for  any  thing  he  knew  to  the  contrary,  the 
before-mentioned  Edmund  Sheehy,  Jamt-s 
Buxton,  and  James  Farrel,  were  entirely  in- 
nocent of  the  fact  for  which  thev  had  suf- 
fered death;  and  that  nothing  in  this  world, 
but  the  preservation  of  his  own  life,  which 
he  saw  was  in  the  most  imminent  danger, 
should  have  tempted  him  to  be  guilty  of 
the  complicated  crimes  of  perjuiy  and  Miur- 
der,  as  he  then  confessed  he  was,  when  he 
swore  away  the  lives  of  those  innocent 
men." 

On  Saturday  morning,  May  3d,  1760,1116 
convi(-ts  were  hanged  and  quartered  at 
Clogheen.  Titeir  behavior  at  the  place  of 
execution  was  ciieerful,  but  devout;  not 
content    to    forgive,    they    prayed    for    and 


104 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


blessed  their  prosecutors,  jurlges,  and  juries. 
x\ft,er  they  were  tied  up,  each  of  them,  in  liis 
turn,  read  a  paper  aloud,  without  tremor, 
hesitation,  or  other  visible  emotion,  wherein 
thoy  solemnly  protested,  as  dying  Christians, 
M'ho  were  quickly  to .  appear  before  the 
judgment-sent  of  Gi)d,  "that  they  had  no 
share  either  by  act,  counsel,  or  knowledge 
ill  the  murder  of  Bridge ;  that  they  never 
heard  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  any  foreign 
prince  pioposed  or  administered  amongst 
them  ;  tliat  they  never  heard  that  any 
«chetne  of  rebellion,  high  treason,  or  a  mas- 
sacre, was  intended,  offered,  or  even  thouglit 
of,  by  any  of  them  ;  that  they  never  knew 
of  any  commissions,  or  French  or  Spanish 
officeis  being  sent,  or  of  any  money  being 
]>aid  to  these  rioters.  After  this,  they  sev- 
erally declared,  in  the  same  solemn  manner, 
that  certain  gentlemen,  whose  names  they 
then  mentioned,  had  tampered  with  them 
Ht  different  times,  pressing  them  to  make, 
vhat  they  called  useful  discoveries,  by  giving 
in  examinations  against  numbers  of  Ruman 
Catholics  of  fortune  in  that  province  (some 
of  whom  they  particularly  named)  as  actual- 
ly concerned  in  a  conspiracy,  and  intended 
massacre,  which  were  never  once  thought 
of.  But  above  all,  that  they  uiged  them  to 
swear,  that  the  priest,  Nicholas  Sheehy,  died 
with  a  lie  in  his  mouth  ;  without  doing  which, 
they  said,  no  other  discovery  would  avail 
ihem.  Upon  these  conditions,  they  promised, 
and  undertook  to  procui'e  their  pardons,  ac- 
quainting them  at  the  same  time,  that  they 
phould  ceitainly  be  hanged,  if  they  did  not 
c-umply  with  them." 

All  that  has  since  come  to  light  with  re- 
gard to  these  black  tiansactions — the  testi- 
mony of  Burke  (ah-eady  cited)  that  there 
was  no  conspiracy  for  insurrection  at  all — 
the  failuie  to  produce  the  body  of  Bridge, 
1  hough  it  was  carefully  searched  for  in  the 
tield  where  a  witness  swore  it  had  been 
buried — the  hatred  notoriously  cherished 
figainst  Father  Sheehy  and  all  his  friends, 
on  ace.ount  of  his  bold  conduct  in  standing 
lip  tor  his  poor  parishioners — and  we  must 
add  the  wliole  course  of  Irish  "justice  "  from 
tiiat  day  to  this — all  compel  us  to  ciedit 
tlie  dying  declaration  of  these  men,  who  were 
also  of  unblemished  character;  and  force  us 
to  the   concbision    that  the  whole  of  these 


military-  executions  and  judicial  trials  in 
Munster,  extending  over  four  years,  were 
themselves  the  result  of  a  most  foul  consj)i- 
racy  on  the  part  of  the  Ascendency  factioji, 
with  its  government,  its  judges,  its  magis- 
trates and  its  juries — based  upon  carefully 
organized  perjury  and  carried  through  by 
brute  force,  to  "strike  terror''  in  Tipperary 
(a  measure  often  found  needful  since),  to 
destroy  all  the  leading  Catholics  of  that 
troublesome  neighborhood  ;  and  above  and 
before  all  things,  to  hang  and  quarter  the 
body,  and  to  spike  the  head,  of  the  generous 
and  kindly  priest  who  told  his  people  that 
they  were  human  beings  and  had  rights  and 
wrongs. 

Dr.  Curry  winds  up  his  account  of  the 
transaction  with  these  I'eflections : — 

"  Such,  during  the  space  of  thiee  or  four 
years,  was  the  fearful  and  pitiable  state  of 
the  Roman  Catholics  of  Munster,  and  so 
general  did  the  panic  at  length  become,  so 
many  of  the  lower  sort  were  already  hanged, 
in  jail,  or  on  the  informers'  lists,  that  the 
greatest  part  of  the  rest  fled  through  fear; 
so  that  the  land  lay  untilled,  for  want  or 
hands  to  cultivate  it,  and  a  famine  was  with 
reason  apprehended.  As  for  the  better  soi  t, 
who  had  something  to  lose  (and  who,  for 
that  reason,  weie  the  persons  chiefly  aimed 
at  by  the  managers  of  the  prosecution),  tliey 
were  at  the  utmost  loss  how  to  dispose  of 
themselves.  If  they  left  the  country,  their 
absence  was  construed  into  a  proof  of  their 
guilt:  if  they  remained  in  it,  they  were  in  im- 
minent danger  of  having  their  lives  sworn 
away  by  informers  and  approvers  ;  for  the 
suborning  and  corrupting  of  witnesses  on 
that  occasion,  was  frequent  and  barefaced,  to 
a  degiee  almost  beyond  belief.  The  very 
stews  were  raked,  and  the  jails  rummaged 
in  search  of  evidence  ;  and  the  most  noto- 
riously profligate  in  both  were  selected  and 
tampered  with,  to  give  information  of  the 
private  transactions  and  designs  of  reputable 
men,  with  whom  they  never  had  any  deal- 
ing, intercourse,  or  acquaintance;  nay,  to 
whose  very  persons  they  were  often  found 
to  be  strangers,  when  confronted  at  their 
tiial. 

"  In  short,  so  exactly  did  these  prose- 
cutions in  Ireland  resemble,  in  every  partii;- 
ular,  those  which  were  formerly  set  on  fuot 


TOLERATION    UNDER   THE    HOUSE    OF    HANOVER. 


105. 


in  En<;-Iaml,  for  that  villanoiis  fiction  of 
Oates's  plot,  that  the  former  seem  to  have 
been  planned  and  carried  on  entirely  on  the 
model  of  the  latter ;  and  tlie  same  just  ob- 
servation that  hath  been  made  on  the  Eng- 
lish sano-uinary  proceedings,  is  perfectly  ap- 
plicable to  those  which  I  have  now,  in  part, 
related,  viz.:  'that  for  the  credit  of  the  nation, 
it  were  indeed  better  to  bury  them  in  eter- 
nal oblivion,  but  that  it  is  necessary  to  per- 
pt^uate  tlie  rei'^-embrance  of  them,  as  well 
to  maintain  the  truth  of  history,  as  to  warn, 
if  possible,  our  posetrity,  and  all  mankind, 
never  again  to  fall  into  so  shameful  and  so 
barbarous  a  delusion.' " 

All  now  seemed  quiet  in  Munster  :  but  it 
■was  the  quietude  of  despair  and  exhaustion. 
The  Whiteboy  spirit  was  not  really  sup- 
pressed, because  the  oppressions  which  bad 
occasioned  it  were  not  relaxed,  but  rather 
aggravated.  Many  hearths  were  now  cold 
that  had  been  the  centre  of  a  humble 
family  circle  four  years  before  ;  and  the  sur- 
viving parishioners  of  Clogheen,  when  they 
saw  the  blackening  skull  of  their  revered 
priest  upon  its  spike  withering  away  in  the 
wind,  could  read  the  fate  that,  on  the  first 
muimur  of  revolt,  was  in  store  for  them- 
selves or  any  who  should  take  their  part. 
The  next  year  (lYG7),  some  further  arrests 
were  made,  and  the  Ascendency  party  tried 
hard  to  get  up  an  alarm  about  another 
'•.Popish  rebellion."  No  executions  followed 
on  this  occasion,  as  several  benevolent  per- 
sons coniributed  money  to  procure  tlfe  pris- 
oners the  benefit  of  the  best  legal  defence. 
It  is  with  pleasure  one  reads  among  the 
names  of  the  friends  of  an  oppressed  race 
who  contributed  to  this  fund,  the  name  of 
Edmund  Buike.  One  of  the  persons  ar- 
rested on  this  last  occasion,  but  afterwards 
discharged  wiih(.)ut  trial,  was  Dr.  McKenna, 
Catholic  bishop  of  Cloyne.  He,  as  well  as 
all  other  ecclesiastics  of  his  order,  was,  of 
course,  at  all  times  subject  to  the  penalties 
of  law,  to  transportation  under  the  acts  "for 
preventing  the  growth  of  Popery  "  in  Queen 
Anne's  time ;  and  also  to  the  penalty  of 
preniunire  under  earlier  laws :  yet  these 
bishops  continued  to  exercise  their  office, 
to  confirm  and  confer  orders  under  a  species 
of  connivance,  which  passed  for  toleration. 
But  their  situaliou,  as  well  as  that  of  all 
14 


their  clergy,  in  these  first  years  of  King 
George  III.  was  still  as  precarious  and  ano- 
malous as  it  had  been  during  all  the  reign 
of  George  II.  Sometimes  they  were  toler- 
ated, sometimes  persecuted.  It  depended 
upon  the  administration  which  happened  to 
be  in  power;  upon  the  temporary  alarms  to 
which  the  "  Ascendency  "  was  always  sub- 
ject; and  upon  the  disposition  of  local  pro- 
prietors and  magistrates,  who  were  occasion- 
ally men  of  liberal  education,  and  relished  the 
society  of  the  neighboring  priests  who  had 
graduated  at  Lisbon,  or  Salamanca,  or  Lou- 
vain,  and  who  were  then  frequently  far 
superior  in  cultivation  and  social  refinement 
to  the  Protestant  rectors,  of  whom  Dean 
Swift  sometimes  betrays  his  low  estimate. 
Even  the  regular  clergy,  alihough  the  rage 
and  suspicion  of  the  Ascendency  were  yet 
more  bitter  against  them  than  the  secular 
priests,  were  always  to  be  found  in  Ireland. 
They  ran  more  cruel  risks,  how«vei',  than 
the  pjarish  priest.  If  any  blind  or  self-in- 
terested bigot  desired  to  show  his  zeal  in 
trampling  on  the  right  of  conscience,  or  to 
raise  the  fenjcious  old  cry  of  "  No  Popery  !" 
the  regular  clergy  formed  an  inexhaustil»le 
subject  for  his  vociferations  :  if  the  legis- 
lature of  the  day  wished  to  indulge  the 
popular  frenzy  by  the  exhibition  of  new  fash- 
ioned enactments,  or  of  a  new  series  of  tra- 
gedies— monks,  Jesuits,  and  friars  were  sure 
to  pay  the  cost  of  the  entertainment.  It 
has  often  been  affirmed,  even  by  the  timid 
Catholic  writers  of  the  last  century,  that 
the  accession  of  the  House  of  Hanover  inau- 
gurated an  era  of  more  liberal  toleration. 
It  is  to  be  feared  that  this  kind  of  admission 
on  their  part  was  but  a  courtly  device  to 
conciliate,  if  not  to  flatter,  that  odious  House 
and  its  partisans;  for  the  priest-hunters 
were  never  more  active  than  in  the  reign 
of  George  I.,  when  Garcia  brought  in  his 
batches  of  captured  clergymen,  and  received 
a  good  price  out  of  the  treasnry  upon  each 
head  of  game.  In  the  whole  leign  oi 
George  II.,  until  the  administration  of  Ches- 
teifield,  Catholic  worship  bad  to  be  cele. 
brated  with  the  utmost  caution  and  secrecy. 
•In  this  reign,  Bernard  MacMahon,  Catholic 
Primate,  "  resided  in  a  retired  place  named 
Bailymascanlou  in  the  County  of  Louth  ; 
his  habitation  was  little  superior  to  a  farm- 


106 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


house,  Hud  for  many  years  he  was  known 
through  the  country  hy  the  name  of  Mr. 
Ennis.  In  this  disguise,  which  personal 
safety  so  strongly  prompted,  he  was  accus- 
tomed to  travel  over  his  diocese,  make  his 
visitations,  exhort  his  people,  and  administer 
the  saciainents."*  In  tlie  same  way,  Mi- 
chael CR"- Uy,  another  primate,  "lived  in  a 
humble  dwelling  at  Turfegin,  near  Drogheda, 
and  died  here  about  the  year  I'ZSS,"!  just 
two  years  before  the  accession  of  George 
III.  In  the  reign  of  George  III.  himself, 
we  have  seen  Fathers  Sheehy  and  Quinlan 
regularly  indicted  at  assizes,  for  that  they 
had,  at  such  times  and  ])laces,  not  having 
the  fear  of  God  before  their  eyes,  but  moved 
and  seduced  by  the  instigation  of  the  devil, 
said  mass  and  did  other  functions  of  a  Popish 
})riest,  against  the  peace  of  our  lord  the 
king,  and  contrary  to  the  statutes  in  that 
case  made  and  provided.  We  must,  there- 
fore, take  these  grateful  acknowledgments 
of  the  liberal  dispositions  of  the  House  of 
Hanover,  with  considerable  qualifii;ation, 
remembering  that  the  writers  in  question 
were  laboring  in  the  cause  of  Catholic 
Emancipation,  under  that  royal  House,  and 
felt  obliged  to  pay  it,  some  compliments 
upon  its  noble  generosity. 

As  for  the  C  itholic  laity,  their  disabilities 
continued  all  this  time  in  full  force,  and 
while  a  contemptuous  connivance  was  shown 
to  their  religious  woisldp,  good  care  was 
taken  to  debar  thein  from  all  profitable  occu- 
pation, and  to  seize  the  poor  remnants  of 
their  jjroperty.  Indeed,  the  toleration  of 
their  worship  was  for  the  better  securing  of 
these  la'ter  objects;  it  was  known  that  men 
who  Went,  regular!}^  to  mass  would  never 
take  an  oath  that  the  King  of  England  is 
head  of  the  church,  or  that  the  mass  is  a 
damnable  idolatry  ;  and  these  oaths  formed 
the  very  barrier  which  fenced  in  all  the  rich 
and  fat  things  of  the  land  for  the  Pnjtest- 
anis,  and  shut  the  rapi-ts  out.  Tbat  observ- 
ant and  honest  English  traveller,  Aithur 
Young,  was  so  powerfully  struck  with  this 
true  character  of  the  Penal  Laws,  that  in 
his  account  of  his  tour  he  more  than  once 

*  Brinnaii's  Eco!.  Hist.,  p.  57;5.      t  lb. 


dwells  -upon  it  with  righteous  indignation. 
He  says  : — "  But  it  seems  to  be  the  meaning, 
wish,  and  intent  of  the  discovery  laws,  that 
none  of  them  (the  Irish  Catholics)  slnnild 
ever  be  rich.  It  is  the  principle  of  that 
system,  that  wealthy  subjects  would  be  nui- 
sances ;  and  therefore  every  means  is  taken 
to  reduce,  and  keep  them  to  a  state  of  pov- 
erty. If  this  is  not  the  intention  of  these 
laws,  they  are  the  most  abominable  heap  of 
self-contradictions  that  ever  were  issued  iu 
the  world.  They  are  framed  in  such  a 
manner  that  no  Catholic  shall  have  the  in- 
ducement t(^  become  rich.  .  .  .Take  the  laws 
and  their  execution  into  one  view,  and  this 
state  of  the  case  is  so  true,  that  they  actual- 
ly do  not  seem  to  be  so  much  levelled  at 
the  religion,  as  at  the  property  that  is  found 
in  it. . .  .The  domineering  aristocracy  of  five 
hundred  thousand  Protestants,  feel  the  sweets 
of  having  two  millions  of  slaves;  they  have 
not  the  least  objection  to  the  tenets  of  that 
religion  which  keeps  them  by  the  law  of  the 
land  in  subjection  ;  but  property  and  slavery 
are  too  incompatible  to  live  together:  hence 
the  special  care  taken  that  no  such  thing 
should  arise  among  them." — Young's  Turn- 
ill  Ire!.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  48. 

In  another  place  Mr.  Young  repeats ; — • 
"I  have  conversed  on  the  subject  with  some 
of  the  most  distinguished  characters  in  the 
kingdom,  and  I  cannot  after  all  but  declare 
that  the  scope,  purport,  and  aim  of  the  laws 
of  discovery,  as  executed,  are  not  against  the 
Catholjc  religion,  which  increases  under  them, 
but  against  the  industry  and  property  of 
whoever  professes  that  religion.  In  vain 
has  it  been  said,  that  consequence  and  pow- 
er follow  property,  and  that  the  attack  is 
made  in  oider  to  wound  the  doctrine 
through  its  property.  If  such  was  the  in- 
tention, I  reply,  that  seventy  years'  experi- 
ence prove  the  folly  and  futility  of  it.  Those 
laws  have  crushed  all  the  indusir}',  and 
wrested  most  of  the  property  from  the  Cath- 
olics; but  the  religion  triumphs;  it  is 
thought  to  increase."  Readers  may  now 
understand  the  nature  and  extent  of  that 
vaunted  "toleration,"  and  the  true  intent 
and  purpose  of  it,  such  as  it  was  — namely, 
plunder. 


AUGMKNTATION    OF    THE    ARMT. 


107 


CHAPTER    XVI. 
1767—1773. 

Townshend,  Viceroy— Augmentation  of  the  amir— 
Embezzlement  —  Purliiuneiit  prorogued  —  Again 
prorogued— Townsheri'l  buys  liis  majority — Tri- 
umpli  of  the  "  Englisli  Interest  "—New  attempt 
to  bribe  tlie  Priests— Townsliend's  "Golden 
Drops  " — Bill  to  allow  Papists  to  reclaim  bogs— 
Townshend  recalled — Harconrt,  Viceroy — Pro- 
posal to  tax  aV)sentces — Defeated — Degraded  con- 
dition of  the  Irish  Parliament — American  Kevolu- 
tion,  and  new  era. 

The  history  of  Lord  Townslieml's  admin- 
istration, and  of  the  two  which  followed,  is 
unhappily  little  more  than  a  history  of  the 
most  shameless  corruption  and  servility  on 
the  part  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  relieved, 
however,  by  some  examples  of  a  rising  na- 
tional spirit  in  the  assertion  of  constitutional 
riofht.  Very  early  in  the  same  session  of 
Parliament,  which  had  finally  passed  the  Oc- 
tennial Bill,  the  attention  of  the  House  of 
Commons  was  especially  called  to  the  con- 
sideration of  the  army  upon  the  Irish  estab- 
lishment. A  message  from  the  lord-lieuten- 
ant was  sent  to  the  House  by  the  hands  of 
the  Right  Hon.  Sir  George  Macartney,  in 
which  he  informed  the  Commons  "that  it  is 
his  majesty's  judgment,  that  not  less  than 
12,000  men  should  be  constantly  kept  in 
the  island  for  service,  and  that  his  majesty 
finding,  that,  consistently  with  the  general 
public  service,  the  number  before  meniioiieil 
cannot  always  be  continued  in  Ireland, 
unless  his  army  upon  the  Irish  establishment 
be  augmented  to  15,235  men  in  the  whole, 
commissioned  and  non-commissioned  officers 
included,  his  majesty  is  of  opinion,  that,  such 
augmentation  should  be  immediately  made, 
and  earnestly  recommends  it  to  his  faithful 
Commons  to  concur  in  providing  for  a  mea- 
sure which  his  majesty  has  extremely  at 
heart,  as  necessary  not  only  for  the  honor 
of  his  crown,  but  for  the  peace  and  security 
of  his  kingdom."  The  message  was  ordered 
to  be  entered  on  the  journals,  and  at  the 
same  time  a  committee  was  appointed  to 
inquire  into  the  state  of  the  military  estab- 
lishment, and  also  into  the  application  of 
the  money  granted  for  its  support  from  the 
25th  March,  1751.  The  result  of  this  inqui- 
ry showed  manifest  misconduct,  as  appeals 
frum   the   report  at   large,  and   the    returns 


thereunto  annexed:  part  of  the  report  is  to 
the  following  effect : 

"Your  committee  beg  leave  to  take  notice 
that  the  entiie  reduction  of  the  army,  afiei 
the  conclusion  of  the  peace,  did  not  take 
place  till  the  latter  end  of  the  year  ITG-I; 
and  that  it  appears  from  the  return  of  the 
quarter-master-geiieral,  that  there  were  great 
deficiencies  in  the  several  regiments  iheu 
upon  the  establishment,  at  the  several  quar- 
terly musters  comprised  in  the  said  paper, 
wdiich  precede  the  month  of  Januaiy,  1765; 
the  full  pay  of  such  vacancies  must  amount 
to  a  ("ery  large  sum,  and  ought,  as  your 
committee  apprehends,  to  have  been  return- 
ed as  a  saving  to  the  ])ublic,  especially  as  it 
appeared  to  your  committee,  that  orders 
were  issued  by  government,  not  to  recruit 
the  regiments  intended  to  be  reduced." 
Upon  the  whole,  it  was  resolved  that  an  ad- 
dress should  be  presented  to  his  majesty,  to 
lay  before  him  the  report  of  the  said  com- 
mittee, to  acknowledge  his  constant  atten- 
tion to  the  welfare  of  the  people,  to  express 
the  utmost  confidence  in  his  majesty's  wis- 
dom, that  if  upon  such  representation  any 
reformation  in  the  said  establishment  should 
appear  necessary  to  his  majesty,  such  altera 
tion  would  be  made  therein  as  would  better 
provide  for  the  securitj'  of  the  kingdnm, 
and  at  the  same  time  reduce  the  expense  of 
the  establishment,  in  such  a  manner  ;;b 
mio-ht  be  more  suitable  to  the  circumstances 
of  the  nation.  The  Government,  however, 
was  able  to  secure  a  majority  for  their  mea- 
sure. As  Mr.  Plowden  expresses  it,  "  Vainly 
did  the  efforts  of  patriotism  encounter  the 
exertions  of  the  new  syfitem  to  keep  individ- 
uals steady  to  their  post  on  the  Treasury- 
bench. 

The  Parliament  was  now  dissolved;  and 
the  first  Octennial  Parliament  was  to  be 
elected.  There  was  an  unusually  long  in- 
terval of  sixteen  months  from  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  old  to  the  meeting  of  this  new 
Parliament.  This  interval  was  used  by  the 
Court  in  establishing  the  "new  system;" 
which  system  was  neither  more  nor  less 
than  buying  the  peoph^'s  representatives  iti 
detail,  bv  direct  negoiiaiion  with  individu- 
als, instead  of  contracting  for  them  by 
wholesale  with  the  four  or  five  noble  "Un- 
dertakers," who  owned  many  boroughs,  and 


108 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


influenced  the  owners  of  many  others.  Lord 
lownshend  hoped  to  render  the  concession 
of  the  Octennial  Act  worse  than  nugatory, 
and  to  create  a  new  junta  in  support  of  the 
£Jn(jlish  interest,  independent  of  their  former 
leaders.  But  he  had  not  yet  so  matured 
his  plan  as  to  have  insured  the  whole  game. 
He  had  not  altered  the  nature,  but  only 
raised  the  price,  of  accommodation ;  and, 
lavish  as  the  Irish  have  generally  been  of 
their  voices  in  Parliament  to  the  highest 
bidder,  there  ever  appear  to  have  been 
some  cases  reserved  out  of  the  bargain.  Such 
had  been  the  reservation  of  light  to  vote  for 
limited  Parliaments,  in  some  of  the  most 
obsequious  devotees  to  the  measures  of  the 
Castle;  and  such  now  was  a  similar  excep- 
tion in  some  cf  these  pensioned  supporters 
to  resist  the  right  of  the  English  Council  to 
make  money  bills  originate  with  them,  and. 
not  with  the  Commons  of  Ireland.  On  this 
point  the  British  Cabinet  and  the  Irish 
House  of  Commons  came  fairly  to  issue. 
The  former  determined  to  test  the  question 
in  the  most  direct  way,  by  the  origination 
of  a  money  bill  in  the  Privy  Council;  and 
the  latter  resolved  fairly  to  meet  the  issue. 
Accordingly,  it  was  moved  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  that  a  bill,  entitled  *'An  Act  for 
granting  to  His  Majesty  the  several  Duties, 
Kates,  Impositions,  and  Taxes,  therein  par- 
ticularly expressed,  to  be  applied  to  the 
Payment  of  the  Interest  of  the  Sums  there- 
in provided  for  and  towards  the  Discharge 
of  the  said  principal  Sums,"  should  be  read 
a  second  time  on  the  day  following.  This 
motion  was  negatived;  and  it  was  resolved 
that  such  bill  was  rejected,  because  it  did 
not  take  its  rise  in  that  House. 

The  lord-lieutenant,  though  he  thought 
proper  to  allow  the  Irish  Parliament  to 
grant  their  own  money  in  their  own  way, 
])rotcsted  against  the  right  claimed  by  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  endeavored,  but  in 
vain,  to  enter  his  protest  upon  their  jour- 
nals. The  House  would  not  submit  to  this 
encroachment  upon  their  privileges:  the 
Lord^  were  less  inflexible,  and  after  much 
opposition  and  debate,  his  excellency's  pro- 
test was  solemnly  recorded  on  the  jour- 
HaJs  of  the  House  of  Peers.  But  before 
that  was  done,  it  having  been  generally  sus- 
pected that  such  was  his  intention,  the  fol- 


lowing, motion  was  made  in  the  House  of 
Peers:  "That  the  Speaker  of  this  H>use  be 
desired  that  no  protest  of  any  person  whom- 
soever, who  is  not  a  lord  of  Parliament,  and 
a  member  of  this  House,  and  which  doth  not 
respect  a  matter  which  had  been  previously 
in  question  before  this  House,  and  wherein 
the  lord  protesting  had  taken  pait  with  the 
minority,  either  in  person  or  by  proxy,  V>e 
entered  on  the  Journals  of  the  House." 
After  a  warm  debate  upon  this  motion,  the 
question  was  negatived  upon  a  division  of 
30  against  5. 

The  21st  of  November,  1*7059,  was  a  day 
fixed  for  the  trial  of  strength  upon  the 
English  Privy  Council's  money  bill.  The 
motion  being  made  that  this  bill  be  read  a 
fiist  time,  it  was  carried  in  the  affirmative; 
and  the  bill  being  accordingly  read,  a  mo- 
tion w.'is  made,  and  the  question  put,  that 
the  bill  be  read  a  second  time  to-morrow 
morning:  the  House  divided:  ayes,  sixty- 
eight;  noes,  eighty-seven.  Then  the  motion, 
that  the  bill  be  rejected,  was  put  and  car- 
ried by  ninety-four  against  seventy -one;  and 
it  was  resolved  that  the  said  bill  was  rejected, 
because  it  did  not  take  its  rise  in  that  House. 
The  lord-lieutenant  took  this  defeat  in  the 
Commons  so  much  to  heart,  that  he  re- 
solved to  bring  no  more  Government  ques- 
tions befjre  them  during  that  session  :  or 
until  he  could,  as  the  Castle  phrase  then 
was,  make  more  sure  of  the  king's  busi- 
ness. The  representations  which  were  made 
of  this  transaction  in  England  soon  found 
their  way  into  the  newspapers,  and  the 
light  in  which  Mr.  Wootlfall  placed  the 
majority  of  the  Iiish  House  of  Commons  on 
that  important  division  in  the  Public  Ad- 
vertiser, fidly  proved  the  general  sentiment 
entertained  at  the  time  in  England  upon  the 
whole  system  of  the  Irish  Government.* 
On  the  18th  day  of  December,  1769,  a 
motion  was  made  and  carried,  without  op- 
position, that  a  paper  entitled  the  Public 
Advertiser,  by  H.  S.  Woodfall,  London, 
December  the  9th,  1709,  might  be  read. 
It  contained  the  following  words :  "Hiber- 
nian patriotism  is  a  transcript  of  that  filthy 
idol  worshipped  at  the  London  Tavern;  in- 
solence, assumed  from  an  opinion  of  impu- 

•  Journ.  Com.,  vol.  8,  p.  844. 


PARLIAMENT   PROROGUED. 


109 


nity,  usurps  tlie  place  wliicli  boldness  against 
real  injuries  ought  to  hold.  The  refusal  of 
the  late  bill,  because  it  was  not  brought  iu 
contrary  to  the  practice  of  ages,  in  violation 
of  the  constitution,  and  to  the  certain  ruin 
of  the  dependence  of  Ireland  upon  Great 
Britain,  is  a  behavior  more  suiting  an  arniy 
of  Whitebuys  than  the  grave  representa- 
tives of  a  nation.  This  is  the  most  daring 
insult  that  has  been  offered  to  Government. 
It  must  be  counteracted  with  firmness,  or 
else  tlie  state  is  ruined.  Let  the  refractory 
House  be  dissolved;  should  the  next  copy 
their  example,  let  it  also  be  dissolved;  and 
if  the  same  spirit  of  seditious  obstinacy 
should  continue,  I  know  no  remedy  but  one, 
and  it  is  extremely  obvious.  The  Parlia- 
ment of  Great  Britain  is  supreme  over  its 
conquests,  as  well'  as  colonies,  and  the  ser- 
vice of  the  nation  must  not  be  left  undone, 
on  account  of  the  factious  obstinacy  of  a 
provincial  assembly.  Let  our  legislature, 
Cor  they  have  an  undoubted  right,  vote  the 
Irish  supplies;  and  so  save  a  nation,  that 
their  own  obstinate  representatives  endeavor 
to  ruin."  The  perfect  identity  in  tone  and 
temper  of  this  article  with  those  of  the 
Times  at  tlie  present  day  (when  any  mani- 
festation of  spirit  in  Ireland  irritates  the 
British  public)  makes  it  well  worth  pre- 
serving, to  show  how  very  little  the  English 
feeling  towards  Ireland  has  varied  or 
changed  in  a  hundred  years.  These  para- 
graphs having  been  read,  it  was  resolved, 
thai  they  were  a  false  and  infamous  libel 
upon  the  proceedings  of  that  House,  a  dar- 
ing invasion  of  the  Parliament,  and  calcu- 
lated to  create  groundless  jealousies  be- 
tween His  Majesty's  faithful  subjects  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  :  it  was  therefore 
ordert'cl,  that  the  said  paper  should  be  burnt 
by  the  hands  of  the  common  hangman. 
And  on  the  Wednesday  following,  viz.,  the 
20th  of  December,  the  said  paper  was  burn- 
ed before  the  gate  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons by  the  hands  of  the  common  hang- 
man, in  the  piesence  of  the  sheriffs  of 
Dublin,  amidst  the  indignant  shouts  of  an 
immense  crowd  of  spectators,  who  loudly, 
though  without  outrage,  resented  the  insult 
offered  to  their  representatives. 

It   was  evident   that  Lord    Townshend's 
new  system  of  government  had  not  yet  been 


suflSciently  perfected.  There  was  a  new 
assault  in  preparation  during  the  month  o 
December  in  this  year,  IVGO,  against  the 
enormous  pension-list,  and  although  he 
knew  he  could  command  a  majority  upon 
that  (ninety-eight  being  against  the  agita- 
tion of  the  pension-list  at  that  time,  and 
eighty-nine  for  it),  still  the  majority  was  too 
trifling  to  trust  to,  and  a  victory  on  such 
terms  would  have  been  a  moral  defeat.  Ha 
determined  to  prorogue  the  House.  This 
became  known  to  the  Commons  and  the 
country,  and  the  House,  in  an  address,  re- 
quested that  his  excellency  would  inform 
the  House  whether  he  liad  any  instructions 
or  had  any  intention  to  prorogue  the  Par- 
liament sooner  than  usual.  Here  again  the 
lord-lieutenant  found  his  deficiency  in  doing 
the  king''s  business :  for  upon  a  division  on 
the  main  question  the  minister  was  left  once 
more  in  a  greater  minority  than  ever,  there 
being  lOG  or  his  excellency's  making  the 
declaration,  and  seventy-three  only  against  it. 
On  the  very  next  day,  however,  Sir  George 
Macartney,  the  secretary,  reported  to  the 
House,  that  his  excellency  had  returned  the 
following  answer : 

"  Gentlemen — I  shall  always  be  desir- 
ous of  complying  with  your  request  when  I 
can  do  it  with  propriety.  I  do  not  think 
myself  authorized  to  disclose  his  majesty's 
instructions  to  me  upon  any  subject,  without 
having  received  his  majesty's  commands  for 
so  doing.  With  regard  to  my  intentions, 
they  will  be  regulated  by  his  majesty's  in- 
structions and  future  events^''  In  fact,  on 
the  day  after  Christmas,  Lord  Townshend 
prorogued  the  Parliament,  at  first  only  till 
the  20th  of  March  following.  The  lord-lieu- 
tenant having  experienced  so  much  inflexi- 
bility and  difficulty  in  the  management  of  the 
Commons  in  the  first  session,  fully  resolved 
to  meet  them  no  more  in  Parliament,  till 
they  were  properly  marshalled,  and  thor- 
oughly broken  in  to  every  manoeuvre  of  the 
new  tactics.  His  excelluncy  accordingly  by 
proclamation  on  the  12th  (;f  March,  1770, 
prorogued  them  to  Tuesday,  the  1st  of  May 
following;  on  the  20th  of  April,  1770,  he 
further  prorogued  them  to  the  28th  of  Au- 
gust, and  by  three  other  successive  proclama- 
tions he  further  prorogued  them  to  different 
periods,  and  finally  to  the  26th  of  February, 


110 


HISTORY    OF   IRKLAND. 


1771,  llicii  to  i-it  for  dispatch  of  bu.siness. 
lu  the  iiiraii  time  afi'airs  were  falling  into 
.sf'ine  cdiiuiisiou;  several  tenipcirary  acts 
tvhich  required  leiievval  had  expired ;  the 
contest  in  Ireland  excited  the  sympathies  of 
the  whig  party  in  England,  and  in  May,  iVVO, 
the  Hon.  Boyle  Walsinghani  brought  up  in 
Parliament  at  Westminster  the  whole  sub- 
ject of  the  late  extraordinary  prorogations 
in  Dublin,  and  moved  for  papers  connected 
thertrwith.  Lord  North,  the  minister,  of  course 
defended  the  prorogations,  which  he  said  he 
had  liimself  advised  ;  and  declared  the  con- 
duct, of  the  Irish  Parliament  to  be  contrary 
to  J*oynings'  Law,  "  the  grand  bond  of  the 
dependence  of  Ireland  upon  England."  The 
House  divided  upon  the  motion  for  papers, 
when  G6  voted  for  it,  but  178  voted  against 
all  inquiry. 

Lord  Townshend  and  his  creatures  weie 
not  idle  during  the  long  Parliamentary  in- 
terregnum. It  is  painful  to  be  obliged  to 
record  that  his  system  of  personal  individ- 
ual corruption  made  good  progress.  "Pa- 
triots" were  won  over  to  the  administration, 
among  whom  appeared  conspicuously,  Mr. 
Saxtou  Perry,  member  for  Limerick,  who 
first  received  the  support  of  the  Govern- 
ment in  being  elecied  as  Speaker  of  the 
House,  with  a  promise  of  a  peerage.  Many 
others  had  been  secured,  sume  with  money, 
some  with  honors,  and  in  Februaiy,  1771, 
Jiis  excellency  faced  the  Parliament  with 
full  confidence,  which  it  soon  appeared  was 
not  misplaced.  The  first  division  was  on  an 
address  of  the  Commons  to  his  majesty  in 
answer  to  the  lord-lieutenant's  speech  ;  in 
this  address  they  returned  their  most  humble 
thanks  to  his  majesty,  for  graciously  contin 
iiing  his  excellency.  Lord  Townshend,  in 
the  government  of  the  kingdom.  The  sla- 
vish address  was  0[)posed, but  was  carried  bv 
132  against  107.  Lord  Townshend  never 
bad  any  further  tiouble  in  managing  Pailia- 
nient  and  doing  the  king's  business.  Mr. 
Ponsonby,  the  Speaker  of  the  House,  how- 
ever, refused  to  be  the  official  medium  of 
presenting  the  servile  address  ;  he  resigned 
at  once,  requesting  the  Ilouse  "to  elect  an- 
oiner  Speaker  who  may  not  think  such  con- 
duct inconsistent  with  his  honor."  Mr. 
Perry  was  thereupon  elected.  "And  the 
conduct    and  speech  of  Mr.  Perry  on  this 


occasion  bespoke  the  forward  zeal    of  a  new 
proselyte."* 

Having  now  secured  his  majority  in  Par- 
liament, the  grand  policy  of  Lord  Towns- 
hend was  to  do  away  with  the  effects  of  the 
Patriotic  rotes  in  the  last  session,  and  justify 
his  own  conduct  in  the  prorogations.  He 
was  to  make  this  Irish  Parliament  stult'fy 
itself  and  eat  its  own  words,  and  in  all  this 
he  was  eminently  successful.  Nothing  w.ms 
permitted  to  pass  without  a  division,  so  as 
to  parade  continually  before  the  eyes  of 
the  people  of  Iieland,  and  of  his  employ- 
ers in  England  the  thorough  training  in 
which  the  viceroy  had  his  Parliament  at 
last.  The  Commons,  however — that  is  the 
remaining  Patriots  in  the  House — made  one 
last  eflfoit,  by  moving  an  address  to  the  king, 
containing  some  pitiful  remonstrances: — as 
that  "his  faithful  Commons  did  confidently 
hope  that  a  law  for  securing  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  judges  of  this  kingdom  would 
have  passed ;  such  a  law  having  been  rec- 
ommended and  promised  by  his  excellen<;v 
the  lord-lieutenant,  in  a  speech  from  the 
throne  in  the  first  session  of  his  excellency's 
government,"  and  several  other  remonstran- 
ces of  alike  kind.  The  address  was  ordered 
to  be  opposed,  and  it  was  lost  by  a  vote  of 
123  against  68. 

Yet  once  more  the  viceroy's  well-drilled 
ranks  were  to  be  paraded.  In  the  address 
of  the  Commons  to  the  lord-lieutenant, 
which  was  moved  fur  and  carried  on  the 
16th  of  May,  two  days  only  before  the  pro- 
rogation, the  Patriots  objected  to  the  thanks 
contained  in  it  for  his  excellency's  just  and 
prudent  administration;  but  on  a  division 
they  were  outvoted  by  106  against  51  ; 
this  address  together  with  the  king's  answer 
to  the  address  of  the  Commons  to  the 
throne,  was  considered,  by  the  Casde,  to 
have  completely  counteracted  the  whole 
effect  of  the  successful  efforts  of  the  Patiiots 
in  the  last  session,  and  to  have  given  the 
express  royal  sanction  to  every  part  of  the 
viceroy's  conduct. 

The  address  of  the  lords  to  the  kino-  con- 


*  Plowden.  It  should  be  remarkcl  tlint  this  his- 
tci-ian  wrote  his  tir^t  series  in  a  spirit  fiivonilile  to 
the  Union,  and,  therefore,  lias  some  propensity  to 
disparage  the  *'  Patriots  "  of  tlie  colony,  and  to  poin 
out  their  helplessness  or  venality. 


TRIUMPH    OF   THE    ENGLISH    I^rTEREST. 


111 


tfiitiocl  the  following  paragraph:  "We  have 
the  truest  sense  of  many  instances,  which 
yo'.ir  majesty  lias  been  pleased  to  afford  us 
of  your  paternal  care,  and  particularly  your 
continuing  the  Lord  Viscount  Townshend 
in  the  government  of  this  kingdom,  of 
which,  as  his  experience  enables  hitn  to  form 
the  truest  judgment,  so  his  candor  and  in- 
tegiity  will,  we  doubt  not,  move  him  to 
make  the  justest  representation."  A  warm 
debate  took  place  upon  the  question  being 
put,  that  the  said  paragraph  do  stand  part 
of  the  address,  which  was  carried  by  thirty 
against  fifteen.  A  maidy  protest  was  en- 
tered by  sixteen  peers,  whose  titles  deserve 
to  be  recorded.     They  were 

Leinster  (by  proxy),     Baltinglass, 

Westmeath,  Mount-Cashell, 

Lanesborougli,  Moira  (by  proxy), 

Shannon,  Longford, 

Mornington,  Louth, 

Lisle,  Bective, 

Powerscourt,  Molesworth, 

Charlemont,  Beliamont. 

In  this  session  Lord  Townshend  proved,  by 
his  two-thirds  majority  on  no  fewer  than 
seventeen  divisions,  that  he  could  now  make 
that  Parli:imejit  vote  anything  he  ordered, 
whether  in  matter  of  opinion  or  matter  of 
fact.  He  chose  that  there  should  be  no 
parliamentary  inquiry,  this  time,  into  finan- 
ces and  pensions,  and  acn-ordingly  there  was 
not.  It  appeals  evident,  from  the  arguments 
of  the  still  uncorrupted  Patriots  of  the 
Hou-e  of  Commons,  from  the  pi'otest  of  the 
sixteen  peers,  from  the  state  of  the  national 
accounts  still  upon  record,  and  from  other 
InVtoric.il  documents,  that  the  national  debt 
of  Ireland  very  heavily  accumulated  during 
the  administration  of  Lord  Townshend;  yet 
we  find,  that  after  the  experience,  which  two 
years  and  a  quarter  had  given  him  of  the 
inadequacy  of  the  fiscal  resources  of  that 
kingtioin  to  answer  his  new  plan  of  keeping 
up  the  EiKjliiih  interest^  he  refrained  fi'om 
calling  on  the  Commons  for  any  supplies, 
alleging  in  his  speech  to  Parliauient,  on  the 
26ili  of  February,  1771,  that  with  very 
strict  economy,  the  duties  granted  last  ses- 
sion would  be  sufficient  to  answer  the  ex- 
penses of  his  majesty's  government;  and 
therefore  he  would  a'^k  no  further  supply. 
The  confidence  with  which  Lord  Towns- 


hend met  the  Parliament  in  Octobei',  1771, 
was  strongly  displayed  in  his  speech.  "  Mv 
experience,"  said  his  ex(;ellency,  "  of  vour 
attachment  to  his  majesty's  person,  and  of 
your  zeal  for  the  public  service,  afibrds  me 
the  best-grounded  hopes,  that  nothing  will  be 
wanting  on  your  part  to  co-operate  with  his 
inajesty's  gracious  intentions  to  ])roinote 
the  welfare  and  happiness  of  this  kingdom, 
and  when  to  this  consideration  I  add  my 
remembrance  of  your  kind  regard  for  the 
ease  and  honor  of  my  administration,  I  feel 
the  most  sensible  pleasure  in  the  present 
opportunity,  which  his  majesty  has  given 
me,  of  meeting  you  a  fourth  time  in  Parlia- 
ment." Notwithstanding  his  boasted  econ- 
omy, which  prevented  his  application  to  the 
Commons  for  any  further  supply  last  session, 
he  now  told  them  "  that  it  was  with  concern 
that  he  must  ask  a  sum  of  money  to  dis- 
(diarge  the  arrears  already  incurred  on  his 
majesty's  establishments,  but  that  they 
would  find  they  had  been  unavoidable;  for 
that  the  strictest  economy  had  been  used." 
etc.  Another  part  of  the  lord-lieutenant's 
speech  on  the  opening  of  this  Pailiament, 
referred  to  the  illegal  associations  and  out- 
rages of  the  "  Hearts  of  Steel  "  in  the  north 
of  Ireland.  The  violence  of  these  people 
had  greatly  increased  and  extended  to  other 
countries  than  those  in  vidiich  the  society 
had  first  appeared.  They  exacted  o;iths  by 
force,  maltreated  obnoxious  individuals,  and 
destroyed  houses.  Some  of  them  were 
taken  and  tried  at  Carrickfergus  ;  but  wheth- 
er from  want  of  evidence,  from  fear  of  in- 
curring the  resentment  of  the  populace,  or 
from  partialitv  in  the  witnesses  and  the  jury, 
they  were  acquitted.  On  this  account  the 
legislature  p;issed  an  act,  by  which  all  per- 
sons indicted  of  such  offen^-es  were  ordered 
to  be  tried  in  counties  different  from  those 
in  which  the  excesses  were  committed.  In 
consequence,  several  of  the  Steel  Boys 
against  whom  examinations  had  been  taken, 
were  carried  to  Dublin  and  put  upon  their 
trial.  But  so  strong  was  the  prejudice  con- 
ceived against  this  new  law,  that  no  jury 
there  would  find  any  of  them  guilty.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  these  rioters  weie 
all  Protestants,  as  were  also  all  the  jurors 
who  tried  ihetn.  If  they  had  been  Catho- 
lics, there  would  have  been  no  difficulty  in 


112 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


viiuHcatiiig  the  law.  The  obnoxious  act, 
however,  was  repealed,  and  after  tliat  many 
convictions  and  executions  took  place.  The 
effects,  not  of  the  riots,  but  of  the  oppres- 
sions which  produced  them,  were  for  a  long 
time  prejudicial  to  the  country,  and  the 
emigration  to  America  was  renewed  to  a 
greater  extent  than  ever  before. 

The  session  passed  in  an  unbroken  series 
of  servile  divisions  in  favor  of  everything 
the  Castle  wished ;  against  every  thing  the 
Castle  disliked.  In  the  address  to  the  king 
occurred  these  words,  "  We  are  fully  persua- 
ded that  the  support  of  your  majesty's  gov- 
ernment is  the  great  and  firm  basis  of  the 
freedom  and  happiness  of  this  country."  A 
Patriot  ventured  on  an  arnendment,  that 
before  tlie  word  sujyporf,  the  word  constitu- 
tional should  be  inserted  ;  it  was  negatived 
by  a  vote  of  eighty-eight  against  thirty-six. 

During  this  administration  we  find  by  the 
journals  mentioning  the  tellers  upon  the 
different  divisions,  that  three  of  the  most 
forward  and  constant  supporters  of  every 
government  question  were  Mr.  Monk  Mason, 
Mr.  Foster,  and  Mr.  Fitzgibbou ;  and  the 
truth  or  falsity  of  the  propositions  little 
availed,  piovided  it  were  made  a  Govern- 
ment question.  Thus  besides  the  instances 
already  adduced,  we  find  upon  the  journals 
(8  vol.  iii.)  the  following  resolution  nega- 
t.ved  on  tlie  8th  of  March,  1766  :  "That  it 
be  resolved,  that  the  office  of  a  commissioner 
of  his  majesty's  revenue  would  be  better 
executed  by  a  person  resident  in  this  king- 
dom, than  by  an  absentee."  During  this 
session  of  1*771,  died  Dr.  Lucas,  whom,  from 
h^s  first  entrance  into  political  life,  no  prom- 
ises or  oft'ers  could  seduce  from  untainted 
j>atriot.ism.  The  citizens  of  Dublin  erected 
his  statue  in  the  exchange.  The  remainder 
of  Lord  Townshend's  administration  passed 
over  without  any  notable  incident.  No 
legishitive  measure  was  adopted  either  for 
or  against  tlie  Catholics,  but  his  lordship 
could  not  retire  from  a  situation  which  he 
had  held  in  Ireland  for  five  years  without 
giving  some  proof  of  his  attachment  to  the 
Protestant  religion. 

A  provision  had  been  made  by  the  8th 
of  Anne,  that  every  Popish  priest,  who 
should  become  Protestant,  and  be  approved 
of  as  a   convert,  should   have   £30    yearly 


for  his  maintenance,  until  provided  for  bj 
some  ecclesiastical  preferment  beyond  that 
amount.  But  by  an  act  of  this  session  it  wai 
recited,  that  it  had  been  found  by  experience, 
that  the  former  act  had  not  answered  the 
purposes  intended,  especially  as  the  provi- 
sion made  as  aforesaid /or  such  Popish  priests 
is  in  no  respect  a  suffi,cient  encouragement  for 
Popish  priests  to  become  converts ;  it  was 
therefore  enacted,  that  £,iQ  should  in  future 
be  allowed  annually,  in  lieu  of  £30  to  every 
Popish  priest  converted.  The  multiplica- 
tion of  these  allowances  up  to  the  height  of 
the  most  proselytizing  zeal  could  not  inter- 
fere with  the  civil  list  of  pensioners,  as 
these  spiritual  douceurs  were  to  be  levied  on 
the  inhabitants  of  the  district,  wherein  the 
convert  last  resided.  These  additional  pit- 
tances of  £10  were  called  by  the  Irish, 
Townshend's  golden  drops.  They  were  not 
found  more  efficacious  than  the  former  pre- 
scription. 

This  act  for  the  encouragement  of  converts 
to  the  Protestant  religiou  was  also  in  some 
measure  deemed  necessary  to  counterbalance 
the  effects  of  another  act  made  in  the  same 
session,  supposed  to  be  very  favorable  to  the 
Catholics,  and  which  in  times  of  less  liberal- 
ity had  been  repeatedly  thrown  out  of  Par- 
liament, as  tending  to  encourage  Popery  lo 
the  detriment  and  prejudice  of  the  Protest- 
ant religion.  This  was  An,  Act  to  encourage 
the  reclaiming  of  unprofituble  Bogs,  and  re- 
cites that  there  were  large  tracts  of  deep 
bogs  in  several  counties  of  the  kingdom, 
which  in  their  then  state  were  not  only  un- 
profitable, but  by  their  damps  rendered  the 
air  unwholesome;  and  it  had  been  fouh'il 
by  experience,  that  such  bogs  were  capable 
of  improvement,  and  of  being  converted 
into  arable  or  pasture  land,  if  encourage- 
ment were  given  to  the  lower  class  of  peo- 
ple to  apply  their  industry  to  the  reclaiming 
of  them.  It  therefore  enacted,  that  not- 
withstanding the  laws  then  in  force,  anv 
Catholic  might  be  at  liberty  to  take  a  lease 
of  fifty  plantation  acres  of  such  bog,  and 
one  half  an  acre  of  arable  land  adjoining 
thereto,  as  a  site  for  a  house,  or  for  the  pur- 
pose of  delving  for  gravel  or  limestone,  for 
manure,  at  such  rent  as  should  be  agreed 
upon  between  him  and  the  owner  of  the 
soil,  as  also  from  ecclesiastical  or  bodies  cor- 


BILL   TO    ALLOW   PAPISTS    TO    RECLAIM    BOGS. 


113 


piinite;  and  for  further  encoura^Pineiit,  the 
tenant  was  to  be  free  for  the  fiist  seven 
years  from  all  tithes  and  cesses;  but  it  was 
provided,  that  if  half  of  the  bog  demised 
were  not  reclaimed  at  the  end  of  twenty- 
one  years,  the  lease  should  be  void  ;  and  no 
hofr  was. to  be  considered  unprofitable,  unless 
the  depth  of  it  from  the  surface,  when  re- 
claimed, were  four  feet  at  least;  and  no 
person  was  to  be  entitled  to  the  benefit  of 
the  act,  unless  he  reclaimed  ten  plantation 
acres;  and  the  act  was  not  to  extend  to  any 
bog  within  one  mile  of  a  city  or  market 
town. 

The  provisions  of  this  act  give  us  a  clear- 
er idea  than  any  labored  disquisition  could 
do,  of  the  depressed  condition  of  the  Cath- 
olics of  that  day,  and  of  the  manner  in  which 
they  were  regarded  by  the  colonists — "Pa- 
triots" and  all. 

Lord  Townshend's  administration  was 
drawing  to  a  close;  and  he  had  done  his 
British  errand  well.  No  viceroy  had  yet 
succeeded  in  establishing  in  Ireland  such 
profound  demoralization  and  debasement. 

The  baneful  example  of  the  chief  gover- 
nor's marshallino"  the  ranks  of  Parliament 
encouraged  the  already  too  deeply  rooted 
principle  of  despotism  throughout  the  nation. 
Not  oidy  the  great  lords  and  real  owners  of 
land  exercised  in  general  a  most  ferocious 
rule  over  their  inferiors  ;  but  that  obnoxious 
race  of  self-created  gentlemen,  whose  conse- 
quence and  virtue  consisted  in  not  being 
Papists,  and  whose  loyalty  was  mere  lust 
for  persecuting  and  oppressing  them,  were 
uncontrollable  in  their  petty  tyranny.  Even 
tlie  lord-lieutenant  was  so  sensible  of  it,  that 
being  resolved  to  pardon  a  Catholic  gentle- 
man unjustly  found  guilty,  he  withdrew  the 
hand  of  mercy,  with  this  reflection  :  "  I  see 
them  resolved  upon  his  blood,  so  he  may  as 
well  go  now." 

In  his  farewell  speech  to  Parliament,  this 
able  British  agent  sarcastically  complimented 
the  miserable  crew,  over  whom  he  had  so 
often  sliaken  his  whip — "I  have  upon  every 
occasion  endeavored,  to  the  utmost  of  my 
power,  to  promote  the  public  service,  and  I 
feel  the  most  perfect  satisfaction  in  now  re- 
pealing to  you  my  acknowledgments  for  the 
very  honorable  manner  in  which  (after  a 
residence  of  near  five  years  amongst  yon) 
15 


you  have  declared  your  entire  approbation 
of  my  conduct.  Be  assured  that  I  shall 
always  entertain  the  most  ardent  wishes  for 
your  welfare,  and  shall  make  a  faithful  rep 
resentation  to  his  majesty  of  your  loyalty 
and  attachment  to  his  royal  person  and  gov- 
ernment." 

On  the  whole,  we  cannot  but  acquiesce  in 
the  cruel  judgment  passed  upon  the  Irish 
Parliament  by  the  worthy  Dr.  Campbell,* 
at  the  moment  when  Lord  Townshend  re- 
tired, and  gave  place  to  his  successor,  Lord 
Harcourt — "  Lord  Harcourt  then  found  the 
Parliament  of  Ireland  as  obsequious  an  that 
of  Great  Britain^''  It  would  be  impossible 
to  use  a  stronger  expression. 

When  Lord  Harcourt  assumed  the  gov- 
ernment,  in  October,  1772,  he  had  little  to 
do  but  to  continue  the  system  which  his 
predecessor  had  with  so  much  perseveranc-e, 
difficulty,  and  charge  to  the  fitiance,  regu- 
larly established,  according  to  his  instruc- 
tions from  the  British  cabinet.  In  order, 
therefore,  to  give  continuance  and  stability 
to  the  new  English  interest,  which  had  been 
raised  upon  the  partial  destruction  of  the  Irish 
oligarchy,  as  Lord  Clare  observed,  a  man 
was  chosen  of  amiable  charactei',  easy  dis- 
position, and  of  no  other  ambition  than  to 
move  by  the  direction,  and  thus  acquire  the 
approbation  of  his  immediate  employer.-^. 
With  the  active  labor  of  office,  he  considered 
that  he  also  threw  the  buiden  of  responsi- 
bility upon  his  secretary.  lie  had  been 
nearly  twelve  months  in  the  government  of 
Ireland  before  he  met  the  Parliament,  on 
the  12th  of  October,  1773. 

The  first  stand  made  by  the  Patriots  was 
upon  an  alarm  at  the  intention  of  Govern- 
ment, in  laying  the  public  accounts  before 
the  House,  to  hold  back  some  of  tlie  docu- 
ments which  would  too  palpably  bring  to 
light  the  means  used  by  the  last  viceroy  for 
insuring  a  majority  to  do  the  kinfx  business. 
After  the  House  had  ordered  the  different 
accounts  and  estimates  to  be  laid  before  it, 
an  amendment  was  proposed  to  add  these 
words:  "As  far  as  there  are  materials  for 
that  purpose."     A  division  took  place,  and 

*  "  Pliilosopliical  Survey  of  the  Soiitli  of  Irelatid.''* 
Tli'm  is  the  work  of  an  honest  and  liberal  man, 
thouffh    not  »o  valuable   as  the    Tour  of   Arthur 

Younjj. 


lU 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


the  amendment  was  carried  by  88  against 
62.  Thus  it  was  left  in  the  discretion  of 
the  clerks,  or  rather  of  the  Government,  to 
bring  forward  or  hold  back  what  materials 
tiiey  chose. 

Lord  Harcourt's  administration  is  remark- 
nble  for  the  first  proposal  to  impose  an 
«ibsentee4ax  on  non-resident  Irish  landlords. 
This  proposal  came  from  the  crown ;  and  it 
■was  to  the  effect  that  a  tax  of  two  shillings 
in  the  poniid  should  be  laid  on  the  net  rental 
of  landed  property  in  Ireland,  to  be  paid  by 
all  persons  who  should  not  reside  in  that 
kingdom  for  six  months  in  each  year,  from 
Christmas,  1773,  to  Christmas,  1775.  The 
proposal  being  against  the  interest  of  Eng- 
land, was  evidently  not  sincere  on  the  part 
of  Government :  all  officials  were  left  at  per- 
fect liberty  to  support  it  or  not :  the  interest 
of  the  great  landlords  was  against  it;  and 
the  only  wonder  was  that  it  was  defeated 
by  so  small  a  majority,  122  against  102. 

But  we  have  now  arrived  at  an  epoch  in 
tli-e  history  of  the  world,  from  which  many 
(hings  in  modern  history  take  their  departure. 
It  has  been  thought  needful  to  go  into  some 
detail  to  show  the  miserable  and  abject  con- 
dition of  Ireland  at  this  precise  period,  in 
order  to  make  more  apparent  the  wonderful 
change  soon  produced  by  the  reflection  and 
reverberation  of  the  great  American  revolu- 
tion. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

1774—1777. 
American  affairB — Comparison  between  Ireland  and 
ihe  Colonies — Contagion  of  American  opinions  in 
Ireland — Paltry  measure  of  relief  to  Catholics — 
Congress  at  I'hiladelpliia — Address  of  (.'on^ress 
to  Ireland — Eiicuurageinerit  to  Fisheries — 4,000 
"armed  negotiators" — Financial  distress — Fiist 
Octennial  Parliament  dissolved — Grattan — Lord 
Buckingham,  Viceroy — Successes  of  the  Ameri- 
cans. 

The  American  "Stamp  Act"  had  beeti 
pai^sed  in  1765.  just  while  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment was  in  the  midst  of  its  struggle  for 
limited  Parliaments  and  against  the  pension 
list.  The  next  year  the  Stamp  Act  had 
been  repealed,  but  had  been  soon  followed 
by  the  attempt  to  impose  "port  duties." 
The  steady  organize<l  resistance  of  the 
Americans  had  caused  the  British  ministry 
to  relinquish  these  port  duties  also,  except 


the  duty  on  tea,  in  the  year  1770.  The 
question  between  the  mother-country  and 
the  colonies  being  thus  reduced  to  a  matter 
of  threepence  per  pound  on  tea,  the  colo- 
nists being  once  aroused,  having  laid  down 
the  principle,  "  No  taxation  without  repre- 
sentation," would  not  pay  that  threepence. 
A  year  after  Lord  Harcourt  came  to  Ire- 
land as  viceroy,  the  people  of  Boston  emptied 
a  cargo  of  taxed  tea  into  the  harbor  of  that 
port;  and  in  the  course  of  the  following 
year,  1774,  Edmund  Burke  made  one  of  his 
first  celebrated  speeches,  in  favor  of  a  repeal 
of  the  tea  duty,  in  the  British  Parliament. 
The  motion  had  been  made  by  Mr.  Fuller, 
member  for  Rye,  but  failed,  though  it  was 
supported  by  the  eloquence  of  Burke ;  and 
the  House,  we  are  told,  was  very  much 
amused  and  delighted  by  the  ingenious 
declamation  of  that  extraordinary  orator, 
while  he  eulogized  his  friend,  Lord  Rock- 
ingham and  his  government,  and  ridiculed 
in  his  peculiar  style  the  present  cabinet — 
"  An  administration  so  checkered  and  speck- 
led, a  piece  of  joinery  so  crossly  indented 
and  whimsically  dovetailed  ;  a  cabinet  so 
variously  inlaid,  such  a  piece  of  diversified 
mosaic,  such  a  tessellated  pavement  without 
cement,  here  a  bit  of  black  stone,  there  a 
bit  of  white,"  etc.  But  though  there  was 
much  laughter  and  cheering,  the  motion  to 
repeal  the  tea  duty  was  lost  on  a  division  of 
184  against  51.  If  it  be  any  comfort  to  us, 
the  fact  is  certain,  that  the  British  Parlia- 
ment of  that  day  was  fully  as  servile  as  the 
Irish,  and  very  much  more  stupid. 

It  was  evident  that  the  last  resort  of  war 
had  nearly  arrived  ;  and  the  very  strong 
analogies  which  existed  between  the  Ameri- 
can colonies  and  the  Irish  colony  were  quite 
sufficient  to  occasion  in  the  latter  country 
not  only  an  intense  interest,  but  a  deep 
sympathy  also  in  the  American  struggle. 
The  situation  of  the  two  countries  was  nut 
indeed  precisely  alike.  The  North  Ameri- 
can colonies  had  never  pretended  to  be  a 
kingdom,  as  the  English  colony  in  Ireland 
did.  Ireland  was  not  taxed  absolutely 
without  representation,  although  the  de- 
pendent position  of  her  Parliament,  under 
Poynings'  Law,  made  her  repre.sen'ation  qui'e 
illusory  for  any  efficient  security.  The 
American  colonists  were  then  about  three 


CONTAGION    OF    AMERICAN    OPINIONS    IN   IRELAND. 


115 


inillioiis  in  number;  the  Irish,  only  half  a 
million — for  the  two  millions  of  Catholics 
were  not  counted  as  members  of  the  body 
'"politic.  Ireland  was  within  easy  reach  and 
striking  distance  of  the  common  enemy, 
and  America  wa-?  divided  from  her  by  three 
thousand  miles  of  ocean — no  trifling  advan- 
tage in  the  days  when  steam  navigation  was 
not.  Above  all,  America  had  this  one  great 
and  signal  advantage  over  Ireland,  that  the 
colonists,  though  of  diflferent  religions,  were 
all  equal  before  the  law,  and  felt  themselves 
♦'qually  concerned  in  the  common  interest. 
They  were  also  all  armed,  and  accustomed 
to  the  use  of  weapons,  while  in  Ireland  the 
penal  laws  had  effectually  disarmed  and 
reduced  to  a  state  of  utter  helplessness,  four- 
fifths  of  the  entire  population. 

There  was,  however,  quite  sufficient  re- 
semblance between  the  cases  of  the  two 
countries  to  disquiet  Lord  North's  administra- 
tion very  considerably.  The  minister,  there- 
fore, wisely,  though  silently,  instructed  the 
lord-lieutenant  to  endeavor  by  all  means  to 
Rooihe  and  engage  the  affections  of  the  Cath- 
olics by  gradual  relaxations  of  the  rigorous 
code  of  penalties,  pains,  and  disabilities, 
under  which  they  had  so  long  and  so  patient- 
ly sufiered.  As  early,  therefore,  in  the 
session  as  the  10th  of  November,  1773,* 
leave  was  given  to  bring  in  the  heads  of  a 
bill  to  secure  the  repayment  of  money  that 
should  be  really  lent  and  advanced  by  Pa- 
pists to  Protestants  on  mortgages  of  lands, 
tenements,  and  hereditaments;  atid  that  it 
might  be  understood  to  be  a  Government 
measure  of  grace,  Mr.  Mason,  Sir  Lucius 
O'Brien,  and  Mr.  Langrishe,  great  and  de- 
t'-rmined  supporters  of  Government,  were 
ordered  to  bring  it  in.f  On  the  preceding 
dny  leave  had  been  given  to  bring  in  heads 
of  a  bill  to  enable  Papists,  upon  certain 
terms  and  provisoes,  to  take  leases  of  lives, 
of  lands,  tenements,  and  hereditaments  ;  but 
nt-itlier  one  or  the  other  of  these  bills  at  that 
time  proceeded.  The  Irish  antipathies  to 
popery,  and  the  reluctance  of  most  men  in 
jilace  or  power  in  Ireland  to  do  justice  to 
the  Catholics,  deterred  the  easy  mind  of 
Lord  Hai'c.ourt  from  pushing  forward  what 
they  persuaded  him  would  create  difficulties 
and  disturbances  in  Parliament,  and  inter- 

»  9  Com.  Journ.,  p.  28.  t  Ibid.,  p.  27. 


rnpt  that  easy  and  quiet  majority  which 
Government  then  enjoyed,  and  which  he 
had  it  strongly  in  command  to  keep  up  by 
all  possible  and  prudent  means.  Although 
the  managers  of  the  English  interest  in 
Ireland  (this  lord-lieutenant  was  but  their 
passive  tool)  had  blasted  these  two  scions  of 
indulgence  in  their  first  shoot,  yet  the  British 
ministry  sent  over  positive  and  uncontrollable 
orders  that  some  act  of  the  legislature  should 
positively  be  passed  in  that  session,  of  a 
soothing  and  conciliatory  tendency  to  the 
Catholics,  well  imagining  that  the  breadth 
of  the  Atlantic  would  not  prevent  the  infec- 
tion of  political  discontent  in  persons  equally 
sufteting  a  deprivation  of  that  nutriment  and 
support  which  their  constitution  required 
for  the  preservation  of  their  existence.  On 
the  5th  of  March,  1774,  therefore,  leave 
was  given  to  bring  in  a  bill  to  enable  hia 
majesty's  subjects,  of  whatever  persuasion, 
to  testify  their  allegiance  to  him ;  and  as 
the  bill  remitted  no  part  of  the  then  existing 
code  of  severity,  but  accorded  merely  a 
permission  to  the  Catholics  of  expressing 
their  allegiance  to  their  sovereign,  which 
before  they  had  not,  it  passed  both  Houses 
without  obstruction  or  opposition.  Of  this 
measure,  paltry  as  it  was,  and  even  insulting, 
when  coupled  with  the  rejection  of  the  bills 
to  allow  Catholics  to  take  mortgages  or 
leases,  Mr.  Plowden  observes — "  It  gratified 
the  Catholics,  inasmuch  as  it  was  a  formal 
recognition  that  they  were  suV)jects,  and  to 
this  recognition  they  looked  up  as  to  the 
corner-stone  of  their  future  emancipation." 

It  cannot  fail  to  strike  every  reader  that 
whatever  miserable  indulgences,  tolerations, 
or  connivances  were  extended  to  the  Catho- 
lics during  all  the  era  of  the  penal  laws, 
were  carefully  calculated  to  prevent  them 
from  getting  any  hold  upon  the  land.  Thus 
they  were  now  permitted  to  testify  allegiance 
if  they  chose,  but  could  in  no  case  take  a 
mortgage  on  real  estate,  because  mortgages 
are  often  foreclosed,  and  the  mortgagee  be- 
comes entitled  to  the  land.  They  might  at- 
tend mass,  but  could  by  no  means  be  allowed 
to  have  a  lease  for  lives.  Mr.  Biirke,  in  a 
letter  written  in  1775,*  ascribes  this  policy 
not  so  much  to  the  greedy  determination  of 
Protestants  to  own  all  the  wealth  of  the  king* 

*  Letter  to  an  Irish  Peer. 


116 


HISTORY    OP   IRELAND. 


dura  as  to  mere  arrogance  and  insolence.  He 
says,  *•  From  what  I  have  obseived,  it  is  pride, 
arrogance,  a  spirit  of  domination,  and  not  a 
bigoted  spirit  of  religion,  that  has  caused 
and  kept  up  those  oppressive  statutes,  I  am 
sure  I  have  known  those,  who  have  oppressed 
Papists  in  their  civil  rights,  exceedingly  in- 
dulgent to  them  in  their  religious  ceremo- 
nies ;  and  who  wished  them  to  continue,  in 
order  to  furnish  pretences  for  oppression ; 
and  who  never  saw  a  man  by  conforming 
escape  out  of  their  power,  but  with  grudging 
and  regret.  I  have  known  men,  to  whom  I 
am  not  uncharitable  in  saying,  though  they 
are  dead,  that  they  would  become  Papists 
in  order  to  oppress  Protestants ;  if  being 
Protestants  it  was  not  in  their  power  to 
oppress  Papists."  But  whosoever  has  read 
the  narrative  of  events  down  to  the  time  at 
which  we  are  now  arrived,  will  scarcely  re- 
sist the  conclusion  that  the  controlling  idea 
in  all  the  pohcy  of  the  Ascendency  was 
simple  greediness. 

Meanwhile  the  disj)ute  with  America  was 
very  fast  approaching  the  arbitrement  of 
war.  The  first  general  Congress  had  been 
opened  in  Philadelphia  on  the  4th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1V74.  All  eyes  in  Ireland  were 
turned  to  this  impending  struggle,  and  the 
obvious  community  of  interest  which  Ireland 
had  with  those  Transatlantic  colonies,  made 
their  case  the  theme  of  conversation  in 
private  circles,  as  well  as  of  debates  in  Par- 
liament. The  attention  of  the  country  was 
still  more  strongly  aroused  when  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  amongst  other  forcible 
addresses  issued  at  this  time,  directed  one  to 
the  "  People  of  hvland." 

"We  are  desirous  of  the  good  opinion  of 
the  virtuous  and  humane.  We  are  peculi- 
arly desirous  of  furnishing  you  with  the 
true  state  of  our  motives  and  objects ;  the 
better  to  enable  you  to  judge  of  our  conduct 
with  accuracy  and  determine  the  merits  of 
the  controversy  with  impartiality  and  preci- 
sion. Your  Parliament  had  done  us  no 
wrong.  You  had  ever  been  friendly  to  tlie 
rights  of  mankind ;  and  we  acknowledge 
with  pleasure  and  gratitude  that  your  nation 
has  produced  patriots  who  have  nobly  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  the  cause  of  human- 
ity and  America."  In  fact,  most  of  the 
leading  members  of  the  opposition  in  both 


countries  (who  afterwards  composed  that 
administration,  which  put  an  end  to  tha 
American  war)  opposed  the  war  upon  prin- 
ciple; they  inveighed  against  the  unconsti- 
tutional exactions  of  the  ministry,  and  in 
their  debates  went  very  little  short  of  for- 
mally justifying  the  American  rebellion. 
The  analogy  between  America  and  Ireland 
was  too  close  to  pass  unnoticed  ;  and  the 
defection  of  the  American  Colonies  pro- 
duced strong  effects  upon  Ireland.  The  ex- 
portation of  Irish  linen  for  America  had 
been  very  considerable ;  but  now  this  great 
source  of  national  wealth  was  totally  shut 
up,  by  an  extraordinary  stretch  of  preroga- 
tive. Under  the  pretext  of  preventing  the 
Americans  from  being  supplied  with  provi- 
sions from  this  country,  an  embargo  was  laid 
on  the  exportation  of  provisions  from  Ire- 
land, which  in  prejudicing  that  kingdom, 
served  only  to  favor  the  adventures  of  Brit- 
ish contractors.  This  embargo,  combined 
with  other  causes,  which  were  invariable 
and  permanent,  produced  the  most  melan- 
choly effects.  Wool  and  black  cattle  fell 
considerably  in  value,  as  did  also  land  ;  and 
rents  in  many  places  could  scarcely  be  col- 
lected, so  much  was  public  credit  essentially 
injured.  In  short,  it  was  again  judged  ne- 
cessary, in  presence  of  these  exciting  ques- 
tions with  America,  "  to  do  something  for 
poor  Ireland,"  as  the  phrase  then  ran. 

The  nature  of  the  benefit,  however,  was  to 
be  considered,  and  nothing  could  seem  bet- 
ter adopted,  than  a  donation,  whi(;h  would 
be  an  advantage  instead  of  a  loss  to  the 
giver.  It  was  not  itself  very  considerable, 
but  it  might  be  considered  as  a  beginning ; 
and  small  benefits  carry  weight  with  those 
who  have  not  been  habituated  to  great 
favors.  It  had  been  shown  to  the  British 
Parliament,  that  the  exports  from  England 
to  Ireland  amounted  then  to  £2,400,000 
annually ;  besides  the  latter  supported  a 
large  standing  army,  at  all  times  ready  for 
the  defence  of  the  former  ;  and  immense 
sums  of  her  ready  cash  w;'re  spent  in  England 
by  her  numerous  absentees,  pensioners,  and 
placemen  ;  yet  by  oppressive  restrictions  ia 
trade,  Ireland  was  out  off  from  the  benefit  of 
her  great  natural  stnple  commodity,  as  well  as 
excluded  from  the  advantage  that  she  might 
derive  from  the  peculiarity  of  her  situation. 


ARMED    NEGOTIATORS. 


m 


The  British  minister  on  the  11th  of  Octo- 
ber, 1775,  moved  for  a  committee  of  the 
whole  House,  to  consider  of  the  encourage- 
ment proper  to  be  given  to  the  fisheries  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.*  This  attention 
U)  Ireland  was  generally  approved  of,  and 
after  some  conversation  on  the  hardships 
that  country  suffered,  it  was  proposed  by 
Mr.  Burke  to  extend  the  motion,  by  adding 
the  words  "trade  and  commerce;"  and 
thereby  aftbid  an  opportunity  to  grant  such 
relief  and  indulgence  in  those  exports,  as 
might  be  done  without  prejudice  to  Great 
Britain.  The  minister  objected  to  this ; 
however,  the  committee  in  its  progress 
granted  several  bounties  to  the  ships  of  Great 
Biitain  and  Ireland,  for  their  encouragement 
in  prosecuting  the  Newfoundland  fishery ; 
and  it  was  further  resolved  in  favor  of  Ire- 
land, that  it  should  be  lawful  to  export  from 
thence,  clothes  and  accoutrements  for  such 
regiments  on  the  Lish  establishment,  as  were 
employed  abroad  :  and  also,  that  a  bounty 
of  live  shillings  per  barrel  should  be  allowed 
OM  all  tlax  seeds  imported  into  Ireland.  Thib 
last  resolution  was  passed  to  prevent  the 
evils  that  were  apprehended  there,  from  the 
cutting  off  their  great  American  source  of 
supply  in  that  article.  Another  resolution 
■was  also  passed,  by  which  Ireland  was 
allowed  to  export  provisions,  hooks,  lines, 
n^t-i,  and  tools  for  the  implements  of  the 
fishery.  The  committee  also  agreed  to  the 
granting  of  bounties  for  encouraging  the 
whale  fishery,  in  those  seas  that  were  to  the 
southward  of  Greenland  and  Davis's  Straits 
fisheries:  and,  upon  the  same  principle,  tuok 
otf  the  duties  that  were  payable  upon  the 
importation  of  oil,  blubber,  and  bone,  from 
Newfoundland.  et%  They  also  took  off  the 
duty  that  was  pay;ible  upon  the  importation 
of  seal  skins. 

*  An  Eiipjlisli  minister  was  always  obliged  to  be 
extremely  cautions  in  approacliing  an\-  measure  for 
the  encourayreiiient  of  the  Irish  fisheries.  It  was 
in  the  leitrn  <>t'  WiUium  tiie  Third,  that  certain  fish- 
ermen in  Folkestone  and  Aldboroujrli,  ia  the  south 
of  England,  presented  mournful  petitions  to  Parlia- 
ment, slating  tliat  they  sutf-ired  ''  fr'^-m  Ireland,  by 
the  lri>h  catching  lierrings  at  Waterford  and  Wex- 
ford! and  sending  them  to  the  Straits,  and  thereby 
forestalling  and  ruining  tlie  petitioners'  markets." 
Tliesc  impudent  tisliermen  had,  as  Hutchinson  says, 
the  hard  lot  of  having  motions  which  were  made  in 
their  favor,  rejected.  See  the  Goininereial  Ke- 
litraints,  p.  1'A^. 


A  part  of  the  policy  of  this  petty  measure 
was  to  give  to  Ireland  some  portion  of  the  ben- 
efits of  which  the  war  would  deprive  America. 
Mr.  Burke,  on  this  occasion,  while  he  thanked 
Lord  North  for  the  trifling  boon  to  his  coun- 
try, took  occasion  to  say  "that  however 
desirous  he  might  be  to  promote  any 
scheme  for  the  advantage  of  Ireland,  he 
would  be  much  better  pleased  that  the  bene- 
fits thus  held  out  should  never  be  realized, 
than  that  Ireland  should  profit  at  the  expense 
of  a  country  which  was,  if  possible,  more 
oppressed  than  herself." 

But,  strong  as  was  the  sympathy  between 
Ireland  and  America,  and  earnestly  as  the 
mass  of  the  people — both  Catholic  and  Pro- 
testant— wished  success  to  the  patriotic 
colonists,  the  Government  was  determined  to 
place  the  two  oppressed  countries  as  far  as 
possible  in  a  position  of,  at  least,  apparent 
antagonism.  With  this  view,  Lord  Har- 
court,  in  the  year  1775 — ^just  as  hostilities 
had  commenced  at  Lexington — demanded 
the  services  of  four  thousand  men,  out  of  the 
twelve  thousand  which  then  constituted  the 
effective  force  of  regular  troops  in  Ireland, 
to  be  dispatched  to  America,  for  duty  there. 
At  the  same  time,  the  lord-lieutenant  said 
it  was  his  gracious  Majesty's  intention  to 
supply  the  place  of  the  four  thousand  raeo 
with  foreign  Protestant  soldiers — in  short, 
with  Hessians.  The  Court  party,  which  was 
now,  on  most  questions,  irresistible  (though 
there  were  reseroed  questions,  as  the  origina- 
tion of  money-bills),  carried  the  measure  for 
granting  the  four  thousand  men,  on  the 
terms  that  they  should  not  be  a  charge  to 
the  Irish  revenue  while  serving  abroad. 
There  was  much  objection  made  by  the 
Patriots,  to  sending  these  troops  "  to  cut  the 
throats  of  the  Americans ;  "  and  there  were 
many  expressions  of  sympathy  and  respect 
towards  the  colonists,  in  the  course  of  the 
debate  ;  but  the  measure  was  carried.  Mr. 
Flood,  indeed,  whose  conduct  is  not  clear  of 
the  imputation  of  corruption,  voted  to  send 
the  four  thousand  men  "  as  armed  negotia- 
tors " — such  was  his  cold  and  cruel  expres- 
sion.* 

■*  In  the  tremendous  philippic  pronounced  by 
Grattan  against  Flood,  in  1783,  he  thus  deals  witli 
Mr.  Flood's  vote  of  1775  :  "  With  regard  to  the  lib- 
erties of  America,  which  were  inseparable  from  ours, 


118 


HISTORY    OP   IRELAND. 


But  although  the  Irish  Parliament  gave 
these  troops,  it  would  not  accept  the  Hes- 
sians. Much  to  the  surprise  and  embarrass- 
ment of  Government,  the  second  proposition 
for  introducing  foreign  troops  into  that  king- 
dom was  negatived  by  nearly  as  large  a 
majority  as  the  first  was  carried;  namely, 
by  106  against  68.  The  House  accordingly 
voted  an  address  to  his  excellency,  expressive 
of  their  sense  and  resolution  upon  this  sub- 
ject, and  stating  "  that,  with  the  assistance 
of  the  Government,  his  majesty's  loyal  peo- 
ple of  Ireland  may  be  able  so  to  exert  them- 
selves as  to  make  such  aid  at  this  juncture 
unnecessary."  This  conduct  of  the  Irish 
Conmions  is  of  singular  impoitance  in  the 
history  of  Ireland,  inasmuch  as  it  was  the 
first  patriotic  step  taken  by  the  representa- 
tives of  the  people  towards  attaining  that 
state  of  civil  liberty  which  was  obtained  by 
the  nation  in  what  Mr.  Burke  called  "  their 
revolution  cJf  1782."  In  truth,  the  address 
to  Lord  Harcourt,  in  which  the  legislature 
promised  for  the  people  that  they  would 
exert  themselves,  and  make  foreign  soldiers 
unnecessary,  already  distinctly  foreshadowed 
the  volunteering. 

When  the  four  thousand  troops  were  des- 
ignated for  this  American  service,  an  honor- 
able action  deserves  to  be  recorded  :  the 
Earl  of  Effingham,  finding  that  the  regi- 
ment in  which  he  served  was  destined  to  act 
against  the  colonies,  thought  it  inconsistent 
with  his  character  and  unbecoming  his  dig- 
nity to  enforce  measures  with  his  sword, 
which  lie  had  condemned  in  his  legislative 
capacity.  He  therefore  wrote  a  letter  to 
the  Secretary  at  War,  resigning  his  com- 
mand in  the  army,  and  stating  his  reasons 
for  it.  This  conduct  rendered  that  noble- 
man   extremely   popular,   and    the   city    of 

I  will  suppose  this  gentleman  to  have  been  an  ene- 
my decided  and  unreserved  ;  and  that  he  voted 
florainst  her  liberty,  and  voted,  moreover,  for  an 
address  to  send  four  tliousand  Irish  troops  to  cut  the 
threats  of  the  Americans ;  tliat  ho  called  these 
butchers  '  armed  negotiators  ; '  and  stood,  witii  a 
metaphor  in  his  mouth  and  a  bribe  in  liis  pocket, 
a  champion  against  the  rights  of  America,  the  only 
hope  of  Ireland,  and  tiie  only  refuge  of  tlie  liberties 
of  mankind."  (Select  Speeches  of  Grattan,  DutFy's 
edition,  p.  104.) 

The  allusion  to  the  "bribe"  meant  that  Flood 
had  lately  accepted  an  office  under  Lord  Harcourt's 
admiuistratioQ. 


Dublin, -at  the  Midsummer  quarter  assem- 
bly, voted  public  thanks  to  Lord  Effingham, 
"for  having,  consistently  with  the  principles 
of  a  true  Englishman,  refused  to  draw  his 
sword  against  the  lives  and  liberties  of  his 
fellow-subjects  in  America."  Soon  after  an 
address  of  thanks,  in  fuller  terms,  was  pie- 
sented  to  him  from  the  guild  of  merchants 
of  Dublin:  the  latter  also  presented  an  ad- 
dress of  thanks  to  the  several  peers,  who 
(as  they  said)  ''in  support  of  the  constitu- 
tion, and  in  opposition  to  a  weak  and  wick- 
ed administration,  protested  against  the 
American  Restraining  Bills."  This  address, 
with  the  several  answers  of  the  lords  to 
whom  it  was  presented,  appeared  at  that 
time  in  the  public  papers,  and  produced  a 
very  strong  sensation  throughout  the  na- 
tion. But  on  the  other  hand,  we  find  that 
great  Irish  Whig,  Lord  Rawdon,  afterwards 
Lord  Moira,  serving  zealously  in  America 
against  the  rebels :  and  it  is  not  without  a 
feeling  of  shame  that  Irishmen  can  ever 
read  on  that  same  list  the  name  of  Lord 
Edward  Fitzgerald. 

The  remainder  of  Lord  Harcourt's  admin- 
istration  was  occupied  mainly  with  parlia- 
mentary troubles  about  money  bills.  Heads 
of  a  bill  were  sent  to  England  granting  cer- 
tain duties  for  the  public  service.  The  bill 
was  altered  by  the  Privy  Council,  and  when 
it  came  back  it  was  rejected  on  that  express 
ground.  The  Patriotic  party,  then,  finding 
themselves  supported  on  these  financial 
questions  by  several  members  on  the.  oppo- 
site side  of  the  House,  determined  to  try 
their  strength  upon  a  motion  for  an  address 
to  the  king,  setting  forth  in  candid  and 
striking  terms  the  unhappy  state  of  the  na- 
tion. This  motion  was  made  two  days  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  session.  The  address, 
after  the  usual  preamble  declaring  loyal 
duty  und  devotion,  stated  that  at  the  close 
of  the  last  war  the  debt  of  the  nation  did 
not  exceed  ie5 2 1,1 6 1  16s.  6rf.:  that  after  a 
peace  of  ten  years  the  debt  was  found  to  be 
£994,890  10s.  \0d. — "a  circumstance  so 
alarming  and  insupportable  to  his  people, 
that  they  determined  with  one  voice  to  put 
an  end  to  the  pernicious  practice  of  accu- 
mulating debts,  and  they  thought  it  their 
duty  to  accomplish  that  necessary  end  by 
first  endeavoring  to  raise  the  revenue  of  the 


FIRST    OCTENNIAL   PARLIAMENT   DISSOLVED. 


119 


kingdom  to  an  equ;ilit,y  with  the  establish- 
ment." They  said  th;it  economy  w^s  prom- 
ised; that  there  had  been  no  economy,  but 
a  continual  increase  in  the  expenses.  They 
added,  that  could  they  neglect  the  most  es- 
sential interests  of  themselves,  their  constit- 
uents, and  their  posterity,  still  their  duty  to 
his  majesty  would  prevent  them  from  suf- 
fering the  resources  of  his  majesty's  power 
and  dignity  to  dwindle  and  decay;  and  that 
they  were  the  more  necessitated  to  make 
that  earnest  application,  because  the  evils 
they  suifered  were  not  temporary  or  occa- 
sional;  because  thev  could  not  attribute 
them  to  any  physical  evil,  or  proud  national 
exertion,  but  to  a  silent,  wasting,  and  invisi- 
ble cause,  which  had  injured  the  people, 
without  adding  strength  to  the  crown.  That 
they  therefore  performed  that  indispensable 
duty  of  laying  tlieir  distresses  at  the  foot 
of  the  throne,  that  history  might  not  report 
them  a  nation  which  in  the  midst  of  peace, 
and  under  a  gracious  king,  equally  ready  to 
warn  and  relieve,  proceeded  deliberately  to 
their  own  ruin,  without  one  appeal  to  the 
wisdom  which  would  have  redressed  them. 
And  so  they  appealed  from  the  tempo- 
rary expedients  of  his  majesty's  ministers, 
to  his  own  wisdom  and  virtues,  and  to  that 
permanent  interest  which  his  majesty  had, 
and  ever  would  have,  in  the  welfare  of  his 
people. 

This  address  was  extremely  respectful, 
even  to  servility.  But  though  it  did  not 
mention  the  exorbitant  pension-list,  nor  the 
universal  corruption  and  bribery  which  then 
Were  carried  on  by  means  of  the  public 
money  ;  it  told  too  much  truth,  and  was  too 
undeniable  to  be  endured.  Therefore  the 
Government  made  a  point  of  defeating  it, 
and  succeeded.  An  addiess  was  carried  in 
its  place,  thanking  the  lord-lieutenant  "for 
bis  prudent,  just,  and  wise  administration." 

The  first  Octennial  Parliament  had  scarce- 
Iv  lived  four  years,  when  the  Biitish  cabinet 
found  it  expedient  that  it  should  be  dissolved. 
This  Parliament  had,  during  the  last  session, 
in  two  instances  opposed  their  mandates, 
and  when  summoned  to  attend  the  House 
of  Peers,  the  Commons,  through  their 
Speaker,  made  a  just  but  ungracious  and  in- 
effectual represen-tation  of  the  state  of  that 
nation      These  symptoms  of  independence 


alarmed    the   Government,    and    created    a 
diffidence  in  the  steadiness  of  those  who  had 
enlisted  under  their  banners.     They  looked 
to  more  steady  submission  in  a  future  Par- 
liament,   and    dissolved    the   present.     Mr. 
Perry  was  re-elected  Speaker  by  a  majority 
of  141  to  93.     The  lord-lieutenant  did   not 
meet  the  new  Parliament,  which  was  con- 
vened  in   June,   1776,  pro  forma,   and    by 
several  prorogations  went  over  to  the   14th 
of  October,   1777.      This   Parliament  now 
dissolved  is  memorable  forever  in  the  his- 
tory of  Ireland,  for  the  first  appearance  of 
one  of  the  greatest  patriots  who  ever  arose 
for  the   salvation   of    any   people,   and    the 
word  patriot  is  not  here  used  in  its   merely 
colonial    sense.     This  was   Henry   Grattan. 
He  was  the  descendant  of  a  powerful  and 
influential  family,  of  whom  Dean  Swift  had 
said,  "the  Grattans  can  raise  ten  thousand 
men."     His  father  was  recorder  of  Dublin. 
Henry  Grattan  entered  Parliament  as  mem- 
ber for  Lord  Charlemont's  borough  of  Char- 
lemont,  on  the  borders  of  Armagh  and  Ty- 
rone; he  was  then  under  thirty  years  of  age, 
and  in  his  first  Parliament  had  been  modest 
and  retiring,    acquainting   himself  with  the 
details  of  public  business,  and  with  the  forms 
of  the  House.     It  was  not  until  the  meeting 
of  the  new  Parliament,  under  the  adminis- 
tration    of     Lord     Buckinghamshire,     that 
Grattan's    lofty     character    and     splendid 
genius  became  known   to  his   countrymen 
and  to  the  world. 

The  British  cabinet  was  little  satisfied 
with  the  administration  of  Lord  Haicourt ; 
the  easy  and  delicate  turn  of  his  mind  ill 
qualified  him  to  support,  much  less  to  im- 
prove upon  the  system  of  his  predecessor, 
but  by  which  alone,  to  the  infamy  and  mis 
fortune  of  Ireland,  the  legislators  of  that 
kingdom  were  to  be  kept  steady  in  their  ranks 
under  command  of  the  Castle.  Although 
Government  upon  the  whole  still  retained  a 
considerable  majority,  yet  several  of  their 
adherents  had  occasionally,  during  the  last 
session,  proved  recreant  from  their  instruc- 
tions ;  some  had  deserted  their  ranks,  many 
amongst  them  wavered,  menaced,  and  com- 
plained of  the  terms  of  their  engagements. 
It  was  therefore  resolved  to  invigorate  the 
new  system  by  the  election  of  a  new  Parli;i- 
ment.    For  this  purpose  an  iinusual,  and  till 


120 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


that  time  unprecedented,  number  of  promo- 
tions in  the  peerage  took  place  iu  one  day. 
It  far  exceeded  the  famous  promotion  of 
twelve  in  the  days  of  Queen  Aime.  Five 
viscounts  were  advanced  to  earldoms,  seven 
barons  to  be  viscounts,  and  eighteen  new 
barons  were  created  in  the  same  day.  The 
usual  teims  of  such  modern  peerages  are 
Well  understood  to  be  an  engagement  to  sup- 
port the  cause  of  their  promoters  by  their 
individual  votes  iu  the  House  of  Peers,  and 
by  those  of  their  substitutes  iu  the  House 
of  Commons,  whose  seats  are  usually  settled 
and  ananged  before  they  vacate  them  upon 
their  promotions.  In  short  every  possible 
precaution  was  adopted  to  secure  a  subser- 
vient Irish  Parliament  in  the  crisis  which 
Iiad  been  created  by  the  American  war. 
But  in  the  very  month  of  October,  in  which 
the  new  viceroy,  Lord  Buckinghamshire, 
met  the  new  Parliament,  General  Burgoyne 
was  surrendering  his  army  of  7,000  men  to 
the  Auiericaiis  at  Saratoga.  The  next  year 
France  declared  for  America.  The  admin- 
istration, therefore,  of  this  new  lord-lieuten- 
ant dates  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  Ireland 
Knd  of  the  earth.  The  English  colony  iu 
Ireland  suddenly,  and  for  a  short  time,  takes 
the  proportions  of  a  nation. 


CHAPTER   XVni. 

1777—1779. 

Buckingham,  Viceroy— Misery,  and  Decline  of  Tra<le 
— Discipline  of  Goveninient  Supporters— Lord 
Nortli's  tirst  Measure  in  favor  of  Calliolics— Fuss- 
ed in  Ensrland— Opposed  in  Ireland— What  it 
amounted  to— Miliiiii  Bill — Tlie  Volunteers- De- 
I'encelesR  Slate  of  liie  Country— Loyalty  of  tlie 
Volunteers— Their  Uniforms— Volunteers  Protest^ 
ant  at  tirst — ('atholics  desirous  to  join — Volunteers 
get  tlie  Militia  Arms— Their  Aims— Military  Sys- 
tem—Kumiier^  in  17t)0. 

The  earlier  years  of  Lord  Buckingham's 
viceroyalty  were  not  marked  by  any  very 
striking  events,  much  diilerent  from  the 
JDUtine  of  parliamentary  business  during 
the  preceding  administrations.  When  tliis 
nobleman  assumed  the  reins  of  government 
tiie  I'ountry  was  still  suffering  the  most 
poignant  distress;  while  tlie  national  debt 
Rud  all  public  charges  were  accumulatiiio-. 
Petitions    now    poured    into    both   Houses, 


representing  the  sad  facts  with  regard  to 
declining  trade.  As  these  petitions  cer- 
tainly stated  the  truth,  they  are  really  valu- 
able historical  documents,  illustrative  of  the 
period. 

Thus,  a  petition  was  presented  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  from  the  merchants 
and  traders  of  Cork,  setting  forth  that 
about  the  month  of  November,  1770,  an 
embargo  was  laid  on  all  ships  laden  with 
provisions,  and  bound  from  Ireland  to  for- 
eign countries,  which  was  still  continued 
by  Government,  and  had  been  very  strictly 
enforced:  that  in  consequence  of  that  long 
embargo,  an  extensive  beneficial  trade,  car- 
ried on  for  several  years  by  that  kingdom  to 
France,  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Holland,  for 
the  supply  of  provisions,  had  beeu  not  only 
interrupted,  but  was  in  danger  of  being 
entirely  lost ;  the  petitioners  being  in- 
formed that  the  merchants  of  these  coun- 
tries were  respectively  stocked  and  provided 
from  Russia,  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Ham- 
burg, whereby  the  usual  returns  to  that 
kingdom  were  discontinued,  new  enemies  to 
our  commerce  were  raised,  and  our  com- 
modities rendered  useless  and  unprofitable. 
That  great  quantities  of  salt  beef,  not  fit  for 
the  use  of  Government  or  the  sugar  colo- 
nies, being  made  up  in  that  city,  and  also 
great  quantities  of  beef  and  butter  being  an- 
nually brought  to  that  market,  these  com- 
modities of  a  perishable  nature  were  there 
decaying  for  want  of  a  free  export,  to  the 
great  injury  of  the  proprietors  in  particular, 
and  of  the  kingdom  in  general.  That  in 
support  of  these  assertions,  there  then  re- 
mained on  hand,  since  the  preceding  year, 
a  very  considerable  quantity  of  provisions, 
the  property  of  several  merchants  in  that 
city,  not  wanted  by  Government,  and  there- 
fore without  opportunity  of  sale ;  and  al- 
though a  considerable  part  of  the  season  in 
which  those  articles  were  made  up  and  ex- 
ported had  already  elapsed,  no  demand 
whatsoever  then  existed  for  them,  except  for 
such  quantities  as  were  required  by  Go\e  n- 
ment  alone.  That  his  majesty's  revenue, 
which  before  had  received  large  and  con- 
stant supplies  from  the  customs  of  the  city 
of  Cork,  had  decreased  in  proportion  to  the 
decay  of  their  trade.  That  the  embargo, 
therefore,  at  that  time  not  b<;ing  warranted 


MISERY,    AND   DECLINE    OF   TRADE. 


121 


by  any  great,  substantial  necessity,  but,  on 
tlie  contrary,  restraining  and  preventing  the 
diffusion  of  trade,  was  pregnant  with  the 
most  ruinous  consequences,  not  only  to  the 
coniniercial,  but  also  to  the  landed  interests 
of  the  nation;  and  therefore  the  petitioners 
p raved  redress. 

The  Dublin  manufacturers,  in  their  peti- 
tion, had  a  still  sadder  narrative  to  give. 
For  example,  they  declared  that  there  were 
at  that  moment  no  fewer  than  twenty  thou- 
sand persons  in  that  one  city,  artisans,  out 
of  work,  together  with  their  families,  whom 
they,  the  petitioners,  were  supporting  for 
charity  by  means  of  a  relief  association  es- 
tablished among  themselves;  nor  was  Gov- 
einment  able  to  make  grants,  either  to  pro- 
mote industry  or  to  relieve  the  national  ca- 
lamities. Every  branch  of  the  revenue 
failed,  and  such  was  the  poverty  of  the  na- 
tion, that  the  militia  law  could  not  be  car- 
ried into  effect.  Ireland  could  not  pay  her 
forces  abroad,  and  was  obliged  to  borrow 
money  from  England  to  pay  those  at  home. 
The  Parliament  was  necessitated  to  raise 
money  at  an  exorbitant  interest;  the  ex- 
penses in  1777  having  amounted  to  above 
iE80,000  more  than  the  revenue:  £166,000 
were  therefore  borrowed,  and  attempted  to 
be  raised  in  the  old  manner  upon  deben- 
tures at  £4  per  cent. 

So  truly  desperate  was  the  financial  state 
of  Ireland,  that,  like  desponding  bankrupts, 
the  Cummons  undertook  to  giant  what 
they  knew  they  had  not  the  means  of  pay- 
ing. Even  the  ministerial  party  could  not 
be  blind  to  their  situation.  They  would 
not,  however,  permit  any  question  to  be 
brought  forward  upon  the  state  of  the  coun- 
try in  the  Commons,  lest  too  strong  resolu- 
tions upon  it  should  be  carried,  or  their 
opposition  to  them  should  appear  even  too 
rank  for  their  own  system.  They  accord- 
ingly had  again  recouise  to  the  half-measure 
of  conveying  their  imperfect  sense  of  the 
distressful  stale  of  the  country  through  their 
Speaker,  who,  in  presenting  the  first  four 
money  bills  passed  in  that  session,  ad- 
dressed himself  to  the  lord-lieutenant  in 
very  general  terms,  expressing  the  unbound- 
ed confidence  of  the  House  in  his  majesty's 
wisdom,  justice,  and  paternal  care,  and  rely- 
ing on  the  viceroy's  "candor  and  humanity 
16 


to  make  a  faithful  representation  to  his 
majesty  of  their  unshaken  loyalty,  duty,  and 
affection." 

Thus  the  pitiful  and  hopeless  contest  went 
on,  upon  these  questions  of  the  money  bills, 
the  pension  list,  and  general  extravagance  of 
Government.  The  Patriots  saw  well  that 
they  could  not  now  hope  to  carry  any  really 
important  measure,  resolution,  or  address, 
that  should  be  distasteful  to  the  Castle.  Yet 
they  resolved  to  put  on  record,  at  least  once 
in  each  session,  their  own  theory  of  the 
evils  of  the  countiy.  Therefore,  after  the 
speech  of  the  lord-lieutenant,  a  motion  was 
made  for  a  humble  address  to  ,his  majesty, 
setting  forth  that  the  civil  list  had  doubled 
in  twenty  years ;  that  one  great  cause  was 
"  the  rapid  and  astonishing  growth  of  the 
pension  list;"  that  ministers  had  repeatedly 
promised  retrenchment,  but  had,  on  the 
contrary,  continually  increased  their  demands, 
and  other  the  like  topics.  This  address  was 
negatived  by  a  majority  of  77 — so  well 
drilled  were  the  ministerial  members. 

The  alarming  news  of  the  French  alliance 
with  the  Americans  was  communicated  to 
Parliament  by  the  lord-lieutenant,  in  a 
special  message  ;  and  this  was  instantly 
followed  by  a  demand  of  a  new  loan  of 
£30,000,  at  six  per  cent.  A  few  days  after, 
came  a  new  message,  to  apprise  them  that 
the  loan  (which  they  had  at  once  voted  to 
raise)  could  not  be  effected  at  six  per  cent., 
and  to  demand  further  action  upon  their 
part.  Thus,  as  the  American  war  was 
drawing  to  a  close,  Irela-nd  had  neither 
money  nor  credit — was  absolutely  ruled  by 
placeholders  and  pensioners,  and  was  made 
to  contribute  her  last  shilling  and  contract 
further  debt,  to  defeat  and  ruin  a  cause 
which  nine-tenths  of  her  peoyjle  felt  to  be 
Ireland's  own  cause  as  well  as  America's. 

Lord  North,  who  was  not  wanting  in 
sagacitv,  understood  the  state  of  Irish  affairs 
very  well  :  he  saw  the  rising  impatience  of 
the  Patriot  party  in  the  colony,  and  knew 
that  the  contagion  of  American  ideas  was 
fast  growing  and  spreading.  It  was  at  this 
time,  therefuro,  that  the  British  Ministry 
resolved  to  take  a  more  important  step 
towards  conciliation  of  the  Catholics  than 
had  yet  been  ventured  upon,  with  the  hope 
of  actually  making  the  Catholic  people  a 


122 


HISTORY    OP   IRELAND. 


kiud  of  English  interest,  agtiinst  the  Protest- 
ant Patriots.  It  was  not,  indeed,  contem- 
plated to  repeal  the  whole  Penal  Code — very 
far  from  this — but  to  admit  certain  slight 
relaxations  only  in  certain  parts  of  that 
elaborate  system.  In  the  English  Parlia- 
ment, first,  with  the  full  consent  of  the  min- 
ister, a  motion  was  made  for  leave  to  bring 
in  a  "  Bill  for  repeal  of  certain  of  the  penal- 
ties and  disabilities  provided  in  an  Act  of 
William  the  Third,"  etc.  On  this  English 
debate,  it  seemed  that  the  Parliament  was 
tolerably  unanimous  in  approbation  of  a  very 
modest  and  limited  measure  in  this  direc- 
tion ;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
Catholics  in  England  were  but  one  in  ten  of 
the  population  ;  and  there  could  not  be  the 
slightest  danger,  either  to  the  settlement  of 
property  or  to  what  Englishmen  call  the 
freedom  of  the  country,  in  relieving  them 
from  at  least  a  few  of  the  most  dreadful 
penalties  to  which  they  were  every  day 
exposed.  J  Indeed  in  England  there  had 
been  long  a  practical  toleration  of  Catholic 
worship ;  yet,  as  Lord  Ashburton  observed, 
on  seconding  the  motion  of  Sir  George  Sav- 
ile,  "  the  mildness  of  Government  had  hith- 
erto softened  the  rigor  of  the  law  in  the 
practice,  but  it  was  to  be  considered  that  the 
Roman  Catholic  priests  were  still  left  at  the 
mercy  of  the  lowest  and  basest  of  mankind  ; 
for  on  the  complaint  of  any  informing  con- 
stable, the  magisterial  and  judicial  powers 
Were  bound  to  enforce  all  the  shameful  pen- 
alties of  the  act."  In  fact,  some  time  before 
this  period  the  penal  laws  had  been  enforced 
against  two  priests,  a  Mr.  Malony  and  Mr. 
Talbot,  the  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Shrews- 
bury. These  proceedings  had  been  resorted 
to  by  a  solitary  individual,  one  Pain,  a  car- 
penter, who  having  two  daughters,  little 
business,  much  bigotry,  and  more  covetous- 
ness,  had  formed  the  singular  speculation 
of  acquiring  iE'20,000  apiece  for  his  daugh- 
ters' fortunes  by  informations  under  the 
penal  statutes  against  the  Catholics. 

The  English  bill  passed  without  opposi- 
tion;* but  when  the  new  policy  of  minis- 
ters came  to  be  applied  to  Ireland,  it  was  a 

*  A  circumstance  which  excited  tlie  enlightened 
Protestants  of  London  to  make  their  famous  No 
Popery  UiDt,  break  jails  and  burn  houses,  under  the 
Raiutly  Lord  George  Gordon. 


different  matter.  In  this  island  the  propri- 
etors of  confiscated  estates  did  not  yet  feel 
quite  secure.  They  had  always  beeu  accus- 
tomed to  believe  that  the  "Protestant  Inter- 
est"— that  is,  their  own  exclusive  possession 
of  all  the  lands  and  of  all  the  profitable  pro- 
fessions and  trades — depended  upon  keeping 
the  Catholics  completely  under  foot.  There 
was  now,  indeed,  no  apprehension  of  "bring- 
ing in  the  Pretender;"  for  the  Pretender 
was  dead,  and  had  left  no  heir  of  the  Stu- 
arts: but  the  settlement  of  property,  the 
exclusive  access  to  the  professions,  these 
were  the  truly  momentous  and  sacred  inter- 
ests of  Protestantism.  In  Ireland,  there- 
fore, though  the  measure  came  recommend- 
ed by  the  example  of  England,  and  the  ex- 
press wishes  of  the  administration,  it  was 
warmly  contested  at  every  point.  On  the 
eleventh  day  after  the  universal  assent  to 
Sir  George  Savile's  motion  in  favor  of  the 
Roman  Catholics  of  England,  Mr.  Gardiner, 
on  the  25th  of  May,  1778,  made  a  motion 
in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons,  that  leave 
be  given  to  bring  in  heads  of  a  bill  for  the 
relief  of  his  majesty's  Roman  Catholic  sub- 
jects of  Ireland,  and  that  Mr.  Gardiner,  the 
Hon.  Barry  Barrj^  and  Mr.  Yelverton,  do 
prepare  and  bring  in  the  same;  and  it  was 
carried  in  the  affirmative.  At  the  same 
time  the  Presbyterians  of  Ireland,  bearing 
in  mind  that  the  sacramental  test  had  been 
imposed  upon  their  ancestors  by  their  lyiug 
by,  when  new  severities  were  imposed  upon 
their  Roman  Catholic  brethren,  came  forward 
on  this  occasion  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
first  symptoms  of  tolerance  in  an  Irish  Par- 
liament. Sir  Edward  Newnham  on  the  same 
day  moved  that  leave  might  be  given  to 
bring  in  heads  of  a  bill  for  the  relief  of  his 
majesty's  subjects  the  Protestant  Dissenters 
of  that  kingdom:  and  Sir  Edward  Newn- 
ham and  Sir  Boyle  Roche  were  ordered  to 
prepare  and  bring  in  the  same.  But  wheth- 
er from  a  conviction  that  the  relief  to  the 
Dissenters  was  not  of  equal  urgency  with 
that  proposed  to  be  granted  to  the  Roman 
Catholics,  or  that  the  British  Cabinet  had 
hitherto  expressed  no  opinion  or  inclination 
in  their  favor,  the  measure  was  remitted  to 
another  session. 

The    Catholic   Bill    did    not   propose    to 
let  the  Catholics  have  arms,  horses,  educa- 


LORD   north's    measure   IN    FAVOR    OF    CATHOLICS. 


123 


tion,  a  seat  in  Parliament,  a  vote  at  elec- 
tions, a  ricjht  to  sit  upon  juries,  or  entrance 
into  municipal  corporations ;  but,  slender  as 
was  the  concession,  it  was  bitterly  opposed, 
and  that  even  by  "Patriots,"  who  had  no 
wider  idea  of  Patriotism  than  the  measure 
of  the  Protestant  interest.  On  the  5th  June, 
1778,  five  divisions  were  had  upon  the  bill 
in  the  Irish  House :  each  was  carried  in  the 
affirmative,  by  a  small  majority  ;  and  on  the 
15th  of  the  same  month  there  were  three 
divisions.  The  Protestants  throughout  the 
kingdom  were  taking  the  alarm,  and  peti- 
tions were  pouring  in  from  the  corporations. 
On  this  15th  of  June,  for  example,  a  petition 
from  the  mayor,  sheriffs,  common  council, 
freemen,  freeholders,  and  other  Protestant 
inhabitants  of  the  city  of  Cork,  was  presented 
against  the  bill. 

On  the  16lh,  on  motion  to  resolve  into 
committee  of  the  whole  to  take  the  heads  of 
the  bill  into  further  consideration,  the  House 
divided,  and  the  motion  was  defeated.  On 
the  18th,  the  House  sat  in  committee  over 
these  heads  of  a  bill  till  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  on  the  19th  till  four  o'clock. 
At  last,  on  the  20th,  Mr.  Gardiner  was 
ordered  to  attend  his  excellency  the  lord- 
lieutenant  with  the  said  heads  of  a  bill,  and 
desire  the  same  might  be  transmitted  into 
Great  Britain  in  due  form.  Thus,  after  the 
severest  contest,  with  the  full  and  unequivo- 
cal approbation  of  Government,  the  general 
suppoit  of  the  Patriots,  and  the  unanimous 
accord  of  the  British  legislature  in  a  similar 
indulgence  to  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Eng- 
land, were  these  heads  of  a  bill  carried 
through  the  Irish  House  of  Commons  by 
the  small  majority  of  nine.  Upon  the  third 
reading  of  this  bill  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
the  contents  with  their  proxies  were  36,  and 
the  not  contents  were  12.  On  the  14th  of 
August  the  lord-lieutenant  put  an  end  to  the 
session. 

The  British  ministry  soon  saw  cause  to 
e.xtend  their  policy  of  conciliation,  and  to 
assent  to  some  very  trifling  relaxations  of 
the  restrictions  upon  Irish  trade  and  com- 
merce. Some  intelligent  and  patriotic  Eng- 
lishmen, Lord  Newhaven  and  the  Marquis 
of  Rockingham  amongst  the  number,  pressed 
on  the  Parliament  of  England  the  propriety 
of  granting  to  the  Irish  nation  the  liberty 


of  exporting  their  pioduce,  with  the  extra- 
ordinary exception  of  their  woollens,  which 
formed  a  principal  ingre-dient.  Lord  Wey- 
mouth, however,  resisted  so  dangerous  a 
concession  to  the  claims  of  Ireland  ;  and  the 
only  compromise  which  was  effected  was  an 
Export  Bill,  with  the  special  exception  oi 
woollens  and  cottons.  The  Bristol  mer- 
chants, who  appear  through  the  whole  his- 
tory of  English  avarice  and  tyranny  to  have 
been  influenced  by  a  policy  pre-eminently 
mean,  selfish,  and  grasping — the  genuine 
spirit  of  paltry  trade — went  so  far  as  to  heap 
insults  on  their  representative,  Edmund 
Burke,  for  supporting  the  measure. 

In  the  mean  time  the  Irish  Parliament,  in 
its  session  of  1788,  had  passed  a  "militia 
bill,"  to  authorize  the  formation  of  volunteer 
forces  for  defence  of  the  country.  French 
and  American  privateers  were  sweeping  the 
seas  and  the  British  channel :  the  wide  ex- 
tent of  the  Irish  coast  was  left  exposed  with- 
out defence,  and  there  began  to  be  very 
general  alarm  in  the  seaport  towns,  Mr. 
Flood  had  formerly  proposed  a  national 
militia,  but  the  idea  was  not  then  favored 
by  the  Government,  and  it  failed.  The 
militia  bill  of  this  year  was  not  opposed  by 
the  administration ;  probably  they  little 
thought  to  what  proportions  the  militia 
would  develop  itself,  and  how  far  it  would 
extend  its  aims  ;  but  it  immediately  occurred 
to  the  Patriots,  that  while  the  English  Par- 
liament  was  peddling  and  higgling  over  the 
miserable  and  grudging  relaxations  of  Ire- 
land's commercial  restraints,  here  was  a 
gracious  opportunity  presenting  itself  for 
exercising  such  a  resistless  pressure  upon 
England,  in  her  hour  of  difficulty  and  danger 
(England's  difficulty  being  then,  as  always, 
Ireland's  opportunity),  as  would  compel  her 
to  yield,  not  only  a  free-trade,  but  a  free  Par- 
liament: and  the  former,  they  knew,  would 
never  be  fully  assured  without  the  latter. 
It  was  now  that  public  spirit  in  Ireland, 
instead  of  colonial,  began  to  be  tiuly  national, 
and  this  chiefly  by  the  strong  impulse  and 
inspiration  of  Henry  Grattan,  who  saw,  in 
the  extension  of  the  volunteering  spirit,  a 
means  of  combining  the  two  discordant  ele- 
ments of  the  Irish  people  into  one  nation, 
and  elevating  the  Catholics  to  the  rank  of 
citizens,  not  by   the  insidious  "  boons "  of 


124 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


the  English,  but  through  the  cordial  com- 
bination !Uid  amalganiatiou  of  the  Irish  for 
their  common  defence. 

It  was  for  some  months  anxiously  con- 
sidered and  debated  at  the  Castle  whether 
the  forces  which  wer^  to  be  raised,  under 
the  new  law,  were  to  be  a  true  militia,  and 
therefore  subject  to  martial  law,  or  to  be 
composed  of  independent  volunteer  com- 
panies, choosing  their  own  ofHcers.  But 
this  question  was  soon  settled  by  the  people 
themselves,  who  were  rapidly  forming  them- 
selves into  the  latter  kind  of  organization, 
and  who  evidently  felt  that  they  were  arm- 
ing, not  so  much  against  the  foreign  enemy 
as  against  the  British  Government. 

The  volunteering  began  at  Belfast.  In 
August,  1778,  the  people  of  that  town  were 
alarmed  by  stories  of  privateers  hovering 
near:  they  remembered  their  imminent 
peril  at  the  time  of  Tliuiot's  expedition,  and 
at  once  began  to  organize  and  arm  volunteer 
companies,  as  they  had  done  before  on  that 
memorable  occasion.  At  the  same  time 
the  "sovereign"  of  the  town,  Mr.  Stewart 
Burke,  wrote  to  the  Irish  Secretary,  urging 
that  some  troops  should  be  sent  down.  He 
received  this  answer — 

"  Dublin  Castle,  August  lUh,  1778. 

"Sir: — My  Lord-Lieutenant  having  re- 
ceived information  that  there  is  reason  to 
apprehend  that  three  or  four  privateers  in 
company  may  in  a  few  days  make  attempts 
on  the  northern  coasts  of  this  kingdom;  by 
his  excellency's  command,  I  give  you  the 
earliest  account  thereof,  in  order  that  there 
may  be  a  careful  watch,  and  immediate  in- 
telligence given  to  the  inhabitants  of  Bel- 
fast, in  case  any  party  from  such  ships 
should  attempt  to  land. 

"The  greatest  part  of  the  troops  being 
encamped  near  Cloninel  and  Kinsale,  his  ex- 
cellency can  at  present  send  no  further  mili- 
tary aid  to  Belfast  tlian  a  troop  or  two  of 
horse,  or  part  of  a  company  of  invalids  ;  and 
his  excellency  desires  you  will  acquaint  me 
by  express  whether  a  troop  or  two  of  horse 
can  be  properly  accommodated  in  Belfast, 
so  long  as  it  may  be  proper  to  continue 
them  in  that  town,  in  addition  to  the  two 
troops  now  there.     I  have,  etc., 

"Richard  Heron." 


This  is  but  one  of  many  communications 
which  passed  at  the  time  between  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  authorities  of  Belfast,  In 
most  of  them,  the  former  express  their  sat- 
isfaction at  the  spirit  of  the  volunteer  com- 
panies then  formed  or  about  to  be  formed; 
with  no  sincerity,  as  we  shall  see  pres- 
ently. 

It  was  evident,  then,  that  the  Govern- 
ment was  in  no  condition  to  defend  Ireland, 
if  Ireland  had  really  been  menaced  with  in- 
vasion ;  and  therefore  quite  as  little  in  a 
condition  to  resist  a  great  national  military 
organization,  no  matter  what  form  that 
might  assume.  In  fact,  after  the  example 
of  Belfast,  the  whole  country  now  rushed  to 
arms.  It  was  a  scene  of  wild  and  noble 
excitement.  Crowds  thronged  the  public 
places  of  resort,  anxious  and  resolved :  in 
every  assembly  of  the  people  the  topic  was 
"defence  of  the  country;"  and  if  there 
were  many  who  from  the  first  felt  that  the 
country  had  but  one  enemy  in  the  world 
from  whom  it  needed  defence  (that  is,  Eng- 
land), the  reflection  only  heightened  their 
zeal  in  promoting  the  national  armament. 
On  the  1st  December,  1778,  the  people  of 
Armagh  entered  into  voluntary  armed  asso- 
ciations, and  offered  the  command  to  Lord 
Charlemont.  He  at  first  refused ;  because, 
as  lord-lieutenant  of  the  county,  he  might 
at  any  time  be  called  on  to  command  the 
militia:  but  his  lordship  soon  saw  that  vol- 
unteering was  the  irresistible  order  of  the 
day;  and  that  not  to  be  a  Volunteer  would 
soon  amount  to  being  nobody  at  all  in  Ire- 
land. Probably,  also,  he  was  influenced  by 
the  more  powerful  will  and  deeper  sagacity 
of  his  friend  Grattan  ;  and  in  January,  1779, 
he  assumed  command  of  the  Armagh  Volun- 
teeis.* 

The  Government  of  the  day  soon  saw 
itself  powerless  to  resist  this  potent  move- 
ment. It,  however,  concealed  its  apprehen- 
sions for  the  present,  under  the  mask  of 
gratitude  for  the  loyal  zeal  of  the  people. 
Loyal  as  undoubtedly  the  institution  was — 
loyal  even  to  the  prejudices  which  Goveru- 

*  Stuart's  History  of  Armagh.  MaeNeviu's  Vol- 
unteers. Plowdei),  Haidy's  Cliarleinout.  Sir  Jo- 
nah Barrington,  Kise  and  Fall,  etc.  Tlie  autlioritiea 
for  tlie  lilstory  of  tlie  Volunteers  are  innumerable, 
and  will  only  be  cited  for  some  special  fact. 


LOYALTY  OF  THE  VOLUKTEERS. 


125 


ment  must  have  wished  to  foster,  for  one  of 
their  earliest  celebrations  was  the  Battle  of 
the  Buyne* — the  English  interest  trembled 
at  wliat  to  their  appalled  imagination  seemed 
to  be  the  infancy  of  revolution.  Thus, 
whilst  the  wretched  Government,  unable  to 
discharge  its  functions,  and  resigning  the 
defence  of  the  country  to  the  virtue  and 
valor  of  her  children,  looked  on  in  angry 
amazement  at  the  daily  increasing  numbers 
of  the  Volunteers,  their  training  into  dis- 
cipline, their  martial  array  and  military  cel- 
ebrations, the  great  officers  of  the  execu- 
tive were  planning  how  best  they  might 
stitle  in  its  birth  the  warlike  spirit  of  the 
people. 

In  May,  1779,  we  find  a  letter  of  Lord 
Buckinghamshire  to  Lord  Weymouth,  which 
clearly  proves  the  fears  and  hypocrisy  of 
Government,  and  the  alarming  progress  of 
the  armament: 

"Upon  receiving  official  intimation  that 
the  enemy  meditated  an  attack  upon  the 
northern  parts  of  Ireland,  the  inhabitants 
of  Belfast  and  Carrickfergus,  as  Government 
could  not  immediately  afford  a  greater  force 
for  their  protection  than  about  sixty  troopers, 
armed  themselves,  aud  by  degrees  formed 
themstilves  into  two  or  three  companies; 
the  spirit  diffused  itself  into  different  parts 
of  the  kingdom,  and  the  numbers  became 
considerable,  but  in  no  degree  to  the  amount 
represented.  Discouragement  has,  however, 
been  given  on  my  part,  as  far  as  might  be 
without  offence,  at  a  crisis  when  the  arm  and 
good-will  of  every  individual  might  have 
been  wanting  for  the  defence  of  the  state." 

Lord  Buckinghamshire,  in  another  part 
of  the  same  letter,  attributes  the  rapid  in- 
crease in  the  ranks  of  the  Volunteers  to  an 
idea  that  was  entertained  amongst  the  peo- 
ple that  their  numbers  would  conduce  to 
the  attainment  of  political  advantages  for 
their  country. 

All  motives  conduced  to  the  same  end, 
aud  that  end — the  armed  organization  of 
Ireland  —  was    rapidly    approaching.     The 

*  July  1,  1779. — "  Our  three  volunteer  companies 
paraded  in  their  uniform  with  orange  cockade8,  and 
fired  three  volleys  with  their  usual  steadiness  and 
regularity,  in  commemoration  of  the  Battle  of  the 
Boyne." — HLst.  Collections  relative  to  the  Town  of 
Belfast. 


fire  of  the  people  and  their  anxiety  to  enter 
the  ranks  of  the  national  army  may  be 
judged  from  the  fact,  that  in  September, 
1179,  the  return  of  the  Volunteers  in  the 
counties  of  Antrim  and  Down,  and  in  and 
near  Coleraine,  amounted  to: 

Total  in  the  county  of  Down 2,341 

Total  in  the  county  of  Antrim 1,474 

In  and  near  Coleraine 210 

3,925 

Of  these,  the  great  majority  were  fully 
equipped  and  armed — and  glittered  in  tlie 
gay  uniform  of  the  Volunteers.  Some  few 
companies  were,  however,  unarmed  even  up 
to  a  later  period,  until  the  pressure  on  Gov- 
ernment compelled  them  to  distribute  the 
arms  intended  for  the  militia  to  worthier 
hands. 

The  uniforms  of  the  Volunteers  were  very 
various,  and  of  all  the  colors  of  the  rain- 
bow. The  uniform  of  the  Lawyers'  coips 
was  scarlet  and  blue,  their  motto,  "Fro 
avis  et  focis ;''"'  the  Attorneys'  regiment  of 
Volunteers  was  scarlet  and  Pomona  green; 
a  corps  called  the  Irish  Brigade,  and  com- 
posed principally  of  Catholics  (after  the  in- 
creasing liberality  of  the  day  had  permitted 
them  to  become  Volunteers),  wore  scarlet 
and  white;  other  regiments  of  Irish  brigades 
wore  scarlet  faced  with  green,  and  their 
motto  was  "  Vox  2)opuU  suprema  lex  est;" 
the  Goldsmiths'  corps,  commanded  by  the 
Duke  of  Leinster,  wore  blue,  faced  with 
scarlet  and  a  professional  profusion  of  gold 
lace. 

The  "Irish  Volunteers"  were  at  first  a 
Protestant  organization  exclusively.  It  was 
only  by  degrees  and  with  extreme  jealousy 
that  its  ranks  were  afterwards  opened  to 
those  of  the  proscribed  race.  It  might 
seem,  indeed,  that  the  Catholics  would  have 
been  justified  in  taking  no  interest  in  the 
movement,  and  that  they  had  little  to  hope 
from  any  change.  They  were  not  yet 
citizens,  and  if  permitted  to  breathe  in  Ire- 
land, it  was  by  connivance,  and  against  the 
law.  Even  the  most  zealous  of  the  new 
Volunteers,  who  were  now  springing  to  arms 
for  defence  of  Ireland,  were,  with  sonae 
illustrious  exceptions,  their  most  determined 
and  resolute  foes.  But,  plunged  in  poverty 
and  ignorance  as   they  were,  despoiled   of 


126 


HISTORY   OP  IRELAND. 


rank,  and  arms,  and  votes,  they  yet  seem  to 
have  t'elt  instinctively  that  a  movement  for 
Irish  independence,  if  successful,  must  end  in 
their  emancipation.  They  had  grown  nume- 
rous, and  many  of  them  rich,  in  the  midst  of 
persecution  ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  penal 
laws  Mgainst  education,  many  of  the  Catholics 
wei-e  in  truth  the  best-educated  and  accom- 
plished persons  in  the  island.  These  instructed 
and  thoughtful  Catholics  could  see  very  well 
— what  Grattan  also  saw,  but  what  most  Crom- 
wellian  squires  and  Williamite  peers  could 
not  see — that  if  Ireland  should  still  pretend 
•'  to  stand  upon  her  smaller  end,"  she  would 
not  long  stand  against  England.  Then  they 
were  naturally  a  warlike  race ;  and,  it  must 
be  added  to  their  credit,  that  the  late  small 
and  peddling  relaxations  in  the  Penal  Code, 
urged  on  by  the  British  minister  in  order 
to  conciliate  them  to  the  English  interest, 
had  signally  failed.  The  English  interest, 
as  they  felt,  was  the  great  and  necessary 
enemy  of  all  Ireland,  and  of  every  one  of 
its  inhabitants,  and  so  it  was  very  soon 
apparent  that  the  armed  Protestant  Volun- 
teers would  have  at  their  back  the  two 
millions  of  Catholic  Irish. 

There  is  in  the  daik  records  of  the  de- 
pravity of  the  Government  of  that  day  a 
singular  document,  which,  while  it  attests 
the  patriotism  and  zeal  of  the  Catholics, 
illustrates  the  base  and  vile  spirit  which 
repelled  their  loyalty  and  refused  their  aid. 
The  Earl  of  Tyrone  wrote  to  one  of  the 
Bertrsfords,  a  member  of  that  grasping  pa- 
trician family,  which  had  long  ruled  the 
country,*  that  the  Catholics  in  their  zeal 
were  forming  themselves  into  independent 
companies,  and  had  actually  begun  their 
organization ;  but  that,  seeing  the  variety 
of  consequences  which  would  attend  such 
an  event,  he  had  found  it  his  duty  to  stop 
their  "movement !  Miserable  government — 
unable  to  discharge  its  first  duty  of  defence, 
and  trembling  to  depute  them  to  the  noble 
and  forgiving  spirit  of  a  gallant  people ! 
The  Catholics  of  Limerick,  forbidden  the 
use  of  arms,  subscribed  and  made  a  present 
of  £800  to  the  treasury  of  the  Volunteers. 

During  all  this  time  "the  Castle"  looked 


*  May  28,  1779.    Grattan's  Life:   o'ted  by  Mac- 
Nevin. 


on  in. silent  alarm.  Even  so  late  as  May, 
1779,  when  the  Volunteer  companies  num- 
bered probably  twenty  thousand  men,  the 
lord-lieutenant  gravely  considered  whether 
it  were  still  possible  to  disperse  and  disarm 
them  by  force.  In  one  of  his  letters  to  Lord 
Weymouth*  he  says — "  The  seizing  of  their 
arms  would  have  been  a  violent  expedient, 
and  the  preventing  them  from  assembling 
without  a  military  force  impracticable;  for 
when  the  civil  magistrate  will  rarely  attempt 
to  seize  an  offender  suspected  of  the  most 
enormous  crimes,  and  when  convicted,  con- 
vey him  to  the  place  of  execution  without 
soldiers ;  nay,  when  in  many  instances  per- 
sons cannot  be  put  into  possession  of  their 
property,  nor  being  possessed,  maintain  it 
without  such  assistance,  there  is  little  pre- 
sumption in  asserting,  that,  unless  bodies  of 
troops  had  been  universally  dispersed,  noth- 
ing could  have  been  done  to  effect  this.  My 
accounts  state  the  number  of  corps  as  not 
exceeding  eight  thousand  men,  some  without 
arms,  and  in  the  whole,  very  few  who  are 
liable  to  a  suspicion  of  disaffection." 

But  in  the  next  month,  the  same  viceroy 
communicates  to  the  same  minister,  that,  by 
advice  of  the  Privy  Council  of  Ireland,  he 
had  supplied  the  Volunteers  with  part  of  the 
arras  intended  for  the  militia.  This  waa 
really  giving  up  the  island  into  the  hands 
of  the  Volunteers.  The  leaders  of  that  force 
at  once  felt  that  they  might  do  what  they 
would  with  Ireland — for  a  time.  After  the 
delivery  of  the  arms,  the  numbers  of  Volun- 
teers rapidly  and  greatly  increased,  f 

But  a  spirit  of  great  moderation  reigned 
over  the  councils  of  this  armed  nation.  It 
was,  in  the  hands  of  those  leaders,  any  thing 
rather  than  a  republi(;an,  or  agrarian,  or 
revolutionary  movement.  Thus  they  adopt- 
ed a  system  of  officering  their  army  vi'hich 
gave  a  pledge  that  no  anarchical  idea  had 
place  in  their  thoughts.  The  soldiers  elected 
their  own  commanders;  and  whom,  says 
MacNevin,  whom  did  they  choose  ?  "  Whom 
did  this  democratic  army  select  to  rule  their 
councils  and  direct  their  power?  Not  the 
low  ambitious — not  the  village  vulgar  braw- 
ler— but  the  men  who,  by  large  possession*?, 

*  May  »4, 1779. 

+  16,000  Rtand  of  arms  were  dulivered  to  tb« 
Volunteeri<  at  this  time. 


NUMBERS    AND    AIMS    OF   THE   VOLUNTEERS. 


127 


lofty  character,  and  better  still,  by  virtue 
ami  by  genius,  had  given  to  their  nanaes  a 
larger  patent  tbau  nobility.  Flood  and 
Grattan,  Chailemont  and  Leiuster — the  cho- 
sen men  in  all  the  liberal  professions — the 
orators  who  led  the  Patriot  party  in  the 
Commons — the  good,  the  high,  the  noble ; 
these  were  the  officers  who  held  unpurchased 
honors  in  the  Volunteers.  We  may  well 
look  bark,  with  mournful  pride,  through  the 
horrid  chaos  where  rebellion  and  national 
ruin  rule  the  murky  night,  to  this  one  hour 
of  glory — of  power  uncorrupted,  and  oppor- 
tunities uuabused." 

It  is  difficult  to  arrive  at  any  accurate 
statement  of  the  numbers  of  the  Volunteers 
within  the  first  year  of  their  organization. 
There  have  been  both  exaggerative  and  de- 
pieciative  estimates.  We  have  seen  that 
the  lord-lieutenant,  in  June,  1779,  had  sup- 
posed their  force  to  be  only  8,000 ;  yet  in 
the  very  next  month  had  yielded  to  them  a 
demand  which  it  would  have  been  vitally 
important  to  the  Government  to  refuse 
them.  And  as  will  be  always  the  case, 
where  the  money  of  Government  can  com- 
mand the  venal  crew  of  writers,  the  most 
elaborate  falsehood  and  the  most  insulting 
ridicule  were  poured  upon  the  heads  of 
those  by  whose  exertions  the  national  cause 
was  so  nobly  maintained.  In  Lloycfa 
Eveninff  Post,  an  article  appeared  on  the 
7th  of  July,  stating  that  the  numbers  of 
the  Volunteers  had  been  monstrously  exag- 
gerated; that  no  call  could  bring  into  the 
field  twenty  thousand  men  ;  that  persons  of 
all  ages  were  enrolled  and  put  on  paper  ; 
that  every  gentleman  belonged  to  two,  and 
most  of  them  to  five  or  six  diflferent  corps, 
and  that  by  this  ubiquity  and  divisibility 
of  person,  the  muster-rolls  of  the  companies 
were  swelled.  Doubtlessly  there  was  some 
exaggeration  in  the  representation  of  the 
numbers  occasionally  made ;  but  a  compe- 
•tent  authority,  commenting  on  this  ar- 
ticle, states,  that  at  this  time  there  were 
9.5,000. 

In  the  ranks  of  the  Volunteers  there 
were,  in  point  of  fact,  very  many  Catholics, 


from  a  very  early  period  of  the  movement ; 
but  they  were  there  by  connivance,  as  thev 
were  everywhere  else.  But  in  the  next 
year,  after  meetings  of  Volunteers  had 
passed  resolutions  in  favor  of  Catholic 
rights,  the  young  men  of  that  religion  began 
to  swell  the  numbers  of  many  corps.  Some 
corps  were  composed  altogether  of  Catho- 
lics:  and  when  the  Dungannon  Convention 
came,  the  Volunteer  army  was  at  least 
75,000  strong. 

During  the  summer  of  1779  an  event 
occurred,  which  immensely  stimulated  the 
volunteering  spirit: — the  combined  fleets  of 
France  and  Spain  entered  the  Channel  in 
overwhelming  force,  which  the  British  could 
not  venture  to  encounter :  the  vessels  pass- 
ing between  England  and  Ireland  were 
placed  under  the  protection  of  convoys; 
Paul  Jones,  with  his  little  squadron,  fought 
and  captured,  within  sight  of  the  English 
coast,  the  Seiapis  man-of-war  and  Scarbor- 
ough frigate,  with  many  vessels  under  their 
convoy  :  in  short,  there  was  another  alarm 
of  invasion  both  in  England  and  in  Ireland. 
MacNevin,  in  his  History  of  the  Volunteers, 
says  with  a  cool  ndivete  which  is  charming,  that 
this  "  was  fortunate  for  the  reputation  of  the 
Volunteers,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
their  fidelity  to  the  original  principle  of 
their  body" — which  principle  was  defence 
of  the  country  against  a  foreign  enemy. 
Most  of  the  Volunteers  knew  well  that  their 
only  foreign  enemy  was  England,  and  that 
France,  Spain,  and  America  would  have 
been  most  happy  to  deliver  them  from  that 
enemy.  They  knew,  also,  that  the  only  use 
of  the  Volunteer  force,  in  practice,  was 
likely  to  be  the  wresting  of  their  national 
independence  from  England.  However,  the 
new  alarm  aided,  and  seemed  to  justify,  the 
volunteering.  Therefore,  the  delegates  of 
125  corps  of  Volunteers,  all  of  them  men 
of  rank  and  character,  waited  on  tlu;  lord- 
lieutenant  with  offers  of  service  "in  such 
manner  as  shall  be  thought  necessary  fbr 
the  safety  and  protection  of  the  kingdom." 
The  offer  was  accepted,  but  very  coldly,  and 
without  naming  "  Volunteers." 


128 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

1779—1780. 
Free  Trade  and  Free  Parliament —  Mcanins: .  of 
"Free  Trade" — Non-importation  agreements — 
Rage  of  the  English — Grattan's  motion  for  free 
trade— Uiissey  Burgh— Thanks  to  the  Volunteers 
— Parade  in  Dublin— Lord  North  yields — Free 
Trade  Act — Next  step — Mutiny  Bill — The  l!)th  of 
April — Declaration  of  Kiglit — Defeated  in  Parlia- 
ment, but  successful  in  the  country — General  de- 
termination,—  Organizing  —  Arming  —  Reviews — 
Oharlemont — Briberies  of  Buckingham — Carlisle, 
Viceroy. 

To  force  from  reluctant  Eagland  a  Free 
Tiade,  and  the  repeal,  or  rather  declaratory 
nullification,  of  Poynings'  Law,  which  re- 
quired the  Irish  Parliament  to  submit  the 
heads  of  their  bills  to  the  English  Privy 
Council  before  they  could  presume  to  pass 
them — these  were,  in  few  words,  the  two 
great  objects  which  the  leaders  of  the  Vol- 
unteers kept  now  steadily  before  them.  It 
must  be  here  observed  that  the  idea  and  the 
term  "free  trade,"  as  then  understood  in 
Ireland,  did  not  represent  what  the  political 
economists  now  call  free  trade.  What  was 
sought  was  a  release  from  those  restrictions 
on  Irish  trade  imi)0sed  by  an  English  Par- 
liament, and  for  the  piofit  of  the  English 
people.  This  did  not  mean  that  imports 
and  exports  should  be  free  of  all  duty  to  the 
state,  but  only  that  the  fact  of  import  or 
export  itself  should  not  be  restrained  by 
fufeign  laws,  and  that  the  duties  to  be  de- 
rived from  it  should  be  imposed  by  Ireland's 
own  Parliament,  and  in  the  sole  interest  of 
Ireland  herself.  This  distinction  is  the  more 
important  to  be  observed,  because  modern 
"free  traders"  in  Ireland  and  in  England 
have  sometimes  appealed  to  the  authority  of 
the  enlightened  men  who  then  governed  the 
Volunteer  movement  as  an  authority  in  favor 
ot'  abolishing  import  and  export  duties.  The 
citation  is  by  no  means  applicable. 

The  fiist  measure  to  convince  England 
that  Ireland  was  entitled  to  an  unrestricted 
trade,  was  the  "  non-importation  agreement," 
which  many  of  the  Volunteer  corps,  as  well 
as  town  coi porations,  solemnly  adopied  by 
resolutions,  during  the  year  1779.  Although 
there  were  frequent  debates  in  the  British 
Parliament  this  year  on  the  subject  of  modi- 
fying the  laws  prohibiting  the  export  of  cot- 


tons, woollens,  and  provisions,  from  Ireland, 
yet  it  was  but  too  plain  that  the  rapacious 
spirit  of  British  commerce,  and  the  mena- 
cing, almost  frantic,  opposition  given  to  all 
consideration  of  such  measure,  by  petitions, 
which  sounded  more  like  threats,  coming 
from  the  great  centres  of  trade  in  England, 
Manchester,  Glasgow,  Liverpool,  and  Bristol, 
would  render  all  redress  hopeless  from  that 
quarter.  The  non-importation  agreements 
Became  popular,  and  the  people  of  many 
towns  and  counties  were  steadily  refusing  to 
wear  or  use  in  their  houses  any  kind  of 
wares  coming  from  England.  The  town  of 
Galway  had  the  honor  of  leading  the  way 
in  this  movement :  the  example  was  im- 
mediately followed  by  corps  of  Volunteers 
in  many  counties;  and  as  the  Volunteera 
were  already  the  fashion,  women  sustained 
their  patriotic  resolution,  and  ladies  of  wealth 
began  to  clothe  themselves  exclusively  ia 
Irish  fabrics.  The  resolutions  are  not  uni- 
form in  their  tenor.  At  a  general  meeting 
of  the  Freemen  and  Freeholders  of  the  city 
of.  Dublin,  convened  by  public  notice,  these 
resolutions  were  passed : 

"  Resolved^  That  the  unjust,  illiberal,  and 
impolitic  opposition  given  by  many  self- 
interested  people  of  Great  Britain  to  the 
proposed  encouragement  of  the  trade  and 
commerce  of  this  kingdom,  originated  in 
avarice  and  ingratitude. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  will  not,  directly  or 
indirectly,  import  or  use  any  goods  or  wares, 
the  produce  or  manufactures  of  Great  Britain, 
which  can  be  produced  or  manufactured  in 
this  kingdom,  till  an  enlightened  policy, 
founded  on  principles  of  justice,  shall  appear 
to  actuate  the  inhabitants  of  certain  manu- 
facturing towns  of  Great  Britain,  who  have 
taken  so  active  a  part  in  opposing  the  regu- 
lations proposed  in  favor  of  the  trade  of 
Ireland ;  and  till  they  appear  to  entertain 
sentiments  of  respect  and  affection  for  their 
fellow-subjects  of  this  kingdom." 

Shortly  after  the  assizes  at  Waterford, 
the  high  sheriff,  grand  jury,  and  a  number 
of  the  most  respectable  inhabitants,  assembled 
for  the  purpose  of  taking  into  consideration 
the  ruinous  state  of  the  trade  and  manufac- 
tures, and  the  alarming  decline  in  the  value 
of  the  staple  commodities  of  the  kingdom  ; 
and  looking  upon  it  as  an  indispensable  duty 


NOX-IMPORTATION"    AGREESIBNTS. 


129 


that  they  owed  their  country  and  tliem- 
selves,  to  restrain,  by  every  means  in  their 
power,  these  growing  evils,  they  passed  and 
signed  the  following  resolutions: 

'■'■Resolved,  That  we,  our  families,  and  all 
whom  we  can  influence,  shall,  from  this  day, 
wear  and  make  use  of  the  manufactures  of 
this  country,  and  this  country  only,  until 
such  time  as  all  partial  restrictions  on  our 
trade,  imposed  by  the  illiberal  and  contract- 
ed policy  of  our  sister  kingdom,  be  removed  ; 
but  if,  in  consequence  of  this  our  resolu- 
tion, the  manufacturers  (whose  interest  we 
have  more  immediately  under  consideration) 
should  act  fraudulently,  or  combine  to  im- 
pose upon  the  public,  we  shall  hold  our- 
selves no  longer  bound  to  countenance  and 
support  them. 

"  Hcsolved,  That  we  will  not  deal  with 
any  merchant  or  shopkeeper  who  shall,  at 
any  time  hereafter,  be  detected  in  imposing 
any  foreign  manufacture  as  the  manufacture 
of  this  country." 

Resolutions  of  this  kind  became  general, 
in  consequence  of  which  efforts  the  manu- 
fcictures  of  Ireland  began  to  revive,  and  the 
demand  for  British  goods  in  a  great  measure 
decieascd,  a  civcumslance  which  tended  to 
produce  a  disposition  in  Great  Britain  to 
attend  to  the  complaints  of  that  country, 
different  indeed  from  that  which  Ireland 
had  hitherto  experienced. 

The  feeling  of  Government  on  the  subject 
of  non-importation  was  one  of  gi'eat  irrita- 
tion, and  their  partisans  in  Parliament  did 
not  hesitate  to  give  bitter  utterance  to  their 
hatred  of  the  Yolunteers  and  of  the  com- 
mercial movement.  Lord  Shelburne,  in  May, 
17V9,  called  the  Irish  army  an  "enraged 
mob;"  but  the  phrase  was  infelicitous,  and 
told  only  half  the  truth.  They  were  enraged, 
but  they  were  not  a  mob.  They  had  no 
one  quality  of  a  mob.  They  had  discipline, 
arms,  and  a  military  system.  Their  ranks 
weie  filled  with  gentlemen,  and  officered  by 
nobles.  But  such  expressions  as  Lord  Shel- 
burne's  were  of  great  advantage.  They  kept 
clearly,  in  bold  relief,  the  ancient  and  irre- 
movable feeling  of  Englishmen,  and  the  con- 
temptuous falsehood  of  their  estimate  of  the 
Irish  people.  In  the  same  spirit,  the  organ 
of  Government  wrote  to  the  central  autho- 
rity in  Encrland  on  th^-  subject  of  the  non- 

^  °  17       ' 


importation  agreement: — "For  some  days 
past,  the  names  of  the  traders  who  appear 
by  the  printed  returns  of  tlie  custom-house 
to  have  imported  any  English  goods,  have 
been  printed  in  the  Dublin  newspaper.  This 
is  probably  calculated  for  the  abominable 
purpose  of  drawing  the  indignation  of  the 
mob  upon  individuals,  and  is  supposed  to 
be  the  act  of  the  meanest  of  the  faction."* 
When  the  lord-lieutenant  penned  this  para- 
graph, he  did  not,  assuredly,  remember  the 
meanness  of  the  manufacturers  and  traders 
of  his  own  country,  or  the  measures  adopted 
by  the  English  Parliament,  at  their  dicta- 
tion, to  crush  the  trade  and  paralyze  the 
industry  of  this  country.  The  retaliation 
was  just,  and  no  means  that  could  have  been 
adopted  could  equal  the  atrocity  of  the  con- 
duct of  the  English  towns  to  the  productive 
industry  of  Ireland.  Englishmen  had  a  Par- 
liament obedient  to  the  dictates  of  the  en- 
croaching spirit  of  English  trade — the  Irish. 
people  had  not  as  yet  established  their  tVee- 
dom,  nor  armed  themselves  with  the  resist- 
less weapon  of  free  institutions.  They  were 
obliged  to  legislate  for  themselves,  and  were 
justified  by  the  exigency  in  adopting  any 
means  to  enforce  the  national  will.  It  seems 
strange  that  it  should  be  neces-ary  to  defend 
the  measure  of  holding  up  to  scorn  the 
traitors  who  could  expose  in  their  shops 
articles  of  foreign  consumption,  every  article 
of  which  was  a  representative  of  their  coun- 
try's impoverishment"  and  decay.  But  the 
English  press  denounced  it  as  the  policy  of 
savages,  and  pointed  out  the  Irish  people  to 
the  contumely  of  Europe.  At  the  same  time, 
the  English  manufacturers,  ever  careless  of 
present  sacrifices  to  secure  permanent  ad- 
vantages, flooded  the  country  towns  with 
the  accumulated  products  of  the  woollen 
manufacture,  which,  owing  to  the  war  and 
other  causes,  had  remained  on  their  hands. 
They  offered  these  goods  to  the  small  shop- 
keepers at  the  lowest  possible  prices,  and 
desired  them  to  name  their  own  time  for 
payment;  and  they  partially  succeeded  iu 
inducing  many  of  the  low  and  embarrassed 
servitors  of  trade,  through  their  necessities, 
and  by  the  seductive  promise  of  long  credit,  to 

*  Letter  of  the  lord  lieutcnaut  to  Lord   Wey- 
mouth,  Muv,  17"», 


130 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


become  traitors  to  the  cause  of  Irish  indus- 
try. The  Volunteers  and  the  leaders  of  the 
inoveraent  were  equally  active  on  their  side. 
The  press,  the  pulpit,  and  the  ball-room 
Were  enlisted  in  the  cause  of  native  indus- 
try. The  scientific  institutions  circulated, 
gratuitously,  tracts  on  the  improvement  of 
manufacture  — on  the  modes  adopted  in  the 
continental  manufacturing  districts,  and  on 
the  economy  of  production.  Trade  revived  ; 
the  manufacturers  who  had  thronged  the 
city  of  Dublin,  the  ghastly  apparitions  of 
decaved  industry,  found  employment  pro- 
vided for  them  by  the  patriotism  and  spirit 
of  the  country ;  the  proscribed  goods  of 
England  remained  unsold,  or  only  sold  under 
fiilse  colors,  by  knavish  and  profligate  retail- 
ers ;  the  country  enjoyed  some  of  the  fruits 
of  freedom  before  she  obtained  freedom 
itself. 

The  session  of  the  Irish  Parliament  of 
1*779-80  had  been  looked  forward  to  with 
profound  interest;  and  it  opened  with 
stormy  omens.  The  speech  from  the  lord- 
lieutenant  contained  more  than  the  usual 
quantity  of  inexplicit  fjilsehood  and  diplo- 
matic subterfuge.  The  address  in  reply 
was  its  echo,  or  would  have  been,  but  that 
Henry  Grattan,  he  who  was  above  all  others, 
the  man  of  his  day,  moved  his  celebrated 
amendment.  The  speech  of  the  viceroy 
had  alluded  with  skilful  obscurity  to  cer- 
tain liberal  intentions  of  the  king  on  the 
subje(;t  of  trade :  but  there  was  no  promise 
for  hope  to  rest  upon  :  it  was  vague,  and 
without  meaning.  This  was  not  what  the 
spirit  of  the  hour  or  the  genius  of  the  men 
would  endure.  They  felt  the  time  had 
come  to  strike  with  mortal  blow  the  whole 
system  of  English  tyranny,  and  to  give  free- 
dom Mnd  security  to  the  trade  and  industry 
of  Ireland. 

When  the  speech  was  read  in  the  Com- 
rnnns,  the  English  interest  anxiously  scanned 
the  opposition  benches.  They  saw  that 
PO!nething  would  be  done  embarrassing  to 
their  system  and  to  them ;  but  thev  could 
not  anticipate  the  blow  that  was  ready  for 
their  heads,  or  that  their  fiercest  foe  would 
be  a  placeman  in  their  ranks.  An  address 
was  proposed  by  Sir  Robert  Deane,  a 
drudge  of  Governniei\t,  re-echoing,  in  ser- 
vility, the  vague  g(?neralities  of  the  speech. 


Grattan  then  rose  to  propose  his  amend- 
ment : — 

"That  we  beseech  his  majesty  to  believe 
that  it  is  with  the  utmost  reluctance  we  pre- 
sume to  approach  his  royal  person  with 
even  the  smallest  appearance  of  dissatisfac- 
tion ;  but  that  the  distress  of  this  kingdom 
is  such  as  renders  it  an  indispensable  duty 
in  us  to  lay  the  melancholy  state  of  it  be- 
fore his  majesty,  and  to  point  out  what  we 
apprehend  to  be  the  only  eff"ectual  means 
of  relief;  that  the  constant  drain  of  its 
cash  to  supply  absentees,  and  the  fetters  on 
its  commerce,  have  always  been  sufficient 
to  prevent  this  country  from  becoming  opu- 
lent in  its  circumstances,  but  that  those 
branches  of  trade  which  have  hitherto  ena- 
bled it  to  struggle  with  the  difficulties  it 
labors  under,  have  now  almost  totally  failed  ; 
that  its  commercial  credit  is  sunk,  all  its 
resources  are  decaying  rapidly,  and  num- 
bers of  its  most  industrious  inhabitants  in 
danger  of  perishing  for  want ;  that  as  long 
as  they  were  able  to  flatter  themselves  that 
the  progress  of  those  evils  might  be  stopped 
by  their  own  efforts,  they  were  unwilling  to 
trouble  his  majesty  upon  the  subject  of  their 
distress;  but,  finding  that  they  increase 
upon  them,  notwithstanding  all  their  endea- 
vors, they  are  at  last  obliged  to  have  re- 
course to  his  majesty's  benignity  and  justice, 
and  most  humbly  to  acquaint  him  that,  in 
their  opinion,  the  only  effectual  remedy  that 
can  be  applied  to  the  sufferings  of  this  king- 
dom, that  can  either  invigorate  its  credit  or 
support  its  people,  is  to  open  its  ports  for 
the  exportation  of  all  its  manufactures  ;  that 
it  is  evident  to  every  unprejudiced  mind  that 
Great  Britain  would  derive  as  much  benefit 
from  this  measure  as  Ireland  itself,  but  that 
Ireland  cannot  subsist  without  it;  and  that 
it  is  with  the  utmost  grief  they  find  them- 
selves under  the  necessity  of  again  acquaint- 
ing his  majesty  that,  unless  some  happy 
change  in  the  state  of  its  affairs  takes  place 
without  delay,  it  must  inevitably  be  reduced 
to  remain  a  burden  upon  England,  instead 
of  increasing  its  resources,  or  nffurding  it 
the  assistance  which  its  natural  affection  for 
that  countiy,  and  the  intimate  connection 
between  their  interests,  have  always  inclined 
it  to  offei'." 

Grattan's  speeeli  in  support  of  the  amend- 


THANKS    TO    THE   YOLUNTEEES. 


131 


mfnt  must  have  been  b;idly  preserved,  for 
wluit  remains,  bears  no  proportion  to  the 
mafjnitude  of  the  interests,  or  the  absorbing 
Bafure  of  the  subject. 

To  the  rn^e  and  dismay  of  Government — 
passions  of  which  unequivocal  demonstra- 
tions were  given  on  the  ministerial  benches 
— Hussey  Burgh,  the  prime  sergeant,  one  of 
the  most  eloquent  and  fascinating  men  of 
the  day,  an  official  of  Government,  a  stanch 
supporter,  one  to  whom,  from  the  spirit  of 
his  office,  patriotism  should  have  been  im- 
possible, moved  that  "  we  beg  to  represent 
to  his  majesty  that  it  is  not  by  temporary 
expedients,  but  by  a  free  trade  alone,  that 
this  nation  is  now  to  be  saved  fi'om  impend- 
ing ruin."  This  resolution  was  carried  unani- 
mously ;  the  supporters  of  Government  saw 
that  it  was  useless  to  oppose  the  spirit  of  the 
House ;  the  nation  was  standing  petitioner 
at  their  bar  for  the  privileges  of  nature, 
production  and  consumption ;  the  Volun- 
teers were  drawn  up  through  the  streets  of 
Dublin,  with  an  intelligible  alternative  hung 
round   the   necks    of  their    cannon,    "Free 

Trade    or ;"    and    the    amendment  of 

Henry  Grattan,  with  the  improvements  of 
Burgh,  received  on  the  part  of  the  Patriots 
an  exulting  support,  and  on  the  part  of  the 
ministers  a  fearful  and  angry  assent.  The 
d.-iy  after  this  distinguished  success,  the 
addresses  of  the  Lords  and  Commons  were 
brought  up  to  the  Castle;  the  streets,  from 
the  House  to  the  seat  of  government,  were 
lined  wiih  the  corps  of  the  Dublin  Volun- 
teers, under  arms,  who  paid  military  honors 
to  the  favorite  leaders;  the  city  was  in  a 
tumult  of  joy  and  triumph,  contrasting  not 
unfavorably  with  the  gloom  and  irritation 
.of  the  Castle.  And  that  no  doubt  might  be 
entertained  of  the  authors  of  this  important 
movement — that  the  merit  of  success  should 
be  laid  at  the  right  dooi',  thanks  to  the  Vol- 
unteers were  moved  and  carried  in  the  Lords 
and  Commons.  The  motion  in  the  House 
of  Commons  was  made  by  Mr.  Conolly, 
the  head  of  the  country  gentlemen.  The 
Duke  of  Leinster  carried  the  motion  through 
the  Lnrds,  with  onlv  one  dissentient  voice, 
Lord-Chancellor  LifFord,  on^  of  those  Eng- 
lish lawyers  who  are  sent  over  to  Ireland, 
from  time  to  time,  to  occupy  the  highest  I 
scats  of  justice  and  enjoy  the  largest  emolu-  I 


ments  in  the  country.  Tlie  lord-lieutenant, 
in  writing  to  Lord  Weymouth,  complains 
bitterly  of  these  votes;  unanimous  expres- 
sions as  they  were  of  the  feelings  of  all 
classes  in  the  state,  they  appeared  in  a  most 
reprehensible  light  to  the  vicerov,  who  petu- 
lantly wrote  home  his  complaint  that  the 
proceeding  was  occasioned  wholly  by  the 
Duke  of  Leinster. 

The  Government,  quite  alive  to  the  fact 
that  the  present  posture  of  affairs  resulted 
from  the  power  and  determination  of  the 
Volunteers,  set  on  one  of  its  habitual 
agents  to  assail  them.  This  was  Scott,  the 
attorney-general,  who  afterwards,  as  Lord 
Clonmel,  was,  with  a  few  monstrous  excep- 
tions, the  most  inhuman  judge  that  ever 
presided  in  the  shambles  of  Irish  justice. 
He  attacked  the  Volunteers  with  an  habitual 
vulgar  fury — described  them  by  every  name 
which  the  quick  invention  of  a  ferocious 
mind  could  devise;  and  he  was  supported 
in  his  philippic  by  Sir  Henry  Cavendish, 
who  reminded  the  House  that  the  Indepen- 
dents of  the  past  century  commenced  by 
seeming  moderation,  but  ended  by  cutting 
off  the  head  of  the  king :  men  might  creep 
into  the  Volunteers,  who  might  urge  them 
to  similar  dangerous  courses.  But  Grattan 
repelled  the  charges  against  the  army  in 
which  he  was  a  distinguished  soldier — and 
told  the  legislature  that  the  great  objects 
which  they  sought  could  not  be  obtained  bv 
the  skill,  the  prudence,  or  the  dexterity  of 
300  men,  without  the  spiiit  and  co-operation 
of  3,000,000.  The  military  associations,  he 
said,  "caused  a  fortunate  chanfje  in  the 
sentiments  of  this  House  :  they  inspired  us 
to  ask  directly  for  the  greatest  object  that 
ever  was  set  within  the  view  of  Ireland — a 
free  trade."  The  spirit  in  the  countrv  well 
replied  to  the  spirit  within  the  walls  of  the 
House.  The  Volunteers  instructed  the  rep- 
resentatives to  vote  the  supplies  for  no  longer 
than  six  months.  They  now  amounted  to 
nearly  50,000  men.  Possessed  of  every 
wonted  military  attribute,  disciplined,  and 
well  armed,  they  had  other  qualities  that 
are  too  often  absent  in  military  organization. 
They  were  the  army  of  the  people;  their 
commission  included  onlv  the  duties  of  free- 
born  men  to  fight  for  liberty  and  to  defend 
a  country.     Most  of  then'  officers  were  the 


132 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


highest  blood  of  an  ancient  and  aristocratic 
country — men  not  alone  ennobled  by  long 
descent,  but  by  the  high  qualities  of  genius, 
wisdom,  and  integrity.  The  soldiers  were 
the  yeomen  of  the  land,  having  as  definite 
an  interest  in  her  prosperity  as  the  highest 
peer  in  the  service.  And  all  were  bound 
together  by  the  deepest  attachment  to  the 
liberties  of  Ireland.  They  had  seen  what 
they  were  able  to  effect ;  and  as  concession 
after  concession  was  wrung  from  power,  the 
bold  and  sagacious  of  them  determined  not 
to  rest  from  their  efforts-  until  a  free  and 
reformed  Parliament  sat  within  the  walls  of 
the  Senate  House,  the  permanent  security 
and  guarantee  of  freedom. 

The  question  of  the  supplies  came  before 
the  House  on  the  25th  November,  1779. 
The  Patriots  had  determined  to  withhold 
the  grant,  or  to  limit  the  duration  of  the 
money  bill,  until  free  trade  was  yielded  by 
England.  But  Scott,  the  attorney-general, 
endeavored  to  prove  that  supplies  to  pay  the 
interest  of  the  national  debt,  the  tontine,  and 
the  loans,  were  not  supplies  to  the  crown, 
but  for  the  discharge  of  national  responsi- 
bilities. "How  tender,"  said  Grattan,  "the 
administration  is  regarding  the  moneyed  in- 
terests of  individuals  ;  how  little  they  care  to 
risk  the  ruin  of  the  nation  ! "  The  attorney- 
general  moved  that  the  supplies  should  be 
granted  for  two  years ;  Mr.  PVench  moved 
an  amendment  that  they  should  be  granted 
for  six  months.  A  brilliant  debate  was  the 
consequence  ;  the  war  of  personality,  which 
was  always  carried  on  with  so  much  vigor 
and  genius  in  the  House,  never  raged  with 
fiercer  or  more  splendid  power — but  the 
great  oration  of  the  day  was  delivered  by 
Hussey  Burgh.     He  said  : 

"You  have  but  two  nights  ago  declared 
against  new  taxes  by  a  majority  of  123,  and 
have  left  the  ministers  suppoited  only  by 
47  votes ;  if  you  now  go  back,  and  accede 
to  the  proposed  grant  for  two  years,  your 
compliance  will  add  insult  to  the  injuries 
already  done  to  your  ill-fated  country  ;  you 
strike  a  dagger  in  your  own  bosom,  and 
destroy  the  fair  prospect  of  commercial  hope, 
because  if  the  minister  can,  in  the  course  of 
two  days,  render  void  the  animated  spirit 
and  patriotic  stability  of  this  House,  and 
procure  a  majority,  the  British  minister  will 


treat  our  applications  for  free  trade  with 
contempt.  When  the  interests  of  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  people  are  contrary,  they 
secretly  operate  against  each  other — such  a 
state  is  but  smothered  war.  I  shall  be  a 
friend  alike  to  the  minister  and  the  people, 
according  as  I  find  their  desires  guided  by 
justice ;  but  at  such  a  crisis  as  this  the 
people  must  be  kept  in  good  temper,  even 
to  tlie  indulgence  of  their  caprices. 

"The  usurped  authority  of  a  foreign  Par- 
liament has  kept  up  the  most  wicked  laws 
that  a  zealous,  monopolizing,  ungrateful 
spirit  could  devise,  to  restrain  the  bounty  of 
providence  and  enslave  a  nation  whose  in- 
habitants are  recorded  to  be  a  brave,  loyal, 
and  generous  people ;  by  the  English  code 
of  laws,  to  answer  the  most  sordid  views, 
they  have  been  tieated  with  a  savage  cruelty ; 
the  words  penalty,  punishment,  and  Ireland, 
are  synonymous,  they  are  marked  in  blood 
on  the  margin  of  their  statutes;  and,  though 
time  may  have  softened  the  calamities  of 
the  nation,  the  baneful  and  destructive  influ- 
ence of  those  laws  has  borne  her  down  to 
a  state  of  Egyptian  bondage.  The  English 
have  sowed  their  laws  like  serpents'  teeth, 
and  they  have  sprung  up  in  armed  men."* 

The  amendment  was  carried  by  138  to 
100:  the  triumph  of  the  principles  of  free 
trade  was  insured  ;  and  the  minister  acknow- 
ledged the  necessity  of  precipitately  retracing 
his  steps.  Who  can  doubt  the  vast  influ- 
ence the  Volunteers  exerted  in  all  these 
proceedings?  On  the  preceding  4th  of 
November^the  anniversary  of  the  birth  of 
William  the  Third — the  Volunteers  had 
taken  the  opportunity  of  reading  to  the 
minister  and  the  Parliament  a  lesson  of  con- 
stitutional doctrine  around  the  statue  of  him 
who  was,  they  conceived,  the  founder  of 
constitutional  liberty.  They  assembled  in 
College  Green — the  Dublin  Volunteer  artil- 
lery, commanded  by  James  Napper  Tandy, 
with    labels  bearing  the  inscription,  "Free 

*  Iliipsey  Burgh  lost  his  place,  but  rose  in  popu- 
lar estimation.  Meetings  were  held  in  diflfureut 
parts  of  the  country  to  present  him  with  addresses 
of  thanks.  The  freedom  of  the  Corporation  of 
Carrickfergus,  and  other  corporate  towns,  was  given 
to  him  in  gold  boxes.  The  address  from  the  Car- 
rickfergus  corporation  was  presented  by  Barry 
Ye'verlon,  Recorder  of  the  town. — See  Freeman'a 
Journal^  January  4th,  1780. 


PARADE   IN    DUBLIN. 


133 


Tiade  or  speedy  revulution,"  suspended  on 
the  necks  of  their  cannon  ;  the  Vohmteers 
of  Dublin  and  the  vicinity,  under  the  orders 
of  the  Duke  of  Leinster.  The  sides  of  the 
pedestal  on  which  stood  the  statue  of  the 
Deliverer,  were  ornamented  with  collections 
of  most  significant  political  reasoning;  and 
under  the  angry  eyes  of  the  executive,  such 
teachings  as  the  following  were  given  at  once 
to  the  governors  and  the  governed.  On  one 
side  of  the  pillar  was  inscribed,  "Relief  to 
Ireland;"  on  another,  "A  short  money  bill, 

a  free    trade,  or  else  ;"    on   a  third, 

"  The  Volunteers,  quinquaginta  raillia  juncti^ 
parati  pro  patria  mori ;'''  and  in  front  of  the 
statue  were  two  cannons  bearing  an  inscrip- 
tion on  each,  "Free  trade  or  this."  The 
people  were  assembled  in  thousands  around 
the  Volunteer  troops,  and  their  enthusiasm 
re-echoed  in  deafening  applause  the  thunder 
of  the  artillery.  It  was  a  scene  pioductive 
of  commercial  and  political  freedom  :  that 
the  latter  was  evanescent  was  not  the  fault 
of  the  institution  or  lack  of  spirit;  but  divi- 
sions, and  doubts,  and  suspicions,  were  in- 
troduced amongst  the  body  by  the  exertions 
of  England;  new  ambitions  filled  the  minds 
of  some  ;  the- force  of  old  ministerial  associ- 
ations pressed  upon  others ;  the  courtly 
tendencies  and  the  timid  alarms  of  a  few  of 
the  leading  men  led  them  to  sacrifice  what 
they  had  gained,  rather  than  to  peril  Eng- 
lish connection  by  nobly  seeking  unlimited 
freedom.  But  at  the  period  of  which  we 
are  writing,  the  Volunteer  system  was  com- 
pact and  perfect.  The  wants  of  Ireland 
were  commercial  and  political.  She  had 
been  made  a  bankrupt  by  monopoly,  and  a 
slave  by  usurpation.  The  Volunteers  weie 
to  give  her  prosperity  and.  freedom,  by  un- 
restricted trade  and  legislation.  And  right 
well  did  they  set  themselves  to  their  ap- 
pointed task,  with  what  success  appears 
from  Lord  Nonh's  free  trade  bill,  and  Grat- 
tan's  declaration  of  right. 

It  was  appointed  for  Lord  North  to  undo 
the  work  of  William  the  Third,  and  to  take 
the  first  step  towards  restoring  the  trade  to 
which  the  Deliverer  had  given  the  finishing 
blow.  Lord  North  had  great  experience  in 
obstinate  oppression,  and  not  less  in  the 
recognition  of  the  liberties  he  had  trampled 
upon.     He  had  bravetl  the  genius  of  Chat- 


ham in  the  disastrous  campaigns  against 
transatlantic  freedom — the  world  has  read 
with  profit  the  sequel  of  his  history  in  that 
great  transaction.  He  had  opposed  every 
effort  to  emancipate  the  trade  of  Ireland — 
it  is  an  agreeable  duty  for  an  Irish  writer  to 
detail  the  concessions  wrung  from  him  bv 
the  arms  of  the  Volunteers,  and  the  elo- 
quence and  genius  of  those  who  led  them 
to  victory.  On  the  13th  of  December,  1779, 
he  introduced  into  the  English  legislature 
three  propositions :  to  permit,  first,  the  ex- 
port of  glass ;  second,  the  export  of  woollen 
goods ;  and  third,  a  free  trade  with  the 
English  settlements  in  America,  the  West 
Indies,  and  Africa. 

In  connection  with  these  propositions, 
Foster,  the  Speaker  of  the  Irish  House,  and 
on  that  occasion  the  representative  of  Gov- 
ernment, on  the  20th  of  the  same  month, 
moved  two  resolutions  in  the  Irish  legis- 
lature. 1st,  That  the  exportation  of  the 
manufactures  of  this  country  would  tend 
to  relieve  her  distresses.  2d,  That  great 
commercial  benefits  would  flow  from  the 
permission  to  trade  with  the  Amenoaji, 
Indian,  and  African  settlements.  Proposi- 
tions of  very  manifest  truth,  but  tardilv 
acknowledged  by  the  English  and  Irish 
Governments,  whose  recognition  is  obviouslv 
attributable  to  a  style  of  political  reasoning 
which  will  prove  any  thing  that  a  nation  of 
men  requires  to  demonstrate.  The  proposi- 
tions of  Lord  North,  and  the  resolutions  of 
Foster,  were  the  basis  of  the  bill  which  some 
months  later  gave  a  free  trade  to  Ireland  ; 
and,  for  the  first  time  since  W^illiain  the 
Third  destroyed  the  woollen  manufacture, 
and  his  English  Parliament  laid  restrictions 
on  her  productive  industry,  her  people  were 
free  to  use  the  resources  a  liberal  nature 
offered  them,  and  which  a  foreign  tyrant 
sealed  from  their  anxious  hands.  The  efforts 
they  had  made  hitherto  to  free  their  trade 
were  the  etibrts  of  slaves — petition  and  re- 
monstrance ;  it  was  not  until  they  demanded 
free  trade,  with  the  Volunteer  alternative, 
that  England  struck. 

The  Volunteers  and  the  country  had  soon 
a  more  striking  proof  of  the  power  which 
their  attitude  exerted  over  the  obstinate 
maxims  of  English  policy. 

Lord    North,   in  February,    1780,   intro- 


134 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


'Inced  his  free  trade  bill  iu  a  speech  which 
■was  the  best  refutation  of  his  former  argu- 
ments, and  the  severest  condemnation  of  his 
former  conduct. 

The  intelligence  of  the  concessions  made 
by  that  bill — liberty  to  export  woollen  manu- 
factures, and  to  trade  with  the  British  col- 
onies, was  received  wilh  great  joy  by  the 
people.  But  their  joy  was  tempered  with  a 
wise  care  for  the  future,  and  the  greater  the 
conceded  advantages  were,  the  more  did 
they  feel  themselves  pressed  by  the  insecu- 
rity of  possession.  The  very  magnitude  of 
the  gift  taught  them  with  greater  force  the 
true  principles  of  freedom.  They  reflected 
that  the  right  which  jealous  power  had 
respected  in  its  hour  of  weakness,  it  would 
trample  on  with  recovered  stieugth.  What 
secu!-ity  had  they  that  at  some  future  period, 
when  they  had  possibly  established  a  thriv- 
ing trade,  and  expended  much  labor  and 
money  in  creating  a  prosperous  commerce, 
tnci^  might  not  arise  another  William,  ready 
10  gratify  the  insolent  avarice  of  England, 
by  the  destruction  of  their  trade  and  manu- 
factures ?  The  wisdom  of  Swift,  of  Lucas, 
and  of  Molyneux,  appealed  to  them  in  the 
hour  of  recovered  trade,  and  pleaded  strong- 
ly for  unrecovered  liberty.  They  received 
a  free  trade  then,  not  as  a  gift  from  bounty, 
but  as  a  suirendered  right  from  weakened 
power;  and,  rejoicing  at  the  extent  of  the 
benefit,  they  were  neither  fools  nor  syco- 
phants; uor  did  they  compromise  their  duty 
to  their  country  by  a  needless  excess  of 
gratitude  to  her  frightened  oppressor.  Thus, 
in  the  resolutions  which  record  the  people's 
joy,  we  may  find  the  strongest  expressions 
of  their  determination  to  effect  greater  things 
than  the  emancipation  of  their  trade.  Every 
county  in  Ireland  addressed  its  representa- 
tives ;  every  coips  of  Volunteers  addressed 
its  officers ;  and  the  spirit  of  these  effusions 
may  be  judged  from  one,  selected  from 
amongst  many,  to  which  the  spirit  of  the 
day  gave  birih.  The  gentlemen  of  the 
grand  jury  and  freeholders  of  the  county  of 
Monaghan,  addressing  their  representatives, 
amongst  other  things,  said  : 

"  While  we  rejoice  in  common  with  the 
rest  of  our  fellow-subjects  at  the  advantages 
which  Ireland  has  latterly  obtained,  and 
which  we  are  fully  convinced  are  attribut- 


able to  the  parental  attention  of  his  majesty, 
the  virtue  of  our  Parliament,  and  the  spirit 
of  our  people ;  yet,  as  these  advantages  ar** 
confined  to  commerce,  our  satisfaction  must; 
be  limited,  lest  our  rights  and  privileges 
should  seem  to  be  lost  in  the  joy  which 
attends  a  partial  restoration  of  them.  We 
do  affirm  that  no  Parliament  had,  has,  or  of 
right  ought  to  have,  any  power  or  authority 
whatsoever,  in  this  kingdom,  except  the  Par- 
liament of  Ireland ;  that  no  statute  has  the- 
force  of  law  in  this  kingdom,  unless  enacted 
by  the  king  with  the  consent  of  the  Lords 
and  Commons  of  the  land  ;  on  this  principle' 
the  connection  between  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  is  to  be  founded,  and  on  this  princi- 
ple we  trust,  not  only  that  it  may  be  render- 
ed secure  and  permanent,  but  that  the  two 
kingdoms  may  become  strongly  united  and 
advantageously  circumstanced,  as  to  be  en- 
abled to  oppose  with  success  the  common 
enemies  of  the  British  empire.  What  you 
have  done,  we  look  on  as  a  beginning;  and 
we  trust  that  the  termination  of  the  session 
will  be  as  beneficial  to  the  constitution  as. 
the  commencement  has  been  to  the  com- 
merce of  the  country." 

These  were  the  sentiments  of  manly  but 
conditional  loyalty,  of  generous  love  of  free- 
dom above  even  the  material  benefits  of  trade, 
which  led  to  the  Revolution  of  1782,  and 
whose  diversion  into  other  channels  after 
the  Volunteers  had  ceased  to  exist  as  a  great 
national  army,  drove  so  many  great  and 
upright  men  into  conspiracy  and  revolt. 

The  desire  of  constitutional  liberty  having, 
once  seized  upon  the  people,  several  means, 
of  obtaining  that  object  were  adopted.  In 
Parliament,  a  short  mutiny  bill  became  a 
favorite  measure.  The  evils  of  a  standing 
army,  the  dangers  to  freedom  inseparable 
from  the  existence  within  the  realm  of  a 
large  force  of  armed  men,  having  from  its 
very  organization  no  sympathies  with  the 
people,  were  eloquently  dwelt  upon  by  the 
leading  Patriots  in  the  House;  magistrates 
refused  to  billet  soldiers  under  a  mutiny  act, 
to  which  they  objected  on  two  grounds — 
first,  that  it  was  an  English  act  of  Parlia- 
ment, and  secondly,  that  it  was  perpetual, 
and  created  an  armed  irresponsible  authority 
within  the  state.  The  Irish  mutiny  act  had 
only  extended  to  six  months — it  had  been 


DECLA.RATIOX    OF    BIGHT. 


135 


ivtniiieJ  from  England  with  a  change  ren- 
dering it  pf^rpetnnl ;  tlins  llie  legislation 
might  well  be  called  English,  and  the  princi- 
ple despotic.  The  act  was  I'esisted,  and  it 
would  have  remained  a  dead  letter,  but  that 
the  ultimate  decision  of  the  matter  rested 
with  the  judges,  and  it  was  not  thought 
advisable  to  resort  to  their  tribunals.  But 
the  time  had  arrived  when  Henry  Grattan 
commenced,  in  grave  and  noble  earnest,  the 
great  quarrel  of  parliamentary  liberty.  And 
never  was  a  man  more  fitted  by  nature  for 
a  great  work  than  he  was.  Swift  had  writ- 
ten of  Irish  politics  with  masterly  power; 
Molyneux,  with  considerable  learning;  and 
Lucas,  with  homely  vigor  and  honest  zeal ; 
but  in  Henry  Grattan  all  the  qualities  of 
gieatness  were  combined.  He  was  a  man 
of  a  pure  spirit  and  a  noble  genius.  He 
was  an  accomplished  scholar,  and  a  poet; 
but  his  scholarship  and  his  poetry  gave  way 
to  a  grand,  peculiar,  and  electric  oratory, 
unsurpassed,  probably  unequalled,  by  the 
greatest  speakers  of  any  age  or  nation.  It 
w^as  argumentative  and  logical  in  the  highest 
degree;  but  it  was  also  imaginative  and 
pit-turesque.  Its  figures  were  bold  and  new 
— its  strikin-g  peculiarity  consisted  in  the 
total  absence  of  the  usual  or  the  vulgar. 
In  its  noble  flights,  in  the  utter  abandonment 
of  genius,  there  was  a  grandeur  and  elegant 
])roportion,  a  profound  wisdom,  and  a  start- 
ling vehemence,  which  contributed  to  give 
to  the  orator  all  the  weight  of  inspiration. 
But  Grattan  was  not  only  a  consummate 
orator,  he  was  a  patriot  in  the  largest  and 
broadest  sense,  and  was  the  first  statesman 
in  Irel.md  who  both  aspired  to  national  in- 
dependence for  his  country,  and  perceived 
the  impossibility  of  maintaining  that  inde- 
pendence, even  if  established,  without  associ- 
ating the  mass  of  proscribed  Catholics  in 
the  national  aspirations  and  national  triumph. 
The  commercial  tyranny  of  England  being 
now  broken  down,  and  the  country  obviously 
ripe  for  a  further  advance,  Grattan  fixed  the 
19lh  of  April,  1780,  as  the  day  on  which 
he  would  move  his  celebrated  Declaration 
of  Eight,  which,  if  adopted,  would  be  a  dis- 
tinct ultimatum  to  England,  and,  adopted 
in  the  front  of  the  Volunteer  array,  would 
be  an  unmistakable  challenge  and  defiance. 
The  scene  presented  on  that  memorable  day 


by  Dublin  and  the  Irish  Parliament  House 
on  College  Green  is  vividly  described  by 
MacNevin : 

"  No  greater  day,  none  of  more  glory  evet 
rose  upon  this  country,  than  that  which 
dawned  upon  the  Senate  House  of  Ireland 
on  the  19th  of  April,  1780.  The  dull 
chronicles  of  the  time,  and  the  meagre  press 
which  then  represented  popular  opinion,  are 
filled  with  details  of  the  circumstances  under 
which  Grattan  brought  forward  his  Declara- 
tion of  Right.  They  were  circumstances 
certainly  unequalled  in  our  history  oi  military 
splendor  and  moral  triumph.  The  streets 
around  the  Attic  temple  of  legislation  were 
thronged  with  the  disciplined  numbers  of 
the  Volunteers,  and  the  impatient  multitude 
of  the  people.  The  uniforms  of  the  Irish 
army,  the  gaudy  orange,  the  brilliant  scar- 
let, and  the  chaster  and  more  national  vvttan 
— turned  up  with  diflferent  facings,  accoiding 
to  the  tastes  of  the  various  corps — contrasted 
gayly  with  the  dark  backgiound  of  the  civil- 
ian mass  that  watched  with  eager  eyes  the 
extraordinary  scene.  Over  the  heads  of  the 
crowd  floated  the  banners  of  the  Volunteers, 
with  the  watchwords  of  freedom  and  politi- 
cal regeneration  worked  in  gold  or  s-lver  on 
a  ground  of  blue,  green,  or  white.  And 
truly  the  issue  to  be  tried  within  the  walls 
of  that  magnificent  building  was  one  great 
in  its  effects,  and  illustrious  from  the  char 
acter  of  the  contending  parties.  It  was  a 
trial  of  right  between  two  jjreat  nations — 
but  more,  it  was  to  be  either  a  precedent  of 
freedom  or  an  argument  of  usurpation. 
Much  depended  on  the  result,  not  alone  as 
to  the  present  interests,  but  as  to  the  future 
destinies  of  the  country;  and  the  great  men 
who  were  engaged  in  conducting  this  con- 
troversy of  liberty  were  fully  alive  to  the 
dignity  of  their  parts,  and  fully  competent  to 
the  successful  discharge  of  the  lofty  mission 
they  had  undertaken, 

"Within  the  walls  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, a  scene  of  great  interest  presented 
Itself  to  the  eye.  The  galleries  were  throng- 
ed with  women  of  the  first  fashion,  beautiful, 
elegantly  dressed,  and  filled  with  animated 
interest  in  the  anticipated  triumph  of  an 
eloquence  to  which  the  place  was  sacred. 
Scattered  through  the  House  were  several 
officers  of  the  Volunteers,  for  a  considerable 


136 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


mimber  of  the  membeis  held  comtnissions 
in  that  great  body.  But  the  chief  attrac- 
tions of  the  House  were  those  distinguished 
men  who  were  upon  that  day  to  make  the 
noblest  chapter  in  the  history  of  Ireland- 
men  celebrated  beyond  those  of  almost  any 
age  for  the  possession  of  the  highest  of 
man's  qualities — eloquence,  wit,  statesman- 
ship, political  wisdom,  and  unbounded  know- 
ledge. There  were  to  be  seen  and  heaid 
there  that  day  the  graceful  and  eloquent 
Burgh  ;  the  intrepid  advocate,  the  consum- 
mate orator,  the  immaculate  patriot,  John 
Philpot  Curran ;  the  wise  statesman,  Flood  ; 
and  the  founder  of  Irish  liberty,  who  watch- 
ed it  in  its  cradle,  and  who  followed  it  to  its 
grave,  Grattan.  Amongst  the  spectatois 
were  LifFord,  the  chancellor,  whose  voice 
had  negatived  every  liberty,  and  denied 
every  concession ;  Charlemont,  the  truest  of 
patriots,  but  the  worst  of  statesmen  ;  and 
Frederick,  the  Earl  of  Bristol  and  the  Bishop 
of  Derry,  whose  coronet  and  mitre  could  not 
keep  down  the  ambition  of  a  tribune,  nor 
conceal  the  finest  qualities  of  a  demagogue. 
All  eyes  were  turned  to  Grattan." 

"  After  a  speech  of  consummate  power, 
in  which  he  imparted  to  the  doctrines  of 
freedom  a  more  spiritual  cast  than  they  had 
yet  assumed  in  Ireland,  he  moved  his  three 
resolutions.  1st,  That  his  most  excellent 
majesty,  by  and  with  the  consent  of  the 
Lords  and  Commons  of  Ireland,  are  the 
oidy  power  competent  to  enact  laws  to  bind 
Ireland.  2d,  That  the  crown  of  Ireland  is, 
and  ought  to  be,  inseparably  annexed  to  the 
crown  of  Great  Britain.  3d,  That  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  are  inseparably  united 
under  one  sovereign,  by  the  common  and 
indissoluble  ties  of  interest,  loyalty,  and  free- 
dom. His  resolutions  were  seconded  by 
llobert  Stewart,  the  father  of  the  man  who, 
of  all  others,  was  most  active  in  destroyiiiii- 
the  great  fabric  of  freedom  which  Henrv 
Grattan  commenced  upon  that  day  to  rear. 
He  was  opposed  by  Foster  and  Fitzgibbon  ; 
and  to  show  how  completely  Irish  freedom 
■was  the  child*  of  arms,  the  latter  attacked 
the  Volunteers  as  a  giddy  faction,  which 
dealt  in  violence  and  clamor.  He  felt  that 
Grattan  was  indeed  fortified  by  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  armed  citizens,  and  accordingly 
was  liberal  of  invective  against  them.     Yet 


Fitzgibbon  represented  himself  as  an  enemy 
to  the  usurpations  of  England.  It  was  singu- 
lar that  on  this  occasion  Flood  was  opposed 
to  bringing  forward  the  question  of  Irish 
liberty.  He  thought  that  the  time  ov  Eng- 
land's distress  was  an  improper  one  at  which 
to  urge  the  rights  of  Ireland." 

The  eloquent  writer  just  cited  has  been 
somewhat  carried  away  by  his  enthusiastic 
sympathy  with  the  great  efibrt  of  Grattan 
and  exaggerates  its  importance.  The  debate, 
it  is  true,  was  extremely  interesting;  and  if^ 
it  led  to  no  immediate  practical  result  iii 
the  House,  it  kept  the  subject  alive  before 
the  nation,  and  gave  it  fresh  vitality  and 
power.  It  seems  that  scarcely  any  mem- 
ber, with  perhaps  one  or  two  exceptions, 
ventured  to  oppose  directly  the  principles  of 
the  resolutions.  The  Castle  party,  however, 
defeated  them  by  a  motion,  that  there  being 
an  equivalent  resolution  already  on  the  jour- 
nals of  the  House  (alluding  to  one  in  Straf- 
ford's time,  which  was  not  equivalent),  it 
was  useless  to  pass  this.  The  amendment 
was  carried,  and  the  Declaration  of  Right 
was  not  pressed  at  that  time  to  a  division. 
Plowden  thus  sums  up  the  result : 

"After  a  most  interesting  debate,  that 
lasted  till  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  in 
which  every  man  but  one  acknowledged  its 
truth,  either  expressly  or  by  not  opposing 
it,  Mr.  Flood,  who  well  knew  that  the  min- 
isterial members  were  committed  to  negative 
the  motion  if  it  came  to  a  division,  recom- 
mended that  no  question  should  be  put, 
and  no  appearance  of  the  business  entered 
on  the  journals,  to  which  Mr.  Grattan  con- 
sented." 

Substantially,  however,  the  object  of  the 
Declaration  was  accomplished.  If  it  did  not 
convince  the  ministerial  members,  it  con- 
vinced the  Volunteers,  and  made  more  Vol- 
unteers. It  also  convinced  the  Government 
of  the  depth  and  strength  of  the  new  national 
spirit  in  Ireland,  as  we  learn  from  a  letter  of 
Lord  Buckinghamshire,  the  day  after,  to 
Lord  Hillsborough.  He  says :  "  It  is  with 
the  utmost  concern  I  must  acquaint  your 
Lordship  that,  although  so  many  gentlemen 
expressed  their  concern  that  the  subject  had 
been  introduced,  the  sense  of  the  House 
against  the  obligation  of  any  statutes  of  the 
Parliament   of  Great    Britain,    Avithiu    this 


REVIEWS    OF   THE   TOLUNTEEKS. 


137 


kingdom,  is  represented  to  me  to  have  been 
almost  unanimous." 

The  people  out-of-doors  began  now  to  be 
grievously  discontented  with  their  Parlia- 
ment. They  were  becoming  more  and  mare 
thoroughly  indoctrinated  with  the  generous 
sentiments  of  Grattan,  not  only  through  his 
own  speeches  and  essays,  but  by  means  of 
the  brilliant  pamphlets  of  Mr.  Pollock,  pub- 
lished under  the  name  of  Owen  Roe  O'Neill, 
who  entered  very  fully  into  the  grievances 
of  the  country,  and  went  the  \\hole  length 
of  the  claim  to  legislative  independence. 
Indeed,  it  became  evident  that,  without 
legislative  independence,  no  concessions  in 
respect  of  freedom  of  trade  or  any  thing  else 
could  be  relied  upon  as  either  efBcient  or 
permanent. 

After  the  first  burst  of  triumph  over  the 
commercial  refoiras  of  Lord  North,  it  was 
found,  on  examination  and  trial,  that  the 
law  had  been  so  contrived  as  to  render  the 
concessions  nearly  illusory.  Especially  in 
the  matter  of  the  trade  in  refined  sugar, 
it  was  seen  that  the  new  law,  and  a  treach- 
erous addition  which  had  been  made  to  it 
after  its  passage  in  the  British  Parliament, 
tended  to  destroy  the  sugar  refineries  of  Ire- 
land, then  an  important  branch  of  industry; 
and  a  petition  was  presented  by  the  town  of 
Newry,  not  only  exposing  this  contrivance, 
but  also  adverting  earnestly  to  what  was 
now  become  the  chief  parliamentary  topic, 
the  "  mutiny  bill."  In  short,  the  aroused 
spirit  of  the  people  demanded  that  the  prin- 
ciple of  English  domination  in  Ireland  should 
be  assailed  at  every  point;  and  in  nothing 
was  that  principle  so  momentous  and  so 
menacing  as  in  the  practice  of  governing 
the  standing  army  of  Iieland  (12,000  to 
15,000  strong)  by  a  perpetual  mutiny  act 
passed  in  England.  So  charmed,  however, 
was  the  Parliament  with  its  small  and  doubt- 
ful success  in  the  matter  of  free  trade,  that 
it  not  only  liberally  granted  the  supplies 
for  a  year  and  a  half  longer,  but  agreed  to 
the  Engli.>h  mutiny  bill,  which  was  per- 
petual, by  a  majcjrity  of  52.  In  short,  it 
was  plain  that  this  Parliament,  so  extensive- 
ly corrupted  and  so  well  disciplined  by  the 
Castle  influence  (that  is,  by  the  corrupt  ex- 
penditure of  the  people's  money),  could  not 
be  relied  upon  to  realize  the  lofty  aspiration 
18 


of  the  nation.  Absolute  national  indepen- 
dence was  now  their  fixed  purpose. 

The  year  1V80  was  one  of  incessant 
organization  ;  reviews  took  place  thioughout 
all  Ireland;  and  a  great  provincial  meeting 
was  appointed  for  the  November  of  that 
year,  previous  to  which  in  all  parts  of  the 
country  the  Volunteer  corps  were  reviewed 
by  the  commanding  officers  in  each  district. 
The  Earl  of  Belvidere  reviewed  the  tioops 
of  Westraeath ;  the  Limerick  and  Clare 
Volunteers  were  reviewed  by  Lord  Kings- 
borough  ;  the  Londonderry  by  Lord  Eine; 
the  Volunteers  of  the  South  by  Lord  Shan- 
non; those  of  Wicklow  by  Lord  Kings- 
borough;  and  the  Volunteers  of  Dublin 
countv  and  city,  who  had  formed  themselves 
into  associated  corps,  by  Lord  Carysfort,  Sir 
Edward  Newenham,  and  other  men  of  rank, 
patriotism,  and  fortune.  These  reviews 
were  attended  with  every  circumstance  of 
brilliancy.  There  was  no  absence  of  the 
pomp  of  war.  The  Volunteers  had  supplied 
themselves  with  artillery,  tents,  and  all  the 
requisites  of  the  field.  They  had  received 
many  presents  of  ordnance  ;  numerous  stands 
of  colors  had  been  presented  to  them,  with 
no  absence  of  ceremony  and  splendor,  by 
women  of  the  highest  station  and  figure  in 
the  country,  whose  pride  it  was  to  attend 
the  reviews  in  their  handsomest  equipages 
and  clothed  in  their  gayest  attire. 

Until  the  middle  of  the  year  1*780,  the 
Volunteers  had  acted  in  independent  troops 
and  companies,  otdy  linked  together  by  their 
community  of  feeling  and  design ;  but  it 
was  apparent  that  for  any  general  movement, 
for  any  grand  military  measure  (which 
every  day  seemed  to  render  more  imminent), 
they  needed  a  closer  organization  and  a 
commander-in-chief  Their  choice  fell  upon 
James  Caulfield,  earl  of  Charlemont,  the  de- 
scendant of  one  of  the  adventurers  who  had 
come  over  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign,  and 
had  been  rewarded  for  his  exertions  in  help- 
ing to  crush  O'Neill  by  large  grants  ot 
confiscated  estates.  This  E;irl  of  Charle- 
mont was  a  man  of  limited  capacity,  but  of 
much  cultivation.  He  had  travelled  much, 
had  written  Italian  sonnets,  and  collected 
busts  and  intaglios.  He  had  been  nine 
years  absent  from  Ireland,  and  retuined  just 
as  the  contest  between  Primate  Stone  and 


138 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


Ilenvy  Boyle  was  calming  down  into  the 
disgrace  of  one  and  the  corruption  of  the 
other. 

Lord  Charlemont's  first  Irish  services  were 
neither  splendid  nor  honorable.  He  was 
chosen  as  the  negotiator  between  Boyle  and 
the  lord-lieutenant.  His  duty  was  to  strike 
a  balance  between  what  the  Irish  Patriot 
Avanted  and  the  English  official  would  give ; 
and  he  was  eminently  successful  in  eliciting 
harmony  from  the  jarrings  of  sordid  ambi- 
tion and  Castle  economy.  But  he  soon  left 
the  Castle  sphere — though  well  fitted  by 
taste  and  feeling  to  be  a  courtier,  it  should 
be  with  honor — and  that  was  an  impossi- 
ble fact  in  Ireland.  It  is  said  by  Hardy, 
that  Lord  Charleinont  was  ignorant  of  the 
bargain  struck  between  Boyle  and  the  lord- 
lieutenant,  by  which  the  former  got  a 
pension  ;*  but  there  was  enough  of  profli- 
gacy in  the  concessions  made  by  both 
parties,  even  though  money  had  never 
changed  hands  between  them,  to  take  all 
glory  fi  ora  the  office  of  negotiator. 

As  commander-in-chief,  however,  of  the 
Volunteers,  he  made  not  only  a  dignified 
and  ornamental  standard-bearer,  but  a  very 
active  military  organizer.  He  was  great  iu 
reviews;  and  on  the  whole  did  his  official 
duty  well ;  but  he  never  could  expand  his 
mind  wide  enough  to  grasp  the  idea  of 
associating  in  the  new  nation  the  two  mil- 
lions of  Catholics. 

In  replying  to  the  address  communicating 
to  him  his  election  as  commander-in-chief, 
he  states  with  so  much  clearness  and  per- 
spicuity the  position  occupied  by  the  V^olun- 
teers,  the  seivices  they  had  rendered,  and 
the  spirit  which  animated  them,  that  the 
ivply  is  here  presented  in  full  as  a  perfect 
vindication  of  "that  illustrious,  adored,  and 
abused  body  of  men." 

Gentlemen, — You  have  conferred  on  ine  an  honor 
of  a  very  new  and  distinguished  nature,— to  be 
appointed,  williout  any  .solicitation  on  mj  part,  tlie 
rev  iuwing-creneral  of  an  independent  army,  raised  by 
vAi  other  call  than  that  uf  public  virtue;  an  army 
wliicli  costs  nothing  to  the  Iritate,  and  has  produced 
every  thing  to  tlie  nation,  is  what  no  otiier  country 
lias  it  in  lier  power  to  bestow.  Honored  by  such  a 
delegation  1  obeyeit  it  with  cheerfulness.  The  in- 
ducement was  irresistible;  I  felt  it  the  duty  of 
every  subject  to  forget  impediments  which  would 

*  Life  of  Charleinont,  vol.  i.,  p.  93. 


have  stood  in  the  way  of  a  similar  attempt  iu  any 
other  cause. 

I  see  with  unspeakable  pleasure  the  progress  ot 
your  discipline,  and  the  incieaseof  your  associations; 
the  indefatigable,  steady,  and  extraordinary  ex- 
ertions, to  wliieh  I  have  been  a  witness,  afford  a 
sufficient  proof,  that,  in  tiie  formation  of  an  army, 
public  spirit,  a  shame  of  being  outdone,  and  the 
ambition  to  excel,  will  supply  the  place  of  reward 
and  punishment — can  levy  an  army,  and  bring  it  to 
perflction. 

The  pleasure  I  feel  is  increased,  when  I  reflect 
that  your  associations  are  not  the  fashion  of  a  day, 
but  the  settled  purpose  and  durable  princijile  of  the 
people  ;  from  whence  I  foresee,  that  the  advantages 
lately  acquired  will  be  ascertained  and  established, 
and  that  solid  and  permanent  strength  will  be  added 
to  the  empire. 

I  entirely  agree  in  the  sentiment  you  express  with 
regard  to  the  exclusive  authority  of  the  leurislaturo 
of  this  kingdom.  I  agree  also  iu  the  expediency  of 
making  the  assertion  ;  it  is  no  more  than  the  law 
will  warrant,  and  the  real  friends  of  both  uations 
subscribe. 

1  have  the  honor  to  be, 
Gentlemen, 
Your  most  obliged,  faithful,  and 
obedieut  humble  servant, 

July  15,  1780.  Charlemont. 

The  provincial  reviews  which  followed  the 
election  of  Lord  Charlemont,  were  intended 
to  convey  significantly  to  the  minister  the 
readiness  of  an  armed  nation  to  second  the 
jiropositions  of  their  leaders  in  Parliament. 
Lord  Charlemont  visited  Belfast  to  review 
the  Ulster  regiments,  and  was  attended  by 
Sir  Annesley  Stewart  and  Grattan  as  his 
aides.  He  was  met  at  Hillsborough  by 
Mr.  Dobbs,  Mr.  Hamilton,  and  Mr.  Stewart, 
afterwards  the  Marquis  of  Londonderry. 
His  arrival  at  Belfast  on  the  11th  of  July 
was  announced  by  a  salute  of  seven  guns 
from  the  artillery,  which  was  answered  by 
the  ships  in  the  harbor;  and  there  followed 
a  biilliant  review  of  three  thousand  men. 

The  dispatches  of  Lord  Buckinghamshire 
to  Lord  North  at  this  period,  are  evidences 
of  a  system  of  downright  bribery — for  the 
purpose  of  retaining  and  insuring  his  parlia- 
mentary majority — so  general  and  so  profuse, 
that  nothing  could  bear  comparison  with  it, 
but  the  worse  corruption  by  which  the  Union 
was  carried.  Between  September  8th,  1780, 
and  November  19th  of  the  same  year,  the 
lord-lieutenant  forwarded  several  dispatches 
to  the  English  minister,  in  which  he  recom- 
mends over  one  hundred  men  of  rank  and 
fortune,  and  some  of  their  wives,  to  rewards 
for  past  services,  or  to  bribes  for  prospective. 


BRIBERIES    OF    BUCKIXGHAM. 


139 


Bervices.  Sir  Robert  De;uie,  an  uniform  and 
laborious  drudge,  impeded  by  no  conscience 
and  burdened  by  no  principle,  who,  as  his 
viceregal  eulogist  remarks,  always  with  Jirvi 
friends  supported  government  and  never 
siiggested  a  difficulty^  was  recommended  for 
a  peerage.  Several  other  men  with  similar 
services  to  parade,  with  just  the  same  degree 
of  conscience  or  principle,  had  their  claims 
for  a  degraded  honor  allowed  by  the  lord- 
lieutenant.* 

The  dispatches  of  this  viceroy  in  these 
two  months  (September  and  October,  1780) 
are  extant,  and  should  be  rendered  familiar 
reading  to  all  those  who  are  disposed  to  trust 
in  the  integrity  and  the  promises  of  English 


*  The  sources  of  palriolan  honors  in  Ireland,  it  is 
much  to  he  regretted,  are  very  impure  and  tainted. 
From  tliis  censure  must  of  course  be  excepted  the 
ancient  aristocracy  of  the  land,  iu  whose  veins  still 
runs  an  honorable  stream,  nncontaniinated  by  the 
impurity  of  the  Williamite,  or  Union  creation.  Tiie 
successive  creations  in  CromweH's  and  William's 
time,  and  at  the  Union,  deepen  in  infamy  as  tlicy 
approach  our  own  days.  The  parties  recommended 
for  honors  in  Lord  Buckingham's  protiifjate  dis- 
patches, some  of  whose  names  are  inserted  in  this 
note,  have  different  qualifications ;  one  is  poor, 
another  who  is  rich  has  poor  relations ;  there  is  no 
political  profligiite,  however  wealthy  or  embarrassed, 
that  is  not  recommended  for  promotion  or  pay,  in 
his  own  person  or  in  that  of  some  convenient 
relative.  Amongrst  the  rest.  Lords  Mountcashel, 
Enniskillen,  Cariow,  and  Farnliam,  are  recom- 
mended for  earldoms.  In  the  general  recommenda- 
tions are  the  names  of  James  Ca^i^ue  Ponsonhy, 
Charles  Henry  Cooke,  Francis  Bernard  Beamisli, 
Ponsonby  Tottenham,  James  Sonierville,  William 
Caulfield,  Thomas  Nesbitt,  Sir  Boyle  Eoche,  Dame 
Jane  Heron,  and  other  honorable  persons.  The  fol- 
lowing is  curious;  it  is  in  a  letter  to  Lord  ilills- 
bcrough  from  the  lord-lientenant : 

"  With  respect  to  the  noblemen  and  gentlemen 
whose  requests  have  not  succeeded,  I  must  say  that 
no  man  can  see  the  inconvenience  of  inereasin?  tlie 
number  of  peers  more  forcibly  than  myself,  hut  the 
recommeii.datian.  af  many  of  thuSf.  persons  liulimitted  to 
Itis  majedy  for  that  honor,  arose  fkom  kngagements 

TAKEN  UP  AT  THE  PlStSS  OF  THK  MOMENT,  TO  SEOUKE 
QUESTIONS    OPON    WHICH    THE     ENGLISH     GOVEUNMKNT 

WERE  VERY  FAKTiouLARLY  ANXIOUS.  Mv  sentiments 
cannot  but  be  tlie  same  witii  respect  to  the  Privy 
Council  and  pensions,  and  I  had  not  cuntvacted  any 
absolute  engagements  of  recommendation  either  to 
peerage  or  pension,  till  diffkjulties  ahose  which 
iieces.-arily  occasioned  so  much  and  so  fnrcibly  com- 
municated anxiety  in  his  majesty's  cabinet,  tliat  1 
mitsi  have  been  culpable  in  neglecting  any  possible 

MEANS    of    securing    A    MAJOKITY    IN    THE    HoUSE   OK 

Commons.  Mr.  Townshend  was  particularly  rceom- 
incndeii  to  me  by  Lord  Shannon  for  a  seat  in  the 
Privy  Council,  and  1  have  reason  to  think  Ids  lord- 
bhip  is  extremely  anxious  for  ins  success." 


statesmen.*  In  the  Houses,  both  of  Lords 
and  Commons,  his  management  was  too  suc- 
cessful, and  the  people  now  looked  upon  Par- 
liament as  their  worst  enemy.  On  the  2d 
of  September,  1780,  Lord  Buckinghauishirtj 
prorogued  the  servile  Parliament  with  one 
of  those  speeches,  half  cant  and  half  sarcasm, 
which  were  then,  and  are  now,  the  usual 
kind  of  viceregal  addresses  in  Ireland.  He 
thanked  the  House  for  their  "liberal  sup- 
plies" (for  which  the  people  cursed  them), 
and  added,  "your  cheerfulness  in  giving 
them,  and  your  attention  to  the  ease  of  the 
subject  iu  the  mode  of  raising  them,  must 
be  very  acceptable  to  his  majesty ;  on  my 
part,  I  assure  you  they  shall  be  faithfully 
appliedy  To  both  Houses  he  said  that 
"the  heart  of  every  Irishman  must  e.xult  at 
the  fair  scene  of  prosperity  now  opening  to 
his  country,"  congratulated  tliem  on  the 
commercial  relaxations,  which  he  called 
"the  diffusive  indulgence  of  his  majesty;" 
and  so  took  his  leave  both  of  that  Parliament 
and  of  Ireland.  Fortunately,  the  cause  of 
Ireland  at  that  day  rested  neither  upon  him 
nor  upon  them.  He  was  recalled  soon  after  ; 
and  on  the  23d  of  December,  1780,  Lord 
Carlisle  was  appointed  iu  his  place. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

1781— 17S2. 

Parliament — Thanks  to  the  Volunteers — Habeas 
Corpus — Trade  with  Portugal — Grattan's  tinaneial 
expose — Gardiner's  measure  for  Catholic  Itelief — 
Dungannon — The  loth  of  Feiiruary,  1782 — De- 
bates on  Gardiner's  Bill — Grattan's  Speech — De- 
tails of  this  measure — Burke's  opinion  of  it — 
Address  to  the  King  asserting  Irish  Independence 
— England  yields  at  once — Act  repealing  tlie  fith 
George  I.— Repeal  of  Poynings'  Law — Irish  la- 
dependence. 

There  is  small  interest  in  following  the 
details  of  parliamentary  business  during  the 
first  year  of  Lord  Carlisle's  viceroyalty ; 
because  it  was  every  day  more  evident  that 
the  power  which  would  decide  the  destinies 
of  the  country  lay  outside  the  walls  of  Par- 
liament. Indeed,  on  the  discussion  of  tha 
perpetual  Mutiny  Bill  for  Ireland,  Grattan 
had  declared  that  if  it  passed  into  law  hti 
would  secede,  and  appeal  to  the  people,  a 

*  They  are  to  be  found  in  Gra)<tau's  Life,  by  liia 
son,  vol.  ii 


140 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


formidable  threat  at  a  moment  when  the  | 
people  were  in  such  a  good  condition  to  hear 
and  decide  such  an  apjieal.  Lord  Carlisle 
was  accompanied  by  Mr.  Eden  as  secretary, 
a  man  already  known  by  his  unsuccessful 
diplomacy  in  America,  and  known  also  by 
bis  hostility  to  the  pretensions  of  Ireland. 
He  had  written  and  published  a  letter  "  On 
the  Represcntaiions  of  Ireland  respecting  a 
Free  Trade,''^  of  which  Mr.  Dobbs,  a  stanch 
patriot,  thus  writes: — "From  a  letter  writ- 
ten by  Mr.  Eden,  secretary  to  Lord  Carlisle, 
on  the  subject  of  Irish  aftairs,  and  which  had 
been  answered  by  Counsellor  Richard  Sheri- 
dan, we  had  no  great  reason  to  rejoice  at 
this  change,"* 

On  the  9th  of  October,  1781,  the  Earl  of 
Carlisle  met  the  Parliament.  There  was 
the  usual  common-place  speech,  recommend- 
ing the  Protestant  Charter  Schools;  the 
lin^n  trade;  assuring  Pailiament  of  his 
majesty's  ardent  wishes  for  the  happiness,  etc., 
of  the  Irish  people ;  and  even  speaking  com- 
placently of  the  "  spirited  offers  of  assistance" 
which  had  lately  been  made  to  the  Govern- 
ment from  every  part  of  the  kingdom, 
which  was,  though  without  naming  them,  a 
kind  of  compliment  to  the  Volunteers.  Mr. 
O'Neill  moved  a  servile  address  in  reply. 
Mr.  Grattan,  who  had  no  idea  of  suffering 
any  neglect  or  disrespect  to  the  Volunteers, 
took  notice  of  the  extreme  caution  with 
which  the  address  avoided  mentioning  the 
word  Vulunteer,  that  wholesome  and  salutary 
appellation  which  he  wished  to  familiarize 
to  the  royal  ear ;  he  would  not,  however, 
insist  on  having  it  inserted,  as  he  had  reason 
to  believe  the  right  honorable  mover  did 
intend  to  make  a  proper  mention  of  those 
protectors  of  their  country. 

Mr.  O'Neill  declared  he  was  not  deceived 
in  this  opinion,  that  the  motion  to  which  he 
had  alluded  was  intended  to  thank  the 
Volunteers  of  Ireland  for  that  glorious 
spirit,  unexampled  in  all  history,  with  which 
they  had  so  eagerly  pressed  forward,  when 
the  nation  was  thought  to  be  in  danger. 
He  then  moved  that  the  thanks  of  the 
House  should  be  given  to  all  the  Volunteers 
of  Ireland,  for  their  exertions  and  continu- 
ance, and  for  their  loyal  and  spirited  dec- 
larations on  the  late  expected  invasion. 
*  Dobbs'  Hist,  of  Irish  Aifair.s. 


Mr.  Conolly  seconded  the  motion.  After 
some  opposition  from  Mr.  Fiizgibbon,  the 
thanks  of  the  House  were  voted  unanimously. 
The  very  next  day  an  important  bill  was 
moved  for.  Ireland  had  never  yet  enjoyed 
the  protection  of  a  Habeas  Corpus  act; 
nor,  indeed,  has  she  ever  enjoyed  it  until 
this  day,  because  that  law  has  been  regu- 
larly suspended  in  Ireland  precisely  at  the 
times  when  it  was  most  needed. 

On  the  10th  of  October,  1781,  Mr.  Brad- 
street,  the  recorder,  a  very  stanch  patriot, 
moved  in  the  House  of  Commons  for  leave 
to  bring  in  the  heads  of  a  Habeas  Corpus 
bill,  piefacing  his  motion  by  observing  that 
the  liberty  and  safety  of  the  subjects  of 
Ireland  were  insecure  until  a  Habeas  Corpus 
act  should  take  place;  that  arbitrary  power 
had  made  great  strides  and  innovations  on 
public  liberty,  but  was  effectually  restrained 
by  that  law  which  had  its  full  operation  in 
England,  but  did  not  exist  in  Ireland.  It 
was,  he  said,  the  opinion  of  a  great  and 
learned  judge,  that  this  law  was  the  grand 
bulwark  of  the  constitution.  Leave  was 
granted;  and  Mr.  Yelverton  and  the  re- 
corder were  ordered  to  prepare  and  bring 
in  the  same. 

Some  few  other  proceedings  in  this  ses- 
sion deserve  to  be  noticed.  Mr.  Grattan 
again  endeavored  to  procure  an  act  for 
limitation  of  the  Mutiny  Act.  Sir  Lucius 
O'Brien  moved  for  redress  in  the  matter  of 
Irish  trade  with  Portugal ;  and  the  guild  of 
merchants  presented  a  petition  stating  that 
the  great  advantages  which  the  nation  had 
been  promised  by  a  freedom  of  trade  to  all 
the  world  weie  likely  to  prove  imaginary ; 
as  from  the  state  of  general  war  our  com- 
merce was  confined  to  very  few  nations,  and 
amongst  them  the  kingdom  of  Portugal, 
from  which  the  greatest  hopes  had  been 
conceived,  had  refused  to  receive  our  manu- 
factures, quantities  of  which  were  then  lying 
stopped  in  the  custom-house  of  Lisbon,  and 
praying  the  House  to  interfere  for  redress. 
The  influence  of  the  Court  party,  which  was 
still  paramount  on  most  questions,  was 
sufficient  to  prevent  any  effectual  action  on 
these  subjects.  The  principal  care,  indeed, 
of  the  new  viceroy  and  his  adroit  secietary 
was  to  prevent  or  suppress  discussion  upon 
any  subject  which  would   tend   to    open  up 


GRATTAN  S    FINANCIAL   EXPOSITION. 


141 


the  great  national  question  of  independence. 
Mr.  Barry  Yelvcrton,  speaking  of  this 
motion  on  the  Portuguese  trade,  said  he 
"thought  tliere  had  been  some  design  in  the 
speech,  to  lead  their  imaginations  away  from 
this  important  object;  it  had,  indeed,  talked 
of  Protestant  charter  schools,  making  of 
roads,  digging  of  canals,  and  carrying  of 
corn  ;  and  contained  half  a  dozen  lines  that 
might  be  found  in  every  speech  for  fifty 
years  past;  subjects  more  proper  for  the  in- 
quiry of  a  county  grand  jury,  than  for  the 
great  inquest  of  the  nation ;  but  not  one 
word  of  our  trade  to  Portugal ;  that  had 
been  designedly  omitted." 

The  same  Mr.  Yelverton  gave  notice  of  a 
motion  to  bring  in  a  bill  to  regulate  the 
transmission  of  bills  to  England  :  in  other 
words,  for  a  repeal  of  Poynings'  Law.  Many 
of  the  Patriots  now  saw  that  the  mind  and 
spirit  of  the  nation  were  firmly  bent  on  one 
great  purpose ;  and  accordingly  they  began 
to  be  desirous,  each  to  have  liis  own  name 
well  forward  as  a  mover  in  the  good  woik. 
But  before  Yelverton's  motion,  arrived  offi- 
cial news  of  that  most  happy  and  propitious 
event — the  surrender  of  Lord  Cornwallis 
and  his  army  to  the  French  and  Americans 
at  Yorktown.  With  a  polite  affectation  of 
grief,  Yelverton  abandoned  his  motion,  and 
moved  instead  an  address  to  the  king  ex- 
pressive of  sympathy  and  unalterable  attach- 
ment, "and  to  entreat  his  majesty  to  be- 
lieve, that  we  hold  it  to  be  our  indispensable 
duty,  as  it  is  our  most  hearty  inclination, 
cheerfully  to  support  his  majesty  to  the 
utmost  of  our  abilities,  in  all  such  measures 
as  can  tend  to  defeat  the  confederacy  of  his 
majesty's  eneinie*,  and  to  restore  the  bless- 
ings of  a  lasting  and  honorable  peace." 

Several  friends  of  Mr.  Yelverton's,  con- 
ceiving that  his  motion  would  commit  them 
into  an  approbation  and  support  of  the 
American  war,  on  that  account  alone  de- 
clined supporting  it:  the  question,  however, 
being  put,  the  motion  was  carried  by  a 
majority  of  167  against  37. 

In  this  session,  also,  Mr.  Grattan  made  an 
expose  of  the  financial  condition  of  the 
country.  This  speech  led  to  no  action,  but 
is  worth  some  attention,  because  it  shows  to 
what  a  hopeless  state  of  embarrassment,  or 
rather  national  ruin,  Ireland  had  been  re- 


duced. As  usual,  Grattan  spoke  with  bold 
and  bitter  personal  allusion,  careless  of  the 
fact  that  perhaps  a  majority  of  his  auditors 
were  themselves  corrupt  pensioners  on  the 
public  treasury.  "  Your  debt,"  said  he,  "  in- 
cluding annuities,  is  iE2,667,600 ;  of  this 
debt,  in  the  last  fourteen  years,  you  have 
borrowed  above  £1,900,000,  in  the  last 
eight  years  above  £1,500,000,  and  in  the 
last  two  years  £910,090.  I  state  not  only 
the  fact  of  your  debt,  but  the  progress  of 
your  accumulation,  to  show  the  rapid  mor- 
tality of  your  distemper,  the  accelerated 
velocity  with  which  you  advance  to  ruin  ; 
and  if  the  question  stood  alone  on  this 
ground,  it  would  stand  firm;  for  I  must 
further  observe,  that  if  this  enormous  debt 
be  the  debt  of  the  peace  establishment,  not 
accumulated  by  directing  the  artillery  of 
your  arms  against  a  foreign  enemy,  but  by 
directing  the  artillery  of  your  treasury 
against  your  constitution,  it  is  a  debt  of 
patronage  and  prostitution." 

He  next  went  into  an  account  of  the 
revenues  and  expenditures  of  the  kingdom ; 
showed  that  the  increase  of  expenses  for  two 
years  amounted  to  iE550,000,  while  the  in- 
crease of  revenue  for  the  same  two  years  was 
but  £60,000  ;  and  that  this  profligate  system 
was  only  confirmed  and  aggravated  each 
succeeding  year.  Then  he  proceeded — "I 
have  stated  your  expenses  as  exceeding  your 
income,  £484,000,  and  as  having  increased 
in  fourteen  years  above  half  a  million.  As 
to  the  application  of  your  money,  I  am 
ashamed  to  state  it ;  let  the  minister  defend 
it;  let  him  defend  the  scandal  of  giving 
pensions,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  first 
of  the  nobility,  with  as  little  honor  to  them 
who  receive,  as  to  the  king  who  gives.  Let 
him  defend  the  minute  corruption,  which  in 
small  bribes  and  annuities,  leaves  honorable 
gentlemen  poor,  while  it  makes  them  de- 
pendent." 

On  the  11th  of  December,  Mr.  Flood,  who 
was  anxious  that  he  also  should  be  on  the 
record  prominently  against  the  obnoxious 
Poynings'  Law,  brought  forward  a  motion 
for  the  appointment  of  a  committee  "  to  ex- 
plain the  law  of  Poynings."  lie  made  a 
learned  and  statesmanlike  speech,  was  an- 
swered by  a  Court  member ;  and  his  motion 
was  voted  down  by  139  against  67. 


142 


IIISTOUY    OF   lllELAND. 


Tliis  same  sessiuii  an  effort  was  made  by 
Mr.  Luke  Gardiner  (afterwards  Lord  Mount- 
joy)  to  procure  a  measure  of  relief  for  the 
Catholics.  This  gentleman,  like  Lord 
Charlemont,  had  lately  retuined  from  a  resi- 
dence in  Europe ;  and  liad  often  lamented 
since  his  return  that  Ireland,  he  was  ashamed 
to  confess,  was  the  most  intolerant  country, 
Catholic  or  Protestant,  in  all  the  world.  On 
the  13th  of  December  he  gave  notice  of  his 
intention  to  bring  in  the  heads  of  a  bill  for 
some  mitigation  of  the  penal  laws.  A  few 
days  after,  when  Mr.  Gardiner  introduced 
the  subject  again,  Grattan  warmly  and  eager- 
ly gave  his  support  in  advance  to  some 
large  and  just  measure,  including  both 
Catholics  and  Dissenters,  declaring  emphat- 
ically that  "it  should  be  the  business  of 
Parliament  to  unite  every  denomination  of 
Irishmen  in  brotherly  affection  and  regard 
to  the  constitution."  Every  denomination 
of  Lishmen  !  Including  Catholics  !  It  was 
nevf  language  in  that  House :  it  was  the 
first  time  perhaps,  siuce  King  James's  Parlia- 
ment, that  there  had  been  so  much  as  a  hint 
of  treating  Catholics  and  Protestants  as  on 
an  equal  looting  before  the  law.  No  won- 
der that  it  disquieted  Cromwellian  squires. 
Sir  Richard  Johnson  nervously  protested  at 
once  "that  he  would  oppose  any  bill  by 
which  Papists  were  permitted  to  bear  arms^ 

That  Henry  Grattan's  idea,  though  not 
then  fully  developed,  did  go  the  full  length 
of  absolute  equality,  may  be  inferred  from  a 
remarkable  passage  in  the  end  of  his  short 
speech.  "  It  had  been  well  observed  by  a 
gentleman  of  first-rate  understanding  (a 
member  of  the  British  Parliament),  that  Ire- 
land could  never  prosper  till  its  inhabitants 
were  a  people ;  and  though  the  assertion 
might  seem  strange,  that  three  millions  of 
inhabitants  in  that  island  should  not  be 
called  a  people,  yet  the  truth  was  so,  and  so 
would  continue  till  the  wisdom  of  Parlia- 
ment should  unite  them  by  all  the  bonds  of 
social  affection.  Then,  and  not  till  then, 
the  country  might  hope  to  prosper." 

This  bill  of  Mr.  Gardiner,  which  was  very 
cautious  and  modest,  merely  relaxing  a  little 
further  the  rigors  of  the  laws  which  debarred 
Catholics  from  having  property  and  from  edu- 
cating their  children,  was  postponed  from 
Week  to  week,  and  was  siill  pending  when  the 


great  event  of  the  centurj'  (for  Ireland)  took 
place  in  the  parish  church  of  Dungannon, 
in  the  county  Tyrone.  It  should  be  men- 
tioned that  there  was  great  difference  of 
opinion  among  the  Volunteers  with  respect 
to  any  indulgence  whatever  shown  to  Papists; 
and  that  in  particular  the  Sligo  Volunteers, 
commanded  by  Mr.  Wynne,  addressed  their 
colonel,  requiring  him  to  use  his  influence 
to  defeat  the  measure.  The  conduct  of 
these  Sligo  Volunteers  is  admirably  rebuked, 
and  the  contrast  of  their  professions  and 
their  intolerance  delineated  with  great  power 
and  severity  in  a  series  of  letters  in  the  Free- 
man^s  Journal  of  the  day,  beginning  with 
the  date  of  the  19th  of  January,  1782. 

But  the  cause  of  the  country  was  now  re- 
moved into  another  and  a  higher  court  than 
that  of  the  corrupt  Parliament.  All  the 
year  1781  had  been  a  time  of  active  organi- 
zation for  the  Volunteers:  the  companies 
had  been  formed  into  regiments,  many  thou- 
sands of  Catholics  were  now  gathered  into 
the  organization ;  numerous  reviews  con- 
tinued to  be  held ;  and  it  was  determined 
that  the  regiments  should  now  be  brigaded. 
On  the  28th  of  December,  1781,  the  officers 
and  delegates  of  the  First  Ulster  regiment, 
commanded  by  Lord  Charlemont,  met  at 
Armagh,  and  resolved  to  hold  a  Convention 
of  the  Ulster  delegates  at  Dungannon.  It 
was  the  idea  of  Grattan :  he  had  failed  in 
his  endeavor  to  join  issue  with  England  by 
his  Declaration  of  Right  in  Parliament,  and 
resolved  now  to  put  himself  upon  the  coun- 
try. Both  friends  and  enemies  of  the  Irish 
national  cause  were  almost  bewildered  by 
the  boldness  of  this  conception — "  Will  no- 
body stop  that  madman,  Grattan  ?"  cried 
Edmund  Burke.  The  Castle,  on  its  side, 
hoped  that  this  armed  Convention  would 
put  itself  in  the  wrong  by  some  intemperate 
violence  or  plain  illegality^  In  fact,  the  lan- 
guage of  the  resolutions  passed  at  the  pre- 
liminary meeting  in  Armagh  was  startling. 

"  Resolved^  That  with  the  utmost  concern, 
we  behold  the  little  attention  paid  to  the 
constitutional  rights  of  this  kingdom,  by  the 
majority  of  those  whose  duty  it  is  to  estab- 
lish and  preserve  the  same. 

^'' Hetsoloed,  That  to  avert  the  impending 
danger  from  the  nation,  and  to  restore  the 
constitution  to  its  original  purity,  the  most 


MEETING   IN   THE    CHURCH    AT    DUNGANNON. 


143 


vigorous  and  effective  methods,  must  be  pur- 
sued, to  root  out  corruption  and  Court  influ- 
ence from  the  legislntive  body. 

^'■Resolved,  That  to  open  a  path  towards 
the  attaining  of  this  desirable  point,  it  is  ab- 
sohitely  requisite  that  a  meeting  be  held  in 
the  most  central  town  of  the  province  of 
Ulster,  which  we  conceive  to  be  Dungannon, 
to  which  said  meeting  every  Volunteer  asso- 
ciation of  the  said  province  is  most  earnestly 
requested  to  send  delegates,  then  and  there 
to  deliberate  on  the  present  alarming  situa- 
tion of  public  affairs,  and  to  determine  on, 
and  publish  to  their  country,  what  may  be 
the  result  of  said  meeting. 

"  Resolved,  That  as  many  real  and  lasting 
advantages  may  arise  to  this  kingdom,  from 
said  intended  meeting  being  held  before  the 
present  session  of  Parliament  is  much  far- 
ther advanced,  Friday,  the  loth  day  of  Feb- 
ruary next,  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  forenoon,  is 
hereby  appointed  for  said  meeting,  at  Dun- 
gannon as  aforesaid." 

Dungannon  was  then,  and  is  still,  but  a 
small  market  town  of  Tyrone  County,  about 
six  miles  from  the  shore  of  Lough  Neagh. 
Two  hundred  years  before,  it  had  been  the 
chief  seat  and  stronghold  of  Hugh  O'Neill, 
high-chief  of  Tyr-eoghain,  who  was  the 
most  formidable  enemy  that  English  power 
liad  ever  encountered  in  Ireland.  The  little 
town  had  no  assembly-room  capable  of  ac- 
commodating the  meeting;  and  it  was  de- 
termined to  use  the  parish  church  for  that 
purpose.  On  the  15th  of  February,  from, 
every  county  of  Ulster,  the  delegates  met. 
They  represented  thirty  thousand  armed 
men;  and  felt  that  they  had  full  power  and 
credentials  to  deliberate  and  decide  for  a 
great  army,  not  only  for  the  Ulster  Volun- 
teers, but  for  those  of  all  Ireland.  What 
might  they  not  have  done  on  that  day ! 
Ei;gland  had  suffered  deep  humiliation,  and 
■was  truly  in  imminent  peril.  In  America, 
after  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis,  she 
could  not  strike  another  blow.  She  was 
still  at  war,  both  with  France  and  with 
Spain,  In  Ireland  it  would  have  been  im- 
possible for  her  to  place  in  the  field  one  half 
the  number  of  the  Volunteer  army ;  and 
even  of  that  half,  the  Irish  regular  forre 
would  without  doubt  have  fraternized  with 
the  Volunteers.— "  Had    thev   chosen    th.it 


mode  of  action,"  says  Thomas  McNevin, 
"  which  many  amongst  them  might  have 
secretly  thought  the  path  of  wisdom,  as  the 
path  of  honor,  the  result  on  the  destinies  of 
England  would  have  been  perilous  indeed. 
We  cannot  doubt  the  issue  of  a  war.  A 
national  army,  composed  of  the  flower  of  a 
bold  and  valiant  people,  treading  their  native 
and  familiar  soil,  fighting  for  home  and  lib- 
erty, commanded  by  the  most  distinguished 
men  in  the  country,  numerous  and  disciplin- 
ed, and  impatient  for  the  field — no  mercen- 
ary soldiers,  whose  mean  incentive  was  pay 
and  plunder,  and  rapine,  and  hereditary  ha- 
tred, could  have  withstood  their  glorious  on- 
slaught." But  other,  and  more  moderate 
counsels  prevailed;  "perhaps  wiser,"  says 
Mr,  McNevin. 

Of  the  resolutions  prepared  for  the  adop- 
tion of  the  military  delegates,  the  first  was 
written  by  Grattan,  and  the  second  by 
Flood.  Mr,  Dubbs,  of  Cari'ickfergus,  was 
just  about  to  start  for  the  Convention,  when 
Grattan,  the  unchanging  friend  of  the  Cath- 
olics, thrust  into  his  hand  the  resolution  in 
their  favor,  which  afterwards  passed  at  Dun- 
gannon, with  only  two  dissenting  voices  of 
benighted  Protestants, 

On  the  memorable  loth  of  February, 
1782,  "the  church  of  Dungannon  was  full 
to  the  door."  The  representatives  of  the 
reo-iments  of  Ulster — one  hundred  and 
forty-three  corps — marched  to  the  sacred 
place  of  meeting,  two  and  two,  dressed  in 
various  uniforms  and  fully  armed.  Deeply 
they  felt  the  great  responsibilities  which 
had  been  committed  to  their  prudence  and 
courage ;  but  they  were  equal  to  their  task, 
and  had  not  lightly  pledged  their  faith  to  a 
trustful  country.  The  aspect  of  the  church, 
the  temple  of  religion,  in  which  nevertheless 
no  grander  ceremony  was  ever  performed, 
was  imposing,  or,  it  might  be  said,  sublime. 
Never,  on  that  hill  where  ancient  piety  had 
fixed  its  seat,  was  a  nobler  offering  made  to 
God  than  this,  when  two  hundred  of  the  elect- 
ed warriors  of  a  people  assembled  in  his  tab- 
ernacle, to  lay  the  deep  foundations  of  a 
nation's  liberty.  Colonel  Irwin,  a  gentleman 
of  rank,  a  man  firm  and  cautious,  of  un- 
doubted courage  but  great  prudence,  presid- 
ed as  chairman.  The  following  resolutions 
were  then  p;issed  : — 


144 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


"  Whereas,  it  has  been  asserted  that  Vol- 
unteers, as  such,  cannot  with  propriety  de- 
bate, or  publish  their  opinions  on  political 
subjects,  or  on  the  conduct  of  Parliament  or 
political  men. 

'■'•  Resolved,  unanimously,  That  a  citizen 
by  learning  the  use  of  arms  does  not  aban- 
don any  of  his  civil  rights. 

"  Resolved,  unanimously,  That  a  claim  of 
any  body  of  men,  other  than  the  King,  Lords, 
and  Commons  of  Ireland,  to  make  laws  to 
bind  this  kingdom,  is  unconstitutional,  ille- 
gal, and  a  grievance. 

^'■Resolved,  with  one  dissenting  voice  only. 
That  the  powers  exercised  by  the  privy 
councils  of  both  kingdoms,  under,  or  under 
color,  or  pretence  of,  the  law  of  Poyuing's, 
are  unconstitutional,  and  a  grievance. 

"■Resolved,  unanimously.  That  the  ports 
of  this  country  are  by  right  open  to  all  for- 
eign countries  not  at  war  with  the  king; 
and  that  any  burden  thereupon,  or  obstruc- 
tion thereto,  save  only  by  the  Parliament  of 
Ireland,  are  unconstitutional,  illegal,  and  a 
grievance. 

"  Resolved,  with  one  dissenting  voice  only. 
That  a  Mutiny  Bill  not  limited  in  point  of 
duration,  from  session  to  session,  is  uncon- 
stitutional, and  a  grievance. 

'■''Resolved,  unanimously,  That  the  inde- 
pendence of  judges  is  equally  essential  to 
the  impartial  administration  of  justice  in 
Ireland  as  in  England,  and  that  the  refusal 
or  delay  of  this  right  to  Ireland,  makes  a 
distinction  where  there  should  be  no  dis- 
tinction, may  excite  jealousy  where  perfect 
union  should  prevail,  and  is  in  itself  uncon- 
stitutional and  a  grievance. 

"  Resolved,  with  eleven  dissenting  voices 
only,  That  it  is  our  decided  and  unalterable 
determination  to  seek  a  redress  of  these 
grievances,  and  we  pledge  ourselves  to  each 
other  and  to  our  country,  as  freeholders, 
fellow-citizens,  and  men  of  honor,  that  we 
will,  at  every  ensuing  election,  support 
those  only  who  have  supported  and  will  sup- 
port us  therein,  and  that  will  use  all  consti- 
tutional means  to  make  such  our  pursuit  of 
redress  speedy  and  effectual. 

*^ Resolved,  yf\ih  one  dissenting  voice  onlv. 
That  the  right  honorable  and  honorable  the 
minority  in  Parliament,  who  have  supported 
these  our  constitutional  rights,  are  entitled 


to  our, most  grateful  thanks,  and  that  the 
annexed  address  be  signed  by  the  chairman, 
and  published  with  these  resolutions. 

"  Resolved,  unanimously,  That  four  mem- 
bers from  each  county  of  the  province  of 
Ulster,  eleven  to  be  a  quorum,  be  and  are 
hereby  appointed  a  committee,  till  the  next 
general  meeting,  to  act  for  the  Volunteer 
corps  here  represented,  and,  as  occasion  shall 
require,  to  call  general  meetings  of  the  prov- 
ince, viz. : — ■ 


Lord  Visc't  Enniskillen, 
Col.  Mcrvyn  Aruhdiill, 
Col.  William  Irvine, 
Col.  Kobt.  M'Clintock, 
Col.  John  Fergu.son, 
Col.  John  Montffomery, 
Col.  Charles  Leslie, 
Col.  Francis  Lucas, 
Col.  Thos.  M.  Jones, 
Col.  James  Hamilton, 
Col.  Andrew  Thomson, 
Lient.-Col.  C.  Ncsbitt, 
Lieut.-Col.  A.  Stewart, 
Major  James  Patterson, 
Major  Francis  Dobbs, 
Major  James  M'Clintock, 


Major  Charles  Duffen, 
Capt.  John  Harvey, 
Capt.  Robert  Campbell, 
Capt.  Joseph  Pollock, 
Capt.WaJdel  Ciuiniiigham 
Capt.  Francis  Evans, 
Capt.  John  Cope, 
Capt.  James  Dawson, 
Capt.  James  Acliesoii, 
Capt.  Daniel  Eceles, 
Capt.  Thotnas  Dickson, 
Capt.  David  Bell, 
Ciipt.  John  Coulson, 
Capt.  Robert  Black, 
Rev.  \Vm.  Crawford, 
Mr.  Robert  Thompson. 


^^  Resolved,  unanimously,  That  said  com 
mittee  do  appoint  nine  of  their  members  to 
be  a  committee  in  Dublin,  in  order  to  com- 
municate with  such  other  Volunteer  associa- 
tions in  the  other  provinces  as  may  think 
proper  to  come  to  similar  resolutions,  and  to 
deliberate  with  them  on  the  most  constitu- 
tional means  of  carrying  them  into  effect. 

"  In  consequence  of  the  above  resolutions, 
the  committee  have  appointed  the  following 
gentlemen  for  said  committee,  three  to  be  a 
quorum,  viz. : — 

Col.  Mervyn  Archdall,       Major  Francis  Dobbs, 
Col.  William  Irvine,  Capt.  Francis  Evans, 

Col.  John  Monttfomery,     Capt.  James  Dawson, 
Col.  Thomas  M.  Jones,      Capt.  Joseph  Pollock, 
Mr.  Robert  Tliompson. 

"  Resolved,  unanimously.  That  the  com- 
mittee be,  and  are  hereby  instructed  to  call 
a  general  meeting  of  the  province,  within 
twelve  months  from  this  day,  or  in  fourteen 
days  after  the  dissolution  of  the  present  Par- 
liament, should  such  an  event  sooner  take 
place. 

"  Resolved,  unanimously.  That  the  court 
of  Portugal  has  acted  towards  this  king- 
dom, being  a  part  of  the  British  empire,  in 


ADDRESS   TO   THK   PATRIOT    MINORITIES. 


145 


such  a  manner,  as  to  call  upon  us  to  declare, 
and  pledge  ourselves  to  each  other,  that  we 
will  not  consume  any  wine  of  the  growth  of 
Portugal,  and  that  we  will,  to  the  extent  of 
our  influence,  prevent  the  use  of  said  wine, 
save  and  except  the  wine  at  present  in  this 
kingdom,  until  such  time  as  our  exports 
shall  be  received  in  the  kingdom  of  Portu- 
gal, as  the  manufactures  of  part  of  the  Brit- 
ish empire. 

"  Resolved,  with  two  dissenting  voices 
only  to  this  and  the  following  resolution. 
That  we  hold  the  right  of  private  judgment, 
in  matters  of  religion,  to  be  equally  sacred 
in  others  as  ourselves. 

*^  Resolved,  therefore.  That  as  men  and  as 
Irishmen,  as  Christians  and  as  Protestants, 
we  rejoice  in  the  relaxation  of  the  penal 
laws  against  our  Roman  Catholic  fellow-sub- 
jects, and  that  we  conceive  the  measure  to 
be  fraught  with  the  happiest  consequences 
to  the  union  and  prosperity  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Ireland." 

Some  formal  resolutions  followed  of  thanks 
to  Lord  Charlemont,  to  Colonel  Dawson, 
who  had  been  active  in  getting  up  the  Con- 
vention, and  to  Colonel  Irwin.  The  meeting 
terminated  by-the  adoption  of  an  address  to 
the  Patriot  minorities  in  the  Lords  and  Com- 
mons, remarkable  for  its  comprehensive 
brevity  and  admirable  succinct  eloquence: — 

"My  Lords  and  Gentlemen. — We  thank 
you  for  your  noble  and  spirited,  though 
hitherto  ineffectual  efforts,  in  defence  of  the 
great  constitutional  and  commercial  rights 
of  your  country.  Go  on.  The  almost 
unanimous  voice  of  the  people  is  with  you  ; 
and  in  a  free  country  the  voice  of  the  people 
must  prevail.  We  know  our  duty  to  our 
Sovereign,  and  are  loyal.  We  know  our 
duty  to  ourselves,  and  are  resolved  to  be 
free.  We  seek  for  our  rights,  and  no  more 
than  our  rights;  and,  in  so  just  a  pursuit, 
we  should  doubt  the  being  of  a  Providence 
if  we  doubted  of  success. 
"  Signed  by  6rder, 

"William  Irvine,'  Chairman." 

Such  were  the  proceedings  at  Dungannon. 

All    Ireland    adopted    the   resolutions;    and 

meetings  were  held  in  every  county  formally 

to  accept  the  exposition  of  the  public  mind 

19 


which  the  Volunteers  of  Ulster  had  given. 
The  freeholders  of  each  county,  and  the 
grand  juries  adopted  the  resolutions. 

The  delegates  of  Connaught  met  in  pursu- 
ance of  the  requisition  of  Lord  Clanricarde; 
the  delegates  of  Munster  assembled  at  Cork 
under  the  presidency  of  Lord  Kingsborouofh, 
and  the  delegates  of  Leinster  at  Dublin 
under  that  of  Colonel  Henry  Flood. 

It  was  in  vain  that  the  Government  re- 
newed its  old  cabals,  or  made  overt  resist 
ance  to  the  progress  of  the  Dungannon 
movement.  The  example  of  the  North  was 
followed  in  every  quarter.  And  what  is 
peculiarly  worthy  of  notice  in  the  history  of 
the  day  is  this,  that  there  was  no  diversitv 
of  opinion  amongst  the  armed  battalions  in 
the  different  parts  of  the  country.  Such 
division  of  opinion,  especially  on  the  subject 
of  the  Catholics,  might  naturally  have  been 
expected  ;  but  the  result  was  one  of  great 
and  singular  unanimity  on  the  important 
topics  which  agitated  the  public  mind.  The 
Dungannon  resolutions  constitute  the  char- 
ter of  Irish  freedom,  embracing  all  the 
points  necessary  for  the  perfect  independence 
of  the  country,  legislative  freedom,  control 
over  the  army,  religious  equality,  and  free- 
dom of  trade.  They  are  the  summary  of 
the  political  requisitions  of  the  Patriot  party 
in  the  Parliament  for  which  they  had  been 
struggling  since  the  days  of  Molyneux,  for 
which  it  was  vain  to  struggle  until  an  armed 
force  was  ready  to  take  the  field  in  their  be- 
half. And  no  one  can  read  the  history  of 
this  great  Convention  without  feeling  that  it 
was  virtually  a  declaration  of  war,  with  the 
alternative  of  full  concession  of  all  the 
points  of  the  charter  of  liberty.  The  Dun- 
gannon delegates  were  empowered  by  the 
nation,  speaking  through  her  armed  citizens, 
to  make  terms  or  to  enforce  her  rights ;  a 
hundred  thousand  swords  were  ready  to 
obey  their  commands.  England  could  not 
have  brought  into  the  field  one-half  that 
number;  and  the  rights  of  Ireland  were  vir- 
tually  declared  on  the  15th  of  February.  It 
was  a  marvellous  moderation  which  content- 
ed itself  with  constitutional  liberty  in  a  po- 
litical connection  with  England,  and  subjec- 
tion to  her  monarch  ;  it  would  not  have  re- 
quired another  regiment  to  have  struck  off 
the  last  link  of  subjugation  and  to  have  ea« 


146 


HISTORY    OF    IKELAXD. 


tablished  the  national  liberty  of  Ireland  on  a 
wider  basis  tbau  any  upon  which  it  ever 
stood. 

In  the  meantime,  and  whilst  general  liber- 
ty was  approaching  towards  its  triumph,  tol- 
eration to  the  Roman  Catholics  was  making 
large  and  important  strides.  The  declara- 
tion of  the  Dnngannon  delegates,  so  general 
and  so  impressive,  being  the  opinion  of  the 
whole  armed  delegation  of  Ulster  with  but 
two  inglorious  exceptions,  had  a  very  great 
effect  through  Ireland.  It  was  unfortunate 
for  the  subsequent  career  of  the  Volunteers 
that  the  principles  which  their  armed  repre- 
sentatives propounded  at  Dungannon,  were 
not  adopted  by  some  of  their  leading  minds. 
The  seeds  of  ruin  lay  deep  in  the  intolerant 
exception  of  the  Catholics  from  the  general 
rule  of  liberty.  It  was  unwise,  it  was  un- 
gracious, it  was  impolitic.  Flood  and  Charle- 
mont  would  have  raised  a  lofty  temple  to 
freedom,  but  would  not  permit  the  great 
preponderant  majority  of  the  nation  to  en- 
ter its  gates,  nay,  even  "  to  inscribe  their 
names  upon  the  entablature."  But,  though 
some  of  the  distinguished  officers  of  the  Vol- 
unteers would  have  thus  withheld  the  bless- 
ings of  liberty  from  their  fellow-countrymen, 
it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind — and  principally 
because  much  argument  has  been  based  upon 
the  concessions  granted  since  the  Union  by 
the  united  legislature  to  the  Catholics — that 
the  principles  of  enlightened  liberality  made 
a  wonderfully  rapid  progress  in  our  native 
Parliament  during  the  era  of  its  glory. 

Mr.  Gardiner's  Catholic  Relief  bill  was  in- 
troduced on  the  15th  of  February,  the  same 
day  on  which  the  Dungannon  Convention 
met  in  the  church  of  Dungannon.  Fitzgib- 
bon,  afterwards  Lord  Clare,  endeavored  to 
defeat  the  measure  by  suggesting  that  it 
repealed  the  act  of  settlement,  and  disturbed 
Protestant  titles.  A  good  deal  of  alarm  was 
created  by  his  opinion,  and  time  was  taken 
to  inquire  into  its  soundness.  On  examina- 
tion it  was  considered  bad,  and  the  House 
went  into  committee  on  the  bill  on  the  20th 
of  February,  1782.  The  measure  proposed 
to  concede  to  the  Catholics,  1st,  the  enjoy- 
ment of  property;  2dly,  the  free  exeiose 
of  their  religion  ;  3dly,  the  lights  of  educa- 
tion ;  4tlily,  of  marriage ;  and  5thly,  of  car- 
lying  arms.     Flood  supported  the  bill,  but 


ungraciously  labored  to  establish  a  distinc- 
tion between  the  rights  of  property  and  the 
rights  of  power.  He  said,  "Though  I  would 
extend  toleration  to  the  Roman  Catholics, 
yet  I  would  not  wish  to  make  a  change  in 
the  state,  or  enfeeble  the  Government."  Mr. 
Gardiner,  replying  to  the  objection,  that  if 
this  bill  should  pass,  there  would  no  longer 
be  any  restraint  on  Roman  Catholics,  said 
— "  But  was  it  not  a  restraint  upon  a  man 
that  he  could  hold  no  trust  nor  office  in  the 
state  ?  That  he  could  not  be  a  member  of 
Parliament,  a  justice,  or  a  grand-juror? 
That  he  could  not  serve  in  the  army  of  his 
country,  have  a  place  in  the  revenue,  be  an 
advocate  or  attorney,  or  even  become  a  free- 
man of  the  smallest  corporation  ?  If  gen- 
tlemen labored  under  these  incapacities 
themselves,  would  they  think  them  no  re- 
straint?" Fitzgibbon,  who  had  endeavored 
to  defeat  the  measure  at  first,  on  the  ground 
that  it  would  disturb  Protestant  titles,  now 
supported  it,  saying  that  "  though  it  would 
be  improper  to  allow  Papists  to  become  pro- 
prietors of  boroughs,  there  was  no  good  rea- 
son why  they  should  not  possess  estates  in 
counties,  nor  why  Protestant  tenants  holding 
under  them  should  not  enjoy  a  right  of  vo- 
ting for  members  of  Parliament."  There 
was  no  question  in  this  bill  of  allowing  them 
to  vote  themselves,  still  less  of  allowing  them 
to  be  members  of  Parliament.  The  Attorney- 
General,  Sir  Hercules  Langrishe,  Sir  Henry 
Cavendish,  Mr.  Ogle,  the  Provost,  Mr.  Walsh, 
Mr.  Daly,  Sir  Boyle  Roche,  and  Mr.  Bagual, 
spoke  warmly  for  the  bill.  In  the  course  of 
the  several  debates  upon  these  measures  of 
Mr.  Gardiner,  there  were  many  objectors  to 
each  clause,  and  their  objections  rested  on 
diverse  grounds.  Mr.  Flood's  vehement  op- 
position to  giving  the  Catholics  any  rights 
which  might  gradually  invest  them  with  po- 
litical power  was  sustained  by  Mr.  Mont- 
gomery, Mr.  Warburton,  Mr.  Rowley,  Mr. 
John  Burke  and  Mr.  St.  George.  Many 
members,  to  their  immortal  honor,  expressed 
themselves  plainly  and  unreservedly  as  in 
favor  of  wiping  off  the  whole  Penal  Code  at 
once,  not  only  in  justice  to  the  Catholics, 
but  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  country. 
Amongst  these  we  find  the  names  of  Sir 
Lucius  O'Brien,  Mr.  Forbes,  Mr.  Hussey 
Burgh,  Mr.  Yelverton,  Mr.  Dillon,  Captain 


DEBATES    ON    GARDINEH  S    BILL. 


147 


Hall,  and  Mr.  Mossora.  The  clause  permit- 
ting Catholics  to  go  abtoad  for  education 
was  strenuously  resisted  by  Filzgibbon,  Ma- 
■  6on,  Bushe,  and  others.  It  is  needless  to 
say  that  Mr.  Grattan  supported  all  the  bills, 
and  all  their  clauses.  Indeed  the  debates 
are  chiefly  inteiesting  because  they  were  the 
occasion  of  the  enunciation  by  him,  for  the 
first  time,  of  the  grand  and  generous  thought 
of  a  true  Irish  nationality.  He  said :  "  I 
object  to  any  delay  which  can  be  given  to 
tliis  clause;  we  have  already  considered  the 
subject  on  a  larger  scale,  and  this  is  but  a 
part  of  what  the  clause  originally  contained. 
We  have  before  us  the  example  of  England, 
who  four  years  ago  granted  Catholics  a  right 
of  taking  land  in  fee  ;  the  question  is  mere- 
ly, whether  we  shall  give  this  right  or  not, 
and  if  we  give  it,  whether  it  shall  be  accom- 
panied by  all  its  natural  advantages  ?  Three 
years  ago,  when  this  question  was  debated 
in  this  house,  there  was  a  majority  of  three 
against  granting  Catholics  estates  in  fee, 
and  they  were  only  allowed  to  take  leases 
of  999  years.  The  argument  then  used 
against  granting  them  the  fee  was,  that  they 
might  influence  elections.  It  has  this  day 
been  shown,  that  they  may  have  as  efi'ectual  an 
influence  by  possessing  leases  of  999  years, 
as  they  can  have  by  possessing  the  fee ;  at 
that  time,  I  do  declare  I  was  somewhat  pre- 
judiced against  granting  Roman  Catholics 
estates  in  fee,  but  their  conduct  since  that 
period  has  fully  convinced  me  of  their  true 
attachment  to  this  country.  When  this 
country  had  resolved  no  longer  to  crouch 
beneath  the  burden  of  oppression  that 
England  had  laid  upon  her;  when  she  armed 
in  defence  of  her  rights,  and  a  high-spirited 
people  demanded  a  free  trade,  did  the 
Roman  Catholics  desert  their  countrymen  ? 
No:  they  were  found  amongst  the  foremost. 
When  it  was  afterwards  thought  necessary 
to  assert  a  free  constitution,  the  Roman 
Catholics  displayed  their  public  virtue ;  they 
did  not  endeavor  to  take  advantage  of  your 
i^it nation;  they  did  not  endeavor  to  make 
terms  for  themselves,  but  they  entered  frank- 
ly and  heartily  into  the  cause  of  the  country ; 
judging  by  their  own  virtue,  that  they  miglit 
depend  upon  your  generosity  for  their  re- 
ward. But  now,  after  you  have  obtained  a 
free  trade,  after  the  voice  of  the  nation  has ,. 


asserted  her  independence,  they  apj)roach 
this  House  as  humble  suppliants,  and  beg  to 
be  admitted  to  the  common  rights  of  men. 
Upon  the  occasions  I  have  mentioned,  I  did 
carefully  observe  their  actions,  and  did  then 
determine  to  support  their  cause  whenever 
it  came  before  this  House,  and  to  bear  a 
•strong  testimony  of  the  constitutional  prin- 
ciples of  the  Catholic  body.  Nor  should  it 
be  mentioned  as  a  reproach  to  them  that 
they  fought  under  the  banner  of  King 
James,  when  we  recollect  that  before  they 
entered  the  field,  they  extorted  from  him  a 
Magna  Chaita,  a  Biitish  constitution.  In 
1779,  when  the  fleets  of  Bourbon  hovered 
on  our  coasts,  and  the  Irish  nation  roused 
herself  to  arras,  did  the  Roman  Catholics 
stand  aloof?  Or  did  they,  as  might  be  ex- 
pected from  their  oppressed  situation,  offer 
assistance  to  the  enemy  ?  No  :  they  poured 
in  subscriptions  for  the  service  of  their  coun- 
try, or  they  pressed  into  the  ranks  of  her 
glorious  Volunteers. 

"It  has  been  shown  that  this  clause 
grants  the  Roman  Catholics  no  new  power  in 
the  state ;  every  argument,  therefore,  which 
goes  against  this  clause  goes  against  their 
having  leases  for  999  years,  every  argument 
which  goes  against  their  having  leases  for  999 
years,  goes  against  their  having  any  leases  at 
all;  and  every  argument  which  goes  against 
their  having  property,  goes  against  their  hav- 
ing existence  in  this  land.  The  question  is 
now,  whether  we  shall  grant  Roman  Catholics 
a  power  of  enjoying  estates,  or  whether  we 
shall  be  a  Protestant  settlement  or  an  Irish 
nation  ?  Whether  we  shall  throw  open  the 
gates  of  the  temple  of  liberty  to  alt  our 
countrymen,  or  whether  we  shall  confine 
them  in  bondage  by  penal  laws  ?  So  long 
as  the  Penal  Code  remains,  we  never  can  be 
a  great  nation  ;  the  Penal  Code  is  the  shell 
in  which  the  Protestant  power  has  been 
hatched,  and  now  it  is  become  a  bird,  it 
must  burst  the  shell  asunder,  or  perish  in  it. 
I  give  my  consent  to  the  clause  in  its  prin- 
ciple, extent,  and  boldness,  and  give  my 
consent  to  it  as  the  most  likely  means  of 
obtaining  a  victory  over  the  prejudices  of 
Catholics,  and  over  our  own.  I  give  my 
consent  to  it,  because  I  would  not  keep  two 
millions  of  my  fellow-subjects  in  a  state  of 
slavery ;  and   because,  as  the  mover  of  tho 


148 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


Declaration  of  Rights,  I  should  be  ashamed 
of  giving  freedom  to  but  six  hundred  thou- 
sand of  my  countrymen,  when  I  could  ex- 
tend it  to  two  millions  more." 

The  relief  measures  of  Mr.  Gardiner  were 
contained  in  three  separate  bills,  very  cau- 
tiously and  moderately  prepared,  in  order 
to  avoid  too  rude  a  shock  to  the  Protestant 
Ascendency.  To  read  these  bills  with  their 
restrictions  and  exceptions,  gives  a  vivid  idea 
of  what  Protestant  Ascendency  in  Ireland 
then  was.  The  first  enables  Catholics  to 
take  and  hold,  in  the  same  manner  as  Prot- 
estants, any  lands  and  hereditaments  except 
advowsons,  manors,  and  boroughs  returning 
members  to  Parliament.  It  removes  several 
penalties  from  such  of  the  clergy  as  should 
have  taken  the  oath  and  been  registered ;  it 
confines  its  operation  to  the  regular  clergy 
then  within  that  kingdom  (by  which  the 
succession  of  other  regulai's  from  abroad 
might  be  prevented),  it  deprives  any  clei'gy- 
man  officiating  in  a  church  or  chapel  with  a 
steeple  or  bell  of  the  benefit  of  the  act,  and 
repeals  several  of  the  most  obnoxious  parts 
of  the  acts  of  Anne  and  Geo.  I.  and  Geo.  II. 

The  second  of  the  series  of  measures  le- 
lated  to  education — "  An  act  to  allow  per- 
sons professing  the  Popish  religion  to  teach 
school,  and  for  regulating  the  education  of 
Papists,"  etc.  It  repeals  certain  parts  of  the 
acts  of  William  and  Anne,  which  inflicted 
on  any  Catholic  teaching  school,  or  privately 
instructing  youth  in  learning,  the  same 
pains,  penalties,  and  forfeitures  as  any  Popish 
regular  clergyman  was  subjected  to  (trans- 
portation, and  in  case  of  return,  death),  but 
excepts^  out  of  its  benefits,  those  who  should 
not  have  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance,  who 
should  receive  a  Protestant  scholar,  or  who 
should  become  ushers  under  Protestant 
schoolmasters.  The  act  also  enables  Cath- 
olics (except  ecclesiastics)  to  be  guardians  to 
their  own  or  any  other  Popish  child.  These 
two  first  bills  passed,  and  became  law. 

The  third  bill  was  for  permitting  inter- 
marriages between  Protestants  and  Papists: 
but  the  liberality  of  the  House  had  not  yet 
arrived  at  such  a  revolutionary  point :  they 
felt  that  they  must  draw  the  line  some- 
where; so  they  threw  out  this  bill  by  a  ma- 
jority of  eight. 

Yet  these  wretched  and  pitiful  measures, 


which  by  their  small  relaxations  only  made 
more  otfensively  conspicuous  the  great  op- 
pression of  the  Penal  Code,  were  regarded 
in  Ireland  as  a  mighty  etfort  of  liberalism. 
Mr.  Burke,  who  had  a  soul  great  enough  to 
see  the  matter  in  its  true  light,  thus  speaks 
of  these  bills  in  his  letter  to  a  noble  lord  : — 
"To  look  at  the  bill,  in  the  abstract,  it  is 
neither  more  nor  less  than  a  renewed  act  of 
universal,  unmitigated,  indispensable,  excep- 
tionless disqualification.  One  would  imagine 
that  a  bill  inflicting  such  a  multitude  of  in- 
capacities, had  followed  on  the  heels  of  a 
conquest  made  by  a  very  fierce  enemy,  un- 
der the  impression  of  recent  animosity  and 
resentment.  No  man,  on  reading  that  bill, 
could  imagine  that  he  was  reading  an  act  of 
amnesty  and  indulgence.  This  I  say  on 
memory.  It  recites  the  oath,  and  that 
Catholics  ought  to  be  considered  as  good 
and  loyal  subjects  to  his  majesty,  his  crown, 
and  government;  then  follows  a  universal 
exclusion  of  those  good  and  loyal  subjects 
from  every,  even  the  lowest,  office  of  trust 
and  profit,  or  fi'ora  any  vote  at  an  election ; 
from  any  privilege  in  a  town  corporate; 
from  being  even  a  freeman  of  such  corpora- 
tions ;  from  serving  on  grand  juries  ;  from  a 
vote  at  a  vestry ;  from  having  a  gun  in  his 
house,  from  being  a  barrister,  attorney,  soli- 
citor, or,  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

"  This  has  surely  more  of  the  air  of  a 
table  of  proscriptions,  than  an  act  of  grace. 
What  must  we  suppose  the  laws  concerning 
those  good  subjects  to  have  been,  of  which 
this  is  a  relaxation  ?  When  a  very  great 
portion  of  the  labor  of  individuals  goes  to 
the  state,  and  is  by  the  state  again  refunded 
to  individuals  through  the  medium  of  offices, 
and  in  this  circuitous  progress  from  the  pub- 
lic to  the  private  fund,  indemnifies  the  fami- 
lies from  whom  it  is  taken,  an  equitivble 
balance  between  the  Government  and  the 
subject  is  established.  But  if  a  great  body 
of  the  people  who  contribute  to  this  state 
lottery,  are  excluded  from  all  the  prizes,  the 
stopping  the  circulation  with  regard  to 
them  umst  be  a  most  cruel  hardship, 
amounting  in  efiect  to  being  double  aud 
treble  taxed,  and  will  be  felt  as  such  to  the 
very  quick  by  all  the  families  high  and  low, 
of  those  hundreds  of  thousands,  who  are 
denied  their  chance  in  the  returned  fruits  of 


BURKES    OPINION    OF    GAUDIXERS    BILLS. 


149 


their  own  industry.  This  is  the  thing- 
meant  by  those  who  look  on  the  public  rev- 
enue only  as  a  spoil ;  and  will  naturally 
wish  to  have  as  few  as  possible  concerned 
in  the  division  of  the  booty.  If  a  state 
should  be  so  unhappy  as  to  think  it  cannot 
subsist  without  such  a  barbarous  proscrip- 
tion, the  persons  so  proscribed  ought  to  be 
indemnified  by  the  remission  of  a  large  part 
of  their  taxes,  by  an  immunity  from  the 
offices  of  public  burden,  and  by  an  exemp- 
tion from  being  pressed  into  any  military  or 
naval  service.  Why  are  Catholics  excluded 
from  the  law?  Do  not  they  expend  money 
in  their  suits?  Why  may  not  they  indem- 
nify themselves  by  profiting  in  the  persons 
of  some  for  the  losses  incurred  by  others  ? 
"Why  may  they  not  have  persons  of  confi- 
dence, whom  they  ma}-,  if  they  please,  em- 
ploy in  the  agency  of  their  aft'airs?  The 
exclusion  from  the  law,  from  grand  juries, 
from  sheriffships,  under-sherifFships,  as  well 
as  from  freedom  in  any  corporation,  may 
subject  them  to  dreadful  hardships,  as  it 
may  exclude  them  wholly  from  all  that  is 
beneficial,  and  expose  them  to  all  that  is 
mischievous  in  a  trial  by  jury." 

It  has  seemed  needful  to  go  into  details 
on  the  provisions  of  these  bills  of  Mr.  Gar- 
diner, in  order  to  show  that  at  the  very  mo- 
ment when  Ireland  was  proclaiming  her  in- 
dependence, and  preparing  to  fight  for  it — 
relying  too  upou  the  aid  of  the  Catholic 
people — there  were  few  indeed  who  so  much 
as  dreamed  of  making  those  Catholics  citi- 
zens or  members  of  civil  society.  This  rad- 
ical vice  is  quite  enough  to  account  for  the 
short  life  of  Ireland  as  an  independent  na- 
tion. In  truth  nobody  in  Europe  had  any  idea 
of  religious  equality,  none  doubted  the  right 
of  the  orthodox  to  possess  themselves  of  the 
lands  and  goods  of  the  heterodox,  until 
a  few  yeai's  after  this  period,  when  France 
gave  the  noble  example  of  absolute  equality 
before  the  law  for  all  religions. 

In  the  course  of  this  same  eventful  Febru- 
ary, Grattan  biought  on  a  new  motion  for 
an  address  to  the  king,  declaring  the  rights 
of  Ireland.  But  within  that  corrupted  at- 
mosphere, upon  those  bribed  benches,  was 
the  very  worst  place  for  liberty  to  breathe. 

The  time  had  not  yet  ariived,  though  it 
was  near  at  hand,  for  the  Irish  Parliament 


to  assent  to  the  proposition  of  its  own  free- 
dom. They  started  back  reluctant  from  the 
glowing  form  of  Liberty  ;  not  even  with  a 
nation  in  arms  behind  them,  and  with  a 
man  of  the  inspired  eloquence  of  Grattan 
amongst  their  sordid  ranks,  could  their  valor 
and  his  genius  triumph  over  the  inveterate 
corruption  and  servility  of  that  House. 
Giattan's  motion  was  lost  by  a  majority  of 
137  to  68.  But  the  fate  of  that  statesman 
who  had  long  sat  at  the  fountain  head  of 
corruption,  and  who  ministered  so  liberally 
to  the  profligacy  of  the  Irish  majority — the 
worst  minister  that  England  ever  had,  whose 
obstinate  perseverance  in  principles  opposed 
to  the  theory  of  the  British  constitution,  lost 
to  England  the  noblest  member  of  her  great 
confederation  —  was  at  length  sealed.  He 
was  obliged  to  relinquish,  with  disgrace,  the 
post  he  had  held  with  dishonor.  Defeat 
and  disaster  followed  Lord  North  into  his 
retirement.  He  was  succeeded  by  Lord 
Rockingham  and  Charles  Fox ;  Lord  Car- 
lisle was  recalled,  and  the  Duke  of  Portland 
was  chosen  to  administer  the  complicated 
affairs  of  Ireland.  Grattan,  on  the  14th  of 
March,  declared  that  he  would  bring  on  the 
Declaration  of  Rights,  and  he  moved,  and 
succeeded  in  carrying  a  very  unusual  sum- 
mons, that  the  House  be  called  over  ou 
Tuesday,  the  16th  of  April  next,  and  that  the 
Speaker  do  write  circular  letters  to  the  mem- 
bers, ordering  them  to  attend  that  day,  as 
they  tender  the  rights  of  the  Irish  Parliament. 
The  Duke  of  Portland  made  a  triumphant 
entry  into  Dublin,  and  he  was  welcomed, 
for  no  good  reason  that  the  history  of  the 
times  can  give,  with  the  loudest  acclama- 
tions. His  arrival  appeared  to  promise  the 
fulfilment  of  all  the  hopes  of  Ireland,  and  he 
received,  by  anticipation,  a  gratitude  which 
he  never  deserved.  But  his  coming  had 
been  preceded  by  some  of  the  habitual  pol- 
icy of  his  party.  Letters  of  honeyed  cour- 
tesy, as  hollow  as  they  were  sweet,  were 
dispatched  by  Fox  to  "his  old  and  esteemed 
friend  the  good  Earl  of  Charlemont."* 
Whig  diplomacy  and  cunning  never  con- 
cocted a  more  singular  piece  of  writing-. 
He  alludes  with  graceful  familiarity  to  tho 
long  and  pleasing  friendship  which  had  ex- 

*  Hiird^'s  Life  of  Charlemont,  vol,  ii.,  p.  4. 


150 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


isted  between  thein,  and  after  a  variety  of 
compliments,  Legs  for  a  postponement  of  the 
House  for  three  weeks,  in  order  that  the 
Duke  of  Portland  might  have  an  oppor- 
tunity of  inquiring  into  the  opinions  of 
Lord  Charlemout,  and  of  gentlemen  of  the 
first  weight  and  consequence.  But  Fox 
was  well  aw^re  of  their  opinions.  They 
were  recorded  in  the  votes  and  speeches  of 
the  two  Houses,  and  in  the  military  trans- 
actions of  the  Volunteers.  No  man  knew 
them  better  than  Fox.  He  had  been  in 
communication  with  llie  leaders  of  the  Pa- 
triot party,  and  was  well  aware  of  the 
merits  of  their  claims.  And  his  proposition 
was  a  feeble  device  to  try  the  chapter  of  ac- 
cidents. But  Charlemont  was  firm,  for 
Gratian  would  give  "no  time."  The  general 
of  the  Volunteers  replied  in  terms  of  cour- 
teous dignity,  but  unwonted  determination. 
He  told  the  wily  minister  of  England  that 
the  Declaration  of  Rights  was  universally 
looked  up  to  as  an  essential  and  necessary 
preliminary  to  any  confidence  in  the  new 
administration.  "We  ask  for  our  rights— 
our  incontrovertible  rights — restore  them  to 
us,  and  forever  unite  in  the  closest  and  best 
riveted  bonds  of  affection,  the  kingdom  of 
Ireland  to  her  beloved,  though  hitherto  un- 
kind sister."  This  was  the  sentimental  cant 
(jf  politics ;  but  the  upshot  was,  that  the 
Declaration  of  Rights  was  to  be  moved  on 
the  16th  of  April,  and  it  was  only  left  to  the 
genius  of  intrigue  to  yield  with  assumed 
grace  what  England  dared  no  longer  with- 
hold. No  civil  letters  to  courtly  vanity — no 
philosophic  generalities  and  specious  prom- 
ises could  effect  any  thing  with  Volunteer 
artillery.  The  epistles  had  all  the  graces  of 
Horace  Walpole,  and  were  abundant  in  com- 
pliments; the  compliments  were  returned, 
but  the  Declaration  was  retained.  Grattan, 
if  his  own  wisdom  could  have  allowed  it, 
would  not  have  dared  to  pause.  He  stood 
in  the  first  rank — a  hundred  thousand  men 
were  behind  him  in  arms — he  could  not  hes- 
itate. It  was  his  glory,  and  his  wisdom  to 
advance.  And  he  advanced  in  good  earnest, 
nor  staid  his  foot  till  it  was  planted  on  the 
ruins  of  usurpation. 

On  the  9th  of  April,  Fox  communicated 
to  the  House  of  Commons  in  England,  the 
following  message  from  the  king : — 


"George  R. :  His  Majesty,  being  concerned 
to  find  that  discontent  and  jealousies  are 
prevailing  among  his  loyal  subjects  in  Ire- 
land, upon  matters  of  great  weight  and  im- 
portance, earnestly  recommends  to  this 
House,  to  take  the  same  into  their  most 
serious  consideration,  in  order  to  such  a 
final  adjustment  as  may  give  mutual  satis- 
faction to  both  kingdoms.     G.  R  " 

A  similar  communication  was  made  to 
the  Irish  Parliament  by  John  Hely  Hutchin- 
son, principal  secretary  of  state  in  Ireland, 
who,  at  the  same  time,  stated  that  he  had 
uniformly  maintained  the  right  of  Ireland 
to  independent  and  exclusive  legislation,  and 
declared  that  he  would  give  his  earnest  sup- 
port to  any  assertion  of  that  right  whether 
by  vote  of  the  House,  by  address,  or  by  en- 
actment. 

A  scene  of  still  greater  excitement  and 
interest  occurred  on  this  occasion,  than  that 
which  had  so  carried  away  the  citizens  of 
Dublin  two  years  before,  when  Grattan  first 
introduced  the  question  of  Irish  lights. 
The  nation  had  become  strong  and  confident 
by  success — they  had  achieved  free  trade — 
their  military  organization  had  attained  the 
greatest  perfection  of  discipline  and  skill — 
their  progress  was,  indeed,  triumphant,  they 
had  but  one  short  step  to  take.  There  was, 
therefore,  great  excitement  through  Ireland 
as  to  the  issue  of  Grattan's  Declaration  of 
Right,  not  that  they  apprehended  failure,  but 
that  all  men  felt  anxious  to  see  the  realiza- 
tion of  their  splendid  hopes.  The  streets  of 
Dublin  were  lined  with  the  Volunteers — the 
House  of  Commons  was  a  great  centre, 
round  which  all  the  city  appeared  moving. 
Inside,  rank  and  fashion  and  genius  were 
assembled;  outside,  arms  were  glistening 
and  drums  sounding.  It  was  the  commence- 
ment of  a  new  government,  and  the  king 
had  sent  a  message  of  peace  to  Ireland. 

Tbe  message  was  similar  to  that  delivered 
to  the  English  House,  and  when  it  had  been 
read,  Mr.  George  Ponsonby  moved  that  an 
address  should  be  presented,  which  might 
mean  any  thing,  and  meant  nothing.  It  whs 
to  tell  his  majesty  that  the  House  was  thank- 
ful for  a  gracious  messnge,  and  that  it  would 
take  into  its  serious  consideration  the  dis- 
contents and  jealousies  which  had  arisen  in 
Ireland,  the  causes  ot  which  should  be  in- 


ADDRESS   TO    THE   KING    ASSERTING    IRISIl    INDEPENDENCE. 


151 


vestignted  with  all  convenient  dispatch,  and 
be  submitted  to  the  royal  justice  and  wisdom 
of  his  majesty. 

When  this  motion,  very  full  of  the  solemn 
jilausibilities  of  loyalty  and  the  generalities 
of  pretended  patriotism,  was  )nade,  Henry 
Grattan  rose  to  move  his  amendment.  It 
was  a  moment  of  great  interest.  The  suc- 
cess of  the  motion  was  ceitain,  but  all  par- 
ties were  anxious  to  learn  the  extent  of  the 
demands  which  Grattan  was  about  to  make. 
As  the  ''  herald  and  oracle  of  his  armed 
countrymen "  he  moved  the  amendment 
which  contained  the  rights  of  Ireland  ;  and 
confident  of  its  success,  he  apostrophized  his 
country  as  already  free,  and  appealed  to  the 
memory  of  those  great  men  who  had  first 
taught  the  doctrine  of  liberty  which  his  no- 
bler genius  had  realized.     He  moved  : 

"That  a  humble  address  be  presented  to 
his  majesty,  to  return  his  majesty  the 
thanks  of  this  House  for  his  most  gracious 
message  to  this  House,  signified  by  his 
grace  the  lord-lieutenant. 

"  To  assure  his  majesty  of  our  unshaken 
attachment  to  his  majesty's  person  and 
government,  and  of  our  lively  sense  of  his 
paternal  care  in  thus  taking  the  lead  to  ad- 
minister content  to  his  majesty's  subjects 
of  Ireland. 

"That,  thus  encouraged  by  liis  royal  in- 
terposition, we  shall  beg  leave,  with  all  duty 
and  aflfection,  to  lay  before  his  majesty  the 
causes  of  our  discontents  and  jealousies. 
To  assure  his  majesty  that  his  subjects  of 
Ireland  are  a  fiee  people.  That  the  crown 
of  Ireland  is  an  imperial  crown  inseparably 
annexed  to  the  crown  of  Gieat  Britain,  on 
which  connection  the  interests  and  happi- 
ness of  both  nations  essentially  depend  :  but 
that  the  kingdom  of  Ireland  is  a  distinct 
kingdom,  with  a  Parliament  of  her  own — 
the  sole  legislature  thereof.  That  there  is 
no  body  of  men  competent  to  make  laws  to 
bind  this  nation  except  the  King,  Lords,  and 
Commons,  of  Ireland  ;  nor  any  other  Parlia- 
ment which  hath  any  authority  or  power  of 
any  sort  whatsoever  in  this  country  save 
only  the  Parliament  of  Ireland.  To  assure 
his  majesty,  that  we  humbly  conceive  that 
in  this  light  the  very  essence  of  our  liberties 
exists;  a  right  whi<-,h  we,  on  the  part  of  all 
the   people    of  Ireland,  do   claim    as   their 


birthright,  and  which  we  cannot  yield  but 
with  our  lives. 

"To  assure  his  majesty,  that  we  have 
seen  with  concern  certain  claims  advanced 
by  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  in  an 
act  entitled  'An  act  for  the  better  securing 
the  dependency  of  Ireland  :'  an  act  con- 
taining matter  entirely  irreconcilable  to  the 
fundamental  rights  of  this  nation.  That  we 
conceive  this  act,  and  the  claims  it  advances, 
to  be  the  great  and  principal  cause  of  the 
discontents  and  jealousies  in  this  kingdom. 

"  To  assure  his  majesty,  that  his  majesty's 
Commons  of  Ireland  do  most  sincerely 
wish  that  all  bills  which  become  law  in  Ire- 
land should  receive  the  approbation  of  his 
majesty  under  the  seal  of  Great  Britain ; 
but  that  yet  we  do  consider  the  practice  of 
suppressing  our  bills  in  the  council  of  Ire- 
land, or  altering  the  same  anywhere,  to  be 
another  just  cause  of  discontent  and  jeal- 
ousy. 

"  To  assure  his  majesty,  that  an  act,  en- 
titled '  An  act  for  the  better  accommodation 
of  his  majesty's  forces,'  being  unlimited 
in  duration,  and  defective  in  other  instances, 
but  passed  in  that  shape  from  the  particular 
circumstances  of  the  times,  is  another  just 
cause  of  discontent  and  jealousy  in  this 
kingdom. 

"  That  we  have  submitted  these,  the  prin- 
cipal causes  of  the  present  discontent  and 
jealousy  of  Ireland,  and  remain  in  humble 
expectation  of  redress." 

The  address  was  carried  unanimously  in 
both  Houses;  and  Parliament  took  a  short 
recess,  to  allow  time  for  the  matter  to  be 
dealt  with  in  England.  Nobody,  either  in 
Ireland  or  in  England,  doubted  the  issue. 
It  was  quite  certain  that  the  declaration  of 
the  Irish  Parliament  was  all-sufBcieut  to  es- 
tablish the  liberty  of  the  country. 

One  may  now  be  allowed  to  regret  that 
Lord  North's  administration  was  no  longer 
in  power.  In  that  case  England  would  have 
refused  concession ;  would  have  attempted 
to  enforce  her  pretensions  in  Ireland :  war 
would  have  been  the  inevitable  result;  Ire- 
land would  have  necessarily  made  an  alli- 
ance with  France,  whose  great  Revolution 
was  now  rapidly  approaching;  so  there  would 
have  been  happily  an  end  to  the  British 
empire.      Unfoitunately    the   statesmen    of 


152 


HISTORY    OF    IRKLAND. 


tliat  country  were  as  wise  as  they  were 
treacherous.  On  the  17th  of  May,  simulta- 
neously in  the  two  Houses  at  Westminster, 
Lord  Shelburne  in  the  Lords  and  Mr.  Fox  in 
the  Commons,  having  read  the  addresses  of 
the  Irish  Parliament,  moved — "That  it  was 
the  opinion  of  that  House  that  the  act  of 
tlie  6t,h  Geo.  L,  entitled  ^  An  Act  for  the 
better  securing  the  dependency  of  Ireland 
upon  the  Crown  of  Great  Britain^  ought  to 
be  repealed." 

On  the  2tth  of  May,  the  Duke  of  Port- 
land officially  communicated  to  the  L'ish 
Parliament  this  great  and  memorable  con- 
cession, which  he  said  came  from  "  the 
magnanimity  of  the  king  and  the  wisdom 
of  the  Parliament;"  closing  his  message 
with  these  words: — "On  my  own  part  I  en- 
tertain not  the  least  doubt  but  that  the 
same  spirit  which  urged  you  to  share  the 
freedom  of  Great  Britain  will  confiim  you 
in  your  determination  to  share  her  fate  also, 
standinar  or  falliua:  with  the  Biitish  nation." 
This  is  the  kind  of  cant  which  has  ruined 
Ireland  :  yet  the  plain  and  eternal  truth — 
that  while  the  British  nation  stands,  Ireland 
must  fall,  and  vice  versa,  was  even  then 
well  understood  by  Irish  patriots,  and  often 
avowed  by  Grattan  himself.  "  Ireland," 
said  he,  "  Ireland  is  in  strength;  she  has 
acquired  that  strength  by  the  weakness  of 
Britain,  for  Ireland  was  saved  when  America 
was  lost :  when  England  conquered,  Ireland 
was  coerced ;  when  she  was  defeated,  Ire- 
land was  relieved  ;  and  when  Charleston 
was  taken,  the  mutiny  and  sugar  bills  were 
altered.  Have  you  not  all  of  you,  when 
you  heard  of  a  defeat,  at  the  same  instant 
condoled  with  England,  and  congratulated 
Ireland  ? " 

"  Poyning's  Law  "  was  still  on  the  statute- 
book  ;  and  the  work  of  enfranchisement  was 
not  complete  until  it  was  repealed  :  as  it 
was  an  Irish  statute,  it  was  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment which  had  to  repeal  it;  and  this  was 
immediately  done  on  motion  of  Mr.  Yelver- 
ton.  Grattan  introduced  a  bill  "to  punish 
mutiny  and  desertion,"  which  repealed  the 
perpetual  mutiny  act  and  restored  to  Par- 
liament a  due  control  over  the  army  ;  also 
another  bill  to  reverse  erroneous  judgments 
and  decrees,  a  measure  which  was  supposred 
at  the  time  to  have  settled  the  question  of 


the  final  judicature  of  Ireland,  and  to  have 
taken  from  the  English  Lords  and  King's 
Bench  their  usurped  appellate  jurisdiction. 

At  the  same  time  that  the  legislature 
was  thus  taking  securities  and  guarantees 
(as  it  thought)  for  permanent  independence, 
it  was  not  forgetful  of  the  honorable  debt 
due  to  the  man  who,  above  all  others,  had 
conduced  to  restore  the  dignity  and  inde- 
pendence of  Ireland.  Fifty  thousand  pounds 
were  voted  to  Henry  Grattan,  his  friends 
having  declined  for  him  the  larger  tribute 
of  £100,000  as  at  first  proposed,  and  having 
also  refused  an  insidious  offer  of  the  Phoe- 
nix Park  and  Viceregal  Lodge,  which  had 
been  made  by  Mr.  ConoUy  ou  the  part  of 
the  Government. 

Ireland  was  now,  at  least  formally  and 
technically,  an  independent  nation. 


CHAPTER    XXL 

1783—1784. 

Effects  of  Independence — Settlement  not  final — 
English  plots  for  tlie  Union — Corruption  of  Irish 
Parrmineut — Enmity  of  Flood  and  Grattan — Qiiec- 
tion  between  them — Kennnciation  Act — Second 
Diuigannon  Convention — Convention  of  l^eieirates 
in  Dublin — Catliolics  excluded  from  all  Civil  liights 
— Lord  Kenniare — Lord  Kenmare  disavowed — 
Lord  Temple — Knights  of  St.  Patrick — Portland, 
viceroy — Judication  Bill— Habeas  Corpus — Ikink 
of  Ireland — Repeal  of  Test  Act — Proceedings  of 
Convention — Flood's  Keform  Bill — Kejected — 
Convention  dissolved — End  of  the  Volunteers— 
Militia. 

It  would  be  extremely  pleasing  to  have 
now  to  record,  that  this  nation,  thus  eman- 
cipated by  a  generous  impulse  of  patriotism, 
and  launched  forth  on  a  higher  and  wider 
career  of  existence,  gave  a  noble  example  of 
public  virtue,  tolerance,  purity,  and  liberal- 
ity. Such  is  not  the  record  we  are  to  give. 
England  had  not  (of  course)  yielded  the  in- 
dependence of  her  "sister  island"  in  good 
faith.  Finding  herself,  for  the  moment,  un- 
able to  crush  the  rising  spirit  of  her  Irish 
colony  by  force,  she  feigned  to  give  way  for 
a  time,  well  determined  to  have  her  revenge, 
either  by  fraud  or  force,  or  by  any  possible 
combination  of  those  two  agencies.  From 
the  very  moment  of  the  acknowledgment 
of  Ireland's  freedom,  British  ministers  begaa 
to  plot  the  perpetration  of  "  the  Union." 


ENGLISH    PLOTS    FOR   THK   UNION. 


U^ 


The  veiy  nobility  of  nature  and  unsus- 
picious generosity  of  the  leading  Irish  pa- 
triot of  the  day,  so  prompt  and  eager  to 
giJsh  out  in  unmerited  gratitude,  so  cordially 
impatient  to  put  away  every  shadow  of  ill- 
will  between  the  two  "sister  countries," 
gave  the  English  administration  a  great  ad- 
vantage in  devising  their  plans  for  our  utter 
ruin. 

"It  is  difficult,"  says  Mr.  MacNevin,  "to 
have  much  svmpathy  for  the  extravagant 
amount  of  giatitude  awarded  to  the  British 
Parliament  by  the  leading  men  of  the  day 
in  Ireland.  They  treated  the  rights  of  Ire- 
land as  though  their  establishment  was  not 
the  work  of  Irishmen  but  the  free  gift  of 
English  magnanimity.  And  the  address 
moved  by  Grattan  '  did  protest  too  much.' " 
Nothing  can  be  imagined  more  artlessly  in- 
nocent than  this  address  moved  by  Mr. 
Grattan  in  reply  to  the  viceroy's  official  an- 
nouncement to  Parliament  of  the  repeal  of 
the  declaratory  act.  It  assures  his  majesty 
"  that  no  constitutional  question  between  the 
two  countiies  will  any  longer  exist  which 
can  interrupt  their  harmony,  and  that 
Great  Britain  as  she  has  approved  our  firm- 
ness so  she  may  rely  on  our  affection."  It 
further  assures  his  majesty  "  that  we  learn 
with  singular  satisfaction  the  account  of  his 
successes  in  the  East  and  West  Indies,"  etc. : 
— which  was  doubtlessly  extremely  polite, 
but  essentially  false  and  foolish,  because  the 
mover  of  the  address,  and  every  one  who 
voted  for  it,  knew  well  that  successes  of  Eng- 
land anywhere  in  the  world  were  disasters 
to  Ireland. 

Lord  Clare,  who  understood  the  true  re- 
lations between  the  two  countries  better 
than  any  other  Irish  statesman,  in  order  to 
prove  that  the  transactions  of  1782,  between 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  were  not  consid- 
ered as  final,  tells  us,  that  on  the  6th  of 
June  the  Duke  of  Portland  thus  wrote  to 
Lord  Shelburne :  "I  have  the  best  reason 
to  hope  that  I  shall  soon  be  enabled  to 
transmit  to  you  the  sketch  or  outlines  of  an 
act  of  Parliament  to  be  adopted  by  the 
legislatures  of  the  respective  kingdoms,  by 
which  the  superintending  power  and  supre- 
macy of  Great  Britain,  in  all  matters  of 
state  and  general  commerce,  will  be  virtually 

and  effectually  acknowledged  ;  that  a  share 
20 


of  the  expense  in  cairying  on  a  defensive  or 
offensive  war,  either  in  support  of  our  own 
dominions,  or  those  of  our  allies,  shall  be 
borne  by  Ireland  in  proportion  to  the  actua 
state  of  her  abilities,  and  that  she  will  adopt 
every  such  regulation  as  may  be  judged  ne- 
cessary by  Great  Britain  for  the  better  or- 
dering and  securing  her  trade  and  commerce 
with  foreign  nations,  or  her  own  colonies 
and  dependencies,  consideration  being  duly 
had  to  the  circumstances  of  Ireland.  I  am 
flattered  with  the   most   positive   assuran(;es 

from ■  and  of  their  support 

in  carrying  such  a  bill  through  both  Houses 
of  Parliament,  and  I  think  it  most  advisable 
to  bring  it  to  perfection  at  the  present  mo- 
ment." And  he  happened  to  know  from  an 
official  quarter,  that  the  sketch  of  such  an 
act  of  Parliament  was  then  drawn.  He 
knew  the  gentleman  who  framed  it,  and  he 
knew  from  the  same  quarter,  that  blank  and 
blank  and  blank  and  blank  did  unequivocal- 
ly signify  their  approbation  of  it.  This 
communication  was  received  with  the  satis- 
faction which  it  demanded  by  the  Biiiish 
cabinet.  On  the  9th  of  June  Lord  Shel- 
burne wrote  to  the  Duke  of  Portland  in  an- 
swer to  his  last  dispatch:  "The  contents 
of  your  grace's  letter  of  the  6th  iust.  are 
too  important  to  hesitate  about  detaining 
the  messenger,  whilst  I  assure  your  grace  of 
the  satisfaction  which  I  know  your  letter 
will  give  the  king.  I  have  lived  in  the 
most  anxious  expectation  of  some  such  meas- 
ure offering  itself:  nothing  prevented  my 
pressing  it  in  this  dispatch,  except  having 
repeatedly  stated  the  just  expectations  of 
this  country,  I  was  apprehensive  of  giving 
that  the  air  of  demand,  which  would  be 
better  left  to  a  voluntary  spirit  of  justice 
and  foresight.  No  matter  who  has  the 
merit,  let  the  two  kingdoms  be  one,  which 
can  only  be  bv  Ireland  now  acknowledging 
tlie  superintending  2)ower  and  supremacy  to 
be  where  nature  has  placed  it,  in  precise  and 
unambiguous  terms.  I  am  sure  I  need  not 
inculcate  to  your  grace  the  importance  of 
words  in  an  act,  which  must  decide  on  the 
happiness  of  ages,  particularly  in  what  re- 
gards contribution  and  trade,  subjects  most 
likely  to  come  into  frequent  question." 

It  was  easy  for  British  statesmen  to  find 
in    Ireland   the    suitable  material  for  their 


154 


HISTORY    OF   lUELAND. 


usual  system  of  corruption  ;  because  the 
Pailiameut  did  not  at  all  represent  the  na- 
tioQ.  Not  only  were  four-fifihs  of  the  peo- 
ple expressly  excluded,  as  Catholics,  from  all 
share  in  the  representation ;  but  of  the 
three  hundred  members  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  only  seventy-two  were  really  re- 
turned by  the  people  :  123  sat  for  "  nomi- 
nation boroughs,"  and  represented  only  their 
patrons.  Fifty-three  peers  directly  appointed 
these  legislators,  and  could  also  insure  by 
their  influence  the  election  of  about  ten 
others.  Fifty  commoners  also  nominated 
ninety-one  members,  and  controlled  the 
election  of  four  others.  With  such  a  con- 
dition of  the  popular  representation,  the 
British  ministry  knew  that  they  could  soon 
render  it  manageable ;  and  they  only  waited 
till  their  own  foreign  troubles  should  be  over 
to  re-establish  the  supremacy  "where  nature 
has  placed  it." 

The  first  evil  omen  for  Ireland  was  the 
rivalry,  or  rather  downright  enmity  of 
Flood  and  Grattan.  The  former  had  resign- 
ed his  place,  in  order  to  act  freely  with  the 
Patriots,  and  had  labored  by  the  side 
of  Grattan  in  forming  and  inspiring  the  Vol- 
unteer force,  and  the  potent  public  spirit 
which  at  length  wrested  from  England's 
reluctant  hands  the  formal  recognition  of 
Ireland's  independence.  If  he  ranks  lower 
than  Grattan  on  the  roll  of  the  Patriot 
party,  it  is  because  he  remained  to  the  last 
an  enemy  of  Catholic  emancipation,  and  per- 
sisted in  favoring  that  vicious  and  petty  pol- 
icy of  confining  the  nation^  with  all  its 
powers  and  rights,  to  one-fifth  part  of  the 
inhabitants. 

In  the  first  essential  difference  between 
these  two  men,  Flood  was  clearly  in  the 
right.  It  was  his  opinion  that  a  simple  re- 
peal of  the  declaiatory  act  of  George  the 
First  by  England  was  not  a  sufficient  securi- 
ty against  the  resumption  of  legislative  con- 
trol. His  argument  was  intelligible  enough  : 
The  6th  of  George  the  First  was  only  a  de- 
claratory act;  a  declaratory  act  does  not  make 
or  unmake  but  only  declare  the  law ;  and 
neither  could  its  repeal  make  or  unmake  the 
law.  The  repeal,  unless  there  was  an  ex- 
press renunciation  of  the  principle — is  only 
a  repeal  of  the  declaration,  and  not  of  the 
legal  principle.     The  principle  remained   as 


before,  unless  it  was  specially  renounced. 
Many  acts  had  been  passed  by  the  British 
Parliament  binding  Ireland,  and  some  of 
them  before  the  declaratory  act  of  George, 
The  act  did  not  legalize  these  statutes ;  it 
only  declared  that  the  principle  of  their  en- 
actment was  legal — its  repeal  does  not  es- 
tablish their  illegality,  but  only  repeals  the 
declaration.  Flood  was  historically  right 
In  the  reign  of  William  and  Mary,  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament  usurped  the  absolute  right 
of  making  laws  for  Ireland,  and  in  1691 
passed  an  act  to  make  a  fundamental  altera- 
tion in  the  constitution  of  this  country  by 
excluding  Roman  Catholics,  who  were  the 
majority  of  the  nation,  from  a  seat  in  the 
Lords  and  Commons.  It  was  true,  he 
argued,  that  the  Irish  had  renounced  the 
claim  of  England,  but  could  such  renuncia- 
tion be  equal  to  a  renunciation  by  England? 
In  any  controversy  could  the  assertion  of  a 
party  in  his  own  favor  be  equal  to  the  ad- 
mission of  his  antagonist  ?  Fitzgibbon  was 
of  the  same  opinion  as  Flood,  and  both  in- 
sisted on  an  express  renunciation  by  Eng- 
land. 

Grattan,  on  the  other  hand,  refused  the 
security  of  a  British  statute,  and  exclaimed 
that  the  people  had  not  come  to  England 
for  a  charter  but  with  a  charter,  and  asked 
her  to  cancel  all  declarations  in  opposition 
to  it.  It  must  be  said  that  Ireland  had  no 
charter.  Her  Declaration  of  Right  was  not 
a  Bill  of  Rights,  and  Flood  asked  for  a  Bill 
of  Rights.  He  was  not  satisfied  without  an 
express  renunciation.  But  what  guarantee 
against  future  usurpation  by  a  future  Parlia- 
ment, was  any  renunciation,  however  strong  ? 
The  true  security  for  liberty  was  the  spirit 
of  the  people  and  the  arms  of  the  Volun- 
teers. When  that  spirit  passed  away,  re- 
nunciations and  statutes  were  no  more  thaa 
parchment — the  faith  of  England  remained 
the  same  as  ever,  unchangeable. 

Whatever  were  the  merits  of  the  contro- 
versy, it  was  pregnant  with  the  worst  efl"ecta. 
The  Parliament  adopted  the  views  of  Grat- 
tan ;  the  Volunteers  sided  with  Flood.  A 
Bill  of  Rights,  a  great  international  com- 
pact, a  plain  specific  deed,  the  statement  of 
the  claims  of  Ireland  and  the  pledge  of  the 
faith  of  England  would  have  been  satisfac- 
tory, and  it  must  be  confessed  that  men 


ENMITY    OF    FLOOD    AND    GRATTAN. 


155 


were  not  far  astray  in  asking  for  it.  But 
uuf()rtunatcly,  the  great  minus  of  the  day 
so  far  participated  in  tlie  weaknesses  of  hu- 
manity as  to  yield  to  small  impulses  and 
to  plunge  into  a  rivalry  fatal  to  their  coun- 
try, in  place  of  uniting  their  powers  for 
the  completion  of  a  noble  and  glorious  un- 
dertaking. It  was  unfortunate  for  their 
glory — it  was  fatal  for  liberty.*  Flood, 
though  legally  right  in  the  argument  and 
wise  in  his  suggestions,  may  unwittingly 
have  permitted  himself  to  be  influenced  by 
a  feeling  of  jealousy.  He  had  seen  the  lau- 
rels he  had  been  so  long  earning,  placed  on 
the  brow  of  a  younger  and  certainly  a 
greater  man,  and  his  dissatisfaction  was  an 
unfortunate  but  a  natural  feeling.  On  the 
other  hand,  Grattan,  whose  peculiar  work 
was  the  Declaration  of  Rights,  felt  indignant 
at  the  imputation  cast  on  his  wisdom,  and 
the  impeachment  of  his  policy  by  the  meas- 
ures which  Flood  proposed.  When  Flood 
was  refused  leave  to  bring  in  his  Bill  of 
Rights  ou  the  19th  of  June,  Grattan,  who 
had  opposed  it  in  one  of  his  finest  speeches, 
moved  a  resolution,  which  appears  very  in- 
defensible, "  that  the  legislature  of  Ireland 
is  independent;  and  that  any  person  who 
shall  by  writing  or  othervvi.se,  maintain  that 
a  right  in  any  other  country  to  make  laws 
for  Ireland  internally  or  externidly  exists  or 
can  be  revived,  is  inimical  to  the  peace  of 
both  kingdoms."  It  was  a  strong  measure 
to  denounce  as  a  public,  enemy  the  wary 
statesman  who  read  futurity  with  more  cau- 
tion than  himself.  He  withdrew  his  motion 
and  substituted  another :  "  that  leave  was 
refused  to  bring  in  said  heads  of  a  bill,  be- 
cause the  sole  and  exclusive  right  of  legisla- 
tion, in  the  Irish  Parliament  in   all   cases, 

*  "  It  was  deeply  lamented  tliat  at  a  moment  crit- 
ical and  vital  to  Ireland  beyond  all  former  precedent, 
Bn  inveterate  and  almost  vulgar  hostility  should 
have  prevented  the  co-operation  of  men,  whose 
counsels  and  talents  would  have  secured  its  inde- 
pendence. But  that  jealous  hist  for  undivided 
honor,  the  eternal  enemy  of  patriots  and  lit^urty,  led 
them  away  even  beyond  the  ordinary  limits  of  par- 
liamentary decorum.  The  old  courtiers  fanned  the 
flame — the  new  ones  added  fuel  to  it^and  the  inde- 
pendence of  Ireland  was  eventually  lost  by  the  dis- 
tracting result  of  their  animosities,  which  in  a  few 
years  was  used  as  an  instrument  to  annihilate  that 
very  legislature,  the  preservation  of  wliich  had  been 
the  theme  of  their  hostilities." — Barringtoirs  Kise 
and  i'all,  chap.  xvii. 


whether  internally  or  externally,  hath  been 
already  asserted  by  Ireland;  and  fully,  final Iv, 
and  irrevocably  acknowledged  by  the  Biit- 
ish  Parliament." 

The  opinion  of  the  Lawyers'  corps  of  Vol 
unteerswas  in  favor  of  Flood's  interpretation 
of  the  constitutional  relations  of  the  two 
countries.  They  considered  that  repealing 
a  declaration  was  not  destroying  a  principle, 
and  that  a  statute  renouncing  any  pre-exist- 
ing right,  was  an  indispensable  guarantee 
for  future  security.  They  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  inquire  into  the  question,  which 
reported  that  it  was  necessary  that  an  ex- 
press renunciation  should  accompany  the 
repeal  of  the  6th  of  George  the  First. 
Whereupon  the  corps  of  Independent  Dub- 
lin Volunteers,  of  which  Grattan  was  colo- 
nel, presented  him  with  an  address.  They 
reviewed  the  whole  argument,  and  ended  by 
requesting  their  colonel  to  assist  with  his 
hearty  concurrence  and  strenuous  support, 
the  opinions  propounded  by  a  committee 
"chosen  from  the  best-informed  body  in  this 
nation."  Such  an  address,  including  at  one 
and  the  same  time,  an  appiobation  of  the 
course  pursued  by  Flood,  and  a  request  to 
Grattan  to  support  the  doctrines  he  had  fiom 
the  first  opposed,  was  construed  by  his  nice 
sense  of  honor  into  a  dismissal  from  his 
command.  He  did  not  resign  lest  his  regi- 
ment might  construe  a  peremptory  resigna- 
tion as  an  ofi"ence.  But  he  told  them,  that 
in  the  succession  of  officers,  they  would 
have  an  opportunity  "  to  indulge  the  range 
of  their  disposition."  He  was,  however,  re- 
elected, nor  did  he  lose  the  command  until 
the  October  of  the  next  year,  when  he  voted 
against  retrenchment  in  the  army.  The 
Belfast  First  Volunteer  company  also  ad- 
dressed him.  Doubts,  they  said,  had  arisen 
whether  the  repeal  of  the  Gth  of  George 
the  First  was  a  sufficient  renunciation  of 
the  power  formerly  exercised  over  Lelarid , 
they  thought  it  advisable  that  a  law  should 
be  enacted  similar  to  the  addresses  wliich 
had  been  moved  to  his  majesty,  and  which 
embodied  the  declaration  of  the  Rights  of 
Iieland.  Grattan's  answer  was  laconic,  but 
explicit.  He  said  he  had  given  the  fullest 
consideration  to  their  suggestions  :  he  was 
sorry  he  difi"ered  from  them  ;  he  conceived 
their  doubts  to  be  ill-founded.     With  great 


156 


HISTORY    OP   IRELAND. 


respect  to  their  opinions,  and  unalterable  at- 
taclnnent   to   their  interest,  he  adhered  to 
the   latter.     They  received   a  different   an- 
swer from  Flood,  whom  they  admitted  as  a 
member   of    their   corps.     Similar   circum- 
Btances   occurring   in    different   other   regi- 
ments, conduced  to  foster  the  evil  passions 
of  tliose  two  distinguished  men,  until  they 
broke    out   into   a  disgraceful   and  virulent 
personal   dispute.      But    there    were    worse 
consequences     attending     this     unfortunate 
quarrel.     Men  whose  united  talents  and  zeal 
would  have  rendered  secure   the  edifice  of 
their   joint   labors,  and   the   monument  of 
their  glory,  were  prompted  to  the  adoption 
of  different  lines  of  policy.     Grattan  refused 
to   advance.     Flood   was    all    for   progress. 
Had  both  united  to  reform  the  constitution, 
and   to  secure  its   permanence,   that  event, 
which  eventually  put  a  period  to  the  existence 
of  the   legislature  of  Ireland,  would  never 
have  occurred.     A  decision  in  the  Court  of 
King's  Bench  of  England,  by  Lord   Mans- 
field, in  an  Irish  case  brought  there  by  ap- 
peal, secured   to   afiirm  the   arguments,  and 
to  give  weight  to   the  objections  of  Flood. 
Mr.  Townsliend,  in  introducing  in  the  Eng- 
lish  Commons  the  Renunciation  Bill    (Jan- 
uaiy,  1783),  said,  that  doubts   were   enter- 
tained as  to  the  sufficiency  of  the    simple 
repeal,   and  had   been  increased   by  a  late 
decision    in    the    Court    of    King's    Bench, 
which,  however,  he  was  informed,  the  court 
was  bound   to  give,  the   case  having  come 
under  its  cognizance  before  any  question  as 
to  the  appellate  jurisdiction  in  Irish  matters 
had    beeu    raised.     He    then    moved  "that 
leave  be  given  to  bring  in  a  bill  for  remov- 
ing and   preventing  all  doubts  which  have 
aiisen,  or   may  arise,  concerning  the  exclu- 
sive rights  of  the  Parliament  and  courts  of 
Ireland,  in  matters  of  legislation  and  judica- 
ture, and  for   preventing  any  writ  of  error, 
or  appeal  from  any  of  his  majesty's  courts- 
in  Ireland   from    bL-ing   received,   heard,   or 
adjusted  in   any  of  his  majesty's  courts  in 
this   kingdom ;    and   that    Mr.   Townsliend, 
General     Conway,    Mr.    Pitt,    Mr.    William 
Grenville,   and    the   AttorufV   and   Solicitor 
General  do  biing  in  the  bill."     The  motion 
passed  without  a  division,  and  the  Renuncia- 
tion   Bill    was   the  result.     This   vindicated 
the  correctness  of  Flood's  reasoning — it  did 


not  afford  any  additional  security  to  liberty 
A  solemn   international  compact,  and  inter- 
nal reform  of  Parliament  were  still  required 
to  render  secure  and  indefeasible  the  settle- 
ment of  '82.     It  is  a  matter  of  serious  and 
grave  regret,  that  Grattan  did  not  take  the 
same  leading  part  in  obtaining  parliamentarv 
reform,   and    relieving  the  legislature  from 
internal    influence,    as    in    emancipating   it 
from  foreign  control.     He  would  have  been 
a  safe   counsellor  to  the  Volunteers;    and, 
had  it  been  found  advisable  and  consistent 
with   the  spirit  of  the   constitution   to  ap- 
peal   to    another   assembly  of  armed   dele- 
gates, it  would  have  met  under  better  aus- 
pices than  the  Dublin  Convention  of  1783 — 
nor  would    it   have  terminated   so  ignomin- 
iously.     But  he  was  influenced  by  weaker 
counsels;  and,  admitting  that  no  evil   pas- 
sion of  any  kind  was  busy  with  him,  we  are 
forced  to  believe  that  he  allowed  his  manly 
judgment   to    be    swayed    by   inferior   and 
timid  minds.     Reform  was  plainly  necessary 
to  the  completion  of  his  own  labors.     The 
House  of  Commons   did   not  represent  the 
people,   nor   did    its  construction   give   any 
guarantee  for  the  security  of  popular  liber- 
ties.    Such    a    body   might   be  forced   into 
great  and  extraordinary  virtue,  as  it  was  in 
'82  ;  under  such  unusual  influences,  with  the 
Volunteers   in   arms   throughout  the  whole 
country,  and  men   like  Grattan,  Burgh,  and 
Flood  amongst  them,  they  were  unable   to 
resist  the  tide  that  was  flowing;  but  there 
was  no  principle   of  stability  in  them,  they 
were    irresponsible   and    corrupt.       Reform 
was  the  obvious  corollary  of  the  Declaration 
of  Right.     Had  the  framers  of  the  constitu- 
tion of  '82  united  to  consolidate  and  secure 
their  own  work,  and  ceased  from  the  insane 
contentions  by  which   they  disgraced    their 
success;  had  they  given  a  popular  charac- 
ter to  the  legislature  which  they  freed  from 
external   control,  and   converted   it   into  the 
veritable  organ  of  the  national  will,  by  con- 
ferring extensive  franchises  on   the  people, 
by  including  the  Catholics  in  their  scheme, 
and  putting  an  end  to  the  system  of  close 
boroughs,  it  would  have  been  impossible  for 
any  English  minister,  without  a  war,  whose 
issue  would  have   been    doubtful,  to  destroy 
the   legislative  existence  of  the   country  by 
a  union. 


SECOND   DUNGANNON   CONVKNTIOX. 


157 


And  this  they  could  have  done.  Tlie 
Vohniteers  were  still  in  force.  One  hun- 
dred thousand  men  were  in  arms,  and  had 
urgently  pressed  upon  their  leaders  the  in- 
sufficiency of  their  work :  they  had  de- 
manded reform  in  every  provincinl  meeting* 
— at  Belfast,  on  the  9th  of  June,  1783,  a 
meeting  of  delegates  from  thirty-eight  corps 
of  Volunteers  assembled  after  a  review,  and 
adopted  the  following  resolution  : — 

"  Resolved,  unanimously,  That  at  an  era 
so  honorable  to  the  spirit,  wisdom,  and  loy- 
alty of  Ireland,  a  more  equal  kepresenta- 
Tiox  of  the  people  in  Parliament  deserves 
the  deliberate  attention  of  every  Irishman  ; 
as  that  alone  which  can  perpetuate  to  future 
ages  the  inestimable  possession  of  a  free 
constitution.  In  this  sentiment,  we  are 
happy  to  coincide  with  a  late  decision  of 
the  much-respected  Volunteer  army  of  the 
Province  of  Munster  ;  as  well  as  with  the 
opinion  of  that  consummate  statesman,  the 
late  Earl  of  Chatham  ;  by  whom  it  was  held 
a  favorite  measure  for  checking  venality, 
promoting  public  virtue,  and  restoring  the 
native  spirit  of  the  constitution." 

Similar  meetings  were  had,  and  similar 
resolutions  adopted  in  every  part  of  Ireland, 
If  the  spirit  of  the  Volunteers  had  been 
wisely  directed,  and  their  exertions  turned 
into  the  proper  channel,  there  seems  to  be 
no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  co-nstitution  and 
liberties  of  Ireland  would  have  been  firmly 
secured  on  a  basis  that  would  have  with- 
stood the  efforts  of  England.  In  the  latter 
country,  the  question  of  Reform  had  met 
with  the  sanction  of  the  Duke  of  Ptichmoud 
and  Mr.  Pitt.     Reform  associations  had  been 


*  Towards  the  end  of  1782,  the  Government  set 
on  foot  a  plan  wliose  design  was  obvious  enough — 
the  embodying  of  Fencible  regiments.  Tiie  Vohni- 
teers took  fire,  and  held  meetings  to  oppose  it  in 
every  quarter.  Galway  took  the  initiative,  and  wa.s 
.followed  by  Dublin  and  Belfast.  Tlie  resolutions 
passed  at  the  Tholsel  in  Galway,  on  the  1st  of  Sep- 
temoer,  1782,  to  the  etfect  that  the  Volunteers  were 
most  interested  in  the  defence  of  the  country,  and 
most  adequate  to  the  duty — that  raising  Fencible 
regiments  without  sanction  of  Parliament,  was  un- 
cotistitntional,  nor  justified  by  necessity,  and  might 
be  dangerous  to  liberty — were  adopted  at  several 
meetings.  The  Belfast  company  met,  protested 
against  the  measure,  and  addressed  Flood.  The 
plan  was  not  then  carried  into  execution.  It  was  a 
manifest  attempt  to  terrify  and  overawe  the  Volun- 
teers.    Tliey  were  too  strong  as  yet  to  subuiit. 


formed,  two  of  which,  the  "  Yorkshire  Asso- 
ciation," and  the  "London  Constitutional 
Knowledge  Society,"  entered  into  correspon- 
dence with  the  Volunteers,  applauded  their 
spii'it,  and  urged  upon  them  the  utility  of 
holding  a  national  convention  of  the  dele- 
gates of  the  four  provinces. 

It  was  a  suggestion  quite  consonant  to  their 
spirit  and  to  their  views,  and  they  lost  no 
time  in  acting  upon  it.  In  the  month  of 
July,  1783,  delegates  from  several  corps  in 
Ulster  summoned  a  general  assembly  of 
delegates  from  the  entire  province  for  the 
8th  of  September.  Five  hundred  represent- 
atives met  in  pursuance  of  this  requisition 
at  Dungannon.*  Flood  travelled  from  Dub- 
lin to  attend,  but  was  detained  on  the  road 
by  illness.  The  Earl  of  Bristol  was  present, 
and  took  an  active  part  in  the  proceedings. 
He  was  the  son  of  Lord  Hervey,  and  made 
a  considerable  figure  for  a  few  years  in  the 
proceedings  of  the  Volunteers.  There  is  no 
man  of  whom  more  opposite  opinions  are 
given.  Whilst  some  represent  hiui  as  a  man 
of  elegant  erudition  and  extensive  learning, 
others  paint  him  as  possessing  parts  more 
brilliant  than  solid,  as  being  generous  but 
uncertain  ;  splendid  but  fantastic  ;  an  ama- 
teur without  judgtnent ;  and  a  critic  without 
taste ;  engaging  but  licentious'  in  conversa- 
tion;  polite  but  violent ;  in  fact,  possessing 
many  of  the  qualities  which  the  satirist  at- 
tributes to  another  nobleman  of  his  countiy, 
the  fickle  and  profligate  Villiers.  There 
could  be  no  gi'eater  contrasts  in  his  character 
than  in  his  conduct  and  position.  He  wore 
an  English  coronet  and  an  Irish  mitre ;  and 
some  have  thought  that  he  was  visionary 
enough  to  have  assumed  the  port  of  the  trib- 
une only  to  obtain  the  power  of  a  sovereign. 
lie  was  indeed  monarchical  in  his  splendor 
— his  retinue  exceeded  that  of  the  most  af- 
fluent nobleman — his  equipages  were  mag- 
nificent— he  delighted  in  the  acclamations 
of  the  populace,  and  the  military  escort 
which  surrounded  his  carriage.f     He  was  a 

*  Mr.  Grattan  says  this  mectimr  took  place  at  a 
meeting-house  of  dissenters  in  Belfast.  The  state- 
ment in  the  text  is  on  the  authority  of  the  Historical 
Collections  relating  to  Belfast,  p.  255,  and  Belfast 
Politics,  p.  245.  See  also  a  pamphlet,  History  of 
the  Convention,  published  in  1784. 

+  lie  was  escorted  to  the  Kotunda  Convention  by 
a  troop  of  light  dragoons,  commanded  by  his  nephew, 


158 


HISTORY   or  IRELAND. 


man  who  possessed  princely  qualities;  he 
■was  costly,  luxurious,  munificent,  and,  in  the 
strange  antithesis  of  his  position — bishop, 
earl,  demaG;ogue — was  formed  to  attract  the 
nation  amongst  which  he  had  cast  his  lot. 
But  his  qualities  were  not  dangerous  ;  Gov- 
ernment was  more  afraid  of  him  than  they 
needed  to  be;  and  he  effected  little  in  the 
history  of  his  day,  more  than  playing  a 
splendid  part  in  a  transitory  pageant. 

The  second  Dungannon  Convention  elect- 
ed for  its  president  Mr.  James  Stewart, 
afterwards  Marquis  of  Londonderry.  He 
was  the  friend  of  Lord  Charlemont.  They 
passed  a  number  of  resolutions,  but  the 
most  important  was  the  following: — ■ 

"That  a  committee  of  five  persons  be 
appointed  to  represent  Ulster  in  a  grand 
national  Convention,  to  be  held  at  noon,  in 
the  Royal  Exchange  of  Dublin,  on  the  lOlh 
of  November,  then  ensuing;  to  which,  they 
hoped  that  each  of  the  other  provinces 
would  send  delegates  to  digest  and  publish  a 
plan  of  parliamentary  reform,  to  pursue 
Buch  measures  as  may  appear  most  likely 
to  render  it  effectual ;  to  adjourn  from  time 
to  time,  and  to  convene  provincial  meetings 
if  found  necessary." 

Addresses  were  issued  to  the  Volunteers 
of  the  three  provinces,  filled  with  the  no- 
blest sentiments  in  favor  of  liberty,  and 
abundant  in  the  impassioned  if  not  inflated 
eloquence  in  which  the  spirit  of  the  day 
delighted  to  be  clothed.  There  was,  how- 
ever, an  anomaly  in  their  proceedings,  and 
a  striking  and  painful  contrast  between  their 
abstract  theories  of  liberty  and  their  practi- 
cal manifestation.  A  proposition  in  favor 
of  the  Catholics  was  rejected.  Here  was  a 
body  of  men,  not  endowed  with  the  powers 
of  legislation,  but  acting  as  a  suggestive  as- 
sembly, dictating  to  legislation  the  way  in 
which  it  should  go,  and  declaring  that  free- 
dom should  be  made  more  diffusive  in  its 
enjoyment;  yet  they  are  found,  on  grave 
deliberation,  rejecting  from  their  scheme  the 
vast  body  of  the  nation,  whom  they  professed 
to  emancipate  and  raise.  The  practical  ab- 
surdity was  the  rock  on  which  they  split. 
And  it  is  said  regietfully  and  without  re- 


George  K.  Fitzgerald. — Barrington  s  Rise  and  Fall 
of  the  Irin/i  Xatiofi.,  c.  7. 


proach,  that  the  influence  of  this  intolerant 
principle  upon  their  counsels  is  attributable 
to  Lord  Charlemont  and  Henry  Flood. 
These  good  men  were  the  victims  of  a  nar- 
row religious  antipathy,  which  prevented 
either  of  them  from  rendering  permanent 
service  to  the  cause  of  liberty. 

The  interval  between  the  Dungannon 
meeting  and  the  Dublin  Convention  was 
stormy ;  yet  the  first  Parliament  in  the 
viceroyally  of  Lord  Northington  opened 
with  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  Volunteers. 
This  vote  was  the  woik  of  Government.  It 
is  most  probable  that  it  was  a  deprecatory 
measure,  and  intended  to  guard  against  any 
violence  iu  the  Convention.  This  was  the 
only  measure  of  conciliation  during  the  ses- 
sion. Sir  Edward  Newenham  introduced 
the  question  of  retrenchment  in  the  public 
expenses,  principally  with  reference  to  re- 
duction iu  the  army.  It  was  taken  up 
warmly  by  Sir  H.  Cavendish  and  Henry 
Flood  ;  and  it  certainly  did  appear  as  if  this 
enmity  to  the  regular  army  was  a  Volunteer 
sentiment,  so  strongly  did  the  principal  pnr- 
liamentary  friends  of  that  distinguished  body 
persevere  in  the  pressing  upon  the  legislature 
the  question  of  reirenchment.  Grattan  was 
opposed  to  any  reduction  in  the  regular 
forces — he  said  that  it  was  a  matter  of  com- 
pact that  they  remain  at  a  certain  standard 
settled  in  1782,  and  he  is  accordingly  found 
an  opponent  on  all  occasions  of  every  pro- 
position of  retrenchment.  The  question 
was  unfortunate;  it  led  to  that  degrading 
personal  discussion  which  displayed  the  two 
greatest  men  in  the  country  in  the  discredit- 
able attitude  of  virulent  and  vulgar  personal 
animosity.  On  Sir  H.  Cavendish's  motion 
for  reduction  in  the  expenses  of  the  kingdom. 
Flood  eagerly  and  eloquently  supported  the 
proposition.  But,  wandering  beyond  the 
necessities  of  his  argtiment,  he  indulged  in 
some  wanton  reflections  npon  Grattan,  and 
the  result  was  an  invective  from  the  latter, 
so  fierce,  implacable,  and  merciless,  that  it 
leaves  behind  it  at  a  great  distance  the  finest 
specimens  of  recorded  virulence.  The  es- 
trangement of  these  illustrious  men  was 
complete.  And  the  triumph  of  their  pas- 
sions was  one,  and  not  a  very  remote,  cause 
of  the  downfall  of  their  country.  They 
could  no  longer  unite   to  serve   her;  their 


CONVEXTION    OF   DELEGATES   IN  DUBLIN. 


159 


views,  which  had  diftered  so  widely  before, 
thenceforward  became  principles  of  antago- 
nism, to  carry  out  which  was  a  point  of 
honor  and  an  instinct  of  anger;  and  they 
whose  combined  wisdom  would  have  ren- 
dered liberty  secure,  became  unwittingly  her 
most  destructive  enemies.  The  conservative 
policy  of  Grattan,  and  the  progressive  prin- 
ciples of  Flood,  in  the  acrimony  of  contest 
and  the  estrangement  of  parties,  gave  full 
opportunity  to  Government  to  perfect  that 
scheme  which  ended  in  the  Union. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  what  may  well 
be  called  the  last  scene  of  the  great  political 
and  military  drama  in  which  the  Volunteers 
played  such  a  distinguished  part.  At  a 
time  of  great  and  pressing  public  peril,  they 
sprung  to  arms  and  saved  tlieir  country. 
Having  dispelled  the  fears  of  foreign  inva- 
sion and  secured  the  integrity  of  Ireland, 
they  found  within  her  own  system  a  greater 
enemy.  They  found  trade  restricted  and 
legislation  powerless.  They  emancipated  in- 
dustry and  commerce ;  and  they  restored  a 
constitution.  But  with  their  achievements, 
their  ambition  increased,  and  concluding 
with  reason  that  a  constitution  must  be  a 
nominal  blessing,  where  the  Parliament  was 
not  freely  chosen  by  the  people,*  they  re- 
solved upon  employing  their  powerful  or- 
ganization to  procure  a  reform  in  Parlia- 
ment. How  far  this  was  consistent  with 
their  original  principle — how  far  they  should 
have  left  to  the  Parliament  itself  the  re- 
modelling of  its  internal  structure,  and  ap- 
pealed to  its  wisdom  in  their  civilian  charac- 
ter, it  is  difficult  to  say.  They  had  asserted 
at  Dungannon — and  the  proposition  had  re- 
ceived the  sanction  of  the  legislature — that 
a  citizen,  by  learning  the  use  of  arms,  did 
not  forfeit  the  right  of  discussing  political 
affairs.  Yet  Grattan,  in  replying  to  Lord 
Clare's  speech  on  the  Union,  seems  to  have 
insisted  that  armed  men  might  make  decla- 
rations in  favor  of  liberty,  but  having  re- 
covered it,  they  should  retire  to  cultivate  the 


•  There  were  three  hundred  meinbers :  sixty- 
lour  were  county  members,  and  about  the  smiie 
number  might  be  returned  witli  great  exertion  by 
tiie  people  in  tlie  cities  and  towns.  The  remainder 
were  the  close  borough  members,  the  nominees  of 
the  aristocracy,  and  invariably  the  supportenj  of 
Government. 


blessings  of  peace.*     The  Volunteers,  how- 
ever, did  not  imagine  that  libertv   was  se- 
cured  until  the  Parliament  was  free.     Nor  I 
is  it  easy  to  understand  why,  if  their  decla-  ' 
rations  were  of  value  in  1782  to  recover  a  l 
constitution,  they  should    not   be    of  equal 
importance  in   1783  to  reform  the  legisla-  i 
ture. 

Previous  to  the  first  meeting  of  the  Dub 
lin  Convention,  provincial  assemblies  were 
held  in  Leinster,  Munster,  and  Connanght. 
They  passed  resolutions  similar  to  those 
adopted  at  Dungannon — delegates  were  ap- 
pointed— and  the  whole  nation  was  prepared 
for  the  great  Congress  on  which  the  fate  of 
Ireland  seemed  to  depend. 

At  length,  amidst  the  hush  of  public  ex- 
pectation, the  excited  hopes  of  the  nation, 
and  the  fears  of  Government,  on  Monday, 
the  10th  of  November,  one  hundred  and 
sixty  delegates  of  the  Volunteers  of  Ii  eland 
met  at  the  Royal  Exchange.  They  elected 
Lord  Chailemont,  chairman,  and  John  Tal- 
bot Ashenhurst  and  Captain  Dawson,  secre- 
taries, and  then  adjourned  to  the  Rotunda. 
Their  progress  was  one  of  triumph.  The 
city  and  county  Volunteers  lined  the  streets, 
and  received  the  delegates,  who  marched 
two  and  two  through  their  ranks,  with  drums 
beating  and  colors  flying.  Thousands  of 
spectators  watched  with  eyes  of  hopeful  ad- 
miration the  slow  and  solemn  march  of  the 
armed  representatives  to  their  place  of  as- 
sembly; and  the  air  was  rent  with  the  ac- 
clamations of  the  people.  Vain  noises — 
hapless  enthusiasur!  In  a  few  weeks,  the 
doors  that  opened  to  admit  the  delegates  of 
one  hundred  thousand  men,  were  closed 
upon  them  with  inconsiderate  liaste ;  and 
the  fate  of  the  constitution  they  had  restored 
was  sealed  amidst  sullen  gloom  and  angry 
discontent.  But  popular  enthusiasm  was  nut 
prophetic,  or  could  only  anticipate  from  a 
glorious  pageantry  a  great  result. 

The  largest  room  of  the  Rotunda  was  ar- 
ranged for  the  reception  of  the  delegates. 
Semicircular  seats,  in  the  manner  of  an  am- 
phitheatre, were  ranged  around  the  chair. 
The  appearance  of  the  house  was  brilliant: 
the  orchestra  was  filled  with  ladies;  and  the 
excitement  of  the  moment  was  intense  and 

*  Grattan's  Miscellaneous  Works,  p.  98. 


160 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


general.  Their  first  proceeding  was  to 
affirm  the  fundamental  principle  of  Dun- 
gaiinon,  that  the  right  of  political  discussion 
was  not  lost  by  the  assumption  of  arms; 
but  the  resolution  was  worded  in  that  spirit 
of  exclusion  which  was  the  bane  and  de- 
struction of  the  Volunteers. 

It  was  "  Resolved,  That  the  Protestant 
inhabitants  of  this  country  are  required  by 
the  statute  law  to  carry  arms,  and  to  learn 
the  use  of  them,"  etc. 

It  seems  difficult  at  this  day  to  account 
for  the  narrow  and  perverse  policy  which 
prevailed  in  this  Convention  with  regard  to 
the  Catholics.  The  delesfates  forming  that 
body  had  it  in  their  power  to  lay  the  foun- 
dations of  the  newly  liberated  nation  deep  in 
the  hearts  and  interests  of  the  whole  people, 
and  thus  defy  both  the  aits  and  arms  of 
England  to  enslave  a  united  Ireland.  Thev 
perversely  threw  away  this  noble  opportu- 
nity :  their  work  of  regenerating  their  coun- 
try was  but  half  done;  English  intrigue  was 
soon  busy  on  the  large  field  thus  left  for  its 
operation ;  and  it  cannot  be  thought  won- 
derful if  very  many  of  the  Catholics  after- 
wards became  reconciled  to  the  fatal  idea 
of  a  legislative  union  with  England,  as  af- 
fording a  better  chance  for  their  emancipa- 
tion than  living  under  the  bitter  and  in- 
tolerant exclusiveness  of  the  Irish  Ascend- 
ency. 

A  very  shameful  incident  occurred  on  one 
of  the  early  days  of  this  Convention  meet- 
ing. It  was  known  that  there  were  some 
members  of  it  who  strongly  uiged  some 
measure  of  relief  to  the  Catholics,  especially 
the  restoration  of  their  elective  franchise; 
when  Sir  Boyle  Roche,  a  member  of  Parlia- 
ment, chiefly  known  by  his  good  bulls  and 
bad  jokes,  appeared  on  the  fl(Jor,  and  ob- 
tained permission,  though  not  a  member  of 
the  Convention,  to  make  an  announcement 
with  which  he  said  he  had  been  charged  by 
Loid  Kenmare,  a  Catholic  nobleman : 
"  That  noble  lord,"  said  Sir  Boyle  Roche, 
^^  and  others  of  his  creed,  disavowed  any 
•wish  of  being  concerned  in  the  business  of 
elections,  and  fully  sensible  of  the  favors  al- 
ready bestowed  upon  them  by  Parliament 
felt  but  one  desire,  to  enjoy  them  in  peace, 
without  seeking  in  the  present  distracted 
state  of  affairs  to  raise  jealousies,  and  fur- 


ther  embarrass   the    nation    by  asking   for 


more."* 

This  was  on  the  14th  of  November.  But 
the  mean-spirited  proceeding  of  Lord  Ken- 
mare excited  much  indignation  amongst  the 
Catholics  then  in  Dublin.  They  did  not 
indeed  hope  much  from  the  Convention ; 
but  at  least  they  would  not  permit  his  lord- 
ship to  disavow  in  their  name  every  manly 
aspiration.  Accordingly,  in  the  afternoon 
of  the  same  day  the  princely  demagogue, 
the  Earl-Bishop  of  Derry,  rose  to  submit  to 
the  consideration  of  the  Convention  "a 
paper  of  consequence  which  referred  to  a 
class  of  men  who  were  deserving  of  every 
privilege  in  common  with  their  fellow-coun- 
trymen." He  moved  that  the  paper  should 
be  read.  It  was  to  this  effect:  "Nov.  14th, 
1783 — At  a  meeting  of  the  General  Com- 
mittee of  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Ireland, 
Sir  Patrick  Bellew,  Bart.,  in  the  chair,  it 
was  unanimously  7?(?soZi;e(/,  That  the  message 
relating  to  us  delivered  this  morning  to  the 
National  Convention  was  totally  unknown 
to  and  unauthorized  by  us.  That  we  do  not 
so  widely  differ  from  the  rest  of  mankind, 
as,  by  our  own  act,  to  prevent  the  removal 
of  our  shackles.  That  we  shall  receive 
with  gratitude  every_  indulgence  that  may 
be  extended  to  us  by  the  legislature,  and  are 
thankful  to  our  benevolent  countrymen  fur 
their  generous  efforts  on  our  behalf.  Re- 
solved, That  Sir  P.  Bellew  be  requested  to 
present  the  foregoing  resolutions  to  the  Earl 
of  Bristol  as  the  act  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olics of  Ireland,  and  entreat  that  his  lord- 
ship will  be  pleased  to  communicate  them  to 
the  National  Convention."  There  were  few 
more  remarkable  men  in  Ireland  in  that  ago 
of  able  men,  than  this  singular  Bishop  of 
Derry.  He  was  a  steady  friend  to  the  Cath- 
olics, and  supported  every  movement  in 
their  favor,  when  Charlemont  and  Flood 
coldly  repulsed  and  resisted  every  suggestion 
of  this  kind.  One  cannot  but  wish  that  the 
bold  bishop  had  been  commander-m-chief 
of  the  Volunteers. 

A  newly  elected  Parliament  had  met  a  few 
days  before  this  Convention  ;  and  Dublin 
then  presented  the  extraordinary  spectacle 
of    two   deliberative   bodies,  seated   in   two 

*  Mr.  Plowden  speaks  of  this  as  a  "  pretended 
letter  of  Lord  Kenmare." 


KNIGHTS    OF    ST.    PATRICK. 


161 


houses,  within  sight  of  each  other,  treating 
of  the  same  questions,  and  composed  in  pan 
of  the  same  persons;  for  many  members 
both  of  the  Lords  and  Commons  were  also 
members  of  the  Convention;  and  they 
passed  from  one  building  to  the  other,  as 
debates  of  importance  were  to  arise  in 
either.  The  year  which  was  drawing  to  a 
close  had  been  a  very  busy  and  stirring  one 
in  Ireland.  The  British  ministry  was  that 
famous  "  coalition  ministry  "  formed  by  Lord 
North  and  Mr.  Fox :  the  Lish  Judicature 
bill,  one  of  the  series  of  measures  for  estab- 
lishing the  independence  of  L-eland,  had 
been  passed  by  the  English  Parliament.* 
Lord  Temple  had  succeeded  the  Duke  of 
Portland  as  lord-lieutenant ;  and  in  his 
viceroyalty,    it    was    judged     advisable     to 

*  It  is  the  act  23  Georo;e  III.,  c.  28,  entitled,  "  An 
Act  for  preventing  and  renioving  all  doubts  which 
have  arisen,  or  may  arise,  concerning  the  exclusive 
riglits  of  tlie  Purliament  and  courts  of  Ireland,  in 
matters  of  legislation  and  judicature  ;  and  for  pre- 
venting any  writ  of  error  or  appeal  from  any  of  his 
majesty's  courts  in  that  kingdom  from  being  re- 
ceived, he:ird,  aiiil  adjudged,  in  any  of  his  majesty's 
courts  in  tlie  kingdom  of  Great  Britain." 

Amongst  the  several  acts  which  received  the  royal 
assent  under  the  Duke  of  Portland's  administration, 
■was  Mr.  Eden's  act  for  establisliing  the  national 
bank.  This  met  with  some  opposition,  but  the 
measure  was  carried,  and  the  baidv  opene-d  the  year 
following.  By  this  act  (21  and  22  Geo.  III.,  c.  16), 
the  bank  was  established  by  the  name  of  Tlie  Gov- 
ernor and  Company  of  the  Bank  of  Ireland.  The 
subscribers  to  it  were  to  pay  in  £(100,000,  eitlier  in 
cash  or  deiientures,  at  4  per  cent,  which  were  to  be 
taken  at  par,  and  considered  as  motiey.  Tliis  sum 
was  to  be  tlie  capital  stock  of  the  bank,  and  the  de- 
bentures to  tliat  amount,  when  received,  were  to  be 
cancelled  by  the  vice-treasurers.  For  these  an  an- 
nuity of  £24,000  was  to  be  paid  to  the  company, 
being  equal  to  the  interest  payable  upon  these  de- 
bentures ;  tlie  stock  wa.s  to  be  redeemable  at  any 
time,  upon  twelve  mouths'  notice,  after  the  1st  of 
January,  1794.  Ireland  obtained  likewise  an  impor- 
tant acquisition  by  a  bill,  "for  better  securing  the 
liberty  of  the  subject,"  otherwise  called  the  Habeas 
Corpus  act,  similar  to  that  formerly  passed  in  Eng- 
land. 

The  sacramental  test,  by  which  the  dissenting 
Protestants  were  e.xcluded  from  offices  of  trust  under 
the  crown,  was  also  repealed,  and  the  nation  was 
gratified  by  tlie  repeal  of  the  perpetual  mutiny  bill, 
and  by  that  long-desired  act  for  making  the  com- 
mission of  the  juilges  of  that  kingdom,  to  continue 
quariLdiu  se  bene  gtsserlnt.  An  act  was  also  passed 
to  render  the  manner  of  conforming  from  the  Popish 
to  the  Protestant  religion  more  easy  and  expeditious. 
Another  for  sparing  to  his  mnjesty,  to  be  drawn  out 
of  tins  kingdom  whenever  he  should  tliink  fit,  a 
force  not  exceeding  50,000  men.  Part  of  the  troops 
appointed  to  be  kept  therein  for  its  defence. 
21 


amuse  the  Irish  with  a  bawble  "  to  draw 
away  the  public  mind,"  says  Mr.  Plowden, 
"  from  speculative  questions,"  especially  re- 
form :  and  accordingly  letters  patent  were 
issued  creating  the  order  of  "  Knights  of 
St.  Patrick;"  and  the  new  knights  were  in- 
stalled with  great  pomp  on  the  iTth  of 
March,  the  festival  of  the  saint.  Lord  Tem- 
ple's government  lasted  but  a  few  months : 
he  was  succeeded  by  Lord  Northing! on  who 
dissolved  the  Parliament;  and  a  general 
election  had  now  resulted  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons which  was  already  in  session  in  College 
Green,  when  the  Convention  of  Volunteers, 
after  first  meeting  in  the  Royal  Exchange, 
transferred  their  meeting  to  the  upper  end 
of  Sackville  Street,  The  Convention  and  the 
Parliament  stood  in  a  very  singular  relation: 
the  main  object  of  the  one  was  to  reform 
and  to  purge  the  other.  Certainly  Parlia- 
ment greatly  needed  to  be  reformed  and 
purged  ;  hut  when  the  medicine  was  offered 
at  the  sword's  point,  b}'  a  body  clearly  extra- 
legal and  unconstitutional,  it  was  not  very 
likely  that  they  would  swallow  it.  The 
House  of  Commons  was  not  only  thoroughly 
vi(;ious  in  its  constitution,  being  composed 
chiefly  of  nominees  of  great  proprietors, 
but  also  systematically  corrupted  by  bribes, 
places,  and  promises;  for  it  was  now  more 
essential  to  English  policy  than  ever  to 
'•  secure  a  parliamentary  majority  "  upnn  all 
questions.  Such  a  Parliament,  of  which 
two-thirds  were  already  placemen,  pension- 
ers, or  recipients  of  secret-service  money,  or 
else  expected  soon  to  be  in  one  of  those 
categories,  could  not  long  subsist  by  the 
side  of  a  dictatoiial  Convention  of  armed 
men,  which  really  represented  the  armed 
force  of  the  nation,  and  which  called  upon 
it  to  come  out  from  the  slough  of  all  that 
profitable  corruption.  One  or  the  other, 
Parliament  or  Convention,  it  was  plain 
would  have  to  give  way. 

When  the  excitement  which  followed 
Lord  Kenmare's  singular  disavowal  of  man- 
hood had  subsided,  there  was  not  much 
further  reference  to  Catholics  or  their 
claims ;  the  Convention  resolved  itself  into 
committees,  and  appointed  sub-committees, 
to  prepare  plans  of  parliamentary  reform, 
for  the  consideration  of  the  general  body. 
"Then  was  displayed  a  singular  scene,  and 


162 


HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 


yet  such  a  scene  as  any  one,  who  considered 
the  almost  unvarying  disposition  of  an  as- 
sembly of  that  nature,  and  the  particular 
object  for  which  it  was  convened,  might 
justly  have  expected.  From  every  quarter 
and  from  every  speculjatist,  great  clerks  or 
no  clerks .  at  all,  was  poured  in  such  a  mul- 
tiplicity of  plans  of  reform,  some  of  them 
ingenious,  some  which  bespoke  an  exercised 
and  rational  mind,  but  in  general  so  utterly 
impracticable,  'so  rugged  and  so  wild  in 
their  attire,  they  looked  not  like  the  offspring 
of  inhabitants  of  the  earth  and  yet  were  on 
it,'  that  language  would  sink  in  portraying 
this  motley  band  of  incongruous  fancies,  of 
misshapen  theoiies,  valuable  only  if  ineffi- 
cient, or  execrable  if  efHcacious."  * 

But  the  plan  which  after  some  weeks  of 
discussion  was  eventually  adopted,  was  the 
workmanship  of  the  ablest  head  in  the  as- 
sembly. Flood  had  assumed,  because  he 
■was  able  to  grasp  and  resolute  to  maintain, 
a  predominating  superiority  over  the  Con- 
vention. It  was  the  ascendency  of  a  vigor- 
ous eloquence,  a  commanding  presence,  and 
a  resistless  will.  With  him  in  all  his  views, 
and  beyond  him  in  many,  was  the  Bishop 
of  Deny.  The  plan  of  reform  which  these 
two  men  approvedf  was  adopted,  and  Flood 
was  selected  to  introduce  a  bill  founded  on 
its  principles  and  suggestions,  into  Parlia- 
ment. They  imagined  that  they  could  ter- 
rify the  legislature,  and  they  much  miscal- 
culated the  power  of  the  Volunteers.  That 
power  was  already  shaken  ;  they  had.  flung 
away  the  sympathies  of  the  people  ;  they 
had  by  their  conduct  defined  themselves  as 
an  armed  oligarchy,  whose  limited  notions 
of  freedom  extended  no  farther  than  their 
own  privileges  and  claims;  they  were  abhor- 
red and  feared  by  Government  and  its  par- 
liamentary retainers  ;  they  were  not  trusted 
by  the  great  body  of  the   nation.     It  was 


*  Hardy's  Life  of  Charlemont.  Hardy  was  one  of 
Lord  Charleiuont's  coterie,  and  looked  at  men  and 
tilings  throug:li  the  medium  of  Mnrino.  His  maiden 
ppee.-h  was  made  in  support  of  Flood's  plan  of  re- 
form, lirouglit  up  from  the  Convention.  It  sliould 
not  be  forgotten  tliat  Plardy — thoiiu:li  poor,  he  was 
incorruptible — scorned  the  large  offers  which  were 
made  to  him  at  the  Union.  He  was  a  patriot  not  to 
be  purcliased,  when  corruption  was  most  munifi- 
eent. 

i  The  bisiiop  would  have  included  tlie  Catholics. 


under  unfortunate  auspices  like  these,  in  the 
midst  of  bitter  hostility  and  more  dangerous 
indifteience,  that  Flood,  leaving  the  Rotun- 
da, proceeded  on  the  29th  of  December  to 
the  House  of  Commons  with  a  bill,  every 
provision  of  which  was  aimed  at  the  parlia- 
mentary existence  of  two-thirds  of  the 
House.  He  had  requested  the  delegates  not 
to  adjourn  till  its  fate  was  ascertained.  But 
fatigue  and  disappointment  rendered  compli- 
ance impossible. 

Flood's  plan  embraced  many  of  the  prin- 
ciples which  have  since  become  incorporated 
with  the  British  constitution — the  destruc- 
tion of  borough  influence,  and  the  creation 
of  a  sound  county  franchise.*  There  was 
nothing  revolutionary — nothing  of  that  spirit 
to  which  modern  usages  give  the  name  of 
radical,  in  its  principles  and  details.  It  was 
only  defective  in  its  grand  omission.  The 
Catholics  obtained  no  boon,  and  acquired  no 
liberty  by  its  provisions,  and  to  its  fate  in 
the  legislature  they  were  naturally  indifferent. 
We  have  objected  to  Grattan  that  he  did  not 
go  on  with  the  popular  movement — it  may 
with  equal  justice  be  alleged  against  Lord 
Charlemont  and  Flood,  that  by  their  reli- 
gious intolerance  they  impaired  the  strength 
of  popular  opinion  and  marred  the  efficacy 
of  all  their  previous  proceedings. 

The  debate  consequent  on  Flood's  motion 
for  leave  to  bring  in  his  Reform  Bill,  was 
bitter  and  stormy.  The  whole  array  of 
placemen,  pensioners,  and  nominees  were  in 
arms  against  the  bill — they  could  not  dis- 

*  Scheme  or  Keform. — "  That  every  Protestant 
freeliolder  or  leaseholder,  possessina:  a  freehold  or 
leasehold  for  a  certain  term  of  years  of  forty-sliil- 
lings  value,  resident  in  any  city  or  borough,  sliould 
be  entitled  to  vote  at  the  election  of  a  member  for 
tlie  s;ime. 

"  Tliat  decayed  boroughs  should  be  entitled  to  re- 
turn representatives  by  an  extension  of  franchise  to 
the  neighboring  parishes.  Tiiat  suffrages  of  the 
electors  should  be  taken  by  tlie  sheriff  or  his  depu- 
ties, on  the  same  day,  at  the  respective  places  of 
election.  That  pensioners  of  the  crown  receiviii:}' 
their  pensions  during  pleasure,  shouki  be  incapaci- 
tated from  sitting  in  Parliament.  That  every  mem- 
ber of  Parliament  accepting  a  pension  for  life,  or  any 
place  under  the  crown,  should  vacate  his  seat.  That 
each  member  should  subscribe  an  oath  that  he  had 
neither  directly  nor  indirectly  given  anj"  pecuniary 
or  other  consideration  with  a  view  of  obtaining  thivt 
suffrage  of  an  election.  Finally,  that  the  duraii'>n 
of  Parliament  sliould  not  exceed  the  term  of  ilnvc 
years." 


FTvOODS    KEFORM   BILL. 


1C3 


fifuise  their  rage  and  amnzement — but  vented 
their  wrath  against  the  Volunteers  in  furious 
terms.  And  Yelverton,  who  combined  an 
unmeasured  regard  for  self-interest  with  a 
cautious  and  measured  love  of  liberty,  and 
who  had  been  a  Volunteer,  denounced  the 
idea  of  a  bill  introduced  into  Parliament  at 
the  point  of  the  bayonet. 

"  If  this,  as  it  is  notorious  it  does,  origin- 
sites  from  an  armed  body  of  men,  I  reject  it. 
Shall  we  sit  here  to  be  dictated  to  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet?  I  honor  the  Volun- 
teers ;  they  have  eminently  served  their 
country ;  but  when  they  turn  into  a  debat- 
ing society,  to  reform  the  Parliament,  and 
regulate  the  nation ;  when,  with  the  rude 
point  of  the  bayonet,  they  would  probe  the 
wounds  of  the  constitution,  that  require  the 
rhost  skilful  hand  and  delicate  instrument; 
it  reduces  the  question  to  this :  Is  the  Con- 
vention or  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  to  de- 
liberate on  the  affairs  of  the  nation  ?  What 
have  we  lately  seen  ?  even  during  the  sit- 
ting of  Parliament,  and  in  the  metropolis  of 
the  kingdom,  armed  men  lining  the  streets 
for  armed  men  going  in  fastidious  show  to 
that  pantheon  of  divinities,  the  Rotunda; 
and  there  sitting  in  all  the  parade,  and  in 
the  mockery  of  Parliament!  Shall  we  sub- 
mit to  this  ? 

"  I  ask  every  man  who  regards  that  free 
constitution  established  by  the  blood  of  our 
fathers,  is  such  an  infringement  upon  it  to 
be  sutlered  ?  If  it  is,  and  one  step  more  is 
advanced,  it  will  be  too  late  to  retreat.  If 
you  have  slept,  it  is  high  time  to  awake!" 

This  was  the  logic  of  an  attorney-general, 
who  never  deals  a  harder  blow  to  liberty 
than  when  he  professes  himself  her  most 
obedient  servant.  But  this  transparent 
hypocrisy  was  rudely  dealt  with  by  Flood : 

"I  have  not  introduced  the  Volunteers, 
but  if  they  are  aspersed,  I  will  defend  their 
character  against  afl  the  world.  By  whom 
were  the  commerce  and  the  constitution  of 
this  country  recovered  ? — By  the  Volunteers! 

"  Why  did  not  the  right  honorable  gen- 
tlemen make  a  declaration  against  thein 
when  they  lined  our  streets — when  Parlia- 
ment passed  through  the  ranks  of  those 
virtuous  armed  men  to  demand  the  rights 
of  an  insulted  nation  ?  Are  they  diflerent 
men  at  this  day,  or  is  the  right  honorable 


gentleman  different?  He  was  then  one  of 
tlieir  body  ;  he  is  now  their  accuser  !  He, 
who  saw  the  streets  lined — who  rejoiced — 
who  partook  in  their  glory,  is  now  their  ac- 
cuser !  Are  they  less  wise,  less  brave,  less 
ardent  in  their  country's  cause,  or  has  their 
admirable  conduct  made  him  their  enemy  ? 
May  they  not  say,  we  have  not  changed,  but 
you  have  changed.  The  right  honorable 
gentleman  cannot  bear  to  hear  of  Volun- 
teers; but  I  will  ask  him,  and  I  will  have  a 

STARLING    TAUGHT    TO    HOLLO    IN    HIS     EAR 

Who  gave  you  the  free  trade  ?  who  got  you 
the  free  constitution  ?  who  made  you  a  7ia- 
tion  ? —  The  Volunteers  !  * 

"If  they  were  the  men  you  now  describe 
them,  why  did  you  accept  of  their  service, 
why  did  you  not  then  accuse  them  ?  If 
they  were  so  dangerous  why  did  you  pass 
through  their  ranks  with  your  Speaker  at 
your  head  to  demand  a  constitution — why 
did  you  not  then  fear  the  ills  you  now  ap- 
prehend ? " 

Grattan  supported  the  bill.  He  said  he 
loved  to  blend  the  idea  of  Parliament  and 
the  Volunteers.  Tliey  had  concurred  in  es- 
tablishing the  constitution  in  the  last  Parlia- 
ment; he  hoped  that  they  would  do  it  in 
the  present.  But  altogether  it  must  be  said 
that  his  support  was  feeble — it  wanted 
heart,  it  wanted  the  fire,  the  inspiration,  the 
genius  which  carried  the  Declaration  of 
Rights  with  triumph  through  that  ineffably 
corrupt  assembly.  And  yet  reform  was  the 
only  security  for  his  own  work — it  would 
have  rendered  the  constitution  immortal, 
and  erected  an  enduring  memorial  of  his 
glory,  f 

*  Declaration  of  the  Volunteer  army  of  Ulster, 
"That  tlie  tiignifieil  conduct  of  the  army  lately  re- 
stored to  the  imperial  crown  of  Ireland  its  original 
splendor — to  nobility,  its  ancient  privilesres — and  to 
the  nation  at  large,  its  inherent  rights  as  a  sovereitrn 
independent  state."  Such  was  the  assumed  power 
of  the  Volunteers,  in  1782.  Tlie  Parliament  was 
considered  then  almost  anti-national. 

+  "  It  was  proposed  by  Government  to  meet  this 
question  in  the  most  decided  manner,  and  to  bring 
to  issue  the  contest  between  the  Government  and 
this  motley  assembly  usurping  its  rights.  This  idi'u 
met  with  very  considerable  support.  A  great  hearti- 
ness showed  itself  among  the  principal  Tnen  of  con- 
sequence and  fortune,  and  a  decided  spirit  of  oppo- 
sition to  the  unreasonable  encroachments  appeared 
with  every  man  attached  to  the  Administration. 
The  idea  stated  was  to  oppose  tlie  leave  to  bring  in  u 
bill  for  the  reform  of  Parliament  in  the  first  stage 


164 


HISTORY    OP   IRELAND. 


But  if  Grattan  lacked  bis  ancient  fire,  the 
opposition  which  was  given  by  the  vile 
brood  of  faction  was  not  deficient  in  spirit ; 
it  was  furious  and  fieice.  The  coarsest  in- 
vectives and  the  vulgarest  ribaldry  were 
heaped  upon  the  Voluriteers — the  question 
of  Parliamentary  Reform  was  lost  sight  of 
in  the  rancorous  malignity  of  the  hour,  and 
the  debate  became  a  chaos  of  vituperation, 
misrepresentation,  and  personality.  At 
length  the  question  was  put,  and  Flood's 
motion  was  lost.  The  numbers  were,  for  the 
mDtion  77,  against  it  157.  After  the  result 
had  been  ascertained,  it  was  thought  fit  by 
the  attorney-general  (Yelverton)  to  move, 
"  That  it  has  now  become  indispensably  ne- 
cessary to  declare  that  the  House  will  main- 
tain its  just  rights  and  privileges  against  all 
encroachments  whatsoever."  This  was  a 
declaration  of  war,  less  against  Reform,  than 
against  the  Volunteers.  The  gauntlet  was 
thrown  down  to  them — did  they  dare  to 
take  it  up  ? 

For  awhile  the  Convention  awaited  a  mes- 
sage from  the  Commons — but  no  message 
of  triumph  came  to  crown  their  hopes. 
The  scene  was  embarrassing — lassitude  had 
succeeded  excitement — silence  crept  slowly 
on  the  noisy  anticipations  of  victory.  At 
last,  adjournment  was  suggested — the  dra- 
matic effect  was  lost,  the  dramatic  spirit  had 
passed  away.  The  Convention  broke  up,  to 
await,  without  the  theatric  pomp  of  full  as- 
sembly, the  details  of  discomfiture,  insult, 
and  defeat. 


on  the  ground  of  the  petition  originatine:  in  an  as- 
sembly unconstitutional  and  illegal,  and  meant  to 
awe  and  control  the  legislature.  This  bold  mode  of 
treating  it  was  certainly  most  proper ;  at  the  same 
time  it  was  bubject  to  the  defections  of  those  who 
had  been  instructed  on  this  idea  of  reform,  and 
those  who  were  still  anxious  to  retain  a  small  degree 
of  popularity  amongst  the  Volunteers.  To  have  put 
it  with  a  resolution  would  have  given  us  at  least 
fourteen  votes.  Grattan,  having  pledged  himself  to 
the  idea  of  reform  of  Parliament,  could  not  see  ttie 
distinction  between  the  refusal  of  leave  on  the 
ground  of  its  having  come  from  an  exceptionable 
body,  and  the  absolute  denial  of  receiving  any  plan 
of  reform.  He  voted  against  us,  and  spoke ;  but  his 
tpeech  evidently  showed  that  he  meant  vs  no  harm^ 
and  on  the  question  of  the  resolution  to  support 
Parliament  he  voted  with  us.  The  resolutions  are 
gone  to  the  Lords,  who  will  concur  in  them,  except, 
it  is  said,  Lord  Mountmorris,  Lord  Aidborough,  and 
Lord  Charleniont." — Letter  of  the  Lord-Lieutenant 
to  Charles  James  Fox,  30th  Nov.,  1783. 


The  interval  was  well  used  by  those  who 
secretly  trembled  at  the  issue  of  a  direct 
collision  between  Government  and  the  Vol- 
unteers, or  who  had  not  the  boldness  to 
guide  the  storm  which  they  had  had  the  te- 
merity to  raise.  Rumors  there  were  of  secret 
conclaves  where  cowardly  counsels  took  the 
place  of  manly  foresight  and  sagacious 
boldness — of  discussions  with  closed  doors, 
where  the  men  who  .had  led  the  national 
army  in  the  whole  campaign  of  freedom, 
canvassed  the  propriety  of  sacrificing  to 
their  own  fears,  that  body,  whose  virtue  and 
renown  had  conferred  on  them  a  reflected 
glory;*  whilst  some  writers  have  represent- 
ed the  adjournment  of  the  Convention,  and 
the  extinction  of  the  Volunteers,  or  as  it 
was  called  by  Grattan,  "  their  retirement  to 
cultivate  the  blessings  of  peace,"  as  the  just 
and  natural  issue  to  their  useful  and  brilliant 
career. f  As  well  might  it  be  said  that  the 
Union  was  the  just  and  natural  result  of  the 
constitution  of  1782.  And  they  who  aban- 
doned the  Volunteers,  and  allowed  their  or- 
ganization to  crumble  and  decline,  are  an- 
swerable to  their  country  for  the  conse- 
quences of  that  fatal  measure  of  political 
tergiversation.  A  large  meeting  of  "par- 
ticular friends"  assembled  at  Lord  Charle- 
mont's  on  the  Sunday. J  It  was  unani- 
mously agreed  that  the  public  peace — which 
did  not  appear  in  any  particular  danger  at 
the  time — was  the  first  object  to  be  consid- 
ered. It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Hardy  is 
not  more  explicit  on  the  subject  of  this 
meeting.  It  would  have  been  fortunate  had 
he  informed  us  who  were  the  parties  con- 
cerned in  this  transaction ;  for  it  might 
have  furnished  a  key  to  the  subsequent  con- 
duct of  many  men,  whose  proceedings  were 
considered  inexplicable  at  the  time.  The 
result  of  their  deliberations  was  important. 
The  Volunteers  were  to  receive  their  rebuff 
quietly ;  they  were  to  separate  in  peace  and 
good  will  to  all  men ;  meekly  to  digest  the 
contumelies  of  the  Government  retainers  ; 
and  following  the  advice  of  some  of  their 
oflScers,  to  hang  up  their  arms  in  the  Tem- 


*  Barrington's  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Irish  Nation, 
c.  10,  p.  877. 
+  Grattan's  Life  by  Henry  Grattan,  c.  5. 
X  Hardy's  Life  of  Charlemont,  vol.  ii.,  p.  138. 


CONVENTION    DISSOLVKD. 


165 


pie  of  Liberty.     The  advice  was  good,  if  the 
temple  h;id  been  built. 

On  Monday  the  1st  of  December,  the 
Convention  met.  Captain  Moore,  one  of  the 
delegates,  was  about  to  comment  on  the  re- 
ception of  their  Reform  Bill  by  Parliament, 
when  Lord  Charlemont  called  him  to  order. 
Upon  which,  in  a  very  dignified  way,  Henry 
Flood  detailed  the  insulting  reception  of 
their  bill  by  the  legislature ;  and  well  aware 
of  the  temper  of  some  of  the  most  influen- 
tial men  in  the  Convention,  he  counselled 
moderation.  But  what  other  policy  than 
submission  was  on  their  cards?  They  had 
put  themselves  in  antagonism  to  Parliament 
— they  had  been  treated  with  contempt  and 
defiance — their  plan  had  not  been  even  dis- 
cussed, but  coutumeliously  rejected  because 
it  was  the  suggestion  of  men  with  arms  in 
their  hands — arms  which  they  dared  not  use. 
There  were  only  two  courses  open — war  or 
submission.  They  adopted  the  latter  course, 
not  without  some  rebellious  pride,  and  a 
flash  of  the  old  spirit  that  had  burned  so 
brightly  at  Dungannon. 

Looking  back  over  these  events,  one  can- 
not resist  the  conclusion  that  if  the  Conven- 
tion had  gi^nerously  and  at  once  thrown 
open  the  door  of  the  Constitution  to  the 
Catholics,  Lord  Charlemont  might  at  this 
juncture  have  marched  down  to  that  den  of 
corruption  in  College  Green,  cleared  it  out, 
locked  the  door,  and  thereafter  dictated  his 
Reform  Bill  by  way  of  general  orders :  but 
Charlemont  was  not  the  man  to  strike  such 
a  blow ;  and  besides,  he  and  the  Convention 
had  alienated,  or,  at  least,  left  in  a  state  of 
indifference,  the  great  body  of  the  nation 
"which  would  else  have  borne  thera  trium- 
phantly to  the  goal  of  perfect  and  perma- 
nent freedom. 

The  Convention  adjourned,  to  meet  next 
day.  Mr.  Flood  moved  a  tame  address  to 
the  House,  declaring  that  seeking  parlia- 
mentary reform  "  was  not  to  be  imputed  to 
any  spirit  of  innovation  in  them."  They 
adjourned  again ;  but  next  morning  Lord 
Charlemont  repaired  somewhat  earlier  than 
usual  to  the  Rotunda,  with  several  of  his 
friends,  and,  after  some  formal  resolutions, 
pronounced  the  Convention  dissolved. 
"From  this  time,"  says  Dr.  Madden,  "the 
power  of  the  Volunteers  was  broken.     The 


Government  resolved  to  let  the  iiistittitinn 
die  a  natural  death  ;  at  least,  to  aim  no  blow 
at  it  in  public  :  but  when  it  is  known  that 
the  Hon.  Col.  Robert  Stewart  (father  of 
Lord  Castlereagh)  was  not  only  a  member 
of  the  Convention — a  delegate  from  the 
County  Down — but  chairinan  of  a  sub-com- 
mittee, and  that  he  was  the  intimate  friend 
of  Lord  Charlemont,  the  nature  of  the  hos- 
tility that  Government  put  in  practice 
against  the  institution  will  be  easily  under- 
stood. While  the  Volunteers  were  parad- 
ing before  Lord  Charlemont,  or  manifesting 
their  patriotism  in  /ieclarations  of  resistance 
to  the  Parliament,  perfidy  was  stalking  in 
their  camp,  and  it  rested  not  till  it  had 
trampled  on  the  ashes  of  their  institution. 

The  Volunteers  through  the  country  re- 
ceived the  accounts  of  their  delegates  with 
indignant  amazement.  They  beat  to  arms 
— they  met — and  resolved.  But  the  bind- 
ing principle  was  relaxed  ;  doubt,  suspicion, 
and  alarm  pervaded  the  ranks  that  had  been 
so  firmly  knit;  their  resolutions,  though 
still  warmed  with  the  spirit  of  fiery  elo- 
quence, were  but  sounding  words,  unheeded 
by  a  government  which  had  planted  too  se- 
curely the  seeds  of  disunion,  to  fear  the 
threats  of  men  without  leaders,  without 
mutual  confidence,  without  reliance  on 
themselves.  The  Bishop  of  Derry  became 
their  idol ;  but  it  was  beyond  his  power  to 
restore  them  to  their  commanding  position. 
Flood  had  gone  lo  England,  either  fired  with 
new  ambition,  or  in  despair  of  effecting  his 
great  objects  at  home.  The  bishop  was  a 
bad  adviser,  too  bold  and  unguarded,  and 
the  Government  amazed  at  an  extraordinary 
reply  which  he  gave  to  an  address  of  the 
Bill  of  Rights'  Battalion,  a  northern  corps, 
seriously  canvassed  the  propriety  of  his  ar- 
rest. His  reply  concluded  with  a  memor- 
able political  aphorism,  "Tyranny  is  not 
government,  and  allegiance  is  due  only  to 
protection."  But  he  was  not  prosecuted,  nor 
arrested.  It  would  have  been  a  rash,  it  was 
a  useless  step.  The  natural  progress  of 
events  effected  what  a  measure  of  severity 
would  probably  have  retarded,  or  rendered 
impossible — the  destruction  of  the  Volun- 
teers. Division  of  opinion  gained  ground 
amongst  them,  yet  they  continued  their  re- 
views,   they    published    their    proceedings, 


166 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


they  passed  their  resolutious.  But,  month 
by  month,  and  year  by  year,  their  numbers 
diminished,  their  mihtary  gatherings  became 
less  splendid,  their  exposition  of  poHtical 
opinion  was  less  regarded  by  the  nation,  or 
feared  by  the  Government. 

The  Reform  bill  presented  by  the  Con- 
vention having  failed,  Flood,  after  his  return 
from  England,  determined  to  test  the  sincer- 
ity of  the  Parliament  in  the  alleged  cause 
of  its  rejection.  The  legislature  declared 
that  they  had  spurned  the  bill  because  it 
emanated  from  a  military  body.  In  March, 
1784,  he  introduced  another  measure  of  par- 
liamentary reform,  backed  by  numerous  pe- 
titions from  the  counties.  The  bill  was 
read  a  second  time,  but  was  rejected  on  the 
motion  for  its  committal,  by  a  majority  of 
seventy-four.  Grattan  gave  a  cold  support. 
It  became  now  clear,  that  the  opposition 
was  given  to  reform,  not  because  it  was  the 
demand  of  a  military  body,  but  because  the 
principle  was  odious  to  a  corrupt  Parliament. 
A  meeting  of  the  representatives  of  thirty- 
one  corps  took  place  at  Belfast,  to  make 
preparations  for  a  review,  and  they  adopted 
a  resolution  that  they  would  not  associate 
with  any  regiment  at  the  ensuing  demon- 
stration, which  should  continue  under  the 
command  of  officers  who  opposed  parlia- 
mentary reform.*  However  natuial  was 
their  indignation  at  the  coolness  of  some, 
and  the  hostility  of  other  professing  Patiiots 
to  the  great  measure  of  constitutional 
change,  the  effect  of  this  resolution  was  un- 
fortunate. It  yielded  a  plausible  excuse  to 
many  of  the  officers  to  secede  from  the 
Volunteer  body — it  worked  out  wonderfully 
the  policy  of  division  which  Government 
was  in  every  way  pursuing — it  defined  the 
distinctions  which  existed  in  the  Volunteer 
associations,  and  widened  the  fatal  breach. 

We  may  here  anticipate  a  little  in  order 
to  close  the  stoiy  of  the  Volunteers.  The 
rejection  of  the  Reform  bill  was  followed  bv 
an  attempt  to  get  up  a  national  congress  by 
Flood,  Napper  Tandy,  and  others.  They  ad- 
dressed requisitions  to  the  sherifi"s  of  the 
counties,  calling  on  them  to  summon  their 
bailiwicks  for  the  purpose  of  electing  repre- 
sentatives.    Some   few    complied   with    the 

*  Historical  Collections  relative  to  Btlfust,  p.  200. 


requisition — most  of  them  refused.  The 
attorney-general  (Fitzgibbon)  threatened  to 
proceed  by  attachment  against  those  who 
had  obeyed  the  mandate,  and  by  a  mixture 
of  personal  daring  and  ability,  succeeded 
in  preventing  Mr.  Reilly,  the  sherift*  of  Dub- 
lin, from  taking  the  chair  of  an  intended 
electoral  meeting.  Delegates  were,  how- 
ever, selected  in  some  quarters,  and  in  Octo- 
ber, a  few  individuals  assembled  in  William 
Street,  to  hold  the  congress.  The  debate 
was  with  closed  doors ;  the  Bishop  of  Derry 
was  not  present;  Flood  attended,  and  de- 
tailed his  plan  of  reform,  in  which  the 
Catholics  were  not  included.  The  omissioa 
gave  offence  to  the  Congress,  and  Flood,  in- 
dignant at  the  want  of  support,  retired. 
After  three  days'  sitting,  the  Congress  ad- 
journed. It  vanished  as  if  it  were  the  mel- 
ancholy ghost  of  the  National  Convention. 

These  proceedings  were  alluded  to  in  the 
speech  which  opened  the  session,  Januaiy, 
1785.  They  were  characterized  as  "  lawless 
outrages,  and  unconstitutional  proceedings." 
The  address  in  reply  applied  the  same  ternis 
to  the  transactions  in  connection  with  the 
National  Congress ;  and  this  drew  from 
Grattan  a  memorable  speech,  and  one  which 
with  reference  to  the  Volunteers  is  historic. 
It  marks  the  transition  point  when  the  old 
Volunteers  ceased,  and  a  new  body  com- 
posed of  a  different  class  of  men,  and  ruled 
by  politicians  with  very  different  views,  com- 
menced a  career  which  terminated  only  in 
the  establishment  of  the  United  Irishmen. 
Grattan,  in  the  debate  on  the  address,  after 
defending  the  reform  party  and  principles 
generally,  from  the  attacks  contained  in  the 
viceroy's  speech,  said,*  "  I  would  now  wish 
to  draw  the  attention  of  the  House  to  the 
alarming  measure  of  drilling  the  lowest 
classes  of  the  populace,  by  which  a  stain 
had  been  put  on  the  character  of  the  Volun- 
teers. The  old,  the  original  Volunteers  had 
become  respectable,  because  they  represented 
the  pioperty  of  the  nation ;  but  attempts 
had  been  made  to  arm  the  poverty  of  the 
kingdom.  They  had  originally  been  the 
armed  property — were  they  to  become  the 
armed  begyary?'"  To  the  Congress — to  the 
parties  who  had  presented  petitions  for  re- 

*  Grattau's  Speeches,  vol.  i.,  p.  212. 


END    OF   THE    VOLUNTEERS. 


167 


form  lie  ac'.dressed  indignant  reproof.  They 
had,  he  said,  been  guilty  of  the  wildest  in- 
discretion ;  they  had  gone  much  too  far, 
and,  if  they  went  on,  they  would  overturn 
the  laws  of  their  country. 

It  was  an  unfortunate  period  for  the  in- 
terests of  Irish  liberty,  which  Grattan  se- 
lected, thus  to  dissever  the  ties  between  the 
Volunteers  and  him.  They  had  begun  to 
perceive  that  without  the  co-operation  of  the 
Catholics,  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  ex- 
pect to  obtain  a  reformed  Parliament,  inde- 
pendent of  England.  The  men  of  the 
Ulster  Plantation  wei'e  the  first  to  i-ecognize 
and  act  upon  this  obvious  truth.  They  car- 
ried their  toleration  so  far  as  to  march  to 
the  chapel,  and  to  attend  mass.  Had  prop- 
er advantage  been  taken  of  these  disposi- 
tions of  the  people,  the  result  would  have 
been  the  acquisition  of  a  measure  of  parlia- 
mentary reform,  which  would  have  insured 
the  stability  of  the  settlement  of  1782. 
But  they  were  left  without  guides,  when 
most  a  ruling  mind  was  required;  nor  is  it 
surprising  that  ulterior  views  began  to  influ- 
ence the  ardent  temperament,  and  to  excite 
the  angry  passions  of  a  disappointed  people. 
But  these  considerations  belong  to  the  his- 
tory of  a  later  period,  when  the  Volunteers 
had  merged  into  that  great  and  wonderful 
confederacy,  which,  within  a  few  years, 
threatened  the  stability  of  the  English  do- 
minion in  Ireland. 

The  regular  army  had  been  increased  to 
fifteen  thousand  men,  with  the  approbation 
of  the  most  distinguished  founders  of  the 
constitution  of  1782 — the  next  act  of  hos- 
tility was  one  in  which  Gardiner,  who  had 
been  an  active  ofiicer  in  the  Volunteers, 
took  the  leading  part.  On  the  14th  of 
February,  1785,  he  moved  that  £20,000  be 
granted  to  his  majesty  for  the  purpose  of 
clothing  the  militia.  This  was  intended  to 
be  a  fatal  blow.  It  was  aimed  by  a  treach- 
erous hand.  The  motion  was  supported  by 
Langrishe,  Denis  Daly,  Arthur  Wolfe,  and 
Grattan.  Fitzgibbon  assailed  the  Volun- 
teers with  official  bitterness.  He  reiterated 
the  charges  of  Grattan,  that  they  had  ad- 
mitted into  their  ranks  a  low  description  of 
men — tlieir  constitution  was  changed — they 
had  degenerated  into  practices  inimical  to 
the  peace  of  the  country.     They  were,  how- 


ever, not  left  undefended.  Curran,  Hardy 
and  Newenham  stepped  forward  to  their  vin- 
dication. These  men  pointed  out  the  bene- 
fits of  the  institution — the  Volunteers  in 
time  of  war  had  protected  the  country,  and 
preserved  internal  quiet — no  militia  was 
then  needed — why  was  it  required  in  peace  ? 
The  proposition  was  a  censure  on  the  Volun- 
teers. 

Grattan  replied: — "the  Volunteers  had 
no  right  whatsoever  to  be  displeased  at  the 
establishment  of  a  militia ;  and  if  they  had 
expressed  displeasure,  the  dictate  of  armed 
men  ought  to  be  disregarded  by  Parliament. 
"The  right  honoiable  member  had  intro- 
duced the  resolution  upon  the  most  consti- 
tutional ground.  To  establish  a  militia — he 
could  not  see  how  that  affected  the  Volun- 
teers ;  and  it  would  be  a  hard  case,  indeed, 
if  members  of  Parliament  should  be  afraid 
to  urge  such  measures  as  they  deemed  prop- 
er, for  fear  of  giving  offence  to  the  Volun- 
teers. The  situation  of  the  House  would  be 
truly  unfortunate  if  the  name  of  the  Volun- 
teers could  intimidate  it.  I  am  ready  to 
allow  that  the  great  and  honorable  body  of 
men — the  primitive  Volunteers,  deserved 
much  of  their  country  ;  but  I  am  free  to 
say,  that  they  who  now  assume  the  name 
have  much  degenerated.  It  is  said  that  they 
rescued  the  constitution,  that  they  forced 
Parliament  to  assert  its  rights,  and  therefore 
Parliament  should  surrender  the  constitution 
into  their  hands.  But  it  is  a  mistake  to  say 
they  forced  Parliament :  they  stood  at  the 
back  of  Parliament,  and  supported  its  au- 
thority ;  and  when  they  thus  acted  with 
Parliament,  they  acted  to  their  own  glory ; 
but  when  they  attempted  to  dictate,  they 
became  nothing.  When  Parliament  repelled 
the  mandate  of  the  Convention,  they  went 
back,  and  they  acted  with  propriety;  and  it 
will  ever  happen  so  when  Parliament  has 
spirit  to  assert  its  own  authority. 

"  Gentlemen  are  mistaken  if  they  iungine 
that  the  Volunteers  are  the  same  as  they 
formerly  were,  when  they  committed  them- 
selves in  support  of  the  state,  and  the  exclu- 
sive authority  of  the  Parliament  of  Ireland, 
at  the  Dungannon  meeting.  The  resolutions 
published  of  late  hold  forth  a  very  different 
language. 

"  Gentlemen  talk  of  ingratitude.     I  can- 


168 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


not  see  how  voting  a  militia  for  the  defence 
of  the  country  is  ingratitude  to  the  Volun- 
teers. The  House  has  been  very  far  from 
ungrateful  to  them.  While  they  acted 
with  Parliament,  Parliament  thanked  and 
applauded  them ;  but  in  attempting  to  act 
against  Parliament,  they  lost  their  conse- 
quence. Ungrateful !  Where  is  the  in- 
stance ?  It  cannot  be  meant,  that  because 
the  House  rejected  the  mandate  which  vile 
incendiaries  had  urged  the  Convention  to 
issue;  because,  when  such  a  wound  was 
threatened  to  the  constitution,  the  House 
declared  that  it  was  necessary  to  maintain 
the  authority  of  Parliament,  that  therefore 
the  House  was  ungrateful !  " 

The  Volunteers  lingered  some  years  after 
this.  They  held  annual  reviews — they  pass- 
ed addresses  and  resolutions — but,  hencefor- 
ward, their  proceedings  were  without  eft'ect. 
The  details  of  their  decay  do  not  belong  to 
the  history  of  the  Volunteers  of  1782. 
That  body  practically  expired  with  the  Con- 
vention of  Dublin.  Their  old  leaders  fell 
away — the  men  of  wealth  abandoned  them, 
and  new  men — men,  not  without  generous 
qualities  and  high  ambition,  but  with  peril- 
ous and  revolutiouary  views — succeeded  to 
the  control.  And  when,  at  length,  the  Vol- 
unteers having  come  into  direct  collision  with 
the  regular  army,  and  wisely  declined  the 
contest,  the  Government  issued  its  mandate, 
that  every  assemblage  of  the  body  should 
be  dispersed  by  force,  even  the  phantom  of 
the  aimy  of  Ireland  had  passed  away  from 
the  scene  forever.* 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

1784—1786. 

Improvement  of  tlie  country— Political  position 
anomalous — Rulland,  viceroy — Petitions  for  Par- 
liamentary Reform — Flood's  motion. — Rejected — 
Griittan's  bill  to  regulate  the  revenue — Protective 
duties  demanded — National  Congress— Dissen- 
sions as  to  rigflits  of  Catholics — Cliarlemont's  intol- 
erance— Orde's  Commercial  Propositions — New 
propositions  of  Mr.  Pitt — Burke  and  Sheridan- 
Commercial  propositions  defeated— Mr.  Conolly — 
The  national  debt — General  corruption — Court 
majorities— Patriots  defeated — Ireland  after  five 
years  of  independence. 

Ireland  was  now  in  many  respects  an  in- 
dependent nation.     Enjoying  for   the   first 

*  A  few  country  corps  had  fixed  upon  holdino'  a 
review  at  Doah,  in  the  county  of   Antrim.    The 


time  in, her  history  an  unrestricted  trade,  a 
sovereign  judiciary,  the  writ  of  Habeas  Cor- 
pus, and  a  Parliament  acknowledged  to  be 
the  sovereign  legislature  free  from  the  dic- 
tation of  an  English  privy  council,  the  coun- 
try did  certainly  begin  almost  immediately 
to  make  a  rapid  advance  in  material  prosper- 
ity. Many  absentees  returned  and  spent 
their  incomes  at  home:  the  revival  of  other 
branches  of  industry  retrieved  in  some  de- 
gree the  unwholesome  competition  for  farms, 
which  had  left  the  unfortunate  and  friendless 
peasantry  at  the  absolute  mercy  of  their 
landlords.  Besides  all  this,  the  very  proud 
feeling  of  national  independence  seems  to 
have  kindled  a  sort  of  vital  energy  through- 
out the  farthest  extremities  of  the  land. 
On  the  whole,  although  there  was  still 
much  distress  among  the  poor,  and  appeals 
to  Parliament  for  their  relief,  there  was  soon 
visible  a  dawn  of  prosperity  in  Ireland. 

Yet  the  political  situation  was  evidently 
anomalous  and  insecure.  Ireland  had  not 
like  England  a  responsible  body  of  cabinet- 
ministers  accountable  to  her  own  Parliament. 
The  lord-lieutenant  and  Irish  secretary 
ruled  as  before ;  and  although  they  were 
appointed,  it  was  said,  by  the  King  of  Ire- 
land, they  really  held  their  offices  and  re- 
ceived their  instructions  from  the  ministers 
of  England;  and  their  whole  care  was  ex- 
pected to  be,  and  was,  in  fact,  to  n.aintain  by 
every  possible  means  the  paramount  as- 
cendency of  that  more  powerful  kingdom. 
This  could  only  be  accomplished  by  the 
creation  of  more  and  more  places,  the  still 
greater  extension  of  the  pension  list,  and 
more  direct  and  shameless  bribery.  In 
short  we  shall  soon  see  that  organized  cor- 
ruption developed  itself  during  the  era  of 
"  independence"  with  more  deadly  power 
than  ever  before,  until  it  swelled  at  last  to 
that  deluge  of  corruption,  that  perfect  par- 
oxysm of  plunder,  vkhich  bore  down  every- 
thing before  it  at  the  era  of  the  "  Union." 

Lord  Noithington,  on  a  change  of  minis- 
try in  England,  resigned  his  viceroyalty  on 
the  7th  of  January,  1784;  and  on  the  24th 
of  February  was  succeeded  by  the  Duke  of 

army  marched  to  the  spot  to  disperse  them ;  but 
the  Volunteers  avoided  assembling,  and  thus  gave 
up  tlie  ghost. — Br.  MacA^evin's  Pieusof  Irish  His- 
tory, p.  58. 


PETITIOXS    FOR   PARLIAMKNTAUT    RKFORM. 


IGO 


Rutl.iiid.  Just  before  this  cliangp,  tlie  rev- 
enue of  Ireland  being  again,  as  usual,  inad- 
equate to  the  expenditure,  £300,000  was 
ordered  to  be  borrowed  to  meet  the  de- 
ficiency. 

On  the  26tli  of  February,  Parliament 
met.  Mr.  Gardiner  moved  tlie  address  to 
tlie  Duke  of  Rutland  ;  and  then  tliere  came 
pouring  ifito  the  House  thirteen  petitions 
for  a  "Reform  in  Parliament."  It  was  on 
this  measure  the  people's  minds  were  now 
chiefly  bent.  They  were  iiritated  and  dis- 
appointed at  the  manner  in  which  the 
House  of  Commons  had  flung  out  the  Re- 
form bill  introduced  by  Mr.  Flood  in  the 
name  of  the  Volunteer  Convention.  They 
began  to  peiceive  that  with  a  Parliara'^nt  so 
constituted  Ireland  could  not  really  be  uid 
to  control  her  own  destinies:  and  they  did 
not  yet  suflaciently  comprehend  that  for 
tliis  precise  reason  England  would  always 
steadily  oppose  all  reform — and  would  be 
able  to  oppose  it  with  success  because  the 
very  corruption  of  Parliament  which  was 
an  injury  and  scandal  to  Ireland  was  the 
great  arm  and  agent  of  British  domination 
here. 

It  was  now  on  the  13th  of  M.arch,  that 
Mr.  Flood  made  his  renewed  motion  for  a 
parliamentary  reform  ;  not  now  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  dictatoiial  Volunteer  Convention, 
but  as  an  individual  member.  A  few  sen- 
tences of  his  speech  may  be  given  to  show 
the  notoriety  of  the  rotten  borough  system  ; 
and  how  audaciously  it  was  defended  as  a 
right  of  property.  He  admitted,  it  would 
be  thought  by  certain  gentlemen  injurious 
to  their  private  interest,  if  the  constitution 
■were  restored  to  its  original  security ;  but 
thev  must  also  admit,  that  it  was  contrary 
to  every  principle  of  right  and  justice,  that 
individuals  should  be  permitted  to  send  into 
that  house,  two,  four,  or  six  members  of 
Parliament,  to  make  a  traffic  of  venal  bor- 
oughs, as  if  they  were  household  utensils. 
It  seemed  a  point  agreed  upon  in  England, 
that  a  parliamentary  reform  was  necessary; 
lie  should  mention,  he  said,  the  opinion 
given  by  Lord  Chatham,  upon  whose  pos- 
thumous fame  the  present  administration  so 
firndy  stood  defended  by  the  tiation,  though 
that  great  and  illustrious  man  had  been  neg- 
lected for  ten  years  by  the  public,  and  so 
22 


large  a  portion  of  his  valuable  life  was  suf- 
fered to  be  lost  to  the  community.  What 
were  his  sentiments  on  that  important  mat- 
ter ?  His  words  nu)st  strongly  enforced  its 
necessity;  in  his  answer  to  the  address  of 
the  city  of  London,  in  which  he  said,  that  a 
reform  in  Parliament  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary, in  order  to  infuse  fresh  vigor  into  ihe 
constitution,  and  that  rotten  boroughs  ought 
to  be  stricken  otf. 

This  measure,  opening  the  franchise  to 
Protestant  freeholders,  was  by  several  mem- 
bers opposed  as  being  oppressive  to  the 
Catholics.  Sir  Boyle  Roche,  the  very  man 
who  had  but  lately  hurried  to  the  Conven- 
tion to  carry  Lord  Kenmare's  slavish  self- 
denying  message,  refusing  all  electoral  rights 
for  the  Catholics — this  Sir  Boyle,  only  anx- 
ious to  defeat  the  reform  by  any  means,  used 
this  argument  against  it: — 

Sir  Boyle  Roche  said,  the  design  of  the 
bill  was  to  transfer  the  franchise  of  election 
from  the  few  to  the  many ;  or,  in  other 
words,  to  deprive  the  present  possessors  of 
the  patronage  of  boroughs,  and  give  it  to 
another  set  of  men  ;  while  they  were  en- 
deavoring to  gratify  one  set  of  men,  they 
should  not  act  as  tyrants  to  another.  This 
bill  would  be  a  proscriptive  act  against  the 
Roman  Catholics,  who  would  be  all  turned 
out  of  their  farms  to  make  room  fur  forty- 
shilling  freeholders.  There  was  an  animated 
debate ;  but  its  issue  could  not  be  one  mo- 
ment doubtful  at  the  Castle.  At  four 
o'clock  on  Sunday  morning  the  division 
took  place:  ayes,  85;  noes,  159.  It  was 
clear  that  the  Government  had  still  its 
steady  woiking  majority  in  that  corrupt  as- 
sembly, on  all  questions  which  were  not  left 
open  questions,  and  that  there  was  no  meas- 
ure so  little  likely  to  be  left  an  open  question 
as  parliamentary  reform. 

Two  other  subjects  of  great  national  im- 
portance were  brought  before  Parliament  in 
this  session  ;  a  bill  for  regulation  of  the  rev- 
enue by  Mr.  Grattan,  and  a  bill  to  lay  pro- 
tective duties  on  the  importation  of  manu- 
factured goods.  This  latter  measure  seems 
to  have  been  greatly  needed;  and  the  anx- 
iety of  the  public  for  its  success  is  a  still 
further  proof  of  the  real  meaning  which  in 
the  Volunteering  times  was  attached  to  the 
cry  '-Free  itrade,  or  else  ,"  that  is  to 


ITO 


HISTORY    OF    IKELi^ND. 


say,  fieodorn  for  the  legislature  of  Ireland  to 
regulate,  protect,  tax,  admit,  or  prohibit  all 
branches  of  Irish  trade  for  Ireland's  own 
benefit. 

In  view  of  the  continual  rejection  of.  all 
projects  of  reform,  it  is  no  wonder  that 
men's  minds  turned  away  from  Parliament; 
and  that  plans  of  a  revolutionary  character 
began  to  be  agitated.  Such  was  the  idea 
of  a  National  Congress.  The  sheriffs  of 
Dublin  were  requested  to  convene  a  prepar- 
atory meeting:  they  did  so,  for  the  7th  of 
June,  1784:  but  as  this  project  eventuated 
in  nothing  important,  we  might  omit  all 
mention  of  it,  were  it  not  that  the  resolu- 
tions at  this  meeting,  while  denouncing  the 
venality  of  Parliament  introduced  into  their 
resolutions  and  their  addresses  to  the  king- 
very  strong  expressions  of  their  desire  to 
emancipate  the  Catholics.  In  the  resolu- 
tions we  read :  "  We  call  upon  you  there- 
fore, and  thus  conjure  you,  that  in  this  im- 
portant work  you  join  with  us  as  fellow-sub- 
jects, countrymen,  and  friends,  as  men  em- 
barked in  the  general  cause,  to  remove  a 
general  calamity ;  and  for  this  we  propose, 
that  five  persons  be  elected  from  each  coun- 
ty, city,  and  great  town  in  this  kingdom,  to 
meet  in  National  Congress  at  some  conve- 
nient place  in  this  city,  on  Monday,  the  25th 
day  of  October  next,  there  to  deliberate, 
digest,  and  determine  on  such  measures,  as 
may  seem  to  them  most  conducive  to  re- 
establish the  constitution  on  a  pure  and 
permanent  basis,  and  secure  to  the  inhabit- 
ants of  this  kingdom,  peace,  liberty,  and 
safety. 

"  And  while  we  thus  contend,  as  far  as  in 
us  lies,  for  our  constitutional  rights  and 
privileges,  we  recommend  to  your  consider- 
ation the  state  of  our  suft'ering  fellow-subjects, 
the  Roman  Catholics  of  this  kingdom,  whose 
emanc^ipation  from  the  restraints,  under 
which  tliey  still  labor,  we  consider  not  only 
as  equitable,  but  essentially  conductive  to 
the  general  union  and  prosperity  of  the 
kingdom." 

And  in  the  addi'ess  to  the  king,  they  say : 
"  We  farther  entreat  your  majesty's  permis- 
sion to  condemn  that  remnant  of  the  penal 
code  of  laws,  which  still  oppresses  our  Ro- 
man Catholic  fellow-subjects ;  laws  which 
lend    to  prohibit  education  and    liberality, 


restrain  certain  privileges,  and  proscribe  in- 
dustrjf,  love  of  liberty,  and  patriotism." 

The  very  introduction  of  these  liberal  and 
tolerant  ideas  into  the  preliminary  proceed- 
ings frightened  off  the  leading  men  of  the 
old  Volunteers. 

In  an  address  presented  by  the  Ulster 
corps  to  their  general,  the  Earl  of  Cliarle- 
mont,  after  some  strong  expressions  of  their 
detestation  of  aristocratic  tvrannv,  they 
hinted  at  the  necessity  of  calling  in  the  ai<l 
of  the  Catholics,  as  the  most  just,  as  well  as 
effectual  means  of  opposing  it  with  success. 
In  answer  to  this  address,  the  Earl  of  Charle- 
mont,  lamented  that,  for  the  first  time,  he 
felt  himself  obliged  to  differ  from  them  in 
sentiment.  He  was  free  from  every  illiberal 
prejudice  against  the  Catholics,  and  full  of 
goodwill  towards  that  very  respectable 
body,  but  he  could  not  refrain  from  the 
most  ardent  entreaties,  that  they  would  de- 
sist from  a  pursuit,  that  would  fatally  clog 
and  impede  the  prosecution  of  their  favorite 
purpose. 

As  this  nobleman  was  highly  and  de- 
servedly respected,  his  opinion  was  eagerly 
embraced,  both  by  the  timid,  whose  appre- 
hensions were  alarmed  at  the  bold  extent  of 
the  project,  and  by  a  great  number  whose 
prejudices  against  the  Catholics  appear  to 
have  been  suspended  from  conveniency  or 
fashion  though  never  conquered  by  princi- 
ple. In  the  month  of  October,  the  thanks 
of  the  corporation  of  the  city  of  Dublin 
were  voted  him  for  his  conduct  on  that  oc- 
casion. 

The  meeting  of  a  National  Congress  was 
a  measure  of  too  alarming  a  nature,  not  to 
attract  the  most  serious  attention  of  Gov- 
ernment ;  and  it  appears  to  have  been  their 
resolution  to  take  the  most  vigorous  steps 
for  preventing  it  if  possible.  A  few  days 
previous  to  that  which  was  fixed  for  the 
election  of  delegates  f  )r  the  city  of  Dublin, 
the  attorney-general  addressed  a  letter  to  the 
sheriffs,  expressing  his  very  great  suiprise  at 
having  read  a  summons  signed  by  them  call- 
ing a  meeting  for  the  purpose  in  question. 
He  observed,  that  by  this  proceeding,  they 
had  been  guilty  of  a  most  outrageous  breach 
of  their  duty;  and  that  if  they  proceeded, 
they  would  be  responsible  to  the  laws  of 
their  country,  and  he  should  hold  himself 


NATIONAL    CONGnESS, 


m 


bounden  to  prosecute  tlicni  in  the  Court  of 
Kino-'s  Beiicli,  for  a  conduct,  which  he  con- 
sidered so  higlily  criminal,  that  he  could  not 
overlook  it.  These  threats  succeeded  so  far 
as  to  intimidate  the  sheriffs  from  attending 
the  meeting  in  their  official  capacity;  but 
the  meeting  was  nevertheless  holden,  dele- 
gates were  chosen ;  and  in  reference  for  the 
attorney's  letter,  several  strong  resolutions 
were  agreed  to,  relative  to  the  right  of  as- 
sembling themselves  for  the  redress  of  griev- 
ances. Government  having  once  set  their 
faces  against  the  election  and  assembling  of 
delegates,  from  denouncing  threats,  they 
proceeded  to  punishments. 

Mr,  Riley,  high  sheriff  for  the  county  of 
Dublin,  in  consequence  of  his  having  called 
together,  and  presided  at  an  assembly  of 
freeholders,  who  tnet  on  the  19th  of  August, 
1784,  for  the  purpose  of  choosing  and  in- 
structing their  delegates,  was  the  first,  object 
of  ministerial  prosecution.  The  attorney- 
general  proceeded  against  him  by  attach- 
ment from  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  The 
assembly,  and  the  resolutions  they  came  to 
on  that  occasion,  signed  by  Mr.  Riley,  in  his 
character  of  sheriff  for  the  county,  were 
both  declared  to  be  illegal,  and  Mr.  Riley 
was  sentenced  by  the  court  to  pay  a  fine  of 
five  marks  (£3  6s.  8d.),  and  to  be  imprisoned 
one  Week. 

This  mode  of  legal  process,  except  for  the 
purpose  of  bringing  persons  before  the 
court,  to  receive  the  sentence  of  such  court 
for  contempt  of,  and  disobedience  to  it'^ 
orders  and  directions,  has  so  seldom  been 
resorted  to,  that  even  the  legality  of  the 
process  itself,  on  aviy  other  ground,  had  re- 
mained a  matter  of  general  doubt  and  un- 
certainty. 

In  the  present  case  it  met  with  much  less 
opposition  than  might  have  been  expected. 
Clamors  without  doois,  and  debates  within, 
on  the  subject,  there  certainly  were,  but 
both  too  feeble  and  ill-concerted  to  promise 
any  success.  The  new  division  of  the  Vol- 
unteers into  parties,  took  off  the  general  at- 
tention to  this  attack  upon  the  use  of  juries, 
which,  in  any  other  moment,  would  not 
have  been  so  tamely  tolerated.  Of  such 
import  is  it,  when  overstrong  measures  are 
to  be  attempted,  to  prepare  the  public  for 
the  reception  of  them  by  internal  disunion 


or  alarm.  Government  did  not  confiue  their 
prosecutions  to  Mr.  Riley,  Having  once 
adopted  a  mode  of  proceeding,  which  so  ef- 
fectually answered  the  end,  for  which  they 
designed  it,  informations  were  moved  for,  and 
attachments  granted  against  the  different 
magistrates,  who  called  the  meetings,  and 
signed  the  respective  resolutions  of  the  free- 
holders in  the  counties  of  Roscommon  and 
Leitrira.  At  the  same  time,  the  press  too 
came  under  the  lash  of  the  attorney  general : 
and  the  printers  and  publishers  of  such 
newspapers,  as  had  inserted  the  obnoxious 
resolutions,  suffered  with  the  magistrates, 
who  had  signed  them. 

Notwithstanding  these  violent  measures 
which  administration  were  pursuino-,  the 
National  Congress  met,  puisuaut  to  its  ap- 
pointment, on  the  2.")th  day  of  October. 
But  as  it  was  far  from  being  complete  in  point 
of  number,  and  several  of  its  most  respect- 
able members  chose  to  absent  themselves, 
they  adjourned,  after  having  passed  a  num- 
ber of  resolutions  to  the  same  purport  with 
those  that  had  been  agreed  to  at  the  pre- 
vious meeting;  and  exhorted  in  tlie  most 
earnest  manner  the  communities,  which  had 
not  sent  representatives:  "if  they  respected 
their  own  consistency,  if  they  wished  for  the 
success  of  a  parliamentary  refoim,  and  as 
they  tendered  the  perpetual  liberty  and 
prosperity  of  their  country,  not  to  let  pas.3 
that  opportunity  of  effecting  the  great  and 
necessary  confirmation  of  the  constitution." 

The  divisions  of  the  Volunteers  were  en- 
couraged by  Government;  and  for  that  pur- 
pose discord  and  turbulence  were  rather 
countenanced  than  checked  in  many  coun- 
ties, particularly  upon  the  delicate  and  im- 
portant expedient  of  admitting  the  Catholics 
to  the  elective  franchise,  a  question,  which  it 
was  artfully  attempted  to  connect  with  the 
now  de<-lining  cause  of  parliamentary  re- 
form. Through  a  long  series  of  years  Gov- 
ernment had  never  wanted  force  to  quell  in- 
ternal commotions ;  and  it  seemed  to  be 
now  dreaded  lest  a  union  of  Irishmen, 
should  extinguish  the  old  means  of  creating 
dissension.  The  desire  of  disuniting  the; 
Volunteers  begat  inattention  to  the  griev- 
ances of  the  discontented  and  distressed 
peasantry  of  the  south  :  that  wretched  peo- 
ple once  more  assumed  the  style  of  White- 


112 


HISTORY   OP  IRELAND. 


hoys:  and  for  some  time  committed  their 
depredations  with  impunity,  particularly 
against  Kilkenny,  until  a  stop  was  put  to 
them  by  the  vigorous  efforts  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Troy,  then  the  Roman  Catholic  bishop 
of  Ossory,  and  the  clergy  of  his  diocese; 
for  which  successful  exertions  he  received 
the  most  satisfactory  acknowledgments  from 
Government. 

As  the  unanimity  of  tlie  Volunteers  di- 
minished, their  spirit  and  exertions  abated  : 
something,  however,  was  to  be  attempted 
before  the  meeting  of  the  Parliament.  On 
the  2d  of  January,  1785,  the  second  meet- 
ing of  the  delegates  was  had  at  Dublin,  at 
which  were  present  the  representatives  of 
twenty-seven  counties,  and  of  most  of  the 
cities  and  considerable  towns  of  the  king- 
dom, amounting  in  the  whole  to  more  than 
200  persons.  Their  proceedings  appear  to 
have  been  of  the  same  nature  as  those  be- 
fore adopted,  with  this  only  difference,  that 
in  the  proposed  applieation  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  it  was  agreed  to  confine  them- 
selves to  the  most  general  terms,  and  to 
leave  the  mode  of  redress  as  free  and  open 
as  possible  to  the  consideration  of  Parlia- 
ment. 

The  British  Parliament  sat  to  the  25th 
of  August,  1784,  and  met  again  on  the  25th 
of  January,  1785  :  and  from  his  majesty's 
Bpetch  it  appears,  that  "their  first  concern 
was  the  settlement  of  all  differences  with 
Ireland.  Amongst  the  objects  which  now 
require  consideration,  I  must  particularly 
recommend  to  your  earnest  attention  the 
adjustments  of  such  points  in  the  commercial 
intercourse  between  Gieat  Britain  and  Ire- 
land as  are  not  yet  finally  arranged  :  the 
system  which  will  unite  both  kingdoms  the 
most  closely  on  principles  of  reciprocal  ad- 
vantage, will,  I  am  persuaded,  best  insure 
the  general  prosperity  of  my  dominions." 

Tlie  Parliament  of  Ireland  met  on  the 
20th  of  January,  1785,  when  the  lord- 
lieutenant,  addressed  them  in  a  speech  recom- 
mending to  their  attention  the  regulation 
of  the  trade  and  commerce  between  the  two 
islands.  This  was  the  prelude  to  Mr.  Orde's 
famous  "  Commercial  Propositions "  for  a 
treaty  of  commerce  between  England  and 
Irelaiul.  This  was  a  favorite  measure  of 
Mr.  Pitt's,  and  he  had  set  his  heart  upon  it. 


The-terms  of  the  proposed  commercial  set' 
tleinent  had  been  previously  negotiated  be- 
tween Mr.  Orde,  Secretary  for  Ireland,  and 
certain  Irish  commissioners  for  that  purpose: 
and  on  the  7th  of  February  Mr.  Orde  laid 
the  project  before  the  House  of  Commons 
in  the  form  of  eleven  resolutions.  In  this 
oiiginal  form  the  Commercial  Propositions 
were  not  very  open  to  objection :  for, 
although  most  favorable  on  the  whole  to 
England,  they  looked  fair  and  just.  The 
only  one  which  sounded  alarming  was  the 
eleventh  and  last,  which  was  in  these  words: 
"11th.  Resolved^  That  for  the  better  pro- 
tection of  trade,  whatever  surn  the  gross 
hereditary  revenue  of  this  kingdom  (after 
deducting  all  drawbacks,  repayments,  or 
bounties,  granted  in  the  nature  of  draw- 
backs,) shall  produce,  over  and  above  the 
sum  of  ^£656,000  in  each  year  of  peace, 
wherein  the  annual  revenues  shall  be  equal 
to  the  annual  expenses,  and  in  each  year  of 
war,  without  regard  to  such  equalitv,  should 
be  appropriated  towards  the  support  of  the 
naval  force  of  the  empire,  in  such  manner 
as  the  Parliament  of  this  kingdom  shall  di- 
rect." 

This  excited  some  opposition  in  the 
House,  Mr.  Brownlow  indignantly  exclaim- 
ing against  the  idea  of  their  becoining  a 
tributary  nation.  Mi'.  Gi'attan  supported 
the  residutions;  and  after  some  debate  they 
were  all  agreed  to  by  both  Houses.  On  the 
22d  of  the  same  month  the  eleven  Resolu- 
tions, as  transmitted  from  Ireland,  were  read 
in  a  Committee  of  the  British  House  of 
Commons;  and  Mr.  Pitt  spoke  most  earnest- 
ly in  favor  of  their  passage,  and  of  a  defini- 
tive treaty  or  law  founded  upon  them. 
There  was  some  oppo.sition  and  delay.  The 
commercial  public  of  Englmd  took  the 
alarm  :  petitions  poured  in,  the  first  of  them 
from  Liverpool  :  Lancashire  sent  a  petition 
signed  by  eighty  thousand  persons :  sixty- 
four  petitions  in  all  were  presented,  all 
against  the  measure,  which  was  represented 
as  a  concession  to  Irish  commerce,  therefore 
ruinous  to  England.  At  length,  on  the  12th 
of  May,  1785,  Mr.  Pitt  brought  forwaid,  in 
consequence  or  under  pretext  of  the  new 
light  thrown  on  the  subject  by  the  examina- 
tions, petitions  and  reports,  a  new  series  of 
resolutions,  twenty  in  number.     The  princi- 


BURKE    AND    SHERIDAN. 


173 


pal  addiLJons  to  the  new  scheme  were  to 
provide,  1st,  That  whatever  navigation 
laws  the  British  Parhanient  should  there- 
after think  fit  to  enact  fur  the  preservation 
of  her  marine,  the  same  should  be  passed 
by  the  legislature  of  Ireland.  2dly,  Against 
the  importing  into  Ireland,  and  from  thence 
into  Great  Britain,  of  any  other  West  India 
merchandises  than  such  as  were  the  produce 
of  our  own  colonies;  and  3dly,  That  Ire- 
land should  debar  itself  from  trading  with 
any  of  the  countries  beyond  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  to  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  so 
long  as  it  should  be  thought  necessary  to  con- 
tinue the  charter  of  the  Engli^^h  East  India 
Conipany. 

In  short  this  new  scheme  of  Mr.  Pitt  was 
plainly  intended  as  a  mode  of  repealing  and 
annidling  the  free  trade  of  the  Volunteers. 
The  Volunteers  were  by  this  time  disunited, 
disbanded,  and  disorganized,  and  the  cannon 
of  Napper  Tandy  had  gone  back  to  the 
foundry.  The  new  series  of  resolutions  gave 
occasion  to  eager  debates  in  the  British 
House  of  Commons,  It  is  with  regret  that 
one  finds  Mr.  Burke  not  only  supporting  the 
propositions  but  suppoiting  them  on  the  ex- 
press ground  that  they  went  to  re-establish 
the  supremacy  of  England  over  Ireland. 
He  said  :  '■  To  consult  the  interests  of  Eng- 
land and  Ireland,  to  unite  and  consolidate 
them  into  one,  was  a  task  he  would  under- 
take, as  that  by  which  he  could  best  dis- 
charge the  duties  he  owed  to  both.  To  Ire- 
land, independence  of  legislature  had  been 
given  ;  she  was  now  a  co-oidinate,  though 
less  powerful  state ;  but  pre-eminence  and 
dignity  were  due  to  England ;  it  was  she 
alone  that  niust  bear  the  weight  and  burden 
of  the  empire;  she  alone  must  pour  out  the 
ocean  of  wealth  necessary  for  the  defence  of 
it:  Ireland,  and  other  parts,  might  empty 
their  little  urns  to  swell  the  tide :  they 
might  wield  their  lit-tle  puny  tridents  ;  but 
the  great  trident  that  was  to  move  the 
world,  must  be  grasped  by  England  alone, 
and  dearly  it  cost  her  to  hold  it.  Indepen- 
dence of  legislature  had  been  granted  to 
Ireland ;  but  no  other  independence  could 
Great  Bi'itain  give  her,  without  reversing 
the  order  and  decree  of  nature :  Ireland 
could  n(;t  be  separated  from  England  ;  she 
could  not  exist  without  her ;  she  must  ever 


remain  under  the  protection  of  England,  her 
(juardian  angeW 

There  was  another  Irishman  in  the  Eiig- 
bsh  House  of  Commons,  who  did  not  see 
the  matter  altogether  in  this  light,  Richard 
Brinsley  Sheridan,  speaking  of  Mr.  Orde, 
the  English  Secretary  for  Ireland,  with  his 
insidious  propositions,  said  : — "Ireland  newly 
escaped  fioni  harsh  trammels  and  severe  dis- 
cipline, was  treated  like  a  high-mettled  horse, 
hard  to  catch  ;  and  the  Irish  Secretary  was 
sent  back  to  the  field  to  soothe  and  coax 
him,  with  a  sieve  of  provender  in  the  one 
hand  and  a  bridle  in  tlie  other."  When  the 
propositions,  as  altered,  had  passed  the  C(Jin- 
mons,  and  were  brought  into  the  House  of 
Lords,  it  was  curious  to  see  the  question 
treated,  not  as  a  matter  of  commerce,  but 
as  a  project  for  a  future  union;  wliich  in 
fact  it  was.  Lord  Lansdowne  treated  "the 
idea  of  a  union  as  a  thing  impracticable. 
High-minded  and  jealous  as  were  the  people 
of  Ireland,  we  must  first  learn  whether  they 
will  consent  to  give  up  their  distinct  empire, 
their  Parliament,  and  all  the  honors  which 
belong  to  them."  After  debate,  however, 
the  resolutions  passed  the  Lords  by  a  great 
majority,  Mr.  Pitt  ihe^n  brought  in  a  bill, 
founded  upon  them,  which  was  carried,  and 
was  followed  up  \)y  an  address  to  his  ma- 
jesty, voted  by  both  Houses  of  Parliament, 
wherein  they  acquainted  him  with  what 
they  had  done,  and  that  it  remained  for  the 
Parliament  of  Ireland  to  judge  and  decide 
thereupon.  On  the  12th  of  August  Mr. 
Secretary  Orde  moved  the  House  for  leave 
to  bring  in  a  bill,  wdiich  was  a  mere  tran- 
script of  that  moved  by  the  English  minis- 
ter. The  debates  on  this  occasion,  and  moie 
especially  on  the  side  of  opposition,  were 
long  and  animated.  After  a  vehement  de- 
bate, which  lasted  eighteen  hours,  the 
House  divided  at  nine  in  the  morning,  upon 
the  motion  of  Mr.  Orde  to  bring  in  the  bill. 
Ayes,  127  ;  noes,  108.  Such  a  division,  upon 
a  preliminary  stage,  was  equivalent  to  a  de- 
feat; and  on  the  Monday  following  (loth 
of  August)  Mr.  Orde  moved  the  first  reading 
of  the  bill,  and  that  it  should  be  printed, 
declaring  at  the  same  time  that  he  did  not 
iTitend  to  make  any  further  progress  in  the 
business  duiing  the  present  session.  He  had 
completed  his  duty  respecting  that  measure. 


174 


HISTOUY    OF    IRELAND. 


In  shon,  the  bill  was  ailjourned,  and  finally 
lost.  On  (he  same  loth  of  Angiist  Mr. 
Flood  rnove'd  a  resolution: — ^'■Resolved, 
That  we  hold  ourselves  bound  not  to  enter 
into  engagement  to  give  up  the  sole  and  ex- 
clusive riglit  of  the  Parliament  of  Ireland, 
in  all  cases  wliatsoever,  as  well  externally  as 
commercially  and  internally,"  The  bill  was 
withdrawn  :  Mr.  Flood  withdrew  his  motion  ; 
and  from  that  hour  Mr.  Pitt  determined  to 
lay  his  plans  for  the  final  extinguishment  of 
Irish  nationality  and  its  total  absorption  into 
that  of  Great  Britain ;  in  other  words,  for 
the  "Union." 

When  the  Duke  of  Rutland  again  met 
the  Parliament  in  January,  1785,  his  speech 
intimated  that  there  was  a  strong  desire  on 
the  part  of  Government  to  revive  the  ques- 
tion of  the  Commercial  Propositions :  but 
there  now  began  to  be  a  considerable  organ- 
ized opposition  to  the  Castle — an  opposition 
which  had  afterwards  to  be  "broken  down" 
by  the  usual  and  well-understood  methods. 

Mr.  Conolly  and  some  other  gentlemen  of 
great  landed  property  in  the  country,  who 
had  been  much  in  the  habit  of  supporting 
Government,  now  appeared  to  have  taken  a 
decided  part  in  the  opposition  to  the  Duke 
of  Rutland's  administration.  On  the  same 
day  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  (Sir 
John  Parnell)  stated  that  the  debt  of  the 
nation  was  £3,044,167;  on  which  Mr. 
Conolly  observed,  that  the  expenses  of  Gov- 
ernment every  year  increased :  that  the 
minister  came  regularly  to  that  House  to 
C(miplain  of  the  deficiency  in  the  revenue, 
and  demanded  a  loan,  which  was  granted  on 
his  promise  of  future  economy  :  at  last  the 
revenue  was  raised  by  new  taxes  to  equal 
the  expense,  and  still  the  expense  had  in- 
creased;  he  (as  also  Mr.  Grattan)  insisted 
upon  the  necessity  of  making  a  stand 
against  the  growth  of  expense,  or  else  their 
constitution  and  commerce  were  at  an  end. 
Accordingly,  on  the  9th  of  Februarv,  Mr. 
Conolly  moved  the  following  resolutions: 
1st,  That  the  House  did  in  the  list  session 
grant  certain  new  taxes,  estimated  at  £140,- 
000  por  annum^  for  the  purpose  of  putting 
an  end  to  the  accumulation  of  debt.  2d, 
That  should  the  said  taxes  be  continued  it 
was  absolutely  necessary  that  the  expenses 
of  the  nation  should  be  confined  to  her  an- 


nual, income.  After  a  warm  and  long  de- 
bate, there  appeared  upon  a  division  78  for 
Mr.  Conolly's  resolutions,  and  149  against 
them.  This  was  extremely  discouraging, 
and  even  provoking,  to  the  people  out  of 
doors  who  had  those  taxes  to  pav :  espe 
cially  as  every  one  knew  that  those  who  in 
Parliament  voted  against  all  reti'enchment 
and  economy  were  themselves  continually 
swelling  the  public  expenditure  by  soliciting; 
pension*  or  by  complaisantly  voting  to  Ofife 
another  immense  sums  of  the  people's 
money. 

However,  the  Patriots,  in  the  same  ses- 
sion, returned  to  the  charge — this  time 
against  the  intolerable  pension  list. 

Mr.  Forbes  led  the  van  on  the  attack,  and 
on  the  0th  of  March  moved  the  House, 
after  a  very  animated  speech,  that  the  pres- 
ent application  and  amount  of  pensions  on 
the  civil  establishment,  were  a  grievance  to 
the  nation,  and  demanded  redress.  The 
motion  produced  a  very  interesting  debate; 
but  it  shared  the  same  fate  as  the  bill  he 
afterwards  introduced  to  limit  the  amount 
of  pensions,  which  was  lost  by  a  majority  of 
134  against  78.  This  bill  was  most  stren- 
uously opposed  by  Sir  Hercules  Langrishe, 
Mr.  Mason,  Mr.  George  Ponsonby,  the  at- 
torney-general, and  the  most  leading  men 
on  the  treasury  bench,  as  a  direct  and  in^ 
decent  invasion  of  the  royal  prerogative, 
The  attorney-general  asserted,  that  the 
principle  of  the  bill  went  to  the  most  dan- 
gerous extent  of  any  bill  that  had  ever 
come  before  Parliament ;  it  went  to  rob  the 
crown  of  its  responsibility  in  the  disposal 
of  the  public  money,  and  to  convey  it  to  that 
House,  and  even  to  the  House  of  Peers. 
He  then  begged  leave  to  remind  the  mem- 
bers of  what  happened  after  the  passing  of 
their  favorite  vote  of  1757.  The  members 
of  that  House  caballed  together,  forming 
themselves  into  little  parties,  and  voting  to 
each  other  hundreds  of  thousands.  And  as 
no  Government  could  go  on  without  the  aid 
of  their  leaders,  it  cost  that  nation  moie  to 
break  throngh  that  puisne  aristocracy,  which 
had  made  a  property  of  Parliament,  than 
what  it  would  by  the  pension  list  for  many 
years.  On  the  side  of  the  Patriots,  all  the 
old  arguments  were  urged  with  redoubled 
force  against  the  pension  list.     Mr.  Grattan 


POLICE   BILL — MR.    CON"OLLT. 


175 


gave  great  offence  by  the  strong  and  liarsh 
assertion,  witli  which  he  closed  his  speech 
on  Mr,  Forbes's  motion,  viz.:  "7/"  he  should 
vote  that  pensiois  toere  not  a  (/rieva)ice,  he 
should  vote  an  impudent^  an  insolent^  and  a 
puJdic  lie." 

Mr.  Curran  took  a  brilliant  part  in  this 
deb;ite.  Alluding  to  the  varions  classes  of 
foreign  and  domestic  knaves  who  were  the 
objects  of  the  royal  bounty,  lie  said  : — 
"This  polyglot  of  wealth,  this  museum  of 
curiosities,  the  pension  list,  embraces  every 
link  in  the  human  chain  ;  every  description  of 
men,  women,  and  children,  from  the  exalted 
excellence  of  a  Ilawke  or  Rodney,  to  the 
debased  situation  of  the  lady  who  humbleth 
lierself  that  she  may  be  exalted.  But  the 
lessons  it  inculcates  form  its  greatest  perfec- 
tiiin;  it  teaches  that  sloth  and  vice  may 
eat  tliat  bread,  which  virtue  and  honesty 
niav  starve  for  after  they  had  earned  it.  It 
teaches  the  idle  and  dissolute  to  look  up  for 
that  support,  which  they  are  too  proud  to 
stoop  to  earn.  It  directs  the  minds  of  men 
to  an  entire  reliance  on  the  luling  power  of 
the  state,  who  feeds  the  ravens  of  the  royal 
aviary,  that  cry  continually  for  food.  It 
teaches  them  to  imitate  those  saints  on  the 
pension  list,  that  are  like  the  lilies  of  the 
field,  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they  .spin,  and 
vet  are  arrayed  like  Solomon  in  all  his 
g'ory.  In  fine,  it  teaches  a  lesson,  which 
indeed  thev  might  have  learned  from  Epic- 
tetus,  that  it  is  sometimes  good  not  to  be 
over-virtuous:  it  shows,  that  in  proportion 
as  our  distresses  increase,  the  munificence  of 
the  crown  increases  also;  in  proportion  as 
our  clothes  are  rent,  the  royal  mantle  is  ex- 
tended over  us." 

The  remaining  subject  of  difference  be- 
tween the  ministry  and  the  Patriots  in  that 
session,  was  upon  the  police  bill,  which  had 
been  for  a  con.'^iderable  time  a  favorite  ob- 
ject with  Government  to  carry,  in  order  to 
strengthen  their  interest  in  the  city  of  Dub- 
lin, which,  from  the  days  of  Dr.  Lucas,  they 
had  felt  declining.  It  was  conceived  by  the 
opposition,  that  if  the  bill  were  carried  for 
the  city  of  Dublin,  it  would  in  the  next  ses- 
sion be  extended  to  every  part  of  the  king- 
dom :  and  it  was  also  generally  considered, 
that  the  report  of  popular  risings  and  Po- 
pish conspiracies  against  the  Protectant  As- 


cendency, had    been   industriously   exago;er- 
ated    for    the    purpose   of  inlimidating    the 
Parliament  into  the  adoption  of  that  strong  ' 
measure*  of  government. 

Mr.  Conolly  took  a  leading  part  in  oppos- 
ing the  police  bill,  which  he  observed,  nn- 
der  the  specious  pretence  of  giving  police,  ^ 
went  to  take  away  constitution.  He  was 
still  positive,  that  he  was  well-founded  in 
his  opinion  ;  that  the  conduct  of  the  admin- 
istration was  inimical  to  the  constitution. 
The  temperance  of  the  Volunteers  since  the 
noble  duke's  administration,  deserved  their 
grateful  approbation.  When  they  Were 
misguided,  and  adopted  measures,  wdiich  he 
conceived  improj^er,  he  was  not  backward  in 
avowing  himself  against  their  proceedings; 
but  when  he  reflected,  that  the  moment  the 
Volunteers  were  told  tlieir  conduct  was  dis- 
agreeable to  Parliament,  they  retired  to  the 
country  without  a  murmur,  such  conduct 
secured  his  admiration,  and  made  hiro 
tenacious  of  their  liberties;  nor  could  their 
arms  be  placed  in  better  hands  than  where 
they  were. 

There  were  several  heated  debates  upon 

*  Sir  Edward  Crofton,  in  opposing  this  bill,  said  : 
"I  liave  spoken  of  Mr.  O'Connor  in  a  former  debate; 
and  I  am  firmly  pcrsniided  that,  as  to  that  gentleman, 
mjitters  have  been  extremely  exaggerated  and  mis- 
represented. I  know  it  has  been  mentioned  us  an 
afi'air  that  required  the  interference  of  Government; 
and  that  camps,  cannon,  and  fortifications,  were 
erected.  It  was  also  rnrnored,  that  tlie  Eoman 
(Catholics  were  in  open  rebellion  ;  tiii.s  was  an  insid- 
ious, infamous,  and  false  report,  calculated  to  east 
an  undeserved  reflection  on  a  body  of  men  remark- 
able for  their  loyalty  to  their  sovereign,  and  their 
known  attachment  to  the  constitution  ;  it  was  an 
illiheral  and  an  infamous  attack  on  a  people  distin- 
guished for  their  peaceable  demeanor,  and  was  in- 
tended but  to  serve  the  purposes  of  this  still  more 
infamous  bill. 

"  However  great  my  knowledge  may  have  been  of 
the  loyalty  of  tlie  Koman  Catholics  of  this  country, 
yet  1  must  confess,  on  ttiis  occasion,  I  was  made  » 
dupe  to  report;  for  from  the  gentleman,  who  bad 
declared  the  county  of  Roscommon  to  be  in  a  state 
of  rebellion,  I  could  scarcely  believe  but  Govern- 
ment had  authority  for  saying  so  ;  I  confess,  tliere- 
fore,  I  felt  for  my  property  :  and  it  was  natural  I 
should  make  every  possible  inquiry  ;  I  did  so,  and 
found  there  was  no  rebellion  in  the  country;  and 
also  found  the  trifling  disturbances,  whicii  had  been 
so  exaggerated,  were  only  the  eiieets  of  some  whis- 
key, to  wliioh  t  e  country  people  liad  been  treated, 
and  which  every  gentleman  knows  operates  on  the 
lower  order  of  people,  as  oil  of  rhodium  does  on  ruts  ; 
and  svliut  wa.^  very  extraordinary,  there  was  not  a 
broken  head  on  the  occasion." 


ne 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


this  bill:  it  was  treated  by  opjjosition  as  a 
most  unconstitutional  job,  a  mere  bill  of  pat- 
ronnge  for  ministerial  purposes;  although  it 
must  be  allowed,  that  the  secretary  oftered 
to  alter  whatever  should  be  found  objection- 
able in  the  committee,  and  some  of  the 
noxious  clauses  were"  withdrawn.  Several 
petitions  were  presented  against  the  bill,  but 
re(;eived  with  ill  grace.  Amongst  other 
petitions,  one  was  presented  from  the  free- 
holders of  the  county  of  Dublin,  by  Sir 
Edward  Newenham,  which  the  attorney- 
general  moved  to  have  rejected,  as  an  in- 
sult to  the  House ;  and  it  was  rejected  by 
118  against  Sir  Edward  Newenham  and  Col- 
onel Sharman.  The  attorney-general  boast- 
ed of  his  indulgence  in  not  moving  a  cen- 
sure against  the  petitioners  :  but  should  uot 
again  be  so  gentle,  if  the  offence  were  re- 
peated. This  was  the  most  important  bill 
passed  duiing  the  session.  It  was  the  ori- 
gin and  nucleus  of  that  immense  standing 
army  of  police  and  constabulary  which  is 
absolutely  under  the  control  of  the  British 
Government,  and  has  since  proved  the  most 
efficient  part  of  the  garrison  bv  which  that 
Government  holds  military  occupation  of 
Ireland. 

Government  succeeded,  during  the  session, 
in  all  the  measures  it  insisted  upon :  so  that  on 
proroguing  Parliament  on  the  18th  of  May, 
the  viceroy  was  able  gravely  to  pay  them 
the  usual  compliment  upon  the  sahitarv 
laws  enacted  in  that  session,  and  particularly 
the  introduction  of  a  system  of  police,  as 
honorable  proofs  of  their  wisdom,  modera- 
tion, and  prudence.  He  moreover  assured 
them,  that  his  majesty  beheld  with  the  high- 
est satisfacrioii  the  zeal  and  loyalty  of  the 
people  of  Ireland  :  and  that  he  had  his  ma- 
jesty's express  commands,  to  assure  them  of 
the  most  cordial  returns  of  his  royal  favor 
and  parental  affection. 

It  is  painful  to  be  obliged  to  admit  that 
at  this  period  (1787)  five  years  of  nominal 
independence  had  actually  reiluced  Iieland 
to  a  condition  of  more  helpless  prostration 
at  the  feet  of  England  than  she  had  been  be- 
fore :  that  the  policy  of  resuming  one  by 
one  the  liberties  yielded  for  a  moment  to  the 
demand  of  the  Volunteers  was  either  in  ope- 
ration or  in  preparation.  Under  Mr.  Pitt's 
proposed    coumiercial    arrangements,    Free 


Trade  would  no  longer  exist.     The  rep(!al  df 
the  perpetual  Mutiny  Bill  would  very  soon 
matter  little,  when  Government  would  have 
a  standing  army  of  police  to  overawe   the 
"  Lucasians"  and  reformers  of  Dublin  ;  and 
which  was  certain  to  be  established    also  in 
the  provinces.     The  power  of  the  Parliament 
was  now  unlimited  as  to  originating  iis  own 
laws  ;  but  for  this  very  reason  it  had  to  be 
taken  possession  of  in  advance  by  the  actual 
purchase  of  a  commanding  majoiity  for  the 
crown  ;  so  that  the  independent  Parliament 
should  still  be,  as  described  by  Swift.,  always 
firm  in  its  vocation,  for   the   Court  against 
the  Nation.     Indeed  the  melancholy  neces- 
sity of  keeping  in  pay  a  majority  of  Parlia- 
ment is  deduced  by  Lord  Clare   from   the 
very  fict  of  that  Parliament's   political  inde- 
pendence.     The    Government  was  now,  he 
said,  at  the  mercy  of  that  Parliament,  and 
thei'efore  had  to  propitiate  it,  or  Government 
could  not  go  on.     His  argument   concludes 
in   favor  of  a  "  union"  with  England,   as   a 
cure  for  all  evils.     "  Such  a  connection"  [as 
the  present],  said  he,  *'  is  formed  not  for  mu- 
tual strength   and  security,  but  for  mutual 
debility.     "It   is    a   connection   of  distinct 
minds  and  distinct  interests,  generating  na- 
tional discontent  and  jealousy,  and  perpetu- 
ating   faction    and    misgovernment    in     the 
inferior  country.     The  first   obvious   disad- 
vantage to  Ireland  is,  that  in   every  depart- 
ment of  the  state,  every  other  consideration 
nmst  yield  to  p;uliamentary  power  ;  let  the 
misconduct  of  any  public  officer  be  what  it 
may,  if  he  is  supported  by  a  powerful  parlia- 
mentary interest,  he  is  too   strong  for  the 
king's   representative.     A    majority    of  the 
Parliament  of  Great  Britain  will  defeat  the 
minister  of  the  day  ;  but  a  majority   of  the 
Parliament    of   Ireland    against    the    kind's 
Government,  goes  directly  to  separate  this 
kingdom    from    the    British   Crown.     If  it 
continues,  separation  or  war  is  the  inevitable 
issue ;  and  therefore  it  is,  that  the  general 
executive  of  the  empire,  as  far  as  is  essential 
to  retain  Irelaiid  as  a  member  of  it,  is  com- 
pletely at  the  mercy  of  the  Irish  Parliament ; 
and  it  is  vain  to  expect,  so  long  as  man  con- 
tinues to  be  a  creature  of  passion  and  inter- 
est, that  he  will   not  avail    himself  of  the 
critical  and  difficult  situation,  in  which  the 
executive  Governmeut  of  this  kingdom  must 


FIVE    TEAKS    OF    IXDEPENDENCE. 


177 


■  ever  remain,  under  its   present  constitution, 
to  demand  the  favors  of  the  Crown,  not   as 
the  reioard  of  loyalty  and  service,  but  as  the 
stipulated  price,  to  be  paid  in  advance,  for 
the  discharije  of  a  public  duty.     Every  un- 
principled   and    noisy  adventurer,  who    can 
achieve  the  means  of  putting    himself  for- 
ward, commences  his  political   career  on  an 
avowed  speculation  of  profit  and  loss  ;  and  if 
he  fail  to  negotiate  his  political  job,  will  en- 
deavor to  extort  it  by  faction  and   sedition, 
and  with  unblushing  eft'rontery  to  fasten  his 
own  cori'uption  on  the  king's   ministers, — 
English  influence  is  the  inexhaustible  theme 
for  popular  irritation   and  distrust  of  every 
factious  and  disconte-uted   man,  who  fails  in 
the  struggle  to  make  himself  the  necessary 
instrument  of  it.     Am   I   then  justified  in 
stating,  that    our    present    connection   with 
Great  Britain,  is  in  its  nature  formed  for  mu- 
tual debility  ;  that  it  must  continue  to  gene- 
rate national   discontent  and  jealousy,  and 
perpetuate    faction    and   misgovern raent    in 
IrehindT'* 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

•  1787—1789. 
Alarms  and  rnmors  of  disturbances — Got  up  by 
Govenitnent — Act  asrainst  illegal  combinations — 
Mr.  Grattan  on  Tithes — Failure  of  his  efforts — 
Death  of  Duke  of  Rutland — Marquis  of  Bucking- 
ham, Viceroy — Independence  of  Mr.  Curnm— Mr. 
Forbes  and  the  Pension  List — Failure  of  his 
motion — Triumph  of  corruption — Troubles  in  Ar- 
magh County — "  Peep-of-Day  Boys" — "  Defend- 
ers"— Insanity  of  the  King — The  Regency. 

When  Parliament  met,  according  to  the 

last  adjournment  on    the  ISth    of  January 

1787,  the  lord-lieutenant  particularly  applied 

to  them  for  their  assistance  in  the  eflfectual 

vindication  of  the   laws,  and  the   protection 

of  society.     On  this  part  of  his  address  Mr. 

*  This  famous  speech  is  only  cited  in  this  place  to 
show  how  very  coolly  a  Lord  Chancellor  of  Ireland 
could  explain  and  avow  the  existence,  the  necessity 
and  the  whole  mechanism  of  the  corrupt  manage- 
ment of  the  Irish  Parliament.  As  an  argument  for 
a  union,  his  speech  may  have  its  value,  but  it 
is  much  better  as  an  argument  for  total  sep- 
aration. Those  who  thought,  with  his  Lord- 
bhip  that  England  must  some  how  nde  over  Ireland 
natuniily  became  unionists  :  those  who  thought 
that  licland  should  rule  herself,  and  that  if  all  lier 
people  formed  one  united  nation  she  could  both 
gDverii  and  jirotect  herself,  became  still  more  logieal- 
h  united  Iriskmeii, 

23 


Conolly  made  some  very  severe  observations; 
distinctly,  indeed,  charging  the  Government, 
with  having  invented,  or  at  lea.st  grossly  ex- 
aggerated, the  rumors  of  disturbances  at  tlio 
south  ''to  intiniiilate  the  Protestants  of  that 
kingdom,  and  to  furnish  an  immediate  pretext 
for  the  unconstitutional  policc^-bill :" — and 
"that  the  first  thing  that  could  be  called  a 
disturbance  induced  him  to  think  Govern- 
ment had  a  hand  in  it."  This  involves  a 
charge  against  the  Government  so  atrocious 
and  revolting — calumniating  the  forlorn  and 
friendless  Catholics  of  Munster  to  produce 
an  alarm  of  threatened  insurrection  and  thus 
be  the  more  readily  armed  with  a  great  police 
force,  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  believe  it, 
if  we  did  not  know,  from  subsequent  events, 
that  this  kind  of  procedure  is  familiar  to  the 
British  Government  in  Ireland,  and  forms 
one  of  its  chief  agencies.  There  were  seve- 
ral statements  and  counter-statements  as  to 
the  existence  and  extent  of  these  alleged 
liots.  Mr.  Curran  who  then,  and  always, 
took  tlie  part  of  the  oppressed,  said  :  "  Is  it 
any  wonder,  that  the  wretches  whom  wo- 
ful  and  long  experience  has  taught  to 
doubt,  and  with  justice  to  doubt,  the  atten- 
tion and  relief  of  the  legislature,  wretches 
that  have  the  utmost  diflficulty  to  keep  life 
and  soul  together,  and  who  must  inevitably 
perish,  if  the  hand  of  assistance  were  not 
stretched  out  to  them,  should  appear  in  tu- 
mult ?  No,  sir,  it  is  not.  Unbound  to  the 
sovereign  by  any  proof  of  his  affection,  un- 
bound to  Government  by  any  instance  of  its 
protection,  unbound  to  the  country,  or  to  the 
soil,  by  being  destitute  of  any  property  in  it, 
'tis  no  wonder  that  the  peasantry  should  be 
ripe  for  rebellion  and  revolt :  so  far  from 
matter  of  surprise,  it  must  naturally  have 
been  expected, 

"The  supineness  of  the  magistrates,  and  the 
low  state  of  the  commissions  of  the  peace 
throughout  the  kingdom,  but  particularly  in 
the  county  of  Coik,  should  be  rectified,  h 
system  of  vile  jobbing  was  one  of  the  mis- 
fortunes of  that  country  :  it  extended  even 
to  commissions  of  the  peace  :  how  else  could 
the  report  of  the  four  and  twenty  commis- 
sions of  the  peace,  sent  down  to  the  county 
of  Clare  in  one  post,  he  accounted  for  ?  Even 
the  appointment  of  sheriffs  was  notoriously 
in  the  hands  of  government;  and  through 


178 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


jobbing,  sheriffs  themselves  could  uot  be 
trusted  :  two  sheriffs  ran  away  last  year  with 
executions  in  their  pockets,  and  the  late  high 
sheriff  of  the  county  of  Dublin  had  ab- 
sconded." 

There  were  indeed  local  disturbances,  as 
in  the  first  days  of  Wliiteboyism,  provoked 
solely  by  the  tithe-devouring  clergymen  and 
by  the  intolerable  oppressions  of  the  land- 
lords;  but  in  no  way  partaking  of  an  insur- 
rectionary organization,  nor  directed  to 
revolutionary  ends.  Mr.  Fitzgibbou,  then 
attorney-general,  told  Parliament  some  mar- 
vellous tales.  He  blamed  the  landlords  as 
the  chief  cause  of  the  disturbances ;  and 
said  "he  knew,  that  the  unhappy  tenantry 
were  ground  to  powder  by  relentless  land- 
lords. He  knew  that,  far  from  being  able  to 
give  the  clergy  their  just  dues,  they  had  not 
food  or  raiment  for  themselves ;  the  land- 
lord grasped  the  whole,  and  sorry  was  he  to 
add,  that  not  satisfied  with  the  present  extor- 
tion, some  landlords  had  been  so  base  as  to 
instig.ite  the  insurgents  to  rob  the  clergy  of 
their  tithes,  not  in  order  to  alleviate  the  dis- 
tresses of  the  tenantry,  but  that  they  might 
add  the  clergy's  share  to  the  cruel  rack-rents 
already  paid.  It  would  require  the  utmost 
ability  of  Parliament  to  come  to  the  root  of 
those  evils."  He  closed  by  moving  a  resolu- 
tion— "That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  com- 
mittee, that  some  further  provisions  by 
statute  are  indispensably  necessaiy  to  pre- 
vent tumultuous  risings  and  assemblies,  and 
fir  the  more  adequate  and  effectual  punish- 
ment of  persons  guilty  of  outrage,  riot  and 
illegal  combination,  and  of  administering 
and  taking  unlawful  oaths." 

A  bill  for  these  purposes  was  soon  after 
brought  in  by  Filzgibbon,  and  after  sharp 
debates,  and  a  vigorous  opposition  from  Mr. 
Conolly  and  others ;  was  read  a  second  time, 
rommitted  by  a  very  large  majority,  and 
passed. 

Mr.  Grattan  who,  while  he  desired  to  see 
the  laws  enforced,  was  yet  very  sensible  of 
the  unendurable  oppressions  practised  on  the 
peasantry,  brought  up  on  the  13th  of  March 
the  whole  subject  of  tithes,  which  he  consid- 
ered a  disgrace  to  the  Protestant  Church  as 
well  as  a  grievous  burden  to  the  Catholic 
people.  He  moved  the  following  resolution  : 
**  That  if  it  appear,  at  the  commencement  of 


the  next  session  of  Parliament,  that  public 
tranquillity  has  been  restored  in  those  parts 
of  the  kingdom  that  have  lately  been  dis- 
turbed, and  due  obedience  paid  to  the  laws, 
this  House  will  take  into  consideration  the 
subject  of  tithes,  and  endeavor  to  form  some 
plan  for  the  honorable  support  of  the  cleigy, 
and  the  ease  of  the  people." 

Mr.  Secretary  Orde  differed  from  Mr. 
Giattan,  and  insisted,  that  in  the  existing 
circumstances  of  the  country  it  was  impos- 
sible in  any  degree  to  hold  out  an  expect* 
tion,  that  the  House  would  even  enter  upon 
the  subject.  Hereupon  arose  a  warm  de- 
bate ;  and  there  were  not  wanting  honor- 
able members  to  affirm  that  the  established 
Church  was  no  burden  on  the  people,  and 
that  rectors  and  vicars  rather  saved  money 
to  a  Catholic  parish  than  otherwise.  It  may 
be  conceived  how  Grattan's  gall  rose  when 
he  heard  such  arguments  as  these.  "  It  has 
been  said,"  he  exclaimed,  that  the  exonera- 
tion of  potatoes  from  tithe  would  be  of  no 
advantage  to  the  poor.  Where  had  gentle- 
men learned  that  doctrine?  Certainly  uot  in 
the  report  of  Lord  Carhampton.  Or  would 
they  say,  that  taking  sixteen  shillings  an 
acre  off  potatoes  is  no  benefit  to  the  misera- 
ble man  who  depends  on  them   as  his  only 

food  r 

Mr.  Grattan  persisted  with  the  motion  for 
a  committee  to  inquire  whether  any  just 
cause  of  complaint  existed  among  the  people 
of  Munster,  or  of  Kilkenny  or  Carluw  on 
account  of  tithe,  or  the  collection  of  tithe. 
His  speech  upon  this  occasion  is  considered 
as  one  of  his  master-pieces,  both  of  reason 
and  eloquence.  It  produced  a  great  effect 
upon  the  country ;  none  whatever  upon  the 
House.  Only  forty-nine  voted  for  Grattan's 
motion  ;  but  121  gave  their  voice  against 
all  inquiry.  The  poor  peasantry  were  left 
at  the  mercy,  as  before,  of  the  tithe-priesis 
and  proctors,  and  of  the  grinding  landlords; 
and  so  remain,  without  improvement  to  this 
day.  They  felt  that  there  was  no  Par- 
liament for  them,  no  law,  no  protection,  no 
sympathy ;  and  we  cannot  but  agree  with 
Mr.  Curran  that  the  only  wonder  would  have 
been  if  they  did  not  occasionally  set  fire  to  a 
parson's  stack  yard,  or  that  they  did  not  cut 
off  a  tithe-proctor's  ears  when  they  met  him 
in  a  convenient  place. 


DEATH    OF    THE   DL'KE    OF    RUTLAXD. 


17;\ 


The  Duke  of  Rutland  died  in  October 
l^SY  :  died,  it  is  said,  in  consequence  of  his 
'excesses  and  debauchery.  He  was  a  good- 
fnatured  and  jovial  nobleman,  and  more  than 
sustained  the  hospitable  character  of  Dublin 
Castle.  As  for  public  business,  he  committed 
Jill  that  to  the  management  of  those  around 
him,  experienced  intriguers  who  knew  bet- 
ter than  he  how  "to  do  the  king's  business." 
And  as  there  was  but  one  machinery  known 
which  was  capable  of  making  public  busi- 
ness move  in  Ireland  ;  and  as  the  viceroy's 
advisers  felt  it  their  duty  to  be  liberal  at  the 
nation's  expense,  the  cost  of  Government 
rapidly  increased  during  his  viceroyalty.  In 
the  very  year  of  his  death,  for  example,  the 
pension  list  was  increased  by  additional 
grants  to  the  amount  of  £8.730  over  what  it 
had  been  the  year  before.  The  Duke  of 
liutland  was  succeeded  by  the  Marquis  of 
Buckingham,  who  met  the  Parliament  for 
the  first  time  on  the  17th  of  January  1788. 
In  the  address  of  ttie  Commons  in  reply  to 
his  speech,  Mr.  Parsons  objected  to  one 
clause,  which  gave  unqualified  approbation 
to  the  public  course  of  the  late  viceroy,  and 
seemed  therefore  to  bind  the  House  to  pur- 
sue the  same  measures.  He  remarked  on 
the  large!}'  increased  expenses  and  the  enor- 
mous pension  list,  and  remarked  that  neither 
ir.  the  speech  from  the  throne,  nor  in  the 
address,  was  the  word  economy  to  be  found. 
He  moved  an  amendment,  but  of  course  it 
was  negatived  without  a  division.  It  may 
be  said,  in  general,  of  the  administration  of 
the  Marquis  of  Buckingham,  that  it  was  con- 
ducted on  the  same  principle  (or  negation 
of  principle)  and  by  the  same  unprincipled 
men  as  that  of  the  Duke  of  Rutland.  It  was 
thought  advisable  to  purchase  a  few  patriots. 
AVhat  communications  the  marquis  made  to 
his  converts  cannot  now  be  stated  with  com- 
mercial exactitude ;  but  he  certainly  inau- 
gurated his  term  of  office  by  persuading  to 
silence  some  noisy  members  of  the  opposi- 
tion. On  this  occasion  it  is  agreeable  to  re- 
cord an  honorable  trait  of  one  of  those 
patriots  whose  memory  is  dearly  cherished 
in  Ireland,  John  Philpot  Curran.  Amongst 
other  proselytes,  that  went  over  to  the  new 
viceroy,  was  Mr.  Longfield,  who  had  consid- 
erable parliamentary  interest ;  he  and  the 
friends  he  introduced  had  uniformly  opposed 


the  late  administration  :  amongst  these  was 
Mr.  Curran,  who  having  been  brought  into 
Parliament  by  Mr.  Longfield,  could  not 
bend  his  principles  to  the  pliancy  of  his 
friend,  or  take  a  subordinate  part  in  sup- 
porting an  administration,  whose  intended 
measures  were  made  a  secret :  he  there- 
fore purchased  a  seat  in  a  vacant  borough, 
and  offered  it  to  Mr.  Longfield  for  any  per- 
son whose  principles  were  at  his  command. 
Thus  did  Mr.  CurrMU  retain  his  seat  and  par- 
liamentary independence :  and  Mr.  Long- 
field  was  enabled  to  fulfil  his  engagements 
with  the  minister,  for  his  own  and  his  de- 
pendant's votes  in  Parliament. 

Early  in  this  first  session,  Mr.  Foibes  made 
another  effbrt  against  the  pension  list,  which 
had  be<-ome  his  special  subject.  He  had 
been  taunted  on  a  former  occasion  with 
making  his  attacks  too  general,  instead  of 
denouncing  particular  examples;  and  a 
sporting  member  of  the  Castle  party  had 
assured  him  that  the  man  "who  fires  at  a 
whole  covey  does  not  hit  a  feather."  He 
now  desired,  that  a  list  of  the  pensions 
granted  since  the  last  session  of  Parliament 
might  be  read.  He  then  objected  to  a  pen- 
sion of  £1000,  to  James  Brown,  Esq.,  late 
prime  sergeant,  on  the  principle  onlv  of  its 
being  granted  to  a  member  of  the  House 
during  pleasure.  He  remarked,  that  by  the 
English  act  for  further  securing  the  liberties 
of  the  subject,  it  was  provided,  that  after  the 
accession  of  the  present  family  to  the  throne, 
no  pensioner  during  pleasure,  should  sit  or 
vote  in  the  House  of  Commons.  The  peo- 
ple of  Ireland  had  a  right  to  participate 
with  the  inhabitants  of  Great  Britain,  in  all 
the  benefits  and  privileges  of  that  act,  and 
the  Bill  of  Rights.  He  moved,  "  that  this 
pension  was  a  misapplication  of  the  reve- 
nue." He  also  on  the  same  day  mentioned 
the  pension  of  £640  to  Thomas  Higinbothara 
for  life,  adding,  that  he  was  astonished  that 
so  large  a  portion  of  the  public  money  should 
be  disposed  of  without  the  knowledge  or 
privity  of  the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer  ; 
and  that  for  such  a  transaction  all  the  ser- 
vants of  the  crown  should  deny  any  respon- 
sibility; he  then  objected  to  a  pension  of 
£1200  per  annum  to  Robeit  Ash  wood,  for 
the  life  of  his  son,  and  also  two  other  pen- 
sions of  £300  each,  and  one  of  £200  to  the 


180 


HISTOKY    OF    IRELAND. 


same  person,  for  lives  of  his  other  children. 
He  stated,  that  a  pension  of  £2000  per  an- 
num had  been  granted  in  the  year  1755,  for 
the  life  of  Frederick  Robinson ;  that  the 
family  of  Robinson  had  lately  sold  that  pen- 
sion to  Mr.  Ash  worth,  and  had  influence 
with  GovernraentsuffiTJient  to  prevail  on  the 
minister  to  change  the  hfe  in  the  grant,  and 
to  insert  the  lives  of  the  young  children  of 
Mr,  Ash  worth  in  the  place  of  Mr.  Robinson  ; 
that  this  management  was  now  become  a 
frequent  practice  ;  and  that  thereby  a  grant 
of  a  pension  for  life  operated  as  a  lease  for 
lives  with  a  covenant  of  perpetual  renewal. 

He  then  moved  that  the  above  pension 
"  was  an  improvident  disposition  of  the  rev- 
enue." It  is  almost  needless  to  add  that  all 
Mr.  Forbes'  motions  were  negatived  without 
a  division.  Nothing,  perhaps,  can  better 
illustrate  the  shameless  character  of  the  uni- 
versal venality  than  the  timid  objection 
made  by  a  ministerial  member  against  the 
necessity  of  doubling  pensions  to  members 
of  Parliament.  Sir  Henry  Cavendish,  though 
he  declared  his  unqualified  devotion  to  that 
administration,  yet  remarked,  that  doubling 
the  pensions  of  members  might  be  avoided, 
*'  for,"  said  he,  "  suppose  it  appears  that 
£400  a  year  are  annexed  to  the  name  of  a 
member  of  this  House,  and  that  no  particular 
cause  could  be  assigned  for  the  grant,  may 
it  not  be  conjectured,  that  it  was  made  for 
his  service  in  that  House,  and  if  so,  an  ad- 
ditional pension  is  unnecessary,  for  he  that  has 
£400  a  year  for  his  vote,  will  not  refuse  vot- 
ing though  he  were  to  be  refused  £400  a  year 
more." — (Par.  Debates,  vol.  viii.)  In  truth  it 
■would  be  irksome  and  unprofitable  to  record 
these  many  unavailing  efforts  of  ihe  patriots 
to  restrain  the  progress  of  public  corruption, 
but  that  the  revelations  made  on  such  occa- 
sions exhibit  the  whole  machinery  by  which 
Irish  government  was  carried  on,  or  could 
have  been  carried  on  for  a  single  week:  and 
show  that  British  rule  in  that  country  con- 
sisted simply  in  making  the  Irisli  people  pay 
large  salaries  to  certain  men  for  representing 
and  betraying  them. 

It  is  just,  however,  to  the  honest  Irishmen 
in  that  corrupt  assembly  to  signalize  and 
remember  their  useless  but  heroic  efforts 
against  the  deluge  of  corruption. 

The  most  violent  attack  upon  the  minis- 


ter, during  this  session  of  Parliament,  was 
made  on  the  29th  of  February,  when  Mr. 
Forbes  moved  his  address  to  the  crown,  in 
order,  at  least,  to  leave  to  posterity,  on  the 
face  of  their  journals,  the  grievances  under 
which  the  people  labored  in  the  year  1788. 
He  prefaced  his  motion  by  a  very  interest- 
ing speech  founded  on  facts,  to  be  collected 
from  the  journals  of  the  House,  or  from  au- 
thentic documents  then  lying  on  the  table. 
He  travelled  over  much  of  his  former  argu- 
ments against  the  prodigality  of  the  late 
administration,  which  had  increased  the 
pension  list  by  £26,000.  He  took  that  op- 
portunity of  giving  notice,  that  he  meant 
next  session  to  offer  a  bill  to  that  House  for 
the  purpose  of  creating  a  responsibility  in 
the  ministers  of  Ireland,  for  the  application 
of  the  revenue  of  that  kingdom.  The  only 
authority  under  which  the  vice  treasurer 
then  paid  any  money,  was  a  king's  letter, 
countersigned  by  the  commissioners  of  the 
English  treasury.  He  adverted  with  marked 
censure,  to  the  addition  of  £2000  to  the 
salary  of  the  secretary  in  the  late  adminis- 
tiation,  and  to  the  large  sums  expended 
in  the  purchase  and  embellishment  of 
his  house  in  the  Phoenix  Park,  and 
to  the  present  intent  of  granting  a  pen- 
sion of  £2000  to  that  very  secretary  for 
life  :  which  was  establishing  a  most  mis- 
chievous precedent  for  such  grants  to  every 
future  secretary.  He  was  sorry  to  hear  the 
ostensible  minister  avail  himself  of  the  same 
argument  which  his  predecessors  had  suc- 
cessfully used  for  the  last  ten  years  in  resist- 
ing every  attack  upon  the  pension  list.  He 
then  enlarged  upon  the  pernicious  conse- 
quences of  placing  implicit  confidence  in  the 
administration  ;  and  supported  his  thesis  by 
the  following  historical  illustrations. 

From  the  year  1773  to  1776,  confidence 
in  the  administration  of  that  day  had  cost 
this  nation  £100,000  in  new  taxes,  and 
£440,000  raised  by  life  annuities.  In  1778, 
confidence  in  the  administration  cost  £300,- 
000  in  life  annuities ;  a  sum  granted  for  the 
purpose  of  defence,  and  which  produced  on 
an  alarm  of  invasion,  one  troop  of  horse,  and 
half  a  company  of  invalids.  In  1779  the 
then  secretary,  for  the  purpose  of  opposing 
a  measure  for  relief  against  the  abusss  of 
the  pension  list,  read  in  this  House  an  eX' 


TROUBLES   IN   ARMAGH    COUNTY. 


181 


tract  of  a  letter  from  the  Secretary  of  State 
in  England,  expressive  of  the  determination 
of  the  then  English  ministry,  not  to  increase 
the  pension  list ;  confidence  was  placed  in 
the  administration  of  the  day,  and  it  cost  the 
country  £  1 3,000  in  new  pensions,  granted 
by  the  same  secretary.  In  April,  1782,  on 
the  arrival  of  the  principal  of  the  new  ad- 
ministration, confidence,  in  the  fiist  instance, 
was  neither  asked  nor  granted ;  certain 
measures  were  proposed  by  the  Commons 
and  the  people,  they  were  granted,  and  the 
Country  was  emancipated.  In  1785,  confi- 
dence in  the  administration  of  that  day,  cost 
Ireland  £140,000  new  taxes  to  equalize  the 
income  and  expenditure ;  but  the  grant  pro- 
duced £180,000  excess  of  expenses.  Tiie 
same  confidence  cost  £20,000  per  annum  fur 
a  police  establishment,  which  it  had  been 
proved  at  their  bar  contributed  to  the  viola- 
tion, instead  of  the  preservation  of  the  peace 
of  the  metropolis. 

The  same  confidence,  be  said,  cost  this 
nation  last  year  £100,000,  charged  for 
buildings  and  gardens  in  the  Phoenix  Park : 
in  fine  they  might  place  nearly  two-thirds 
of  the  national  debt  to  the  account  of  con- 
fidence in  the  administration  of  the  day. 
He  then  moved  an  address  to  his  majesty 
setting  forth  the  entire  abuse  of  the  pen- 
sion system :  that  on  the  1st  of  January, 
1788,  the  list  of  pensions  had  increased  to 
£96,289  per  annum,  exclusive  of  military 
•pensions,  and  charges  uivJer  the  head  of  in- 
cidents on  the  civil  establishment,  and  ad- 
ditional salaries  to  sinecure  oncers — both  of 
which  were  substantially  pensions;  and  that 
this  made  an  amount  much  greater  than  the 
pension  list  of  England.  It  was  in  vain  ; 
tiie  bribed  majority  listened  to  Mr,  Forbes 
with  a  complacent  smile ;  and  again  his  mo- 
tion fell  without  a  division. 

After  another  attem|)t  of  Mr,  Grattan  to 
get  a  committee  on  tithes,  Parliament  was 
prorogued  unexpectedly  on  the  14th  of 
April,  to  the  surprise  and  irritation  of  the 
people.  The  natural  quickness  of  their  sen- 
sations was  accelerated  by  disappointment, 
when  they  found,  that  all  that  was  done  rel- 
ative to  tithes  was,  to  provide  for  the  clergy 
what  some  of  them  had  lost  by  retention 
of  the  tithes  in  the  two  preceding  years, 
and  to  secure  to   tliem   forever  a  tithe  of 


hemp  of  5s.  per  acre.  The  failure  in  every 
popular  attempt  of  the  Patriots,  went  but  a 
little  way  to  soothe  the  ruffled  minds  of  the 
distiessed  peasantry  in  the  pi'ovinces,  or  of 
the  middling  and  higher  orders  in  the  me- 
tropolis and  larger  towns.  Notwithstanding 
the  increase  of  peace  officers  under  the 
police  bill,  it  was  sarcastically  observed,  that 
his  excellency  had  the  peace  and  tranquillity 
of  the  country  deeply  at  heart,  for  that, 
upon  the  slightest  appearance  of  interrup- 
tion, he  was  sure  to  call  in  the  aid  of  the 
military. 

The  attention  of  tlie  public  began  at  this 
moment  to  be  turned  away  from  the  futile 
pai'liamentary  contests  to  scenes  which  were 
taking  place  in  the  northern  county  of  Ar- 
magh. The  Catholics,  once  almost  extirpated 
from  that  and  some  neighboring  counties, 
had  agam  increased  and  multiplied  there. 
This  had  been  caused  in  a  great  measure  by 
the  large  emigration  of  Protestants  to 
America,  leaving*  extensive  regions  nearly 
dispeopled.  Many  Catholics  with  their 
families,  who  had  been  starving  on  the  bare 
mountains  of  Connaught  and  Donegal  began 
to  venture  back  to  the  pleasant  valleys  where 
their  fathers  had  dwelt,  and  off"ered  to  be- 
come tenants  to  deserted  farms.  Landlords 
accepted  these  tenants,  for  want  of  PrDtest- 
ants,  and  they  were  followed  by  others. 
Protestant  farmers  were  thus  exposed  to 
competition,  to  the  manifest  injury  of  the 
Protestant  interest;  and  much  ill-feeling, 
and  some  violent  collisions  had  been  the 
consequence.  At  length,  in  1784,  the  Prot- 
estants formed  themselves  in  Armagh  Coun- 
ty, into  a  secret  association  calling  itself 
Peep-of-Day  Boys,  in  allusion  to  their  cus- 
tom of  repairing  at  that  hour  to  the  houses 
of  the  Catholics,  dragging  them  out  of  bed 
and  otherwise  maltreating  them.  Even  the 
furious  Protestant  partisan,  Sir  Richard 
Musgrave,  gives  this  account  of  the  banditti 
in  question  : — "  They  visited  the  houses  of 
their  antagonists  at  a  very  early  hour  in  the 
morning  to  search  for  arms;  and  it  is 
most  certain  that  in  doing  so  they  often 
committed  the  most  wanton  outrages — in- 
sulting their  persons  and  breaking  their  fur- 
niture," etc.  Of  course  human  nature  could 
not  endure  this  treatment,  and  the  Cath- 
olics of  Armaijh  formed   a  counter-associa- 


182 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


tion,  which  they  called  by  a  name  quite  as 
descriptive  as  the  other,  "  The  Defenders." 
Many  encounters  soon  took  place,  and  some- 
times in  considerable  numbers :  but  as  the 
Catholics  were  then  greatly  a  minority  of 
the  population  of  the  county,  were  very 
poor,  and  could  scarcely  procure  any  arms — 
which,  besides,  it  was  against  the  law  for 
them  to  possess — it  is  not  wonderful  if  the 
advantage  rested  generally,  though  not  al- 
ways, with  the  Protestant  aggressors. 

Either  for  the  purpose  or  under  the  pre- 
tence of  checking  the  spirit  of  turbulence 
and  outrage,  in  the  year  recourse  again 
was  had  to  the  raising  of  some  Volunteer 
corps,  by  way  of  strengthening,  as  it  was 
said,  the  arm  of  the  civil  magistrate.  It 
was  not  in  the  nature  of  things,  tliat  these 
Volunteer  corps,  into  which  they  refused  to 
admit  any  Catholic,  should  not  be  more  ob- 
noxious to  the  Defenders,  than  to  the  Peep- 
of-Day  Boys :  for  although  they  should  not 
have  shown  favor  or  atiection  to  any  de- 
scription of  men  disturbing  the  public  tran- 
quillity, yet  it  was  the  first  part  of  their  duty 
to  disarm  the  Defenders  (being  Papists), 
and  in  their  arms  had  they  for  some  time 
found  their  only  safety  and  defence  against 
their  antagonists.  Some  occasional  conflicts 
happened  both  between  the  Defenders  and 
Peep-of-Day  Boys,  and  between  the  De- 
fenders and  the  Volunteers,  As  a  corps  of 
Volunteers  in  going  to  church  at  Armagh 
passed  by  a  Catholic  chapel,  a  quarrel  arose 
with  some  of  the  congregation,  and  stones 
were  thrown  at  the  Volunteers.  After  ser- 
vice, instead  of  avoiding  the  repetition  of  in- 
sult by  taking  another  route,  the  Volun- 
teers procured  arms,  returned  to  the  spot, 
and  a  conflict  ensued,  in  which  they  killed 
some  of  the  Catholic  congregation.  In 
consequence  of  these  rencounters,  and  the 
Defenders  procuring  and  retaining  what  fire- 
arms they  could,  the  Earl  of  Charlemont, 
governor  of  the  county,  and  the  grand  jury, 
published  a  manifesto  against  all  Papists 
who  should  assemble  in  arms,  and  also 
against  any  person  who  should  attempt  to 
disarm  them  without  legal  authoiity.  In 
addition  to  these  efforts,  some  of  the  Peep- 
of-Day  Boys  sought  also  to  disarm  their  an- 
tagonists by  means  of  the  law  :  they  accord- 
ingly indicted  son)e  of  the  Defenders  at  the 


summer,  assizes  of  1788;  but  Baron  Hamil- 
ton quashed  the  indictments,  and  dismissed 
both  parties  with  an  impressive  exhortation 
to  live  in  peace  and  brotherly  love,  Ttie 
Defenders  about  this  time  were  charged 
with  openly  sending  challenges  both  to  the 
Peep-of-Day  Boys  and  the  Volunteers  to 
meet  them  in  the  field  ;  the  fact  was,  th;it 
the  Defeudeis  certainly  did  look  upon  them 
both  as  one  common  enemy  combined  to 
defeat  and  oppress  them  :  whilst,  therefore, 
this  open  hostility  between  the  two  parties 
subsisted  and  rankled  under  the  daily  fester- 
ing sore  of  religious  acrimony,  the  Defend- 
ers, who  knew  themselves  armed  against 
law,  though  in  self-defence  against  the  Peep- 
of-Day  Boys,  became  the  more  anxious  to 
bring  their  antagonists  to  an  open  trial  of 
strength,  rather  than  remain  victims  to  the 
repeated  outrages  of  their  domiciliary  visits, 
or  other  attempts  to  disarm  them.  Thus  a 
private  squabble  between  peasants  gradually 
swelled  into  a  village  brawl,  and  ended  in 
the  religious  war  of  a  whole  district. 

These  Protestant  Peep-of-Day  Boys  were 
(tailed  also  "  Protestant  Boys,"  and  in  some 
districts  "Wreckers."  The  association  of 
these  plundering  banditti  afterwards  de- 
veloped it'self  into  the  too-famous  organiza- 
tion of  "Orangemen,"  which  in  our  own 
day  has  counted  among  its  accomplices  an 
uncle  of  Queen  Victoria,  has  made  riots  in 
Canada,  and  has  wrecked  Catholic  (-hurches 
and  burned  convents  in  the  United  Stat'iS- 

King  George  the  Third,  who  never  had 
much  mind,  this  year  lost  the  little  he  had, 
and  was  pronounced  insane  by  the  court 
physicians.  Then  at  once  arose  the  question 
of  the  regency.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was 
then  twenty -six  years  of  age ;  and  was  as- 
sociated politically  and  socially  with  Whigs; 
an  association  by  no  means  creditable  to 
them.  But  though  not  creditable,  it  might 
be  useful  to  his  friends,  if  he  were  now  to 
be  recognized  regent,  with  full  pow«Ms  of 
royalty.  On  the  other  band  Mr.  Pitt  and 
the  Tories  saw  constitutional  objections. 
Mr.  Fox  opposed  the  motion  of  Mr.  Pitt  for 
an  examination  of  constitutional  precedents, 
inasmuch  as  the  minister  knew  there  were 
no  precedents  applicable  to  the  case ;  and 
contended  that  tke  heir  apparent,  being  of 
full  age,  could  and  ought  to  exercise  all  the 


INSANITY   OF   THE   KING — THE   REGENCY 


183 


fiiii<;tions  of  royalty  by  liis  own  inherent 
right :  Mr.  Pitt  replied  that  during  the 
sovereign's  natural  life,  the  heir  apparent 
was  no  more  entitled  to  the  regency  than 
any  other  subject  in  the  kingdom  ;  and  that 
it  was  "  little  less  than  treason  "  to  affirm 
the  contrary.  Mr.  Burke  supported  the 
Whig  view  of  the  subject;  that  is,  main- 
tained the  right  of  the  prince  to  regency 
with  full  powers.  The  administration,  how- 
ever, was  quite  sure  of  a  majority  in  both 
Houses;  and  this  availed  more  than  all  the 
constitutional  arguments  in  the  world. 

The  whole  question  could  have  but  little 
interest  for  the  Irish  nation ;  because  who- 
ever  should  be  king  or  regent  in  England, 
the  course  of  British  government  in  this 
country  would  have  continued  precisely  the 
same,  so  far  as  any  real  interest  of  the  peo- 
ple was  concerned :  but  there  were  un- 
happily Whigs  and  Tories  in  Ireland  also ; 
and  on  this  occasion,  as  ever  since,  the  Irish 
parties  attached  themselves  to  their  respect- 
ive party  connections  in  England.  It  was 
known  also  that  the  powerful  interests  of  the 
houses  of  Leinster,  Shannon,  and  Tyrone, 
the  Fitzgeralds,  Boyles,  and  Beresfords  were 
Wliigs;  being,  not  unnaturally,  attached  to 
the  party  which  had  supported  in  England 
the  claim  of  Ireland  to  legislative  indepen- 
dence. Some  statesmen,  therefore,  very 
soon  saw  the  probability  of  a  collision  be- 
tween the  two  Pailiaments  upon  the  regen- 
cy. Indiscreet  anticipations  of  such  a  dif- 
ference had  already  been  expressed  in  de- 
bate. Lord  Loughborough,  for  example, 
who  took  the  lead  of  opposition  in  the 
Peers,  amongst  other  arguments  in  support 
of  the  prince's  inherent  right,  stronglv 
urgod  the  inconveniency  and  mischief,  which 
might  arise  from  the  contrary  doctrine, 
when  it  should  come  to  be  acted  upon  by 
tiie  independent  kingdom  of  Ireland.  Was 
it  remembered,  said  his  lordship,  that  a 
neighboring  kingdom  stood  connected  with 
ns,  and  acknowledged  allegiance  to  the 
British  crown.  If  once  the  rule  of  regular 
succession  were  departed  from  by  the  two 
Hou.'^es,  how  were  they  sure,  that  the  neigh- 
boring kingdom  would  acknowledge  the  re- 
gent, whom  the  two  Houses  would  take 
upon  themselves  to  elect.  The  probabilitv 
was,  that   the   neighboring   kingdom  would 


depart,  in  consequence  of  our  departure, 
from  the  rule  of  hereditary  succession,  and 
choose  a  regent  of  their  own,  which  must 
lead  to  endless  confusion  and  embarrass- 
ment. 

But  in  answer  to  this  part  of  Lord  Lough- 
borough's speech,  Loid  Ciiancellor  Thurlow 
lamented,  that  any  remarks  should  have 
fallen  from  the  noble  and  learned  lord  re- 
specting Ireland,  because  he  considered 
them  as  not  unlikely,  Spargere  voces  in 
vulgum  ainh'iguaa  !  Such  vague  and  loose 
suggestions  could  answer  no  useful  purpose, 
but  might  produce  very  mischievous  conse- 
quences. He  declared,  that  he  had  every 
reliance  on  the  known  loyalty,  good  sense, 
and  affection  of  that  country,  and  felt  no 
anxiety  on  the  danger  of  Ireland's  acting 
improperly. 

In  fact,  after  long  and  violent  debates  in 
the  English  Lords  and  Commons,  Mr.  Pitt's 
measure  of  a  limited  regency  was  carried  in 
England.  The  limitations  were  indeed  very 
great:  as  the  regent's  power  was  not  to  ex- 
tend to  "  the  granting  of  any  office  in  rever- 
sion, or  to  granting  for  any  other  term  than 
during  his  majesty's  pleasure,  any  pension  or 
any  office  whatever,  except  such  as  must  by 
law  be  granted  for  life,  or  during  good  be- 
havior;  nor  to  the  granting  of  any  rank  or 
dignity  of  the  peerage."  While  the  debates 
in  England  were  pending,  peremptory  in- 
structions were  received  by  the  viceroy, 
Lord  Buckingham,  to  procure  (with  "  unlim- 
ited discretion"  as  to  the  means)*  from  the 
Irish  Parliament  a  formal  recognition,  that 
whomsoever  Great  Britain  should  appoint 
as  regent,  should,  ipso  facto,  be  received  in 
Ireland  with  all  the  restrictions  and  limita- 
tions imposed  upon  the  regent  in  Great 
Britain  ;  with  peremptory  orders  to  convene 
the  Parliament  the  instant  his  excellency 
could  answer  for  a  majority  for  carrying 
such  recognition.  Unusual  exertions  to  gain 
over  the  members  to  that  point  were  used 
by  all  the  means,  which  the  Castle  influence, 
aided  at  that  time  by  the  British  treasurj', 
could  command.  Threats  also  were  circu- 
lated, and  generally  credited  (not  rashly,  as 

♦  This  istateinent  concerning  "  unlimited  discre- 
tion" is  m;ide  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Piowden,  » 
very  careful  and  conscientious  inquirer.  Besides,  if 
tlie  fact  had  never  been  atKrnied,  it  would  be  in  it- 
self too  probable  to  admit  of  much  doubt. 


184 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


experience  afterwards  proved)  tliat  whoever 
possessing  place  or  pension,  should  vote 
against  the  minister,  would  forfeit,  or  he 
deprived.  Yet  it  was  soon  apparent  that 
the  canvass  of  the  Castle  would  fail  of  suc- 
cess on  this  important  and  perilous  occasion. 
The  Marquis  of  Buckingham  had  grown  ex- 
tremely unpopular  amongst  the  leaders  of 
Irish  politics  ;  and  it  was  universally  believed 
that  his  government  was  going  to  be  of  veiy 
short  duration.  In  short  it  was  previously 
known,  that  Government  would  be  left  in  a 
minority  on  the  question  :  they  therefore 
deferred  the  evil  day  as  long  as  possible,  and 
convened  the  Parliament  only  on  the  5th 
of  February,  after  the  whole  plan  had  been 
settled,  and  submitted  to  by  the  prince  in 
England.  On  an  emergency  so  pressing,  the 
lord-lieutenant,  who  at  no  time  had  been 
popular,  now  found  himself  importuned  and 
hai'assed  beyond  bearing:  the  death  of  Sir 
William  Montgomery  and  Lord  Clifden,  who 
held  lucrative  places  under  Government, 
brought  upon  him  a  greedy  swarm  of  appli- 
cants who  imposed  their  extortionate  de- 
mands with  an  arrogance  in  proportion  to 
the  value  now  known  to  be  set  upon  a  single 
vote  at  the  Castle.  The  truth  seems  to  be 
that  this  lord-lieutenant,  with  all  his  "  un- 
limited  discretion"  had  not  places  and  pen- 
sions and  money  sufBcient  to  insure  the 
needful  majorities.  If  the  Castle  majority 
deserted  the  viceroy,  then,  it  was  not  on 
account  of  any  fault  on  his  part,  but  rather 
on  account  of  his  one  virtue — which  they 
could  never  forgive — economy  of  the  public 
money.  In  a  debate  which  arose  in  the 
llouse,  while  this  regency  question  was  still 
awaiting  decision,  and  in  which  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Marquis  of  Buckinoham  was 
made  the  subject  of  severe  comment,  Mi'. 
Cony  admitted  a  large  increase  of  salary  in 
his  appointment  (surveyor  of  the  ordnance), 
but  could  at  the  same  time  show  some  savings 
to  the  public  in  his  department,  which  would 
fully  justify  whatever  alteration  had  been 
made  :  the  intention  of  the  alteration  was  to 
place  the  management  in  the  hands  of  men, 
who  might  be  supposed  above  the  little  arts 
of  plunder  and  peculation,  which  had  before 
disgiaced  the  department  m.U(;h  to  the  pub- 
lic loss.  He  had  ever  opposed  the  extension 
of  pensions,  and  opposition  to  that  practice 


was  one  of  the  conditions  on  wliic^h  he  had 
accepted  of  office  :  but  he  could  not  see  that 
the  Marquis  of  Buckingham  deserved  cen- 
sure because  a  bill  to  limit  pensions  had 
been  opposed  in  his  administration.  The 
majority  of  the  House  stood  pledged  to  op- 
pose the  bill  :  but  the  marquis  had  not 
added  a  pension  to  the  list.  This  was  not 
indeed  altogether  correct;  as  he  had  agreed 
to  a  pension  of  £2000  in  favor  of  Mr.  Orde, 
of  the  "  Commercial  Propositions."  Mr. 
Grattan,  in  the  same  debate,  said,  "  The  ex- 
penses of  the  Marquis  of  Buckingham  were 
accompanied  with  the  most  extraordinary 
professions  of  economy,  and  ceusui'es  on  the 
conduct  of  the  administration  that  imme- 
diately preceded  him  ;  he  had  exclaimed 
against  the  pensions  of  the  Duke  of  Rutland, 
a  man  accessible  undoubtedly  to  applications, 
but  the  most  disinterested  man  on  earth,  and 
one  whose  noble  nature  demanded  some,  but 
received  no  indulgence  from  the  rigid  prin- 
ciples or  professions  of  the  Marquis  of  Buck- 
ingham. He  exclaimed  against  his  pensions, 
and  he  confirmed  them  :  he  resisted  motions 
made  to  disallow  some  of  them ;  and  he 
finally  agreed  to  a  pension  for  Mi'.  Orde,  the 
secretary  of  the  Duke  of  Portland's  admin- 
istration, whose  extravagance  was  at  once  the 
object  of  his  invective  and  his  bounty :  he 
resisted  his  pension,  if  report  says  true  ;  and 
having  shown  that  it  was  against  his  con- 
science, he  submitted.  Mr.  Orde  can  never 
forgive  the  marquis  the  charges  made 
against  the  man  he  thought  proper  to  re- 
ward :  the  public  will  never  forgive  the  pen- 
sion given  to  a  man  the  marquis  thought 
proper  to  condemn."  What  was  even  worse 
than  this,  .and  what  the  Castle  statesmen  of 
that  day  could  still  less  forgive,  it  appears, 
from  the  same  speech  of  Mr.  Grattan,  that 
"while  the  Marquis  of  Buckingham  was  pro- 
fessing a  disintei'ested  regard  for  the  pros- 
perity of  Ireland,  he  disposed  of  the  best 
reversion  in  Ireland  to  his  own  family  ;  the 
only  family  in  the  world  that  could  not  with 
decency  receive  it,  as  he  was  the  only  man  in 
the  world  who  could  not  with  decency  dis- 
pose of  it  to  them." 

After  this  it  will  not  appear  wonderful 
that  the  high  and  mighty  aristocratic  houses 
of  Ireland,  with  all  their  train  and  influence, 
abandoned  the  Castle  in  this  important  crisis. 


THE   REGENCY. 


185 


Mr.  Graitaii,  of  course,  and  most  of  the 
Patriot  minority,  would  liave  voted  with  the 
Englisii  Whigs  nt  any  r.ite.  It,  is  just  to 
admit  that  many  of  the  Irish  Whigs  would 
have  done  the  same,  independently  cf  all 
considerations  of  interest  and  patronage ; 
but  when  to  these  powerful  parlies  was 
added  the  crowd  of  political  merchants  and 
vote-sellers  who  could  not  hope  to  be  paid, 
or  to  be  paid  enough,  it  is  not  strange  that 
the  "king's  business"  was  not  efficiently 
done. 

The  11th  of  February,  1*789,  was  the 
great  day  of  contest  upon  the  Regency  of 
Ireland  :  Mr.  Gi-attan  and  Mr.  Fitzgibbon 
took  the  lead  on  the  opposite  sides  :  the 
House  being  in  committee  on,  the  state  of 
the  nation,  after  some  preliminary  conversa- 
tion, in  which  the  plan  of  the  Castle  was 
candidly  avowed  by  Mr.  Fitzherbert,  Mr. 
Grattan  saiil,  that  the  right  honorable  gen- 
tleman had  stated  the  plan  of  the  Castle  to 
be  limitation  and  a  bill.  He  proposed  to 
name  for  the  regency  of  that  realm,  His 
Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of  Wales;  in 
that  they  perfectly  agreed,  and  only  followed 
the  mo>t  decided  wishes  of  the  people  of 
Ireland  ;  they 'were  clear,  and  had  been  so 
from  the  first,  that  His  Royal  Highness  the 
Prince  of  Wales  ought,  and  must  be  the 
regent ;  but  they  were  also  clear,  that  he 
should  be  invested  with  the  full  regal  power; 
plenitude  of  royal  power.  The  limitations, 
which  a  certain  member  proposed  to  impose, 
were  suggested  with  a  view  to  preserve  a 
servile  imitation  of  the  proceedings  of  anoth- 
er country,  not  in  the  choice  of  a  regent, 
which  was  a  common  concern,  but  in  the 
particular  provisions  and  limitations,  which 
were  not  a  common  concern,  but  in  the 
particular  circumstances  of  the  difierent 
countries.  The  bill,  or  instrument  which  he 
called  a  bill,  was  suggested  on  an  opinion, 
that  an  Irish  act  of  Parliauient  might  pass 
■without  a  king  in  a  situation  to  give  the 
royal  assent,  and  without  a  regent  appoint- 
ed by  the  Irish  Houses  of  Parliament  to 
supply  his  place.  The  idea  of  limitation, 
he  conceived  to  be  an  attack  on  the  neces- 
sary power  of  Government ;  the  idea  of  his 
bill  was  an  attack  on  the  King  of  Ireland. 
They  had  heard  the   Castle  dissenting  from 

their  suofrt-stion.     It  remained  for  them  to 
24 


take  the  business  out  of  their  hands,  and 
confide  the  custody  of  the  great  and  impor- 
tant matter  to  men  more  constitutional  and 
respectable.  The  Lords  and  Conmions  of 
Ireland,  and  not  the  Castle,  should  take  the 
leading  part  in  this  great  duty.  The  coun- 
try gentlemen,  who  procured  tlie  constitu- 
tion, should  nominate  the  regetit.  He 
should  submit  to  them  the  proceedings  they 
intended  in  the  discharge  of  that  great  and 
necessary  duty.  Mr.  Grattan  contended  that 
the  proper  course  was  not  a  bill,  but  an  ad- 
dress, citing  the  authority  of  the  address  to 
the  Prince  of  Orange  on  the  abdication  of 
King  James. 

Mr.  Conolly  then  rose  and  said,  that  on 
that  melancholy  occasion,  which  every  gen- 
tleman in  and  out  of  office  lamented,  and 
none  more  sincerely  than  he  did,  it  had 
fallen  to  the  lot  of  the  two  Houses  to  put 
into  the  kingly  office  a  substitute  for  their 
beloved  sovereign  ;  and  there  seemed  to  be 
but  one  mind,  which  was  to  make  that  sub- 
stitute the  illustrious  person  wlio  had,  of  all 
others,  the  greatest  interest  in  preserving  the 
prerogative  of  the  crown,  and  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  realm. 

He  er^tirely  coincided  in  the  plan  Mr. 
Grattan  had  proposed,  because  he  was  con- 
vinced it  was  consonant  to  the  constitution, 
and  such  as  his  royal  highness,  to  whom 
he  should  then  move  an  address,  must  neces- 
sarily approve.  He  hoped  they  would  be 
unanimous  on  the  occasion.  He  therefore 
moved  the  following  resolution  : 

*■'  Resolved,  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this 
committee,  that  a  humble  address  be  pre- 
sented to  his  royal  highness  to  take  upon 
himself  the  government  of  this  realm,  during 
the  continuation  of  his  majesty's  present  in- 
disposition, and  no  longer,  and  under  the 
style  and  title  of  Prince  Regent  of  Ireland, 
in  the  name  of  his  majesty  to  exercise  and 
administer,  according  to  the  laws  and  con- 
stitution of  this  kingdom,  all  regal  powers, 
jurisdiction,  and  prerogatives  to  the  ci'own 
and  government  thereof  belonging." 

The  motion  was  seconded  by  Mr.  George 
Ponsonby. 

Several  of  the  former  friends  of  tlie  Castle 
supported  the  address,  when  Mr.  Fitzgibboa 
(who  was  still  attorney-general,  afterwards 
Earl  of  Clare)  rose  to  oppose  it.     He  made 


186 


HISTORY    OP   IRELAND. 


this  question,  as  he  made  eveiy  question,  an 
occasion  to  inculcate  the  idea  of  a  legishi- 
tive  union,  which  was  even  then  his  great 
political  aim,  and  continued  to  be  so  until  he 
attained  it. 

He  maintained,  that  the  crown  of  Ireland 
and  the  crown  of  England  were  inseparably 
and  indissolubly  united ;  and  that  the  Irish 
Parliament  was  perfectly  and  totally  inde- 
pendent of  the  British  Parliament. 

The  first  position  was  their  security ;  the 
second  was  their  freedom  ;  and  when  gen- 
tlemen talked  any  other  language  than  that, 
they  either  tended  to  the  separation  of  the 
crowns,  or  to  the  subjugation  of  their  Parlia- 
ment; they  invaded  either  their  security  or 
their  liberty  ;  in  fact,  the  only  security  of 
their  liberty  was  their  connection  with  Great 
Britain,  and  gentlemen  who  risked  breaking 
the  connection,  must  make  up  their  minds 
to  a  union.  God  forbid  he  should  ever  see 
that  day ;  but  if  ever  the  day  on  which  a 
Separation  should  be  attempted,  should  come, 
he  should  not  hesitate  to  embrace  a  union 
rather  than  a  separation. 

Under  the  Duke  of  Portland's  government 
the  grievances  of  Ireland  were  stated  to  be : 

The  alarming  usurpation  of  the  British 
Parliament; 

A  perpetual  mutiny  bill ; 

And  the  powers  assumed  by  the  privy 
council. 

These  grievances  were  redressed,  and  in 
redressing  them  they  passed  a  law  repealing 
part  of  Poynings'.  By  their  new  law  they 
enacted,  that  all  bills,  which  should  pass  the 
two  Houses  in  Ireland,  should  be  certified 
into  England,  and  returned  under  the  great 
sea!  of  England,  without  any  addition,  dimi- 
nution, or  alteration  whatsoever,  should  pass 
into  law,  and  no  other.  By  this  they  made 
the  gTe;it  seal  of  England  essentially  and  in- 
dispensably necessary  on  the  passing  of  laws 
in  Ireland :  they  could  pacs  no  act  without 
first  certifying  it  into  England,  and  having 
it  returned  under  the  great  seal  in  that 
kingdom,  insomuch  that  were  the  King  of 
England  and  Ireland  to  come  in  person,  and 
to  reside  in  Ireland,  he  could  not  pass  a  bill 
without  its  being  first  certified  to  his  regent 
in  England,  who  must  return  it  under  the 
seal  of  that  kingdom  before  his  majesty 
could  even  in  person  assent  to  it.     That  if 


the  House  should  by  force  of  an  address^ 
upon  the  'instant,  and  without  any  commu- 
nication with  England,  invest  a  regent  with 
powers  undefined,  when  the  moment  of  re- 
flection came,  it  would  startle  the  boldest 
adventurers  in  England ;  and  then  he 
reminded  gentlemen  of  the  language  thev 
held  with  England  in  the  day  they  asserted 
their  freedom:  "Perpetual  connection  ;  com- 
mon fortune  ;  we  will  rise  or  fall  with  Eng- 
land ;  we  will  share  her  liberty,  and  we  will 
share  her  ftite."  Did  gentlemen  recollect 
the  arguments  used  in  England  to  justify  the 
fourth  proposition  of  the  commercial  treaty  ? 
Ireland,  said  they,  having  a  Parliament  of 
her  own,  may  think  fit  to  carry  on  a  com- 
merce, and  regulate  her  trade  by  laws  differ- 
ent from,  perhaps  contradictory  to,  the  laws 
of  Great  Britain.  How  well  founded  that 
observation  was,  they  would  prove,  if  they 
seized  the  first  opportunity  that  offered  of 
difleriug  from  Great  Britain  on  a  great  im- 
perial question  ;  certainly  if  it  be  the  scheme 
to  differ  on  all  imperial  questions,  and  if  that 
bp  abetted  by  men  of  great  authority,  they 
meant  to  drive  them  to  a  ttnion,  and  the 
method  they  took  was  certainly  more  effect- 
ual to  sweep  away  opposition,  than  if  all  the 
sluices  of  corruption  were  opened  together, 
and  deluged  the  country's  representatives : 
for  it  was  certain  nothing  less  than  the  alter- 
native of  separation  could  ever  force  a  union. 
Suppose  the  prince  did  not  accept  the 
regency  in  England  ;  suppose  their  address 
should  reach  him  before  he  was  actually 
invested  with  royal  powers  in  England,  in 
what  situation  would  you  put  him  ?  They 
would  call  on  him,  in  defiance  of  two  acts 
of  Parliament,  which  made  the  crowns  in- 
separable, to  dethrone  the  king  his  father. 
They  would  call  upon  him  to  do  an  act  now, 
at  which  hereafter  his  nature  would  revolt. 
They  were  false  friends  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  who  should  advise  him  to  receive  an 
address,  that  might  give  him  cause  to  curse 
the  hand  which  presented  it.  He  knew 
that  liberties  indecent  in  the  extreme  had 
been  taken  with  the  name  of  that  august 
personage.  He  knew  it  had  been  whispered, 
that  every  man  who  should  vote  against  the 
address,  would  be  considered  as  voting 
afrainst  him  and  treating^  him  with  disre- 
spect;  but  if  any   man    had  bad  the    guilt 


FITZGIBBON  S    SPEECH    ON    THE    KEGENCY. 


187 


and  folly  to  poison  his  mind  with  such  an 
insinuation,  lie  trusted  to  his  good  sense  to 
distinguish  liis  friends ;  he  would  trust  to 
his  good  sense  to  determine,  whether  they 
were  his  friends  who  wished  to  guard  the 
imperial  rights  of  the  British  crown,  or  they 
who  would  stake  them  upon  the  momentary 
and  impotent  triumph  of  an  English  party. 
What  matter  to  tlie  prince,  whether  he  re- 
ceived royal  authority  by  bill  or  by  address? 
Was  tliere  a  man  who  would  presume  to 
libel  him,  and  to  assert,  that  the  success  of 
that  measure  would  be  a  triumph  to  him  ? 

Tliere  was  a  feature  in  the  proceeding 
which,  independent  of  every  other  objection 
to  it,  did  in  liis  mind  make  it  highly  repre- 
hensible, and  that  was,  that  he  considered  it 
as  a  formal  appeal  from  the  Parliament  of 
England  to  that  of  Ireland.  Respecting  the 
parties  who  made  that  appeal  he  should  say 
nothing  :  but  ahhough  there  might  be  much 
dignity  on  their  part  in  receiving  the  appeal, 
he  could  not  see  any  strong  symptoms  of 
wisdom  in  it ;  because  by  so  doing  he  should 
conceive  we  must  inevitably  sow  the  seeds 
of  jealousy  and  disunion  between  the  Parlia- 
ments of  the  two  countries ;  and  though  he 
did  not  by  any.means  desire  of  the  Parlia- 
ment of  that  country  implicitly  to  follow  the 
Parliament  of  England,  he  should  suppose 
it  rather  a  wise  maxim  for  Ireland  always  to 
concur  with  the  Parliament  of  Gieat  Britain, 
imless  for  very  strong  reasons  indeed  they 
were  obliged  to  differ  from  it.  If  it  were  to 
be  a  point  of  Irish  dignity  to  differ  with  the 
Parliament  of  England  to  show  their  inde- 
pendence, he  very  much  feared  that  sober 
men  in  that  country,  who  had  estates  to  lose, 
would  soon  become  sick  of  independence. 
Tlie  fact  was,  that  constituted  as  it  was,  the 
Government  of  that  country,  never  could  go 
on,  unless  they  followed  Great  Britain  im- 
plicitly in  all  regulations  of  imperial  policy. 
The  independence  of  their  Parliament  was 
their  freedom  ;  their  dependence  on  the 
crown  of  England  was  their  security  for 
that  freedom  ;  and  gentlemen,  who  professed 
themselves,  that  night,  advocates  for  the  in- 
dependence of  the  Irish  ciown,  were  advo- 
cates for  its  separation  from  England, 

They  should  agree  with  England  in  three 
points  : — one  king,  one  law,  one  religion. 
They  should  keep  these  great  objects  stead- 


ily in  view,  and  act  like  wise  men  :  if  iliev 
made  the  Prince  of  Wahis  their  regent,  and 
granted  him  the  plenitude  of  power,  in  God's 
name  let  it  be  done  by  bill ;  otherwise  he  saw 
such  danger,  that  he  deprecated  the  measure 
proposed.  He  called  upon  the  country  gen- 
tlemen of  Ireland  ;  that  that  was  not  a  time 
to  think  of  every  twopenny  grievance,  every 
paltry  disappointment  sustained  at  the  Castle 
of  Dublin  ;  if  any  man  had  been  aggrieved 
by  the  viceroy,  and  chose  to  compose  a 
philippic  on  the  occasion,  let  liim  give  it  on 
the  debate  of  a  turnpike  bill,  where  it  would 
not  be  so  disgraceful  to  the  man  who  uttered 
it,  and  to  those  who  would  not  listen  to  him, 
as  it  would  be  on  the  present  occasion. 

On  the  l7th  the  address  was  agreed  upon 
by  both  Houses.  Its  principal  clause  was 
in  these  words  : — 

"  We  therefore  beg  leave  humbly  to  re- 
quest, that  your  royal  highness  will  be 
pleased  to  take  upon  you  the  government  of 
this  realm  during  the  continuation  of  his 
majesty's  present  indisposition,  and  no  long- 
er;  and  under  the  style  and  title  of  Prince 
Regent  of  Ireland,  i-n  the  name  and  on  be- 
half his  majesty,  to  exercise  and  administer, 
according  to  the  laws  and  constitution  of 
this  kingdom,  all  regal  powers,  jurisdiction, 
and  prerogatives  to  the  crown  and  govern- 
ment thereof  belonging." 

On  the  19th  both  Houses  waited  on  the 
lord-lieutenant,  requesting  him  to  transmit 
it  to  the  prince.  He  refused  to  do  so.  On 
the  day  following  Mr.  Grattan  moved  in  the 
House  "  that  his  excellency  the  lord-lieuten- 
ant having  thought  proper  to  decline  to  trans- 
mit to  His  Ro3'al  Highness  George  Prince  of 
Wales,  the  address  of  both  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment, a  competent  number  of  members  be 
appointed  by  this  House,  to  present  the  said 
address  to  his  royal  highness." 

This  was  carried  by  a  large  majority ;  was 
sent  up  to  the  Lords,  who  concurred,  and 
named  the  Duke  of  Leinster  and  the  Earl  of 
Charlemont  to  accompany  the  members  of 
the  other  House  who  should  be  appointed, 
to  join  them  in  presenting  the  address. 

Mr.  Grattan  then  moved,  "that  it  be  Re- 
solved, That  his  excellency  the  lord-lieuten- 
ant's answer  to  both  Houses  of  Pailiament, 
requesting  him  to  transmit  their  address  to 
His  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of  Wales,  is 


188 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


ill  advised,  contains  an  unwarrantable  and 
unconstitutiunal  censure  on  the  proceedings 
of  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  attempts 
to  question  the  undoubted  rights  and  priv- 
ileges of  the  Lords  spiritual  and  temporal 
and  Commons  of  Ireland." 

Ou  the  25th  of  February  the  committee 
'of  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament,  having 
arrived  in  London,  proceeded  to  Carlton 
Hsuse  and  presented  the  address.  They  were 
most  graciously  received  :  but  two  days 
before,  the  king  had  riecovered  from  his 
malady.  It  was  thus  unnecessary  for  the 
prince  cither  to  accept  or  reject  the  offer 
made  to  hira  by  the  Irish  Parliament.  He 
congratulated  them  on  the  happy  change 
in  his  majesty's  health,  and  assured  them 
of  the  "  gratitude  and  affection  to  the  loyal 
and  generous  people  of  Ireland  which  he 
felt  indelibly  imprinted  on  his  heart."  This 
dangerous  dispute  was  thus  ended  for  that 
time.  Its  dangers  were  twofold.  First,  the 
prince  might  have  refused  the  regency 
with  limited  powers — in  that  case  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament  would  certainly  have  made 
the  queen  regent :  and  the  prince  might 
have  accepted  the  Irish  regency  with  un- 
limited powers  :  there  would  then  have  been 
two  regents,  and  two  separate  kingdoms. 
Secondly,  the  prince  might  have  accepted 
the  regency  precisely  on  the  terms  offered 
him  in  each  country  :  he  would  then  have 
been  a  regent  with  limited  powers  in  Eng- 
land, and  with  full  royal  prerogative  in  Ire- 
land ;  UTiable  to  create  a  peer  in  England, 
but  with  power  to  swamp  the  House  with 
new  peerages  in  Ireland  ;  unable  to  reward 
his  friends  with  certain  grants,  pensions,  and 
ofRces  in  England,  but  able  to  quarter  them 
all  upon  the  revenue  of  Ireland.  The  peril 
of  such  a  condition  of  things  was  fully  ap- 
preciated both  by  Mr.  Pitt,  and  by  his  able 
coadjutor  in  Ireland,  Mr.  Fitzgibbon.  They 
drew  from  it  an  argument  for  the  total  an- 
nihilation of  Ireland  by  a  legislative  union. 
Others  who  watched  events  with  equal 
attention,  found  in  it  a  still  sounder  argu- 
ment for  total  separation. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

1789. 
Unpopularity  of  Buckingham — Formation  of  an  Irish 
clmracter — Efforts  of  Patriots  in  Parliament — All 
in  vain — Purchasing  votes — Corruption — Wiiig 
Club — Lord  Clare  on  Wliig  Club — Buckingliaui 
leaves  Ireland — Pension  List — Peep-of-Day  Boys 
and  Defenders — Westmoreland, Viceroy — Unavail- 
ing efforts  against  corruption — Material  prosperity 
— King  William's  Birthday — French  Uevolution. 

Ireland  may  possibly  have  had  worse 
viceroys  than  the  Marquis  of  Buckingham  ; 
but  scarcely  one  so  intensely  unpopular.  He 
was  parsimonious  and  extravagant — that  is, 
he  saved  pennies,  and  squandered  thousands 
of  pounds ;  yet  did  not  squander  them  on 
the  right  persons.  He  talked  ec^onomy  and 
practised  the  most  reckless  profusion,  vet  in 
an  underhand,  indirect  manner  which  made 
him  no  friends  and  many  enemies.  In 
manner  he  was  extremely  reserved,  whether 
from  pride  or  from  a  natural  coldness  of 
disposition.  In  short,  he  was  in  every  way 
unsuited  to  the  Irish  temperament  :  for 
there  had  lately  been  formed  gradually  a 
marked  Irish  character,  even  amongst  the 
Protestant  colonists  before  the  era  of  In- 
dependence, and  still  more  notably  since 
that  time.  Gentlemen  born  in  this  coun- 
try, and  all  whose  interests  and  associa- 
tions were  here,  no  longer  called  themselves 
Englishmen  born  in  Ireland,  as  Swift  had 
done.  The  same  powerful  assimilating  in- 
fluence which  had  formerly  made  the  Nor- 
man settlers,  Geraldines  and  De  Burghs 
"  more  Irish  than  the  Iiish "  after  two  or 
three  generations,  had  now  also  acted  more 
or  less  upon  the  verj'  Cromwellians  and 
Williamites ;  and  there  was  recognizable  in 
the  whole  character  and  bearing  even  of 
the  Protestants  a  certain  dash  of  that  gen- 
erosity, levity,  impetuosity,  and  recklessness 
which  have  marked  the  Celtic  race  since 
the  beginning.  They  were  capable  of  the 
most  outrageous  depravity  and  of  the  high- 
est honor  and  rectitude  ;  of  the  most  inso- 
lent, ostentatious  venality  and  corruption, 
as  well  as  of  the  noblest,  proudest  independ- 
ence. The  formation  of  this  modern  com- 
posite Irish  character  is  of  course  attribu- 
table to  the  gradual  amalgamation  of  the 
privileged  Protestant  colonists  with  the  con- 


FOKMATION    OF   AX    lEIgH    CnARACTER. 


189 


verted  Irisli,  who  had  from  time  to  time 
l5onformed  to  the  established  church,  to  save 
their  estates,  or  to  possess  themselves  of 
the  property  of  non-conforming  neighbors. 
This  was  a  large  and  increasing  element  in 
the  Protestant  colony  ever  since  the  time  of 
Elizabeth;  and  of  such  families  came  the 
Cnrrans,  Dalys,  Doyles,  Conollys,  as  well  as 
the  higher  nam^s  O'Neil,  O'Brien,  Burke, 
Roche,  Fitzpatrick.  The  ancestors  of  these 
families,  in  abandoning  their  Catholic  faith, 
could  not  let  out  all  their  Celtic  blood,  and 
that  blood  permeated  the  whole  mass  of  the 
population,  and  often  broke  out  and  showed 
its  origin,  even  in  men  partly  of  English 
descent,  or  at  least  of  English  names.  Grat- 
tan,  for  example,  in  the  character  of  his  in- 
tellect and  temperament,  was  as  purely 
Celtic  as  Curran  himself.  In  truth  it  had 
become  very  difficult  to  determine  the  eth- 
nological distinction  between  the  inhabitants 
of  this  island  ;  and  surnames  had  long  ceas- 
ed to  be  a  safe  guide  :  because  ever  since 
the  "Statutes  of  Kilkenny"  in  the  15th 
century,  thousands  of  Irish  families,  espe- 
cially of  those  residing  near  or  in  the  Eng- 
lish Pale  had  changed  their  names  in  obe- 
dience to  those  statutes,  that  they  might 
have  the  benefit  of  the  English  law  in  their 
dealings  with  the  people  of  the  Pale.  They 
had  assumed  surnames,  as  prescribed  by  the 
statute,  either  from  some  trade  or  calling, 
as  Miller,  Taylor,  Smith, — or  from  some 
place,  as  Trim,  Slane,  Galway, — or  from  some 
color,  as  Gray,  Green,  White,  Brown. 
Gradually  their  original  clan-names  were 
lost;  and  it  soon  became  thiiir  interest  to 
keep  up  no  tradition  even  of  their  Irish  de- 
scent. Of  one  of  the  families  in  this  cate- 
gory, undoubtedly  came  Oliver  Goldsmith, 
whose  intensely  Irish  nature  is  a  much  surer 
guide  to  his  origin  than  the  trade-surname 
of  Goldsmith  adopted  under  the  statute. 

It  has  been  said  that  surnames  were  no 
sure  guide  to  origin  :  but  in  one  direction 
surnames  were,  and  are,  nearly  infallible  : 
— a  Celtic  surname  is  a  sure  indication  of 
Celtic  blood,  because  nobody  ever  had  any 
interest  in  assuming  or  retaining  such  a 
patronymic,  all  the  interests  and  temptations 
being  the  other  way.  But  an  English  sur- 
name is  no  indication  at  all  of  English  de- 
scent, because    for   several    centuries — first 


under  the  Statutes  of  Kilkenny,  afterwards 
under  the  more  grievous  pressure  of  the 
Penal  Code,  all  po'^sible  worldly  induce- 
ments were  held  out  to  Irishmen  to  take 
English  names  and  forget  their  own.* 

From  so  large  a  mingling  of  the  Celtic  ele- 
ment even  in  the  exclusive  Protfstant  colony 
had  resulted  the  very  marked  Irish  charac- 
ter which  was  noticed,  though  not  with 
complacency,  by  English  writers  of  that 
period  : — and  to  this  character  the  cold,  dry, 
and  narrow  Marquis  of  Buckingham  was 
altogether  abhorrent.  During  the  agitation 
of  the  regency  question,  he  had  succeedfd 
in  creating  two  new  offi(;es  of  great  emolu- 
ment :  one  by  the  separation  of  the  excise 
and  revenue  board,  which  provided  a  place 
for  a  Beresford ;  another  by  appointing  an 
additional  commissioner  to  the  Stamp-office. 
"About  this  time  also,"  as  Mr.  Plowden  savs 
maliciously,  "  his  excellency  found  it  neces- 
sary to  restore  to  the  officers  in  barracks 
their  wonted  allowance  of  firing,  which  in 
a  former  fit  of  subaltern  economy  he  had 
stopped  from  them.  This  pitiful  stoppage 
had  been  laid  on  to  the  great  discontent  of 
the  army,  and  being  very  ungraciously  re- 
moved the  alleviation  was  received  without 
gratitude."  Mr.  Grattan,  in  a  debate  on  this 
administration,  says: — 

"  His  great  objection  to  the  Maiquis  of 
Buckingham,  was  not  merely  that  he  had 
been  a  jobber,  but  a  jobber  in  a  mask  !  his 
objection  was  not  merely,  that  his  admin- 
istration had  been  expensive,  but  that  his 
expenses  were  accompanied  with  hypociisy  : 
it  was  the  aff"ectation  of  economy,  attended 
with  a  great  deal  of  good,  comfortable,  sub- 
stantial jobbing  for  himself  and  his  friends., 
That  led  to  another  measure  of  the  Marquis 
of  Buckingham,  which  was  the  least  cere- 
monious, and  the  most  sordid  and  scandahtns 
act  of  self  interest,  attended  with  the  sac- 
rifice of  all  public  decorum ;  he  meant  the 
disposal  of  the  reversion  of  the  place  of  the 
chief  remembrancer  to  his  brother,  one  of 
*  It  wonld  be  a  curions  study  to  trace  the  history 
of  Irish  family  names.  For  the  first  three  centuries 
after  the  Norman  invasion  under  Henry  II.,  tlio 
movement  was  quite  in  an  opposite  direction  :  and 
De  Burglis  became  Mac  Williams,  De  Bermincrhnms 
Mac  Feoriiis,  the  Fitzurses,  Mac  Mahons  ;  and  Nor- 
man barons  became  chiefs  of  clans,  forgot  both 
French  and  English,  rode  without  stirrups,  and  kept 
the  upper  lip  unshaven. 


190 


niSTOr.T    OF    IRELAND. 


the  bi.'st,  if  not  the  very  best  office  in  the 
kiiio-doin,  given  in  reversion  to  an  absentee, 
with  a  gre;it  patronage  and  a  compensation 
annexed.  That  most  sordid  and  shameless 
act  was  committed  exactly  about  the  time 
when  the  kingdom  was  charged  with  great 
pensions  for  tUe  bring'ing  home,  as  it  was 
termed,  absentee  employments.  That  bring- 
ing home  absentee  employments  was  a 
monstrous  job  ;  the  kingdom  paid  the  value 
of  the  employment,  and  perhaps  more;  she 
paid  the  vahie  of  the  tax  also.  The  pension- 
er so  paid  was  tlien  suffered  to  sell  both  to 
a  resident,  who  was  free  from  the  tax  :  he 
was  then  permitted  to  substitute  new  and 
young  lives  in  the  place  of  his  own,  and 
then  permitted  to  make  a  new  account 
ag.iinst  the  country,  and  to  receive  a  further 
compensation,  which  he  was  suflfered  in  the 
same  manner  to  dispose  of." 

It  was  undoubtedly,  in  part,  owing  to  the 
excessive  unpopularity  of  this  viceroy  that 
the  short  remainder  of  his  government  was 
so  little  satisfactory  to  himself  and  his  em- 
ployers in  London;  and  that  the  Patriots 
were  able  to  gain  some  trifling  advantages; 
not  indeed  to  such  an  extent  as  to  accom- 
plish a  single  reform  or  abate  a  single  abuse, 
but  at  least  to  shake  the  regular  venal  par- 
liamentary majorities  and  alarm  the  Govern- 
ment. As  the  late  gloomy  prospect  of  a 
change  in  the  Irish  adu)inistration  had 
driven  many  gentlemen  to  the  opposition 
benches,  Mr.  Grattan  was  willing  to  avail 
himself  of  the  earliest  fruits  of  their  con- 
version ;  accordingly,  on  the  third  of  March, 
1*189,  he  offered  to  the  House  a  resolution 
which  he  thought  absolutely  necessary, 
from  a  transaction  which  had  lately  taken 
place.  He  thought  it  necessary  to  call  the 
attention  of  the  House  to  certain  principles, 
which  the  gentlemen,  with  whom  he  had 
generally  the  honor  to  coincide,  considered  as 
the  indispensable  condition,  without  which 
no  government  could  expect  their  support,  and 
which  the  present  G<jvernment  had  resisted. 

The  first  was  a  reform  of  the  police :  at 
present  the  institution  could  only  be  consid- 
ered as  a  scheme  of  patronage  to  the  Castle, 
and  corruption  to  the  city ;  a  scheme  which 
had  failed  to  answer  the  end  of  preserving 
public  peace,  but  liad  fully  succeeded  in  ex- 
tendinof  the  influence  of  the  Castle. 


Another  principle  much  desired,  was  U} 
restrain  the  abuse  of  pensions  by  a  bill  simi- 
lar to  that  of  Great  Britain.  That  principle, 
he  said.  Lord  Buckingham  had  resisted,  and 
his  resistance  to  it  was  one  great  cause  of 
his  opposing  his  Government.  To  this  he 
would  add  another  principle,  the  restraining 
revenue  officers  from  voting  at  elections  : 
this,  he  observed,  was  a  principle  of  the 
British  Parliament,  and  it  was  certainly  more 
necessary  in  Ireland,  from  what  had  lately 
taken  place,  where,  by  a  certain  union  of 
family  interests,  counties  had  become  bor- 
oughs, and  those  boroughs  had  become 
private  propei'ty. 

But  the  principle  to  which  he  begged  to 
call  the  immediate  attention  of  the  House 
was,  that  of  preventing  the  great  offices  of 
the  state  from  being  given  to  absentees : 
that  was  a  principle  admitted  by  all  to  be 
founded  in  national  right,  purchased  by 
liberal  compensation,  and  every  departure 
from  it  must  be  considered  as  a  slight  to  the 
nubility  and  gentry  of  Ireland,  who  certainly 
were  better  entitled  to  the  places  of  honor 
and  trust  in  their  own  country,  than  any 
absentee  could  possibly  be  ;  but  besides  the 
slight  shown  to  the  nobility  and  gentry  of 
Ireland,  by  bestowing  places  of  honor,  of 
profit,  and  of  trust  on  absentees,  the  draft 
of  money  from  this  country,  the  institution 
of  deputies  (a  second  establishment  unne- 
cessary, were  the  principals  to  reside),  the 
double  influence  arising  from  this  raised 
the  abuse  into  an  enormous  grievance.  Mr. 
Grattan  concluded  with  a  motion  to  con- 
demn this  last  practice, 

A  very  warm  debate  ensued,  in  which 
Mr.  Corry  and  some  other  gentlemen  ad- 
mitted the  principle  of  the  resolution,  al- 
though they  opposed  its  passing,  because  it 
was  a  censure  on  the  Marquis  of  Bucking- 
ham. To  get  rid  of  the  question,  an  ad- 
journment was  moved  and  carried  by  a  ma- 
jority of  115  against  106.  Thus  early  had 
the  old  majority  began  to  fall  into  their  for- 
mer ranks.  Still  the  superiority  of  votes 
bore  no  proportion  to  200  and  upwards,  of 
which  the  former  full  majorities  consisted. 
Mr.  Grattan,  accordingly,  on  the  following 
day  (4th  of  March)  moved  for  leave  to  bring 
in  a  bill  for  the  better  securing  the  freedom 
of  election  for  members  to  serve  in  Parlia- 


PURCHASING    VOTES — COKRUPTIOX. 


191 


ment,  J)y  disuhl'mg  certain  officers  employed 
in  the  collection  or  management  of  his  ma- 
jeslL/'s  revenue  from  gioing  their  votes  at 
such  election. 

But  noue  of  the  measures  proposed  by 
Mr.  Gnittan  could  be  curried  iu  that  House. 
In  fact  the  deserting  members  of  the  ma- 
jority were  soon  whipped  back  into  their 
ranks:  for  on  the  14th  of  March  the  lord- 
lieutenant  made  a  speech  to  both  Houses, 
officially  informing  them  of  the  full  recovery 
of  the  king.  It  was  immediately  apparent 
that  Mr.  Pitt  was  again  supreme ;  and  it 
WHS  even  iutimated  very  plainly  that  the 
members  of  either  House  who  had  concurred 
in  the  address  to  the  prince,  or  who  had 
voted  for  a  censure  on  the  conduct  of  the 
marquis,  should  be  made  to  repent  of  their 
votes. 

The  House  having  by  this  time  been 
nearly  marshalled  into  their  former  ranks, 
Mr.  Grattan  thought  it  useless  to  divide 
them  on  the  second  reading  of  the  place  bill, 
on  the  30th  of  April ;  it  was  negatived 
without  a  divisiou.  The  only  subject  par- 
ticularly interesting  to  the  history  of  Ireland, 
which  came  before  Parliament  during  the 
remainder  of.  that  session,  was  the  subject 
of  tithes :  Mr.  Grattan  having  presented  to 
the  House,  according  to  order,  a  bill  to  ap- 
point commissioneis  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
quiring into  the  state  of  tithes  in  the  diff'er- 
ent  provinces  of  that  kingdom,  and  to  re- 
port a  plan  for  ascertaining  the  same:  he 
followed  up  his  motion  with  a  very  elaborate, 
insti'uctive,  and  eloquent  speech  upou  this 
important  national  object.  The  House  ad- 
journed from  the  8th  to  the  25th  of  May, 
on  which  day  the  lord-lieutenant  prorogued 
the  Parliament,  and  made  a  speech  of  a  gen- 
eral nature,  without  a  word  of  reference  to 
any  of  the  extraordinary  circumstances  of 
the  session. 

The  administration,  alarmed  by  the  late 
symptoms  of  disaffection,  and  by  the  re- 
newed combination  of  the  powerful  aristo- 
cratic houses,  as  exhibited  in  the  proceed- 
ings on  that  regency  question,  now  set  itself 
deliberately  to  purchase  back  votes  in  de- 
tail, and  again  to  check  the  Irish  oligarchi- 
cal influence.  It  has  been  already  men- 
tioned, in  the  account  of  Lord  Townshend's 
administration,  that  he,  at    a  very  heavy  ex- 


pense to  the  nation,  broke  up  an  aristocracy 
which  before  his  time  had  monopolized  the 
whole  power  of  the  Commons  and  regularly 
bargained  for  terms  with  every  new  represent- 
ative for  managing  the  House  of  Commons. 
Mr.  Fitzgibbon  (and  no  man  knew  beLtei) 
now  a<lniitte<l,  that  this  manceuvre  cost  the 
nation  vjnvards  of  half  a  million :  that  is, 
that  he  had  paid  or  granted  so  much  to 
purchase  that  majority  in  Parliament,  by 
which  he  governed  to  the  end  of  his  admin- 
istration. 

Mr.  Grattan,  some  years  afterwards,  com- 
menting on  this  declaration  of  Fitzgibbon's 
and  the  astonishing  scene  of  corruption 
which  followed  it,  broke  out  in  this  fierce 
language  : — "  Half  a  million^  or  more^  was 
exjiended  some  years  ago  to  break  an  ojypcsi- 
tion  ;  the  same,  or  a  greater  sum  may  be  ne- 
cessary noiv :  so  said  the  principal  servant 
of  the  crown.  The  House  heard  him :  I 
heard  him  :  he  said  it  standing  on  his  legs 
to  an  astonished  and  an  indignant  nation  ; 
and  he  said  it  in  the  most  extensive  sense  of 
bribery  and  corruption.  The  threat  was 
proceeded  on  ;  the  peerage  was  sold ;  the 
caitiffs  of  corruption  were  everywhere ;  in 
the  lobby,  in  the  street,  on  the  steps,  and  at 
the  door  of  every  parliamentary  leader, 
whose  thresholds  were  worn  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  then  administration,  ofi'ering  titles 
to  some,  amnesty  to  others,  and  corruption 
to  all." 

Indeed  no  bounds  were  now  set,  either  to 
the  corruption  or  to  the  proscription.  The 
Government  kept  no  measures  with  its 
enemies,  and  had  nothing  to  refuse  to  its 
friends.  Mr.  Fitzgibbon,  the  attorney-gen- 
eral, and  real  governor  of  the  country,  was 
a  man  as  audacious,  as  resolute,  and  nearly 
as  eloquent  as  Grattan  himself.  It  is  im- 
possible to  deny  to  the  man,  on  this  and 
on  subsequent  occasions,  a  certain  tribute  of 
admiration  for  his  potent  will  and  fiery  man- 
hood, and  all  the  credit  which  may  be  sup- 
posed due  to  a  bold,  ont-spoken,  insolent 
defiance  and  disdain  of  eveiy  sentiment  of 
public  conscience.  Under  his  advice  and 
superintendence,  market-overt  was  held  for 
votes  and  influence ;  prices  of  boroughs,  and 
of  parts  of  boioughs,  of  votes,  titles,  and 
peerages  were  brought  to  a  regular  tariff. 
Not   a  peer-'ge,  not  an    lionor,  nor  a   place 


192 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


nor  pension  whs  disposed  of  but  expressly 
for  engagements  of  support  in  Parliament. 
And  every  little  office  or  emolument  that 
could  be  resumed  by  Government  was 
granted  upon  a  new  bargain  for  future  ser- 
vices. But  this  was  not  enough :  proscrip- 
tion of  enemies  was  to  go  hand  in  hand 
with  reward  of  service.  It  mattered  not, 
that  in  response  to  the  atrocious  threat  of 
pUMi.><hiug  those  who  had  opposed  the  Gov- 
ernment, the  famous  "Round  Robin"  was 
signed  by  the  leading  peers  and  most  illus- 
trious commoners  of  Ireland,  denouncing 
this  attempt  at  intimidation  and  coercion. 
It  was  signed  by  the  Duke  of  Leinster,  the 
Archbishop  of  Tuam,  and  eighteen  peers,  as 
well  as  by  Grattan,  Conolly,  Curran,  the 
Ponsonbys,  O'Neill,  Charles  Francis  Sheridan, 
Langrishe,  Ogle,  Daly,  and  many  others ; 
and  declared  that  any  such  proscription  was 
an  attack  on  the  independence'  of  Parlia- 
ment, and  was  in  itself  sufficient  ground  for 
relentless  opposition  against  any  govern- 
ment. The  bold  attorney-general  was  not 
to  be  inlimidated  by  this — the  Duke  of 
Leinster  himself,  who  held  an  office  of  high 
rank,  was  forthwith  dismissed  :  Mr.  Fitzher- 
bert,  Mr.  George  Ponsonby,  the  Earl  of 
Shannon,  and  a  dozen  other  high  officials, 
who  had  supported  the  regency  of  the 
I'riuce  of  Wales  were  unceremoniously 
treated  in  like  manner.  At  the  same  time 
the  offices  weie  given,  or  rather  sold  to 
others,  for  past  or  future  service ;  and  Fitz- 
gibbon  himself,  who  had  indeed  earned,  and 
who  was  yet  to  earn,  all  the  favors  which 
the  British  Government  can  heap  on  one 
man,  was  made  Lord  Chancellor.  Good 
working  majorities  were  now  secure,  and 
'•the  king's  business"  was  to  be  done  in 
future  without  fail  and  with  a  high  hand. 

It  seems  very  strange  now,  that  Mr.  Grat- 
tan and  his  friends  should  not  have  per- 
ceived the  utter  failure  and  futility  of  their 
great  and  famous  achievement  of  '82  for 
any  practical  purpose  in  checking  the  deadly 
domination  of  England.  It  is  stiange  that 
he  in  particular,  who  had  always  avowed 
himself  in  favor  of  full  emancipation  to  the 
Catholics,  did  not  at  last  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  only  hope  of  the  country 
lay,  not  in  Parliament,  but  in  preparation  for 
armed   resistance  by  a  united   nation.     In 


short,, the  wonder  is,  that  it  was  not  Grattan 
himself  who  invented  the  association  of 
United  Irishmen.  He,  with  his  powerful 
political  following  could  have  given  to  that 
organization  a  consistency  and  a  power  such 
as  it  never  possessed,  and  might  have  made 
of  Ninety-eight  a  greater  Eighty-two.  But 
in  fact  he  shunned  all  extra-parliamentary 
action,  and  denounced  the  United  Irish  to 
the  last.  lie  was  so  proud  of  the  achieve- 
ment of  Eighty-two  that  he  never  could  be 
brought  to  see  its  imperfection.  Besides, 
there  grows  up  in  members  of  Parliament, 
after  some  years'  habit  of  working  in  that 
body,  a  kind  of  superstitious  reverence  for 
it;  an  unwillingness  to  acknowledge  any 
political  vitality  out-of-doors,  and  a  morbid 
idea  that  the  eyes  of  the  universe  are  upon 
that  House,  or  at  least  ought  to  be.  Here 
he  stood,  after  eight  years  of  "  indepen- 
dence," confronting  an  independent  Parlia- 
ment, of  whom  one  hundred  and  four  were 
bribed  as  placemen  or  pensioners,  and  about 
a  hundred  and  twenty  more  owned  by  pro- 
prietors of  boroughs,  vainly  fulminating  his 
indignant  protests  against  corruption — all 
his  efforts  to  reform  any  abuse  whatever, 
totally  defeated — his  Volunteers  well  got  rid 
of,  and  succeeded  by  a  militia  under  imme- 
diate control  of  the  ciovvn,  and  a  police 
force  in  the  metropolis  to  make  sure  that  no 
popular  demonstrations  should  ever  again 
attempt  to  overawe  that  "  independent  Par- 
liament;" and  yet  he  could  not  think  of  ad- 
mitting the  only  rational  conclusion— that 
the  uuited  people  should  be  organized  to 
take  the  government  out  of  hands  so  incom- 
petent or  so  vile. 

But  although  the  Patriotic  party  did  not 
go  the  length  of  revolutionary  projects,  they 
felt  the  necessity  of  combining  and  organiz- 
ing their  parliamentary  forces.  The  "  Round 
Robin"  was  the  parent  of  the  "  Whig  Club." 
The  leaders  of  opposition  had  found  it  ad- 
visable, in  order  to  consolidate  their  force 
into  a  common  centre  of  union,  to  establish  a 
new  political  society  under  the  denomina- 
tion of  the  Whig  Club;  an  institution  highly 
obnoxious  to  the  Castle :  they  adopted  the 
same  principles,  were  clad  in  the  sanae  uni- 
form of  blue  and  buft',  and  professedly  acted 
in  concert  with  the  Whig  Club  of  England. 
At  the  head  of  this  club  were  the  Duke  of 


BUCKTXGHAAr    LEAVKS    inELAND. 


jo;5 


Leiiister,  tlie  Eail  of  Charleinoiit,  Mr. 
Conolly,  Mr.  Grattan,  Mr.  Forbes,  both  tlie 
Messieurs  Poiisonby,  Mr.  Ciuran,  and  a 
number  of  leading  members  of  opposition 
in  both  Houses.  It*  was  a  rendezvous  and 
round  of  cabinet  dinners  for  the  opposition. 
Here  were  planned  and  arranged  ail  the 
measures  for  attack  on  the  ministry.  Each 
member  had  his  measure  or  his  question  in 
turn ;  the  plans  of  debate  and  manoeuvre 
were  preconcerted,  and  to  each  was  assigned 
that  share  in  the  attack  which  he  was  most 
competent  to  perform.  This  club,  aided  by 
some  popular  newspapers,  announced  its 
days  of  dining,  proclaimed  its  sentiments  in 
the  shape  of  resolutions,  and  enforced  them 
in  the  press  by  articles  and  paragraphs. 
Some  men  afterwards  well  known  as  United 
Irishmen,  became  members  of  the  Whig 
Club;  especially  Archibald  Hamilton  Rowan 
a  gentleman  of  property  in  the  county  of 
Down,  and  James  Napper  Tandy,  the  Vol- 
unteer Artillery  commander,  who  was  ad- 
mitted by  acclamation.  Fitzgibbon  (Earl 
of  Clare),  in  his  celebrated  speech  for  the 
Union — which  is  the  most  valuable  historic 
document  concerning  the  events  of  his  day 
(on  the  side  of  plunder,  corruption,  and  Eng- 
lish domination) — thus,  with  vindictive  sar- 
casm, .speaks  of  the  buff-and-blue  club: — 
"The  better  to  effectuate  the  great  national 
objects  of  a  limitation  of  the  pension  list,  an 
exclusion  of  pensioners  from  the  House  of 
Commons,  a  restriction  of  placemen,  who 
should  sit  there,  and  a  responsibility  for  the 
rei-eipt  and  issue  of  the  public  treasury,  a 
Whig  Club  was  announced  in  a  manifesto, 
signed  and  countersigned,  charging  the  Brit- 
ish Government  with  a  deliberate  and  sys- 
tematic intention  of  sapping  the  liberties 
.•ind  subverting  the  Parliament  of  Ireland. 
All  persons  of  congenial  character  and  sen- 
timent were  invited  to  range  under  the 
Whig  banner,  for  the  establishment  and 
protection  of  the  Irish  constitution,  on  the 
model  of  the  Revolution  of  IG88  ;  and  under 
this  banner  was  ranged  such  a  motley  col- 
lection of  congenial  characters,  as  never  be- 
fore were  assembled  for  the  reformation  of 
the  state.  Mr.  Napper  Tandy  was  received 
bv  acclamation,  as  a  statesman  too  impor- 
t.mt  and  illu.stiiotis  to  be  committed  to  the 
hazard  of  a  ballot.  Mr.  Hamilton  Rowan 
25 


also  repaired  to  the  Whig  banner.  Unfor- 
tunately, the  political  career  of  these  gon- 
tlemen  has  been  arrested  ;  Mr.  Tandy's  bv 
an  attainder  of  felony,  and  an  attainder  of 
trfason;  Mr.  Hamilton  Rowan's  by  an  at- 
tainder of  treason.  The  Whig  secretarv,  if 
he  does  not  stand  in  the  same  predicament, 
is  now  a  prisoner  at  the  mercy  of  the  crown, 
on  his  own  admission  of  his  tieason  ;  and  if 
I  ilo  not  mistake,  the  whole  society  of  Irish 
Whigs  have  been  admitted,  ad  eundem,  bv 
their  Whig  brethren  of  England.  In  the 
fury  of  political  resentment,  some  noblemen 
and  gentlemen  of  the  first  rank  in  this 
country  stooped  to  associate  with  the  refuse 
of  the  community,  men  whose  principles 
they  held  in  abhorrence,  and  whose  maimers 
and  deportment  must  always  have  excited 
their  disgust." 

There  was  public  thanksgiving  in  the 
churches  of  Dublin  for  the  king's  recoverv  : 
and  in  the  Catholic  chapel  of  Francis  Street 
a  solemn  high  mass  was  performed  "  with  a 
new  grand  Te  Deum  composed  on  the  occa- 
sion by  Giordani.  The  Catholics  were  still 
unrecognized  by  the  law,  as  citizens  or  mem- 
bers of  civil  society,  and  existed  only  '  by 
connivance  ;'  but  some  Catholic  wiiteis 
tell  us  with  complacency,  as  a  happy  in- 
stance of  the  increasing  liberality  of  the 
times,  that  several  of  the  first  Protestant 
nobility  and  gentry  assisted  at  this  mass. 
Plowden  says,  '  So  illustrious  an  assemblage 
had  never  met  in  a  Catholic  place  of 
worship  in  that  kingdom  since  the  Reforma- 
tion. Besides  the  principal  part  of  their 
own  nobility  and  gentry,  there  were  pres- 
ent on  the  occasion  the  Duke  of  Leinster, 
the  Earls  and  Countesses  of  Belvedere, 
Arran,  and  Portarlington,  Countesses  of  Car- 
hamptou  and  Ely,  Lords  Tyrone,  Valentia, 
and  Delvin,  Mr.  D.  La  Touche  and  family, 
Mr.  Grattan,  Major  Doyle,  Mrs.  Jeffries,  Mrs. 
Trant,  and  several  other  persons  of  the  first 
distinction.' '' 

In  the  month  of  June  of  this  year  the 
Marquis  of  Buckingham  went  to  Cork, 
stayed  for  a  day  at  the  villa  of  Mr.  Lee  at 
Black  Rock,  and  from  thence  quietly  era- 
barked  for  England.  He  never  returned ; 
and  it  was  observed  by  Mr.  O'Neill  in  the 
House  of  Commons  "that  if  he  had  not 
taken     a    back-stairs    departure    from    the 


194 


HISTORY    OP   IRELAND. 


kingdom,  lie  would  have  been  greeted  on 
liis  i-etieat  in  a  veiy  different  manner  from 
what  he  had  been  on  his  arrival."  Of  the 
course  of  this  bad  viceroy's  government  we 
find  no  better  summary  than  that  given  by 
Mr.  Grattan  in  a  speech  delivered  while  Lord 
Buckingham  still  sat  in  Dublin  Castle. 

"This  was  the  man;  you  remember  his 
entry  into  the  capital,  trampling  on  the 
liearse  of  the  Duke  of  Rutland,  and  seated 
in  a  triumphal  car,  drawn  by  public  ciedu- 
litv ;  on  one  side  fallacious  hope,  and  on  the 
other  many-mouthed  profession  :  a  figure 
with  two  faces,  one  turned  to  the  treasury, 
and  the  other  presented  to  the  people  ;  "and 
wiih  a  double  tongue,  speaking  contradictory 
languages. 

"This  minister  alights;  justice  looks  up 
to  him  with  empty  hopes,  and  peculation 
faints  with  idle  alarms ;  he  finds  the  city  a 
prey  to  an  unconstitutional  police — he  con- 
tinues it;  lie  finds  the  country  overburdened 
with  a  shameful  pension  list — he  increases 
it;  he  finds  the  House  of  Commons  swarm- 
ing with  placemen — he  multiplies  them;  he 
finds  the  salary  of  the  secretary  increased  to 
prevent  a  pension — he  grants  a  pension ;  he 
finds  the  kingdom  drained  by  absentee  em- 
ployments, and  by  compensations  to  buy 
them  home — he  gives  the  best  reversion  in 
the  country  to  an  absentee,  his  brother; 
he  finds  the  Government  at  different  times 
had  disgraced  itself  by  creating  sinecures 
to  gratify  corrupt  affection — he  makes  two 
commissioners  of  the  rolls,  and  gives  one  of 
them  to  another  brother;  he  finds  the  second 
council  to  the  commissioners  put  down  be- 
cause useless — he  revives  it;  he  finds  the 
boards  of  accounts  and  stamps  annexed  by 
public  compact — he  divides  them ;  he  finds 
tiie  boards  of  customs  and  excise  united  by 
public  cmupact — he  divides  them ;  he  finds 
three  resolutions,  declaring  that  seven  com- 
missioners are  sufficient — he  makes  nine  ;  he 
finds  the  country  lias  suffered  by  some  pecu- 
lations in  the  ordnance — he  increases  the 
salaries  of  offices,  and  gives  the  places  to 
members  of  Parliament." 

Before  dismissing  the  Marquis  of  Bucking- 
ham and  his  viceroyalty,  it  is  right  to  add 
that  during  his  government  the  pension 
list,  already  enormous,  was  increased  by 
iiew  pensions  to  the  amount  of  £13,000  a 


year.^  It  was  a  good  argument,  morally, 
for  reform,  but  a  still  better  argument, 
materially  and  practically,  against  reform. 
Parliamentary  patriots  might  have  seen  that 
they  were  moving  in  a  vicious  circle  :  the 
more  irresistible,  logical,  and  argumenta- 
tive were  their  assaults  on  the  citadel  of 
corruption,  the  more  impregnable  became 
that  citadel,  by  means  of  the  very  coinip- 
tion  itself:  and  it  must  be  admitted  that 
although  the  Marquis  of  Buckingham  ab- 
sconded, like  any  defaulting  bank  officer 
from  Ireland,  he  left  British  policy  in  full, 
successful,  and  triumphant  operation. 

On  the  30th  of  June,  1789,  Fitzgibbon, 
the  new  lord  chancellor,  and  Mr.  Foster 
the  Speaker  of  the  House,  were  sworn  in 
lords-justices.  The  Marquis  of  Buckingham 
resigned,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  Earl  of 
Westmoreland. 

In  the  last  year  of  the  Buckingham  ad- 

*  This  being  mere  matter  of  account,  says  Mr. 
Grattan,  I  extract  it  from  tlie  papers  laid  before 
Parliament.  Appendix  to  the  13th  vol.  Journ.  Com., 
p.  271. 

A  list  of  all  Pensions  placed  on  the  Civil  EddVish- 
ment  dariru/  the  period  of  the  Marquis  of  Bucking- 
hanCs  Administration^  with  an  account  of  the  total 
Amount  thereof. 

Fitzherbert  Richards,  Esq £400 

James  Cavendish,  Esq 150 

Harriet  Cavendish 150 

Lionel,  Lord  Viscount  Strangford.     .     .    .  400 

Robert  Tliornlon,  Esq 800 

Right  Honorable  Thomas  Orde 1700 

Duke  of  Gloucester 4000 

Georgina,  Viscountess  Boyne 500 

Lady  Catherine  Marlay.       . 300 

Honorable  Rose  Browne .  800 

Walter  Taylor 800 

Francis  d'lvernois SOO 

David  Jebb,  Esq 300 

Lady  Catherine  Toole 200 

Thomas  Coughlan,  additional 200 

WiHiani,  Viscount  Ciietwynd,  additional.  .  200 
Charles,  Viscount  Ranelagh,  and  Sarah,  Vis- 
countess Ranelagh,  his  wife,  and  sur- 
vivor   400 

Lucia  Agar,  Viscountess  Clifden,  and  Emily 
Anne  Agar  her  daughter,  and  sur- 
vivor   800 

Sir  Henry  Mannix,  Bart 500 

Sir  Richard   Johnstone,  Bart.,  and   William 

Johnstone,  Esq.,  his  son,  and  survivor  800 

Sarah  Hernon. 70 

Elizabeth  Hernon 70 

Henry  Loftus,  Esq 800 

Diana  Loftus SOO 

William  Colville,  Esq 6'10 

£13,040 


PEKP-OF-DAT   BOYS    AND    DKFENDKRS. 


105 


awnistration.  the  violent  fVuds  of  the  Peep- 
ot-Dav-Bovs  and  Defenders  had  taken  al- 
most the  proportions  of  a  small  civil  war. 
,M;iny  of  the  Protestant  landlords  in  Armagh 
and  <ryrone  Counties  diligently  fomented 
and  embittered  these  disputes,  "  with  the 
diabolical  purpose,"  says  Mr.  Plowden,  "of 
breaking  up  the  union  of  the  Protestants 
and  Catholics,  whi(;h  had  been  effected  by 
serving  together  as  Volunteers,  and  was  one 
of  the  etiects  of  that  system,  which  the 
.Government  appeared  most  to  dread.  Re- 
ports were  industriously  set  afloat,  and 
greedily  credited  by  most  Protestants  of  the 
county  of  Armagh,  who  long  had  been  pre- 
eminent amongst  their  brethren  for  their 
zealous  antipathy  to  Popery,  that  if  Cath- 
olics, who  had  obtained  arms,  and  learned 
the  use  of  them  during  the  war,  were  per- 
mitted to  retain  them,  they  would  soon  be 
iised  in  erecting  Popery  on  the  ruins  of  the 
Piotestant  religion.  The  Defenders  had  long 
and  frequently  complained,  that  all  that 
etforts  to  procure  legal  redress  against  the 
outrages  committed  upon  them  by  the  Peep- 
of-Diiy  Boys  were  unavailing  :  that  their 
oppressors  appeared  to  be  rather  counte- 
nanced, than,  checked  by  the  civil  power; 
and  that  the  necessity  of  the  case  had  driven 
them  into  counter-combinations  to  defend 
their  lives  and  properties  against  these  un- 
controlled marauders.  Whilst  these  petty, 
hut  fatal  internal  hostilities  were  confined 
chiefly  to  the  county  of  Armagh,  it  appears 
that  the  Defenders  had  generally  remained 
passive  according  to  their  first  institution 
and  appellation  :  and  that  they  only  became 
aggressors,  when  they  afterwards  were  com- 
pelled to  emigrate  from  their  country. 
Their  hostility  was  now  at  its  height ;  Gov- 
ernment sent  down  two  troops  to  quell 
them,  but  above  fiftv  on  both  sides  had  been 
killed  in  an  affray  before  the  horse  arrived. 
Tranquillity  lasted  whilst  the  troops  remain- 
ed. But  it  was  impossible  that  a  large 
assemblage  of  men,  void  of  education,  pru- 
dence, or  control,  should  long  remain  together 
without  mischief." 

The   "  Defenders,"    that    is    the   luckless 
Catholics  of  those  northern  counties,  strug 
gling  only  to  live  by  their  labor;   surround- 
ed  by  a  larger  population  of  insolent  and 
ferocious  Protestant    faimors,  remained    al- 


ivai/s,  as  their  name  imports,  strictly  on  the 
defensive.  They  never  were  mad  enough  to 
became  "aggressors"  at  all  :  and  Mr.  Plow- 
den, in  the  passage  just  cited,  falls  into  the 
not  unusual  error  of  Catholic  writers,  who 
are  so  determined  to  be  impartial  that  tlinv 
lean  to  the.  party  which  they  abhor.  It  is 
right  to  understand  once  for  all — and  we 
sliall  have  but  too  many  occHsions  of  illus- 
trating the  fact — that  in  all  the  violent  and 
bloody  contentions  which  have  taken  place 
between  the  Catholics  and  Protestants  of 
Ulster  from  that  day  to  the  present,  with- 
out any  exception,  the  Protestants  have  been 
the  wanton  aggressors.  It  was  with  the 
utmost  difficulty  that  Catholi(;s  could  procure 
arms;  but  they  knew  that  their  Protestant 
neighbors  were  all  armed.  They  knew 
also  that  if  there  were  to  be  any  examina- 
tion into  the  facts  before  justices  of  the 
peace,  or  at  the  assizes,  they  were  sure  to 
meet  a  bitter,  contemptuous  hostility  on  the 
bench  and  in  the  jury-box;  and  vvitnesses 
ready  to  swear  that  a  Popish  funeral  was  a 
military  parade,  and  a  faction-fight  an  in- 
surrection. Therefore  it  was  not  in  the 
nature  of  things  that  such  an  oppressed  race 
should  voluntarily  seek  a  collision,  or  should 
resort  to  violence  save  in  the  utmost  extrem- 
ity of  almost  despairing  resistance.  It  is 
true  also,  that  from  the  very  origin  of 
Peep-of-Day  Boys  (who  afterwards  ripen- 
ed into  Orangemen),  down  to  the  present 
moment  (1867),  many  of  the  greatest  pro- 
prietors in  Ulster,  peers  and  commoners, 
have  carefully  stimulated  the  ferocity  of  the 
ignorant  Protestant  yeomanr)'  by  their  own 
insolent  behavior  towaids  the  oppiesscd 
people,  and  especially  by  inculcating  and 
enlarging  upon  all  the  dreadful  details  of 
that  bloody  fable,  the  "Popish  Massacre'' 
of  1641.  Sir  John  Temple's  horrible  romance 
was  a  fifth  gospel  to  the  "Ascendency"  of 
the  North  ;  and  was  often  enlarged  upon 
(like  the  other  four)  by  clergymen  in  their 
pulpits,  to  show  that  it  is  the  favorite 
enjoyment  of  Papists  to  rip  up  Protestant 
women  with  knives ;  to  murder  the  mothers 
and  then  to  put  the  infants  to  their  dead 
mother's  breast,  and  say :  '^Suck,  English 
bastard  r — to  delude  men  out  of  houses  by 
offers  of  quarter,  and  tlien  to  cut  their 
throats,  and  so  on.     Indeed  when  the  con* 


196 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


scientions  Dr.  Curry  published  his  examina- 
tion of  the  histories  of  that  pretended  mas- 
sacre, his  fiiends  feared  for  his  life  :  it  was 
lield  proof  positive,  in  his  day,  of  a  design 
to  "  biing  in  the  Pretender,"  if  one  pre- 
sumed to  deny  or  doubt  the  terrible  drown- 
ing of  Protestants  at  Portadown  bridge — or 
to  question  the  fact  of  their  ghosts  appear- 
ing in  the  river  at  night,  breast-high  in  the 
water,  and  shrieking  '•'Revenge!  Revenge T 
From  such  historic  literature  as  this  were 
derived  the  opinions  formed  of  Catholics  by 
Peep-of-Day  Boys,  and  by  their  worthy 
successors  the  Orangemen.  The  baleful 
seeds  of  hatred  and  iniquity  sown  thus  in 
the  minds  of  benighted  Protestants,  by  those 
who  ought  to  have  taught  them  better,  fell 
in  congenial  soil,  and  grew,  flourished,  and 
ripened,  as  we  shall  soon  have  to  narrate, 
in  a  harvest  of  bloody  fruit. 

The  Earl  of  Westmoreland's  administra- 
tion was  precisely  like  that  of  his  prede- 
cessors. It  was  observed  in  Parliament  by 
several  of  the  opposition  members  "  that  it 
was  but  a  continuance  of  the  former  ad- 
ministration under  a  less  unpopular  head." 
Major  Doyle  said  (10  Pari.  Deb.,  p.  233)  : 
"The  same  measures  were  continued  by  the 
present  viceroy,  as  if  some  malicious  demon 
had  shot  into  him  the  spirit  of  his  departed 
predecessor,  and  that  the  Castle  of  Dublin 
was  only  the  reflected  shadows  of  the  Palace 
of  Stowe." 

It  is  truly  irksome  to  follow  the  unavail- 
ing parliamentary  struggles  made  by  a  few 
faithful  Irishmen  in  those  days ;  and  the 
commemoration  of  them  might  well  be 
dispensed  with  but  for  the  pride  and  pleas- 
ure which  we  cannot  but  feel  in  the  knowl- 
edge that  even  in  that  dark  day  there 
were  some  glorious  intellects  and  noble 
hearts  in  Ireland,  who,  environed  around 
and  almost  overwhelmed  by  the  deluge  of 
scoundrelism,  yet  did  hold  up  the  standard 
of  rectitude  and  call  upon  the  demoralized 
nation  to  follow  that  standard.  It  was  the 
voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness.  We 
find  in  the  parliamentary  debates,  during 
the  session  of  1790,  the  same  sort  of 
series  of  motions  for  committees,  or  for 
resolutions,  against  corruption,  against  in- 
crease of  pensions  and  the  like,  wiih  which 
the    country    was    now    familiar.      It    was 


famili~ar  also  with  the  uniform  defeat  of  all 
those  eff"orts.  Mr.  Curran,  for  example, 
moved,  "  That  a  humble  address  should  be 
presented  to  his  majestv,  praying  that  he 
would  order  to  be  laid  before  that  Mouse 
the  particulars  of  the  causes,  consideratioQ, 
and  representations,  in  consequence  of  which 
the  boards  of  stamps  and  accounts  had  been 
divided,  with  an  increase  of  salary  to  the 
officers ;  also,  that  he  would  be  graciously 
pleased  to  communicate  to  that  House  the 
names  of  the  persons  who  recommended 
that  measure." 

In  his  speech  in  support  of  this  motion, 
Curran  assailed  the  purchased  majority  with 
some  of  that  biting  aud  devouring  sarcasm 
which  the  court  so  much  dreaded,  and 
which — had  Curran  been  purchasable — 
would  have  insured  him  the  highest  price. 

"  He  brought  forward  that  motion,"  he 
said,  "not  as  a  question  of  finance,  not  as  a 
question  of  regulation,  but  as  a  penal  in- 
quiry, and  the  people  would  now  see, 
whether  they  were  to  hope  for  help  within 
these  walls."  He  rose  in  an  assembly  of 
three  hundred  persons,  one  hundred  of 
whom  had  places  or  pensions ;  in  an  assem- 
bly, one-third  of  whom  had  their  ears  sealed 
against  the  complaints  of  the  people,  and 
their  eyes  intently  turned  to  their  own  in- 
terest; he  rose  before  the  whisperers  of  the 
treasury,  the  bargainers  and  the  runners  of 
the  Castle  :  he  addressed  an  audience,  before 
whom  was  holden  forth  the  doctrine,  that 
the  crown  ought  to  use  its  influence  on  the 
members  of  that  House. 

He  rose  to  try  when  the  sluices  of  cor- 
ruption had  been  let  loose  upon  them, 
whether  there  were  any  means  left  to  stem 
that  torrent. 

The  debate  broke  out  into  great  intem- 
perance on  both*  sides  :  the  division  upon 
the  motion  was  81  in  support,  aud  141 
against  it. 

Mr.  Curran's  doubt  "whether  there  was 
hope  for  help  within  those  walls,"  was 
plainly  ripening  into  a  certainty,  that  there 
was  none. 

In  the  same  way  we  find  the  indefatigable 
Mr.  Forbes  again  trying  his  place  bill  and 
pension  bill.  This  time  he  moved  for  an 
address  to  the  king,  setting  forth  the  shabby 
details  which  he  had  long  busied  himself  in 


UNAVAILIXG    EFFORTS    AGAIXST    CORRUPTION'. 


197 


briiigitio-  to  lig-ht : — how  there  was  an  itn- 
niHiise  increase  in  tlie  pension  list,  of  pen- 
sions granted  to  members  of  that  House,  at. 
the  pleasure  of  the  crown.  How  "an  addi- 
tion of  £.':)00  per  annum,  has  been  lately 
gianfed  to  the  salary  of  the  cnstommer  of 
Kinsale,  to  commence  from  the  29th  of  Sep- 
trraber,  1789;  and  a  farther  addition  of 
£'200  payable  on  a  ('Oiitingency,  both  for 
the  life  of  the  present  possessor  :  an  office 
which  has  been  for  years  considered  as  use- 
less and  obsolete,  to  which  no  duty  whatso- 
ever is  annexed,  nor  any  attendance  required. 
That  an  addition  of  £400  per  annum  has 
been  lately  granted  to  the  salary  of  com{> 
troller  of  the  pipe,  though  £.53  10s.  has  for 
years  been  considered  as  an  adequate  com- 
pensation for  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of 
That  office.  That  an  addition  of  £  150  per 
annum  has  also  been  lately  granted  to  the 
barrack-master  of  Dublin.  That  the  persons 
to  whom  those  additional  salaries  have  been 
granted,  are  all  members  of  this  Housed 
And  so  forth ;  things  which  the  king  and 
Mr.  Pitt,  his  minister,  kne\V  very  well;  which 
they  intended ;  in  which  they  meant  to 
persevere ;  and  Avhich  they  called  governing 
tlie  country.  Of  course  the  address  to  the 
king  was  negatived  by  a  large  majority : 
the  "comptroller  of  the  pipe"  and  the  cus- 
tomer of  Kinsale  were  not  likely  to  vote  for 
a  measure  which  would  deprive  their  little 
families  of  bread.  Mr.  Grattan  spoke  on 
this  motion  of  Forbes  :  but  perhaps  the  most 
notable  passage  in  the  debate  is  the  short, 
nervous  speech  of  Mr.  O'Neil,  which  plainly 
showed  that  he,  too,  despaired  of  effecting 
anv  thing  in  Parliament,  and  foresaw  anoth- 
er kind  of  struggle.  Mr.  O'Neil  said  "  he 
thought  it  wholly  unnecessary  for  gentlemen 
on  the  other  side  to  adduce  a  single  argu- 
ment upon  any  question,  while  they  had  an 
omnipotent  number  of  140  to  support  them. 
On  the  subject  of  influence,  the  denial  of  it, 
he  said,  was  ridiculous,  as  there  was  not  a 
lady  then  sitting  at  tea  in  Dublin,  who,  if  she 
Were  told  that  there  were  120  men  in  that 
House,  composed  of  placemen  and  pension- 
ers, would  not  be  able  to  say  how  the  ques- 
tion would  be  decided,  as  well  as  the  tellers 
on  the  division.  He  said  the  very  first  act 
in  every  session  of  Parliament,  which  was 
the  bill  of  supply,  went  to  raise  the  interest 


for  a  milHon  and  a  half  of  money  for  minis- 
ters to  divide  amongst  themselves.  I  do  sav, 
and  I  said  it  propheticallv,"  continued  he, 
"that  the  people  will  resist  it.  The  mem- 
bers of  this  House  bear  but  a  small  propor- 
tion to  the  pcojile  at  large.  There  are 
gentlemen  outside  these  doors,  of  as  good 
education  and  of  as  much  judgment  of  the 
relative  duties  of  representation,  as  any  man 
within  doors,  and  matters  are  evidently 
ripening,  and  will  shortly  come  to  a  crisis." 
Mr.  O'Neil  was  right:  but  he  and  Mr. 
Grattan,  and  others  who  acted  with  them, 
are  never  to  be  forgiven,  that  they  did  not 
help  matters  to  come  to  a  crisis,  and  did  not 
preside  over  and  guide  that  crisis  when  it 
came. 

The  remainder  of  this  shameful  Parliament 
is  little  worthy  of  commemoration.  Mr. 
Geoige  Ponsonby  moved  a  resolution  against 
places  and  pensions;  defeated  by  a  large 
majority.  Mr.  Grattan,  filled  with  the  same 
sceva  indignatio  which  once  gnawed  the 
heart  of  Swift,  astonished  the  House  by  a 
speech  calling  for  impeachment  of  ministers, 
concluding  with  this  motion,  "that  a  select 
committee  be  appointed  to  inquire,  in  the 
most  solemn  manner,  whether  the  late  or 
present  administration  have  entered  into  any 
corrupt  agreement  with  any  person  or  per- 
sons, to  recommend  such  person  or  persons 
to  his  majesty  as  fit  and  proper  to  be  by 
him  made  peers  of  this  realm,  in  considera- 
tion of  such  person  or  persons  giving  cer- 
tain sums  of  money  to  be  laid  out  in  pro- 
cuiing  the  return  of  members  to  serve  in 
Pailiament,  contrary  to  the  rights  of  the 
people,  inconsistent  with  the  independence 
of  Parliament,  and  in  violation  of  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  the  land."  It  was  defeated 
by  the  usual  majority;  144  against,  and  82 
for  the  motion.  A  few  days  after,  Mr.  Grat- 
tan was  provoked  to  utter  one  of  his  auda- 
cious speeches  in  the  House.  It  was  in  one 
of  the  debates  on  Mr.  Forbes'  motion  : — 
"Sir,  I  have  been  told  it  was  said,  that  I 
should  have  been  stopped,  should  have  been 
expelled  the  Commons,  should  have  been 
delivered  up  to  the  bar  of  tlie  Lords  for  the 
expressions  delivered  that  day. 

"  I  will  repeat  what  I  said  on  that  day :  I 
said  that  his  majesty's  ministers  had  sold 
the  peerages,  for  which  offence  they  were 


198 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


jmpeaoliahle.     I  said   they  had  applied  the 
money  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  seats 
in  the  House  of  Commons  for  the  servants 
or  followers  of  the  Castle,  f>r  which  offence 
I  said  they  were  impeachable.     I  said  they 
had  done   this,  not  in  one  or  two,  but  in 
several  instances,  for^liich  complication  of 
offences  I  said  his  majesty's  ministers  were 
impeachable,  as  public  malefactors,  who  had 
conspired  against  the  common  weal,  the  in- 
dependence of  Parliament,  and  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  the  land  ;  and  I  offered,  and 
dared  them  to  put  this  matter  in  a  cour:«e 
of  inqniiy.     I  added,  that  I  considered  them 
as  public  malefactors,  whom  we  were  ready 
to  bring  to  justice,     I  repeat  these  charges 
now,  and  if   any   thing   more  severe  were 
on  a  former  occasion  expressed,  I    beg   to 
be  reminded  of  it,  and  I  will  again  repeat 
it.    "Why  do  you  not  expel  me  now?     Why 
not  send  me  to  the  bar  of  the  Lords  ?    Where 
is  your  adviser?     Going  out  of  the  House  I 
shall   repeat  my  sentiments,  that    his    ma- 
jesty's ministers  are  guilty  of  impeachable 
offences;  and  advancing  to  the  bar  of  the 
the  Lords,  I  shall  repeat  those  sentiments,  or 
if  the  Tower  is  to  be  my  habitation,  I  will 
there  meditate   the  impeachment  of  these 
ministers,  and  return  not  to  capitulate,  but 
to  punish.     Sir,  I  think  I  know  myself  well 
enough  to  say,  that  if  called  forth  to  suffer 
in  a  public  cause,  I  will  go  farther  than  my 
prosecutors,  both  in  virtue  and  in  danger." 

All  similar  efforts  failed  in  the  same  man- 
ner; effecting  nothing  but  an  occasional 
opportunity  of  discharging  a  torrent  of  in- 
dignant invective  against  the  solid  phalanx 
of  Castle  members,  equally  insensible  to  in- 
vective, to  sarcasm,  to  shame,  and  to  con- 
science ;  and  the  Parliament  was  prorogued 
on  the  5th  of  April,  1790;  the  viceroy 
assuring  tliem  in  his  speech  from  the  throne 
that  "  he  had  great  pleasure  in  signifyino- 
his  majesty's  approbation  of  the  zeal  they 
had  shown  for  tlie  public  interest,  and  the 
dispatch  with  which  they  had  concluded 
the  national  business."  Three  days  after 
the  Parliament  was  dissolved. 

But  although  the  Parliament  of  the  "in- 
dependent" kingdom  of  Ireland  was  in  so 
wofuUy  corrupt  a  condition,  yet  we  find  that 
m  material  prosperity  the  country  continued 
to  advance.     The  population  had  increased 


very   rapidly,  and    it    is    estimated,  for  the 
year  1 788,  at  4,040,000,  an  increase  of  a 
million  and   a  half  in  twenty  years.     This 
is  a  sure  sign  of  general  ease  and  abundance 
of  the  necessaries  of  life.     The  revenue  was 
also  increasing  fully  in  proportion  to  the  in- 
crease of  people;  and   the  Catholics,  being 
now  empowered  to  hold  longer  leases,  and 
to  take  mortgages  on  money  lent,  had  well 
improved   their   limited    opportunities,   and 
were  become  in  all  the  towns  an  opulent  and 
influential  portion  of  the  people.     Yet  the 
Catholics,  while  personally  they  were  respect- 
ed, were  as  a  body  both  oppressed  and  in- 
sulted.    Of    the   four    millions,    they    were 
more  than   three ;  yet  this  great   mass  of 
people,  the  original  and  rightful  owners  of 
all  the   land,  were  still   a  proscribed   race, 
still  under  the  full  operation  of   the    most 
odious  of  the  penal  laws,  excluded  from  Par- 
liament, from  the  franchise,  from  the  profes- 
sions, from  the  corporations,  from  the  juries, 
from    the    magistiacy,    fiom     all    civil    and 
military  employment.     Public   ceremonials 
were  calculated  and  devised  with  the  special 
design  to  humiliate  them,  and  remind  them 
of  the  high  national  estate  from  which  they 
had  fallen ;  and   even  in  those  proud  days 
of  the  Volunteering,  the  anniversaries  of  their 
fatal    defeats   were    regularly  celebrated    in 
Dublin  by  the  high  officers  of  state  with  all 
possible   civic    and    military   pomp.      The 
author  of  the  "  Irish  Abroad  and  at  Home  " 
tells  us,  from  his  own  recollections: — "King 
William's  birth -day  (the  4th  of  November) 
was  observed  with  great  ceremony.     Within 
m}'  own  recollection,  and  even  till  the  period 
of  the  Union,  on    each   4th   of  November, 
the  troops  composing  the  garrison  of  Dublin 
marched  from  their  respective  barra(;ks   to 
the  Royal  Exchange,  and  there  turning  to 
the  right  up  to  the  Castle,  and  to  the  left  to 
the    college,   lined   the    streets,   Cork    Hill, 
Dame  Street,  and  College  Green,  on  each 
side  the  way. 

"At  the  same  time  the  lord-lieutenant 
would  be  holding  a  levee ;  a  drawing-room 
wound  up  the  observances,  at  which  the 
nobility,  the  bishops,  the  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons  (the  Speaker  at  their 
head),  the  judges,  the  bar,  the  provost,  vice- 
provost,  and  fellows  of  Trinity  College,  thei 
lord     mayor,   aldermen,  and    other    public 


rnENcn  reyolution. — new  et.ection'. 


100 


fuMctioiiaries  were  present.  The  levee  over, 
the  lord-lieutenant  issut^d  in  his  state-carriage 
find  with  wreat  pomp  from  the  Castle,  passed 
down  the  line  of  streets,  and  round  the 
statue  of  King  William,  and  then  returned 
to  the  Castle ;  followed  also  in  carriages  by 
the  great  officers  of  state,  the  bishops,  the 
Houses  of  Lords  and  Commons,  and  those 
of  the  gentry  who  had  been  present  at  the 
levee." 

But  as  the  Catholics  advanced  in  prosper- 
ity and  increased  in  numbers,  this  condition 
of  inferiority  in  their  own  native  land  be- 
came more  and  more  intolerable  to  them : 
the  complete  failure  of  the  constitutional 
"independence"  of  '82  was  creating  amongst 
the  more  rational  Protestants  a  desire  of 
uniting  themselves  with  the  powerful  Cath- 
olic masses;  a  "  Catholic  Committee  "  had 
now  been  for  some  years  in  existence,  con- 
nived at  by  Government,  and  on  the  whole 
there  was  a  considerable  ferment  in  the  pub- 
lic mind  at  the  moment  when,  on  the  14th 
of  July,  1789,  all  Europe  rang  and  shook 
with  the  downfall  of  the  Bastile.  Within 
three  weeks  after,  on  the  memorable  4th  of 
August,  feudality  and  privilege  were  sudden- 
ly struck  down  and  swept  away :  in  that 
most  aristocratic  of  countries  all  men  be- 
came suddenly  equal  in  one  night ;  and  the 
great  French  Revolution  was  in  full  career. 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

1790—1791. 

New  election — New  peers — Sale  of  peerages- 
ngainst  Police  Bill — Continual  defents  of 
— Insolenee  of  the  Castle — Profrress  of 
Revolution — Horror  of  French  principles 
— Divisions  amongst  Irish  Catholics — Wol 
— General  Committee  of  Catholics — Tone 
Belfast — Establishes  first  United  Irish 
Dublin  United  Irish  Club — Parliamentary 
avoid  them — Progress  of  Catholic  Com 
Project  of  a  Convention — Troubles  in 
Armagh. 


-Motion 
Patriots 

French 
—Burke 
fe  Tone 

goes  to 

Club- 
Patriots 
mittee — 

County 


Notwithstanding  the  progress  which 
liad  been  made  by  the  people  in  political 
knowledge  and  spirit,  stimulated  by  the 
mighty  events  then  going  forward  in  France, 
yet  the  influence  of  the  Castle  prevented 
any  great  change  in  the  return  of  members 
to  the  new  Parliament.  The  dissolution 
took  place  on  the  Slh  of  April,  1790,  and 


the  new  Parliament  was  siunmont^d  to  moit 
at  Dublin   on   the   20th  of  May,  but  before 
that  time,  was  further  prorogued  to  the  10th 
of  July,  when  it  met  for  dispatch  of  bnsitiess. 
Such  of  the  constituencies  as  were  really 
free  to  elect,  of  course  took  care  to  send  to 
Parliament  all  the  most  piominent  reform- 
ers.     Grattan,    Forbes,  Curran,    Ponsonbv, 
Lord  Henry  Fitzgerald,  occupied  tlu-ir  old 
places  on  the  opposition  bench.     We  find 
among    the    new    members    several     noted 
names.     A  certain  young  Major  Wellesley 
was  returned  for  the  boiough  of  Trim,  after- 
wards   called    to   high   destinies  under  the 
title   of  Duke   of  Wellington.     Jonah   Bar- 
rington  was  member  for  Tnam  :  he  had  seen 
the  rise,  and  was  destined  to  '  hronicle  the 
Rise  and  Fall,  of  the  Irish  nation.     Arlhur 
O'Connor  came  as  member  for  Philipstown  : 
his  name  will  appear  again  in  this  narrative. 
Robert  Stewart  came  as  one  of  the  members 
for  Down  County ;  and  had  an  opportunity 
of  studying  the  modes  of  buying  and  selling 
in  that  great  mart  of  votes  and  influences ; 
opportunities  which  he  improved  with  the 
zeal  of  a  clerk  in  a  commercial  house  learn- 
ing his  business.   We  shall  see  that  he  spent 
the  season  of  his  apprenticeship  profitably. 
In  the  mean  time,  it  is  interesting  to  record 
that  this  gentleman  sought  his  election,  and 
was  returned,    expressly  as  an    avowed    re- 
former and  patriot;  and  that  on  the  hust- 
ings at  Downpatrick  he  took  the  following 
pledge: — "That  he  would  in  and  out  of  the 
House,   with   all    his   ability  and    influence, 
promote  the  success  of  a  bill  for  amending 
the  representation  of  the  people;  a  bill  for 
preventing  pensioners  from  sitting  in   Par- 
liament, or  such  placemen  as  cannot  sit  in 
the  British  House  of  Commons;  a  bill  for 
limiting  the  numbers  of  placemen  and  pen- 
sioners and  the  amount  of  pensions;  a  bill 
for  preventing  revenue-officers  from  voting 
at  elections;  a  bill  for  rendering  the  servants 
of  the  crown  in  Ireland  responsible  for  the 
expenditure  of  the  public  money,"  etc., — in 
short,  all  the  measures  of  reform  which  were 
at  that  time  the  ostensible   objects  of  the 
opposition. 

The  purpose  of  convening  the  Parliament 
was  to  obtain  a  vote  of  credit:  accordinglv 
the  chancellor  of  the  exchequer  moved 
for  a  vote  of  credit  for  £200,000,  to  be  ap- 


200 


niSTORT    OF    IRELAND. 


plied    l)V    the    lord-lieutenant    towards    the 
expense  of  Government. 

On  the  24th  of  the  month  his  majesty's 
answer  to  the  address  of  the  Commons  was 
communicated  to  the  House,  which  was 
strongly  expressive  of  his  satisfaction  at  their 
determination  to  support  the  honor  of  his 
<-rown,  and  the  common  interest  of  the 
empire,  at  that  important  crisis :  the  Par- 
liament was  then  prorogued,  and  did  not 
meet  for  the  dispatch  of  business  till  the 
20th  of  January,  1791.  In  the  autumn, 
Mr.  Se(;retary  Hobart  went  over  to  England, 
as  it  was  generally  presumed,  to  concert  the 
plan  of  the  next  parliamentary  campaign 
with  the  British  cabinet.  It  was  also  ru- 
mored, that  the  Irish  government  having  in 
the  widest  plenitude  adopted  the  principles 
and  system  of  Lord  Buckingham's  adminis- 
tration, the  right  honorable  secretary  had 
also  much  consultation  with  that  nobleman. 
Lord  Westmoreland  in  the  mean  time  was 
not  inattentive  to  the  means  of  acquiring 
popularity,  the  want  of  which  in  his  pre- 
decessor he  felt  very  strongly  operating  upon 
his  own  government.  In  a  country  excur- 
sion for  nearly  nine  months  he  visited  most 
of  the  nobility  through  the  kingdom  :  his 
excellency  and  his  lady  on  all  solemn  occa- 
Mons  appeared  clad  in  Irish  manufactures  : 
just  as  in  our  own  day  an  ameliorative  vice- 
roy has  sometimes  condescended  to  wear  a 
"  poplin  waistcoat."  We  are  even  told  that 
Lord  Westmoreland  further  increased  his 
popularity  by  giving  permission  to  represent 
"The  Beggar's  Opera,"  which  was  then  a 
favorite  of  the  Dublin  people,  but  the  rep- 
jes'intation  of  which  had  been  prohibited 
in  Lord  Buckingham's  time. 

The  business  of  this  session  differed  very 
little  from  that  of  the  last  before  the  dissolu- 
tion. The  Patriots  appeared  rather  to  have 
lost,  than  acquired,  strength  by  the  new  elec- 
tion. Their  number  did  not  at  any  time 
during  the  course  of  this  session  exceed 
fourscore.  But  their  resolution  to  press  all 
the  questions  which  they  had  brought  for- 
ward in  the  last  Pailiament,  appeared  more 
violently  determined  than  ever;  insomuch, 
that  Mr.  George  Ponsonby  in  replying  to 
Mr.  Cook,  assured  him,  that  the  hope  he 
had  expressed  of  gentlemen  on  his  side  of 
the  Ilouse  not  bringing  forward  those  meas- 


ures, which  they  had  done  for  some  ses- 
sions past,  was  a  lost  hope,  for  that  nothing 
but  the  hand  of  death  or  success  should  ever 
induce  them  to  give  up  their  pursuit.  Ac- 
cordingly Mr.  Ponsonby,  on  the  3d  of 
February,  moved  as  usual  for  a  select  com- 
mittee to  inquire  into  the  pension  list.  It 
was  got  rid  of  by  a  motion  for  adjourn meut. 
Then  Mr.  Grattan,  supported  by  Mr.  Currai;, 
renewed  the  charge  upon  its  practice  of 
selling  peerages  :  it  was  rejected  by  135 
against  85. 

Mr.  Curran  then  moved  the  following  res- 
olution, in  which  he  was  seconded  by  Mr. 
Grattan,  viz.  :  "That  a  committee  be  ap- 
pointed, consisting  of  members  of  both 
Houses  of  Parliament,  who  do  not  hold  any 
employment  or  enjoy  any  pension  under 
the  crown,  to  inquire  in  the  most  solemn 
manner,  whether  the  \i^e  or  present  ad- 
ministration have,  directly  or  indirectly, 
entered  into  any  corrupt  agreement  with 
any  person  or  persons,  to  recommend  such 
person  or  persons  to  his  majesty  for  the 
purpose  of  being  created  peers  of  this  king- 
dom, in  consideration  of  their  paying  certain 
sums  of  money,  to  be  laid  out  in  the  pur- 
chase of  seats  for  members  to  serve  in  Par- 
liament, contrary  to  the  rights  of  the  people, 
inconsistent  with  the  independence  of  Par- 
liament, and  in  direct  violation  of  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  the  land." 

Tlie  ministerial  members  on  all  these  oc- 
casions loudly  complained  of  the  reiteration 
of  the  old  charges  even  without  new  argu- 
ments to  support  them ;  they  strongly  in- 
sisted that  no  particular  facts  were  alleged, 
much  less  proved  ;  and  that  general  frime, 
surmise,  and  assertion,  were  no  grounds  for 
parliamentary  impeachments,  or  any  other 
solemn  proceedings  in  that  House.  Mr. 
Grattan,  before  answering  the  objections 
advanced  against  the  motion,  atlverted  to 
the  geneial  dull  and  empty  declamation 
uttered  by  the  advocates  of  a  corrupt  gov- 
ernment against  the  defenders  of  an  injured 
people. 

Four  times,  had  those  advocates  told  them, 
they  had  brought  this  grievance  forth,  as  if 
grievances  were  only  to  be  matter  of  public 
debate  when  they  were  matters  of  novelty  ; 
or  as  if  grievances  were  trading  questions 
tor  a  party  or  a  person  to  press,  to  sell,  and 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  FREXOH  RKVOLUTION. 


201 


to  abandon  ;  or  as  if  they  caine  thither  to 
act  farces  to  please  the  appetite  of  the  pub- 
lic, and  did  not  sit  tliere  to  persevere  in  the 
redress  of  grievances,  pledged  as  they  were, 
and  covenanted  to  tlie  people  on  these  im- 
portant subjects. 

Under  these  continual  defeats  of  every 
generous  effort  to  abate  a  single  evil  or  in- 
justice, it  seems  to  have  been  some  satisfac- 
tion to  the  members  of  the  opposition  to  in- 
dulge at  least  in  violent  philippics.  Mr. 
Grattan,  for  instance,  in  making  a  renewed 
effort  against  the  unconstitutional  police 
system  : — Ministers  had,  he  said,  resorted  to 
a  place  army  and  a  pensioned  magistracy: 
the  one  was  to  give  boldness  to  corruption 
in  Parliament,  and  tlie  other  to  give  the 
minister's  influence  patronage  in  the  city. 
Their  means  were,  this  police  establishment: 
the  plan  they  did  not  entirely  frame :  they 
found  it.  A  bill  had  shown  its  face  in  the 
British  House  of  Commons  for  a  moment, 
and  had  been  turned  out  of  the  doors  im- 
mediately :  a  scavenger  would  have  found  it 
in  the  streets  of  London :  the  groping 
hands  of  the  Irish  ministry  picked  it  up, 
and  made  it  the  law  of  the  land. 

The  motion  against  the  police  was  nega- 
tived by  what  Mr.  Grattan  called  the  dead 
majority.  Next  the  opposition  tried  an- 
other favorite  measure — to  prevent  place- 
men and  pensioners  from  having  seats  in 
Parliament;  in  other  words,  that  the  "dead 
niHJority"  should  be  turned  out-of-doors  and 
deprived  of  their  daily  bread.  This  meas- 
ure was  supported  as  usual  by  Mr.  Forbes, 
and  of  course  by  the  same  arguments: 
there  was  nothing  new  to  say  :  there  was 
the  evil  visible  before  them ;  or  rather  the 
104  evils,  each  with  its  bribe  in  its  pocket, 
wrung  from  the  earnings  of  those  people 
whose  legislature  they  poisoned.  But  the 
Castle  members  were  utterly  disgusted  with 
these  threadbare  topics ;  they  called  for 
something  new  ;  and  so  Mr.  Mason  had  the 
cool  audacity  to  say,  that  having  opposed 
this  bill  every  session  for  thirty  years,  he 
■would  not  weary  the  House  with  fresh  argu- 
ments against  it:  his  decided  opinion  wa'^, 
that  the  influence  of  the  crown  was  barely 
suflicient  to  preserve  the  constitution,  and  to 
prevent  it  from  degenerating  into  the  worst 
of  all  possible  governments,  a  democracy. 


Indeed,  the  terror  of  this  dernocracv,  and 
the  manifest  peril  to  oligarchical  government 
both  in  England  and  in  Ireland,  arisijig 
from  the  thundering  French  revolution  and 
its  reverberations  through  many  millions  of 
hearts  in  the  two  islands — these  were  the 
considerations  that  rendered  the  supporters 
of  Government  more  sternly  resolute  to 
maintain  every  part  of  their  system  as  it 
stood.  Reformers  of  any  abuse  began  about 
this  time  to  be  called  "Jacobins,"  and  tli-e 
"  Mountain ;"  and  it  was  intended  for  tbe 
most  ribald  abuse,  to  charge  a  person  with 
advocating  the  Rights  of  Man. 

Equally  violent  and  equally  unsuccessful 
were  the  four  remaining  attacks  made  by 
the  gentlemen  of  the  opposition :  viz.,  Mr. 
Grattan's  motion  for  the  encouragement  of 
the  reclaiming  of  barren  land  ;  on  the  first 
reading  of  the  pension  bill ;  the  second 
reading  of  the  responsibility  bill ;  and  Mr. 
George  Ponsonby's  motion  respecting  fiats 
for  levying  unassessed  damages  upon  the 
parties'  affidavits  of  their  own  imaginary 
losses. 

We  must  now  turn  away  for  a  time  from 
these  eloquent  futilities  in  Parliament.  It 
is  difficult  now  to  analyze  the  strong  politi- 
cal passion  which  seized  upon  all  the  public, 
as  the  mighty  drama  of  French  Revolution 
swept  upon  its  way.  The  year  1791  stimu- 
lated that  passion  to  the  greatest  height. 
The  great  theatrical  performance  of  the 
federation  of  all  mankind  in  the  Champ  de 
Mars,  had  taken  place  on  the  14th  of  July 
of  the  last  year,  when  the  King  of  France 
had  sworn  to  maintain  the  constitution.  The 
church  lands  had  been  sold  for  the  use  of 
the  public :  Mirabeau,  the  great  tribune, 
was  dead,  and  the  last  hope  of  conciliation 
between  the  people  and  the  crown,  died 
with  him.  Then  the  great  coalition  of  Eu- 
rope against  France  was  formed  ;  and  the 
king  attempted  his  flight  beyond  the  Rhine. 
Every  thing  betokened  both  war  and  invasion 
coming  from  abroad,  and  the  approaching 
triumph  at  home  of  the  Jacobin  Republi- 
cans, with  the  usual  violence  and  slaughter 
which  attend  such  immense  changes.  It 
was  impossible  to  look  on  at  these  things 
unmoved.  Two  fierce  parties  were  at  once 
formed  in  Ireland,  the  one  Republican,  the 
other  anti-Gallican. 


202 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


The  sympathy  which  several  of  the 
firmed  corps  and  other  public  bodies  exult- 
ingly  expressed  with  the  assertors  of  civil 
freeiiora  in  those  countries,  was  obnoxious  to 
Government,  and  it  became  the  system  of 
the  Cistle  to  affix  a  marked  stigma  upon 
everv  person  who  countenanced  or  spoke  in 
favor  of  any  measure  that  bore  the  sem- 
blance of  reform  or  revolution.  Even  the 
ardor  for  commemorating  the  era  of  1688, 
was  attempted  to  be  damped;  the  word 
liberty  always  carried  with  it  suspicion, 
often  reprobation.  In  proportion  to  the 
progress  of  the  French  revolution  to  those 
scenes,  which  at  la^t  outraged  humanity, 
were  some  eftbrts  in  favor  of  the  most  con- 
st;itutional  liberty  resisted  in  Parliament,  as 
attempts  to  introduce  a  system  of  French 
equality.  Such  was  the  general  panic,  such 
the  real  or  assumed  execration  of  every 
thing  that  had  a  tendency  to  democracy, 
that  comparatively  few  of  the  higher  oiders 
through  the  kingdom  retained,  or  avowed, 
those  general  Whig  principles,  which  two 
years  before  that  man  was  not  deemed  loyal, 
who  did  not  profess. 

Mr.  Burke  by  his  book  on  the  French 
revolution,  published  in  the  year  1790,  had 
worked  a  great  change  in  the  public  mind,  and 
the  few  in  the  upper  walks  of  life,  who  did 
not  become  his  proselytes,  merely  retaining 
their  former  principles,  were  astonished  to 
find  their  ranks  thinned  and  their  standard 
fallen. 

The  Catholics  also  could  not  possibly  re- 
main insensible  to  the  great  events  of  the 
time  :  but  the  effect  produced  upon  them 
was  a  strangely  complex  kind.  As  a  griev- 
ously oppressed  race  they  could  not  but 
sympathize  with  the  oppressed  peasantry  and 
middle  classes  of  France  as  they  struck  off 
link  after  link  of  the  feudal  chain:  but  on 
the  other  hand  the  Irish  Catholics,  not  like 
the  French,  had  remained  deeply  attached 
to  their  religion,  the  only  consolation  they 
had  :  and  the  French  "Civil  Constitution" 
for  the  clergy,  and  sale  of  church  lands, 
were  represented  to  them  as  anti-religious, 
and  dangerous  to  faith  and  morals.  Pub- 
lications were  circulated  upon  the  conserv- 
ative tendencies  of  the  Catholic  religion  *  to 

*  One  of  the  most  noted  of  these  publications  was 
one  culled  "  The  Case  Stated,"   by  Mr.  riowdeu. 


render  its  followers  loval,  peaceable,  and  duti- 
ful subjects.  Pastoral  instructions  were  pub- 
lished by  the  Catholic  bishops  in  their  re- 
spective dioceses,  in  favor  of  loyal  subordina- 
tion and  against  "French  principles."  On 
the  other  hand,  the  trading  Catholics  in  the 
towns,  and  such  of  the  country  population 
as  were  readers  of  books,  were  very  generally 
indoctrinated  with  sentiments  of  extreme 
liberalism.  It  was  not  to  be  expected,  they 
thought,  that  they  could  be  "  loyal "  to  a 
Government  which  they  knew  only  by  its 
oppressions  and  its  insults:  it  was  not  likely 
that  they  would  be  indignant  against  the 
French  for  abolishing  tithes,  nor  for  selling 
out  in  small  farms  the  vast  domains  of  the 
emigrant  nobles.  On  the  whole  therefore  a 
very  lai'ge  proportion  of  the  Catholics  look- 
ed to  the  proceedings  of  the  French  with 
admiration  and  with  hope.  As  for  the  Irish 
Dissenters,  who  were  much  more  numerous 
than  the  Protestants  of  the  established 
church,  they  were  GalUcan  and  republican 
to  a  man. 

Considering  that  the  only  real  enemy  of 
Ireland,  both  then  and  ever  since,  was  the 
English  Government,  it  was  very  unfortunate 
that  the  divisions  among.-t  the  Catholics 
themselves,  and  the  hereditary  estrangement 
and  aversion  between  them  and  the  Presby- 
terians, made  it  next  to  impossible  to  create 
a  united  Irish  nation,  with  one  sole  bond,  and 
one  single  aim,  the  destruction  of  British 
government  in  this  island.  This,  however, 
was  precisely  the  great  task  undertaken  by 
Theobald  Wolfe  Tone,  a  young  Protestant 
lawyer  of  Dublin;  of  English  descent  by 
both  the  father's  side  and  the  mother's,  a 
graduate  of  Trinity  College,  and  who  at  the 
time  when  he  first  flung  himself  into  the 
grand  revolutionary  scheme  of  associating 
the  Catholics  to  the  body  of  the  nation,  was 
not  personally  a<'quaintcd  with  a  single  in- 
dividual of  that  creed.  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  Tone  had  been  a  democrat  from  tho 
very  commencement — that  is  from  the  com- 
mencement of  the  French  revolution.  In  his 
narrative  of  his  own  life,  Tone  has  given  so 
clear  an  account  of  the  dissensions  which 
broke  up  the  Catholic  Committee,  the  cir- 
cnmstances  which  led  to  his  own  alliance 
with  the  Catholic  body,  and  the  first  forma- 
tion of  the  clubs  of  ''  United  Iiishmeu,"  that 


CATHOLIC    GENERAL    COIIMITTEE. 


203 


it  m;iy  here  be  presented  in  his  own  words, 
in  a  slio-litly  abridged  form  : — 

"  The  General  Committee  of  the  Catholics, 
which,  since  the  year  1792,  has  made  a  dis- 
ting-uished  feature  in  the  politics  of  Ireland, 
was  a  body  composed  of  their  bishops,  their 
country  gentlemen,  and  of  a  certain  number 
of  merchants  and  traders,  all  resident  in 
Dublin,  but  named  by  the  Catholics  in  the 
different  towns  corporate  to  represent  them. 
The  original  object  of  this  institution  was  to 
obtain  the  repeal  of  a  partial  and  oppressive 
tax  called  quarterage,  which  was  levied  on 
the  Catholics  only,  and  the  Government, 
which  found  the  committee  at  first  a  con- 
venient instrument  on  some  occasions,  con- 
nived at  its  existence.  So  degraded  was 
the  Catholic  mind  at  the  period  of  the 
formation  of  their  committee,  about  1770, 
and  long  after,  that  they  were  happy  to  be 
allowed  to  go  up  to  the  Castle  with  an 
abominable  slavish  address  to  each  succes- 
sive viceroy,  of  which,  moreover,  until  the 
accession  of  the  Duke  of  Portland,  in  1782, 
so  little  notice  was  taken  that  his  grace  was 
the  first  who  condescended  to  give  them  an 
answer;  and,  indeed,  for  above  twenty  years, 
the  sole  business  of  the  General  Committee 
was  to  prepare  and  deliver  in  those  records 
of  their  depression.  The  etlbrt  which  an 
honest  indignation  had  called  forth  at  the 
time  of  the  Volunteer  Convention,  in  1783, 
seemed  to  have  exhausted  tlieir  strength, 
and  they  sunk  back  into  their  primitive 
nullity.  Under  this  appearance  of  apathy, 
however,  a  new  spirit  was  giadually  arising 
in  the  body,  owing,  principally,  to  the  exer- 
tions and  the  example  of  one  man,  John 
Keogh,  to  whose  services  his  country,  and 
more  especially  the  Catholics,  are  singulaily 
indebted.  In  fact,  the  downfall  of  feudal 
tvrannv  was  acted  in  little  on  the  theatre 
of  the  General  Committee.  The  influence 
of  their  clergy  and  of  their  barons  was 
gradually  undermined,  and  the  third  estate, 
the  commercial  interest,  rising  in  wealth 
and  power,  was  preparing,  by  degrees  to 
throw  otf  the  yoke,  in  the  imposing,  oi',  at 
least,  the  continuing  of  which  the  leaders 
of  the  body,  I  mean  the  prelates  and  aristoc- 
racy, to  their  disgrace  be  it  spoken,  were 
ready  to  concur.  Alreaily  had  those  leaders, 
actinor  in   obedience    to  the  orders  of   the 


Government  which  held  them  in  fetters, 
suffered  one  or  two  signal  defeats  in  the 
committee,  owing  principally  to  the  talents 
and  address  of  John  Keogh  ;  the  parties 
began  to  be  defined,  and  a  sturdy  democracy 
of  new  men,  with  bolder  views  and  stronger 
talents,  soon  superseded  the  timid  counsels 
and  slavish  measures  of  the  ancient  aristoc- 
racy. Every  thing  seemed  tending  to  a 
better  order  of  things  among  the  Catholics 
and  an  occasion  soon  offered  to  call  the 
energy  of  their  new  leaders  into  action. 

"The  Dissenters  of  the  North,  and  more 
especially  of  the  town  of  Belfast,  are  from 
the  genius  of  their  religion  and  from  the 
superior  diffusion  of  political  information 
among  them,  sincere  and  enlightened  Re- 
publicans. They  had  ever  been  foremost  in 
the  pursuit  of  parliamentary  reform,  and  I 
have  already  mentioned  the  early  wisdom 
and  virtue  of  the  town  of  Belfast,  in  pro- 
posing the  emancipation  of  the  Cathohcs  so 
far  back  as  the  year  1783. 

"The  Catholics,  on  their  part,  were  rapid- 
ly advancing  in  political  spirit  and  informa- 
tion. Every  month,  every  day,  as  the  rev- 
olution in  France  went  prosperously  forward, 
added  to  their  courage  and  their  force,  and 
the  hour  seemed  at  last  arrived,  when,  after 
a  dreary  oppression  of  about  one  hundred 
years,  they  were  once  more  to  appear  on  the 
political  theatre  of  their  country.  They  saw 
the  brilliant  prospect  of  success  which  events 
in  France  opened  to  their  view,  and  they  de- 
termined to  avail  themselves  with  prompti- 
tude of  that  opportunity,  which  never  re- 
turns to  those  who  omit  it.  For  this,  the 
active  members  of  the  General  Committee 
resolved  to  set  on  foot  an  immediate  appli- 
cation to  Parliament,  praying  for  a  repeal 
of  the  penal  laws.  The  first  diflSculty  they 
had  to  surmount,  arose  in  their  own  body ; 
their  peers,  their  gentry  (as  they  affected  to 
call  themselves),  and  their  prelates,  either 
seduced  or  intimidated  by  Government,  gave 
the  measure  all  possible  opposition  ;  and,  at 
length,  after  a  long  contest,  in  which  both 
parties  strained  every  nerve,  and  produced 
the  whole  of  their  strength,  the  question 
was  decided  on  a  division  in  the  committee,, 
by  a  majority  of  at  least  six  to  one,  in  favor 
of  the  intended  application.  The  triumph 
of    the   young   democracy    was   complete; 


204 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


but,  lliuiioli  the  aristocracy  was  defeated, 
it  was  not  yet  entirely  broken  down.  By 
the  insligHti<in  of  Government  they  had 
the  ine;inne^s  to  secede  from  the  General 
Committee,  to  disavow  their  acts,  and  even 
to  publish  in  the  papers,  that  they  did  not 
wish  to  embarrass  the  Government  by  ad- 
vancing their  claims  of  emancipation.  It  is 
difficult  to  conceive  such  a  degree  of  politi- 
cal degradation ;  but  what  will  not  the 
tyranny  of  an  execrable  system  produce  in 
time?  Sixty-eight  gentlemen,  individually 
of  high  spirit,  were  found,  who,  publicly, 
and  in  a  body,  deserted  their  party,  and 
their  own  just  claims,  and  even  sanctioned 
this  pitiful  desertion  by  the  authority  of 
their  signatures.  Such  an  eft'ect  ha<l  the 
operation  of  the  penal  laws  on  the  minds  of 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  as  proud  a  race  as 
any  in  all  Europe!  * 

"The  first  attempts  of  the  Catholic  Com- 
mittee failed  totally ;  endeavoring  to  ac- 
commodate all  parties,  they  framed  a  peti- 
tion so  humble  that  it  ventured  to  ask  for 
nothing,  and  even  this  petition  they  could 
not  find  a  single  member  of  the  legislature 
to  present ;  of  so  little  consequence,  in  the 
year  1790,  was  the  great  mass  of  the  Irish 
people!  Not  disheartened,  however,  by 
this  defeat,  they  went  on,  and  in  the  interval 
between  that  and  the  approaching  session, 
they  were  preparing  measuies  for  a  second 
application.  In  order  to  add  a  greater 
weight  and  consequence  to  tlieir  intended 
petition,  they  brought  over  to  Ireland  Rich- 

*  Mr.  Tone's  account  of  the  secession  of  tlie  sixty- 
eight  members  from  the  General  Committee  is  not 
sufficiently  expUinatory.  Mr.  I'lovvden,  au  excel- 
lent auttiority  on  this  point,  says  that  it  was  caused 
chiefly  hy  dissatisfaetioii  on  account  of  "  public  acts 
of  Comuumication  of  I'rotestants  in  the  North  with 
France."  Jn  particular,  the  people  of  Belfast  had 
sent  an  address  of  warm  congratulation  to  the  so- 
ciety of  "  Friends  of  the  Constitution  "  at  Bordeaux  ; 
and  had  received  an  eloquent  reply.  Communica- 
tions of  tliis  kind,  says  Tlowden,  "gave  particular 
ofi'ence  to  Government,  who  manifested  great  jeal- 
ousy and  diffidence  towards  all  persons  concerned  in 
tliem."  It  was  to  exjire.ss  their  liorror  of  co-operat- 
ing in  any  degree  with  such  men  and  measures, 
that  the  men  of  landed  property  and  the  prelates 
seceded.  The  seceders  shortly  after  presented  to  the 
lord-lieutenant  a  petition  or  ad'.lress,  which  went  no 
jiirther  than  a  general  expression  of  submissivene.ss 
j»nd  respect  to  Government,  "throwing  themselves 
and  their  body  on  tiieir  humanity  and  wisdom." 
This  was  called  tauntingly  the  "Eleemosynary  Ad- 
dresti." 


aid  Burke,  only  son  of  the  celebrated  Ed- 
mund, and  appointed  him  their  agent  to 
conduct  their  application  to  Parliament. 
This  young  man  came  over  with  consider- 
able advantages,  and  especially  with  the 
eclat  of  his  father's  name,  who,  the  Cath- 
olics concluded,  and  very  reasonably,  would, 
foi-  his  sake,  if  not  for  theirs,  assist  his  son 
with  his  advice  and  directions.  But  their 
expectations  in  the  event  pi'oved  abortive. 
Richard  Burke,  with  a  considerable  portion 
of  talent  from  nature,  and  cultivated,  as 
may  be  well  supposed,  with  the  utmost 
care  by  his  father,  who  idolized  him,  was 
utterly  deficient  in  judgment,  in  temper, 
and  especially  in  the  art  of  managing  par- 
ties. In  three  or  four  months'  time,  during 
which  he  remained  in  Ireland,  he  contrived 
to  embroil  himself,  and,  in  a  certain  degree, 
the  committee,  with  all  parties  in  Parlia- 
ment, the  opposition  as  well  as  the  Govern- 
ment, and  ended  his  short  and  turbulent 
career  by  breaking  with  the  General  Com- 
mittee. That  body,  however,  treated  him 
respectfully  to  the  last,  and,  on  his  depar- 
ture, tliey  sent  a  deputation  to  thank  him 
for  his  exertions,  and  presented  him  with  the 
sum  of  two  thousand  guineas. 

*'It  was  pretty  much  about  this  time  that 
my  connection  with  the  Catholic  body  com- 
menced, in  the  manner  which  I  am  about  to 
relate. 

''Russell*  had,  on  his  arrival  to  join  his 
regiment  at  Belfast,  found  the  people  so 
much  to  his  taste,  and  in  return  had  rendered 
himself  so  agreeable  to  them,  that  he  was 
speedily  admitted  into  their  confidence,  and 
became  a  member  of  several  of  their  clubs. 
This  was  an  unusual  circumstance,  as  Brit- 
ish ofiicers,  it  may  well  be  supposed,  were 
no  great  favorites  with  the  republicans  of 
Belfast.  The  Catholic  question  was,  at  this 
period,  beginning  to  attract  the  public  no- 
tice; and  the  Belfast  Volunteers,  on  some 
public  occasion,  I  know  not  precisely  what, 
wished  to  come  forward  with  a  declaration 
in  its  favor.  For  this  purpose,  Russell,  who, 
by  this  time,  was  entirely  in  their  confidence, 
wrote  to  me  to  draw  up  and  transmit  to 
him  such  a  declaration  as  I  thought  pioper, 
which  I  accordingly  did.     A  meeting  of  the 

*  Thomas  Kussell,  Tone's  most  intimate  friend 
uud  coinrudo. 


tone's  pamphlet  on  behalf  of  the  catholics. 


205 


Corps  was  held  in  consequence,  but  an  oppo- 
sition unexpectedly  arising  to  tliat  part  of 
the  declarations  which  alluded'  directly  to 
the  Catholic  claims,  that  passage  was,  fur 
the  sake  of  unanimity,  withdrawn  for  the 
present,  and  the  declarations  then  passed 
nnanimously.  Kussell  wrote  me  an  account 
of  all  this,  and  it  immediately  set  me  to 
thinking  more  seriousl}'  than  I  had  yet  done 
upon  the  state  of  Ireland.  I  soon  formed 
my  theory,  and  on  that  theory  I  have  un- 
varyingly acted  ever  since. 

"  To  subvert  the  tyranny  of  our  execrable 
Government,  to  break  the  connection  with 
England,  the  never-failing  source  of  all  our 
political  evils,  and  to  assert  the  indepen- 
dence of  my  country — these  were  my  ob- 
jects. To  unite  the  whole  people  of  Ireland, 
to  abolish  the  memory  of  all  past  dissensions, 
and  to  substitute  the  common  name  of 
Irishman,  in  place  of  the  denominations  of 
Protestant,  Catholic,  and  Dissenter — these 
were  my  means.  To  effectuate  these  great 
objects,  I  reviewed  the  three  great  sects. 
Tiie  Protestants  I  despaired  of  from  the  out- 
set, for  obvious  reasons.  Alieady  in  posses- 
sion, by  an  unjust  monopoly,  of  the  whole 
power  and  patronage  of  the  country,  it  was 
not  to  be  supposed  they  would  ever  concur 
in  measures,  the  certain  tendency  of  which 
must  be  to  lessen  their  influence  as  a  party, 
how  much  soever  the  nation  might  gain. 
To  the  Catholics  I  thought  it  unnecessary 
to  address  myself,  because,  as  no  change 
could  make  their  political  situation  worse,  I 
reckoned  upon  their  support  to  a  certainty  ; 
besides,  they  had  aheady  begun  to  manifest 
a  strong  sense  of  their  wrongs  and  oppres- 
sions: and,  finally,  I  well  knew  that,  how- 
ever it  might  be  disguised  or  suppressed, 
there  existed  in  the  breast  of  every  Irish 
Catholic,  an  inextirpable  abhorrence  of  the 
English  name  and  power.  There  remained 
only  the  Dissenters,  whom  I  knew  to  be 
patriotic  and  enlightened ;  however,  the 
recent  events  at  Belfast  had  showed  me  that 
all  prejudice  was  not  yet  entirely  removed 
from  their  minds.  I  sat  down  accordingly, 
and  wrote  a  pamphlet,  addressed  to  the 
Dissenters,  and  which  I  entitled  "  An  Argu- 
ment on  behalf  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland," 
the  object  of  which  was  to  convince  them 
that   they  and   the   Catholics  had   but  one 


I  common  interest,  and   one  common  ciicmv  : 
that  the   depression   and   slavery  of  Ireland 
was  produced  and  perpetuated  by  the  divi- 
sions  existing  between  them,  and  that,  con- 
sequently,   to    assert    the    independence    of 
their  country,  and  their  own  individu;d  liber- 
ties, it   was    necessary   to   forget  all    former 
feuds,  to  consolidate  the  entire  strength  of 
the  whole  nation,  and  to  form  for  the  future 
but    one    people.     These    principles  I   sup- 
ported   by  the   best  arguments  which   sug- 
gested  themselves   to    me,  and   particularly 
by  demonstrating  that  the  cause  of  the  fail- 
ure of  all  former  eflbrts,  and  more  especially 
of  the  Volunteer  Convention  in    1783,  was 
the    unjust   neglect   of   the  claims   of  their 
Catholic  brethren.      This   pamphlet,  which 
appeared    in    September,    1791,    under     the 
signature  of  a  Northern  Whig,  had  a  consid- 
erable   degree    of    success.      The   Catholics 
[with  not  one  of  whotn  I  was  at   the   time 
acquainted)  were  pleased  with  the  efforts  of 
a  volunteer  in  their  cause,  and  distributed  it 
in  all  quarters.     The  people  of  Belfast,  of 
whom   I  had   spoken  with  the  respect  and 
admiration  I  sincerely  felt  for  them,  and  to 
whom  I  was  also  perfectly  unknown,  printed 
a  very  large   edition,  which   they  dispersed 
through  the  whole  North  of  Ireland,  and   I 
have  the  great  satisfaction  to  believe  that 
many  of  the  Dissenters  were  converted   by 
my  arguments.     It  is  like  vanity  to  speak  of 
my  own   performances   so   much ;    and   the 
fact  is,  I  believe  that  I  am  somewhat  vain 
on  that  topic  ;  but,  as  it  was  the  immediate 
cause  of  my  being  made  known  to  the  Cath- 
olic body,  I   may  be,  perhaps,  excused   for 
dwelling  on  a  circumstance   which   I  must 
ever  look  upon,  for  that  reason,  as  one  of  the 
most  fortunate  of  my  life.     As  my  pamphlet 
spread    more    and    more,  my   acquaintance 
amongst  the  Catholics  extended  accordingly. 
My  first  friend  in  the  body  was  John  Keogh, 
and  through  him  I  became  acquainted  with 
all  the  leaders,  as  Richard  McCormick,  John 
Sweetman,  Edward  Byrne,  Thomas  Braug- 
hall,  in  short,  the  whole  sub-committee,  and 
most  of  the  active  members  of  the  General 
Committee.     It  was  a  kind  of  fashion  this 
winter  (1791)  among  the  Catholics  to  give 
splendid  dinners  to  their  political  friends,  in 
and  out  of  Parliament,  and  I  was  always  a 
guest,  of  course.     I  was  invited  to  a  grand 


200 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


dinner,  given  to  Richard  Burke,  on  his  leav- 
ing   Dublin,  together    with    William    Todd 
Junes,  wlio  had  distinguished   himself  by  a 
most    excellent   pamphlet   in    favor   of  the 
Catholic  cause,  as  well  as  to  several  enter- 
tainments, given  by  dubs  and  associations. 
I  was  invited  to  spend  a  few  days  in  Belfast, 
in  order  to  assist  in  framing  the  first  club  of 
United  Irishmen,  and  to  cultivate  a  personal 
acquaintance  with  those  men  whom,  though 
I   highly  esteemed,  I  knew  as  yet   but  by 
reputation.     In  consequence,  about  the  be- 
ginning of  October,  I  went  down  with  my 
friend   Russell,  who  bad,  by  this  time,  quit 
the  army,   and  was  in  Dublin,  on  his  pri- 
vate affairs.    That  journey  was  by  far  the 
most  agreeable  and  interesting  one   I   had 
ever  made :  my  reception  was  of  the  most 
flattering   kind,    and   I    found   the    men    of 
the    most    distinguished    public    virtue    in 
the  nation,   the   most  estimable  in  all   the 
domestic  relations  of  life :  I  had  the  good 
fortune     to     render    myself    agreeable     to 
them,  and    a    friendship  was    then    formed 
between   us   which   I  think    it   will  not  be 
easy  to  shake.     It  is  a  kind  of  injustice  to 
name  individuals,  yet  I  cannot  refuse  my- 
self the  pleasure  of  observing  how  peculiarly 
fortunate  I  esteem  myself  in  having  formed 
connections    with    Samuel    Neilson,   Robert 
Simms,  William    Simms,  William    Sinclair, 
Thomas  McCabe  :  T  may  as  well  stop  here  ; 
for,    in    enumerating    my    most    particular 
friends,  I   find  I  am,  in  fact,  making  out  a 
list  of  the  men  of  Belfast  most  distinguished 
for  their  virtue,  talent,  and  patriotism.     To 
proceed.     We  formed  our  club,  of  which  I 
wrote  the  declaration,  and  certainly  the  for- 
mation of  that  club  commenced  a  new  epoch 
in  the  politics  of  Ireland.     At  length,  after 
a  stay  of  about  three  weeks,  which  I  look 
back  upon  as  perhaps  the  pleasantest  in  my 
life,  Russell  and  I  returned  to  Dublin,  with 
instructions  to  cultivate  the  leaders  in  the 
popular   interest,    being  Protestants,  and,  if 
possible,  to  form,  in  (he  capital,  a  club  of 
United  Irishmen.     Neither  Russell  nor  my- 
self was  known   to   one  of   those    leaders ; 
however,  we  soon  contrived  to  get  acquainted 
with   James   Napper  Tandy,  who   was    the 
principal   of   them,  and,  through    him,  with 
several  others,  so  that,  in  a  little  time,  we  suc- 
ceeded, and  a  club  was  accordingly  formed,  of 


which 'the  Honorable  Simon  Butler  was  the 
first  chairman,  and  Trmdy  the  first  secretary. 
The  club  adopted  the  declaration  of  their 
brethren  of  Belfast,  with  whom  they  imme- 
diately opened  a  correspondence.  It  is  but 
justice  to  an  honest  man  who  has  been  per- 
secuted for  his  firm  adherence  to  his  princi- 
{)les,  to  observe  here,  that  Tandy,  in  coming 
forward  on  this  occasion,  well  knew  that  he 
was  putting  to  the  most  extreme  hazard  his 
popularity  among  the  corporations  of  the 
city  of  Dublin,  with  whom  he  had  enjoyed 
the  most  unbounded  influence  for  near 
twenty  years ;  and,  in  fact,  in  the  event,  his 
popularity  was  sacrificed.  That  did  not 
prevent,  however,  his  t;iking  his  part  deci<l- 
edly :  he  had  the  firmness  to  forego  the 
gratification  of  his  priyate  feelings  for  the 
good  of  his  country.  The  truth  is,  Tandy 
was  a  very  sincere  Republican,  and  it  did  not 
require  much  argument  to  show  him  the 
impossibility  of  attaining  a  republic  by  any 
ineans  short  of  the  united  powers  of  the 
whole  people ;  he  therefore  renounced  the 
lesser  objects  for  the  greatgr,  and  gave  up 
the  certain  influence  which  he  possessed  (and 
had  well  earned)  in  the  city,  for  the  contin- 
gency of  that  influence  which  he  might 
have  (and  well  deserves  to  have)  in  the  na- 
tion. For  my  own  part,  I  think  it  right  to 
mention,  that,  at  this  time,  the  establishment 
of  a  republic  was  not  the  immediate  object 
of  my  speculations.  My  object  was  to  secure 
the  independence  of  my  country  under  any 
form  of  government,  to  which  I  was  led  by 
a  hatred  of  England,  so  deeply  rooted  in 
my  nature,  that  it  was  rather  an  instinct 
than  a  principle.  I  left  to  others,  bett^T 
qualified  for  the  inquiry,  the  investigation 
and  merits  of  the  diS'erent  forms  of  govern- 
ment, and  I  contented  myself  with  laboring 
on  my  own  system,  which  was  luckily  in 
perfect  coincidence  as  to  its  operation  with 
that  of  those  men  who  viewed  the  question 
on  a  broader  and  juster  scale  than  1  did  at 
the  time  I  mention." 

Wolfe  Tone  was  shortly  after,  on  the 
recommendation  of  John  Keogh,  appointed 
secretary  to  the  "Gener-il  Committee"  of 
the  Catholics,  and  long  labored  zealously  in 
their  service.  But  he  was  not  content  with 
mere  Catholic  agitation.  He  atid  his  friends 
continued  witli  unabated  zeal  in  the  organi- 


PROGRESS    OP    CATnOLIC   COMMITTEE. 


207 


zation  of  ihe  United  Irish  Society,  wliich  he 
hoped  to  see  swallow  up  all  others. 

On  the  30ih  of  December,  1791,  the 
Utiited  Irishmen  of  Dublin  held  a  special 
session,  at  which  they  approved  of  a  cir- 
cular letter  which  was  calculated  to  en- 
courage similar  societies;  and  to  it  they 
annexed  a  declaration  of  their  political  sen- 
timents, and  the  test  which  they  had  taken 
as  a  social  and  sacred  compact  to  bind  them 
more  closely  together.  They  also,  in  their 
publications,  animadverted  severely  upon  the 
sixty-four  addressers.  The  general  disposi- 
tion to  republicanism  which  appeared  in  the 
publications  and  whole  conduct  of  these  new 
societies,  became  daily  more  and  more  ob- 
noxious to  Government :  they  were  chiefly 
composed  of  Dissenters :  yet  several  leading 
men  amongst  them  were  Protestants  of  the 
established  church  :  it  was  believed  and, 
constantly  preached  up  by  the  Castle,  that 
ihis  new,  violent,  and  afteclionate  attach- 
ment of  the  Dissenters  for  their  Roman 
Catholic  brethren,  proceeded  not  from  any 
sentiment  of  liberality  or  toleration,  but 
purely  to  engage  the  co-operation  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  the  more  warmly 
in  forwarding  thp  several  popular  questions 
lately  brought  before  Parliament. 

The  truth  is  that  the  patrician  "Patriots" 
of  Parliament  were  quite  shy  of  association 
with  the  members  of  the  new  societies. 
Some  of  them  were  alarmed  about  French 
principles  of  democracy,  which  could  scarcely 
be  expected  to  be  agreeable  to  a  privileged 
class  :  others  thought  that  the  United  Irish- 
men and  the  existing  Catholic  Committee 
both  consisted  of  low  people ;  and  thev 
were  possessed  by  that  general  aversion  felt 
by  members  of  Parliament  against  all  extra- 
parliamentary  movements. 

From  that  time  shyness,  jealousy,  and  dis- 
trust subsisted  between  those  new  societies 
anii  the  Whig  Club,  though  the  agents  and 
writers  for  Government  attempted  to  identify 
their  views,  measures,  and  principles,  as  ap- 
pears by  the  newspapers,  and  other  publica- 
tions of  that  day.  Tone,  on  his  side,  who 
had  wholly  given  up  Parliament  as  a  thing 
not  only  useless  but  noxious  to  the  nation, 
felt  the  utmost  resentment  at  the  members 
of  the  opposition  for  any  longer  keeping  up 
the    delusion    of    parliamentary    patriotism, 


and  avowed  that  he  respected  more  the 
Castle  members  themselves.  "Tliey  want," 
said  he,  "  at  least  one  vice,  hypocrisy."  j 

The  Catholic  General  Committee  had  new 
life  infused  into  it,  thrpugh  the  energy  of 
Keogh  and  the  labors  of  Wolfe  Tone. 

"There  seems,"  says  Tone  in  his  sant;uine 
way  ''from  this  time  out,  a  special  Provi- 
dence to  have  watched  over  the  affairs  of 
Ireland,  and  to  have  turned  to  her  profit 
and  advantage  the  deepest  laid  and  most  art- 
ful schemes  of  her  enemies.  Every  measure 
adopted,  and  skilfully  adopted,  to  thwart  the 
expectations  of  the  Catholics,  and  to  crush 
the  rising  spirit  of  union  between  them  and 
the  Dissenters,  has,  without  exception,  only 
tended  to  confirm  and  fortify  both,  and  the 
fact  I  am  about  to  mention,  for  one,  is  a 
striking  proof  of  the  truth  of  this  assertion. 
Tlie  principal  charge  in  the  general  outcry 
raised  in  the  House  of  Commons  against  the 
General  Committee  was,  inat  they  were  a 
self-appointed  body,  not  nominated  bv  the 
Catholics  of  the  nation,  and,  consequently, 
not  authorized  to  speak  on  their  behalf. 
This  argument,  which,  in  fact,  was  the  truth, 
was  triumphantly  dwelt  upon  by  the  enemies 
of  the  Catholics ;  but,  in  the  end,  it  would 
have  perhaps  been  more  fortunate  for  their 
wishes,  if  they  had  not  laid  such  a  stress 
upon  this  circumstance,  and  drawn  the  line 
of  separation  so  strongly  between  the  Gen- 
eral Committee  and  the  body  at  large.  For 
the  Catholics  throughout  Ireland,  who  had 
hitherto  been  indolent  spectators  of  the  busi- 
ness, seeing  their  brethren  of  Dublin,  and 
especially  the  General  Committee,  insulted 
and  abused  for  their  exertions  in  pursuit  of 
that  liberty  which,  if  attained,  must  be  a 
common  blessing  to  all,  came  forward  as 
one  man  from  every  quarter  of  the  nation, 
with  addresses  and  resolutions,  adopting  the 
measures  of  the  General  Committee  as  their 
own,  declaring  that  body  the  only  oigan 
competent  to  speak  for  the  Catholi<'s  of  Ire- 
land, and  condemning,  in  terms  of  the  most 
marked  disapprobation  and  contempt,  the 
conduct  of  the  sixty-eight  apostat'-s,  who 
were  so  triumphantly  held  up  by  the  hire- 
lings of  Government  as  the  respectable  part 
of  the  Catholic  community.  The  question 
was  now  fairly  decided.  The  aristocracy 
shrunk  back  in  disgrace  and  obscurity,  leav- 


208 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


ing  the  field  open  to  the  democracy,  and  that 
body  neither  wanted  talents  nor  spirit  to 
profit  by  the  advantages  of  their  present 
situation. 

•'  It  is  to  the  sagacity  of  Myles  Keoriy  of 
Keonhrooh,  Coimty  Ze/<m«,  that  his  country 
is  indebted  for  the  system  on  which  the 
General  Committee  was  to  be  framed  anew, 
in  a  manner  that  should  render  it  impossible 
to  bring  it  again  in  doubt  whether  that  body 
weie  oi'  not  the  organ  of  the  Catholic  will. 
His  plan  was  to  associate  to  the  committee, 
as  then  constituted,  two  members  from  each 
county  and  great  city,  actual  residents  of 
the  place  which  they  represented,  who  were, 
however,  only  to  be  summoned  upon  extra- 
ordinary octtasions,  leaving  the  common  rou- 
tine of  business  to  the  original  members, 
who,  as  I  have  already  related,  were  all 
residents  of  Dublin.  The  committee,  as 
thus  constituted,  would  consist  of  half  town 
and  half  country  members ;  and  the  elec- 
tions for  the  latter  he  proposed  should  be 
held  by  means  of  primary  and  electoral 
assemblies,  held,  the  first  in  each  parish,  the 
second  in  each  county  and  great  town.  lie 
likewise  proposed,  that  the  town  members 
should  be  held  to  correspond  regularly  with 
their  country  associates,  these  with  their 
immediate  electors,  and  these  again  with  the 
primary  assemblies.  A  more  simple  and,  at 
the  same  time,  more  comprehensive  organi- 
zation could  not  be  devised.  By  this  means 
the  General  Committee  became  the  centre 
of  a  circle  embracing  the  whole  nation,  and 
pushing  its  rays  instantaneously  to  the  re- 
motest parts  of  the  circumference.  The 
plan  was  laid,  in  writing,  before  the  General 
Committee  by  Myles  Keon,  and,  after  mature 
discussion,  the  fiist  part,  relating  to  the  asso- 
ciation and  election  of  the  country  members, 
was  adopted  with  some  slight  variation  ;  the 
latter  part,  relating  to  the  constant  commu- 
nication with  the  mass  of  the  people,  was 
thought,  under  the  circumstances,  to  be  too 
hardy,  and  was,  accordingly,  dropped  sub 
silcatio." 

This  was  a  project  for  a  regular  conven- 
tion of  delegates,  which  was  then  a  measure 
perfectly  legal,  as  indeed  it  still  is  in  Eng- 
land, 

On  the  proposal  for  this  convention  there 
was    immediate    alarm    and    almost   frantic 


rage  o.n  the  part  of  the  Ascendency :  for  the 
Catholics  were  by  this  time  over  three  mil- 
lions; and  the  representatives  of  such  a  mass 
of  people,  meeting  in  Dublin,  and  backed 
by  the  active  sympathies  of  the  fast-growing 
United  Irish  Society,  were  likely  to  be  peril- 
ous to  the  Government  at  a  moment  of  such 
high  political  excitement.  Grand  juries  and 
town  corporations  passed  violent  resolutions 
against  it,  and  pledged  themselves  to  resist 
and  suppress  it.  But  the  committee  had 
taken  counsel's  opinion,  and  felt  quite  secure 
on  the  legal  ground.  Some  of  the  further 
proceedings  may  most  fitly  be  given  in  the 
words  of  Wolfe  Tone's  own  narrative,  with 
which  we  must  then  part  company,  not  with- 
out regret :  for  his  "Autobiography  "  breaks 
otf  here  : — * 

"This  (1'792)  was  a  memorable  year  in 
Ireland.  The  publication  of  the  plan  for  the 
new  organizing  of  the  General  Committee 
gave  an  instant  alarm  to  all  the  supporters 
of  the  British  Government,  and  every  effort 
was  made  to  prevent  the  election  of  the 
country  members ;  for  it  was  sufficiently 
evident  that,  if  the  representatives  of  three 
millions  of  oppressed  people  were  once  suf- 
fered to  meet,  it  would  not  afterwards  be 
safe,  or  indeed  possible,  to  refuse  their  just 
demands.  Accordingly,  at  the  ensuing  as- 
sizes, the  grand  juries,  universally,  through- 
out IieUind,  published  the  most  furious,  I 
may  say  frantic,  resolutions,  against  the  plan 
and  its  authors,  whom  they  charged  with 
little  short  of  high  treason.  Government, 
likewise,  was  too  successful  in  gaining  over 
the  Catholic  clergy,  particularly  the  bishops, 
who  gave  the  measure  at  first  very  serious 
opposition.  The  committee,  however,  was 
not  daunted  ;  and,  satisfied  of  the  justice  of 
their  cause,  and  of  their  own  courage,  they 
labored,  and  with  success,  to  inspire  the 
same  spirit  in  the  breasts  of  their  brethren 
throughout  the  nation.  For  this  purpose, 
their  first  step  was  an  admirable  one.  By 
their  order,  I  drew  up  a  state  of  the  case, 
with  the  plan  for  the  organization  of  the 
committee  annexed,  which  was  laid  before 
Simon  Butler  and  Beresford  Burton,  two 
lawyers  of  great  eminence,  and,  what  was  of 
consequence  here,  king's   counsel,  to  know 

*  Some  parts  of  his  journals  indeed  will  be  (bund 
most  valuable  references  farther  ou. 


WOLFE   TONE  S   AirrOBIOGR.iPnT. 


203 


■whether  the  committee  had  in  any  respect 
contravened  the  hiw  of  the  land,  or  whether, 
by  carrying  the  proposed  plan  into  execu- 
tion, the  parties  concerned  would  subject 
themselves  to  pain  or  penalty.  The  answers 
of  both  the  lawyers  were  completely  in  onr 
favor,  and  we  instantly  printed  them  in  the 
papers,  and  dispersed  them  in  handbills, 
letters,  and  all  possible  shapes.  This  blow 
was  decisive  as  to  the  legality  of  the  meas- 
ure. For  the  bishops,  whose  opposition 
gave  us  great  trouble,  four  or  five  different 
missions  were  undertaken  by  different  mem- 
bers of  the  sub-committee,  into  the  prov- 
inces, at  their  own  expense,  in  order  to  hold 
conferences  with  them,  in  which,  with  much 
difficulty,  they  succeeded  so  far  as  to  secure 
the  co-operation  of  some,  and  the  neutrality 
of  the  rest  of  the  prelates.  On  these  mis- 
sions the  most  active  membeis  were  John 
Keogh  and  Thomas  Braughall,  neither  of 
whom  spared  purse  nor  person  where  the 
interests  of  the  Catholic  body  were  concern- 
ed. I  accompanied  Mr.  Braughall  in  his 
visit  to  Connaught,  where  he  went  to  meet 
the  gentry  of  that  province  at  the  great  fair 
of  B.illinasloe.  As  it  was  late  in  the  even- 
ing when  we  Jeft  town,  the  postillion  who 
drove  us,  having  given  warning,  I  am  satis- 
tied,  to  some  footpads,  the  carriage  was 
stopped  by  four  or  five  fellows  at  the  gate 
of  Phoenix  Park.  We  had  two  cases  of 
pistols  in  the  carriage,  and  we  agreed  not  to 
be  robbed.  Braughall,  who  was  at  this 
time  about  sixty-five  years  of  age,  and  lame 
from  a  fall  off"  his  horse  some  years  before, 
was  as  cool  and  intrepid  as  man  could  be. 
He  took  the  command,  and  by  his  orders  I 
let  down  all  the  glasses,  and  called  out  to 
the  fellows  to  come  on,  if  they  were  so  in- 
clined, for  that  we  were  ready;  Braughall 
desi-.ing  at  the  same  time  not  to  fire,  till  I 
could  touch  the  scoundrels.  This  rather  em- 
barrassed them,  and  they  did  not  venture  to 
approach  the  carriage,  but  held  a  council 
of  war  at  the  horse's  heads.  I  then  present- 
ed one  of  my  pistols  at  the  postillion,  swear- 
ing horribly  that  I  would  put  him  instantly 
to  death  if  he  did  not  drive  over  them,  and 
I  made  liim  feel  the  muzzle  of  the  pistol 
against  the  back  of  his  head  ;  the  fellows 
on  this  took  to  their  heels  and  ran  off,  and 
we  proceeded  on  our  journey  without  further 
27 


interruption.  When  we  arrived  at  thu  inn, 
P>raughall,  whose  goodness  of  heart  is  equal 
to  his  courage,  and  no  man  is  braver,  began 
by  abusing  the  postillion  for  his  treachery 
and  ended  by  giving  him  half  a  crown.  1 
wanted  to  break  the  rascal's  bones,  but  ho 
would  not  suffer  me,  and  this  was  the  end 
of  our  adventure. 

"  All  parties  were  now  fully  employed 
preparing  for  the  ensuing  session  of  Par- 
liament. The  Government,  through  the 
organ  of  the  corporations  and  grand  juries, 
opened  a  heavy  fire  upon  us  of  manifestoes 
and  resolutions.  At  first  we  were  like 
yoiSng  soldiers,  a  little  stunned  with  the 
noise,  but  after  a  few  rounds  we  began  to 
look  about  us,  and  seeing  nobody  drop  with 
all  this  furious  cannonade,  we  took  courage 
and  determined  to  return  the  fire.  In  con- 
sequence, wherever  there  was  a  meeting  of 
the  Protestant  Ascendency,  which  was  the 
title  assumed  by  th;it  party  (and  a  very 
impudent  one  it  was),  we  took  care  it 
should  be  followed  by  a  meeting  of  the 
Catholics,  who  spoke  as  loud,  and  louder 
than  their  adversaries,  and,  as  we  had  the 
riiiht  clearly  on  our  side,  we  found  no  great 
difficulty  in  silencing  the  enemy  on  this 
quarter.  The  Catholics  likewise  took  care, 
at  the  same  time  that  they  branded  their 
enemies,  to  mark  their  gratitude  to  their 
friends,  who  were  daily  increasing,  and  es- 
pecially to  the  people  of  Belfast,  between 
whom  and  the  Catholics  the  union  was  now 
completely  established.  Among  the  various 
attacks  made  on  us  this  summer,  the  most 
remarkable  for  their  virulence,  were  those 
of  the  grand  jury  of  Louth,  headed  by  the 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons;  of 
Limerick,  at  which  the  Lord  Chancellor 
assisted  ;  and  of  the  corporation  of  the  city 
of  Dublin  ;  which  last  published  a  most 
furious  manife>to,  threatening  us,  in  so  many 
words  with  a  resistance  by  force.  In  con- 
sequence, a  meeting  was  held  of  the  Cath- 
olics of  Dublin  at  large,  which  was  attended 
by  several  thousands,  where  the  manifesto 
of  the  corporation  was  read  and  most  ably 
commented  upon  by  John  Keogh,  Dr.  Ryan, 
Dr.  McNeven,  and  several  others,  and  a 
counter-manifesto  being  proposed,  which 
was  written  by  my  friend  Emmet,  and  in- 
comparably well  done,  it  was  carried  unan- 


210 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


iiiiously,  and  published  in  all  the  papers, 
together  with  the  speeches  above  mention- 
ed ;  and  both  speeches  and  the  manifesto 
bad  such  an  infinite  superiority  over  those 
of  the  corporation,  which  were  also  publish- 
ed and  diligently  circulated  by  the  Govern- 
ment, that  it  put  an  end,  effectually,  to  this 
warfare  of  resolutions. 

"The  people  of  Belfast  were  not  idle  on 
their  part ;  they  spared  neither  pains  nor 
expense  to  propagate  the  new  doctrine  of 
the  union  of  Irishmen,  through  the  whole 
North  of  Ireland,  and  they  had  the  satisfac- 
tion to  see  their  proselytes  rapidly  extend- 
ing in  all  directions.  In  order  more  eft'ec- 
tually  to  spread  their  principles,  twelve  of 
the  most  active  and  intelliofent  amonjr  them 
subscribed  i2250  each,  in  order  to  set  on 
foot  a  paper,  whose  object  should  be  to  give 
a  fair  statement  of  all  that  passed  in  France, 
whither  every  one  turned  their  eyes  ;  to  in- 
culcate the  necessity  of  union  amongst 
Irishmen  of  all  religious  persuasions;  to 
support  the  emancipation  of  the  Catholics; 
and,  finally,  as  the  necessary,  though  not 
avowed,  consequence  of  all  this,  to  erect 
Ireland  into  a  republic,  independent  of  Eng- 
land. This  paper,  which  they  called,  very 
appositely,  the  Northern  Star,  was  conduct- 
ed by  my  friend  Samuel  Neilson,  who 
was  unanimously  chosen  editor,  and  it  could 
not  be  delivered  into  abler  hands.  It  is,  in 
truth,  a  most  incomparable  paper,  and  it 
rose,  instantly,  on  its  appearance,  with  a 
most  rapid  and  extensive  sale.  The  Cath- 
olics everywhere  through  Ireland  (I  mean 
the  leading  Catholics)  were,  of  course,  sub- 
scribers, and  the  Northern  Star  was  one 
great  means  of  effectually  accomplishing  the 
union  of  the  two  great  sects,  by  the  simple 
process  of  making  their  mutual  sentiments 
better  known  to  each  other. 

"It  was  determined  by  the  people  of  Bel- 
fast to  commemorate  this  year  the  anniver- 
sary of  the  taking  of  the  Bastile  with  great 
ceremony.  For  this  purpose  they  planned 
a  review  of  the  Volunteers  of  the  town  and 
neighborhood,  to  be  followed  by  a  grand 
})rocession,  with  emblematical  devices,  etc. 
They  also  determined  to  avail  themselves  of 
this  opportunity  to  bring  forward  the  Cath- 
olic question  m  force,  and,  in  consequence, 
they  resolved  to  publish  two  addresses,  one 


to  the  people  of  France,  and  one  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Ireland.  They  gave  instructions  to 
Dr.  Brennau  to  prepare  the  former,  and  the 
latter  fell  to  my  lot.  Breunan  executed  his 
task  admirably,  and  I  made  my  address,  for 
my  part,  as  good  as  I  knew  how.  We  were 
invited  to  assist  at  the  ceremonv,  and  a  great 
number  of  the  leading  members  of  the  Cath- 
olic Committee  determined  to  avail  them- 
selves of  this  opportunity  to  show  their  zeal 
for  the  success  of  the  cause  of  liberty  in 
France,  as  well  as  their  respect  and  grati- 
tude to  their  friends  in  Belfast.  In  conse- 
quence, a  grand  assembly  took  place  on  the 
14th  of  July.  After  the  review,  the  Volun- 
teers and  inhabitants,  to  the  number  of 
about  6,000,  assembled  in  the  Linen-Hall, 
and  voted  the  address  to  the  French  people 
unanimously.  The  address  to  the  people  of 
Ireland  followed,  and,  as  it  was  directly  and 
unequivocally  in  favor  of  the  Catholic 
claims,  we  expected  some  opposition,  but 
we  were  soon  relieved  from  our  anxiety,  for 
the  address  passed,  I  may  say,  unanimously : 
a  few  ventured  to  oppose  it  indirectly,  but 
their  arguments  were  exposed  and  overset  by 
the  friends  to  Catholic  emancipation,  amongst 
the  foremost  of  whom  we  had  the  pleasure 
to  see  several  Dissenting  clergymen  of  great 
popularity  in  that  county." 

It  will  be  seen  that  on  the  whole  some 
progress  was  already  made,  and  much  more 
was  soon  to  be  expected  in  harmonizing  the 
Catholics  and  Dissenters,  at  least  in  the 
towns.  A  harder  task  revnained — to  make 
peace  between  them  in  the  country.  In  the 
County  Armagh,  Peep-of-Day  Boys  were 
growing  more  ferocious,  and  of  course,  the 
Defenders  more  strongly  organized  for  resist- 
ance. As  before,  the  country  gentlemen  of 
that  county,  as  ignorant  and  savage  a  race 
of  squires  as  any  in  Ireland,  took  part  with 
the  aggressors.  At  an  assizes,  in  1791,  the 
grand  jury  passed  a  resolution  declaring  that 
there  had  sprung  up  among  the  Papists  "-a 
passion  for  arming  themselves,  contrary  ti> 
law  " — and  that  this  was  matter  of  serious 
alarm,  etc.  As  the  tisual  pretext  of  the 
visits  of  the  Protestant  Boys,  "  Wreckers,'' 
and  other  such  banditti  was  to  search  for 
arms,  such  a  resolution  of  the  grand  jury 
was  neither  more  nor  less  than  an  invitation 
to  continue  such  visits,  and  an  assurance  of 


PKINCrrLES    OF   THE    UNITED    IRISHMEN'. 


211 


protection  to  tlie  "  Wreckers."  These  troub- 
les had  now  extended  considerably  into 
Tyrone,  Down,  and  Monaghan  Counties : 
'and  it  stirs  indignation  even  at  this  day  to 
think  of  so  many  wretched  families  always 
kept  in  wakeful  terror;  lying  down  in  fear 
and  rising  up  with  a  heavy  heart,  or  perhaps 
flying  to  the  desolate  mountains  by  the  light 
of  their  own  burning  cabins. 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

1791—1792. 

Principles  of  United  Irisli  Society — Test — Addresses 
— Meeting  of  Parliaiiient — Ciitholic  relief — Trifling 
meiisiire  of  that  kind — Petition  of  the  Catholics — 
Rejected — Steady  majority  of  two-thirds  for  the 
Castle — Place!) olding  members — Violent  agitation 
upon  the  Catiiolic  claims — Questions  put  to  Catho- 
lic Dniversities  of  the  Continent — Their  answers 
— Opposition  to  project  of  Convention — Catholic 
question  in  the  Whig  Club — Catholic  Convention 
in  Dublin — National  Guard. 

The  first  clubs  of  "United  Irishmen" 
were  perfectly  legal  and  constitutional  in 
their  structure,  in  their  action,  and  in  their 
aims ;  and  so  continued  until  the  new  or- 
ganization was  adopted  in  1795.  They  con- 
sisted, both  in  Belfast  and  in  Dublin,  of 
Protestants  chiefly,  though  many  eminent 
Catholics  joined  them  from  the  first.  The 
first  sentence  of  the  constitution  of  the  first 
club,  at  Belfast,  is  in  these  plain  and  moder- 
ate words. 

"  1st.  This  society  is  constituted  for  the 
purpose  of  forwarding  a  brotherhood  of 
affection,  a  communion  of  rights,  and  a 
union  of  power  among  Irishmen  of  every 
religious  persuasion,  and  thereby  to  obtain 
a  complete  reform  in  the  legislature,  founded 
on  the  principles  of  civil,  political,  and  reli- 
gious liberty." 

Recollecting  the  hopeless  character  of  the 
Iiish  Parliament  of  that  day,  one  can 
scarcely  pretend  that  it  did  not  need  "  re- 
form ;"  and  as  it  most  certainly  would  never 
reform  itself,  unless  acted  upon  strongly  by 
an  external  pressure,  the  idea  seems  to  have 
been  reasonable  to  endeavor  to  procure  a 
union  of  power  amongst  Irishmen  of  every 
religious  persuasion  for  that  end.  It  was  too 
clear  also  that  a  Parliament  so  constituted 
never  would  emancipate  the  Catholics — that 
is,  never  would  tolerate  a  *'  brotherhood  of 
affection"  or  a  "  communion  of  rights."     It 


was  therefore  extremely  natural  for  patriotic 
Protestants,  who  felt  that  Ireland  was  their 
country,  and  no  longer  a  colony  but  a  nation, 
to  take  some  means  of  assuring  their  fellow 
countrymen,  the  Catholics,  that  they  at  least 
did  not  wish  to  perpetuate  the  degradation 
and  exclusion  of  three  millions  of  Irishmen  ; 
and  thereupon  to  concert  with  them  some 
common  action  for  getting  rid  of  this  incu- 
rable oligarchy,  which  was  the  common 
enemy  of  them  all.  This  was  the  whole 
meaning  and  purpose  of  the  society  for 
more  than  three  years ;  and  its  means  and 
agencies  were  as  fair,  open,  and  ratioufd  as  its 
objects.  Addresses,  namely,  to  the  people 
of  Ireland,  and  sometimes  to  Reform  clubs 
in  England  and  in  Scotland ;  articles  in  the 
newspapers,  particularly  in  the  Northern 
Star;  and  the  promotion  of  an  enlarged 
personal  intercourse  between  the  two  sects 
who  had  hved  in  such  deadly  estrangement 
for  two  centuries.  When  they  met  one 
another  face  to  face,  worked  together  in 
clubs  and  meetings,  visited  one  another's 
houses,  fondled  one  another's  children,  there 
could  not  but  grow  up  somewhat  of  that 
feeling  of  "Brotherhood"  which  is  the  first 
word  of  their  constitution,  the  very  cardinal 
principle  of  their  society. 

But  this  "  Brotherhood" — what  was  it  but 
the  French  fraternite!  And  their  "Civil, 
political,  and  religious  liberty  "  was  a  phrase 
which  to  the  ear  of  Government  sounded  of 
egalite  and  the  Champ-de-Mars.  The  whole 
of  the  programme  given  above,  which  looks 
to  day  so  just  and  sensible,  was  then  felt  to 
be  reeking  all  over  with  "French  principles." 
The  Government  therefore  kept  an  eye 
steadily  on  these  societies,  as  will  soon  ap- 
pear in  the  sequel. 

The  Dublin  club,  which  was  formed  in 
November  of  the  same  year,  1Y91,  adopted 
the  same  declaration  of  principles,  or  consti- 
tution; but  added  a  "test,"  which  wa^ 
nothing  but  a  solemn  engagement  to  be 
taken  by  each  new  member — "that  he 
would  persevere  in  endeavoring  to  form  :i 
brotherhood  of  affection  amongst  Irishmen 
of  every  religious  persuasion,"  etc.,  and 
"that  he  would  never  inform  on  or  give 
evidence  against  any  member  of  this  or 
similar  societies  for  any  act  or  expression  of 
theirs  done   or    made    collectively  or  indi- 


212 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


vidually,  in  or  out  of  this  society,  in  pur- 
suance of  the  spirit  of  this  obligation," — in 
other  words,  that  if  brotlierhood  amongst 
Irishmen,  and  the  claim  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  should  be  made  a  crime  by  lavv  (as 
it  was  but  too  likely)  he  would  not  inform 
upon  his  comrades  for  their  complicity  in 
those  crimes. 

From  this  time  active  correspondence  was 
carried  on.  A  strong  address,  written  by 
Dr.  Drennan,  was  sent  by  the  Society  of 
United  Irishmen  in  Dublin  to  the  delegates 
for  promoting  a  reform  in  Scotland,  in  which 
this  sentence  occurs — one  of  many  similar 
suggestions  which  were  undoubtedly  in- 
tended to  lead  the  way  to  something  more 
and  better  than  a  reform  in  Parliament. 
*'  If  Government  has  a  sincere  regard  for 
the  safety  of  the  constitution,  let  them  coin- 
cide with  the  people  in  the  speedy  reform 
of  its  abuses,  and  not,  by  an  obstinate  ad- 
herence to  them,  drive  that  people  into 
Eepublicanism.'"  There  was  another  ad- 
dress from  the  same  body,  to  "the  Volun- 
teers of  Ireland"  (for  the  wreck  of  that 
organization  still  existed  in  some  places), 
adopted  at  a  meeting  of  which  Drennan 
was  chairman,  and  Archibald  Hamilton 
llovvan,  secretary,  and  containing  still  strong- 
er expressions.  This  document  became  in 
1794  the  subject  of  a  prosecutiou  for  se- 
ditious libel  against  Rowan  the  secretary, 
who  was  convicted  by  a  carefully  packed 
jury  of  his  enemies,  and  sentenced  to  two 
years'  imprisonment  and  a  fine  of  five  hun- 
dred pounds. 

In  the  mean  time,  parliamentary  proceed- 
ings were  going  forward,  much  in  their 
usual  way.  A  session  opened  on  the  19th 
of  January,  1792  ;  but  it  is  impossible  now 
to  take  much  interest  in  following  the  futile 
efi'orts  of  the  opposition.  Mr.  Grattan, 
who  carefully  avoided  the  United  Irishmen, 
could  still  at  least  abuse  the  Government  in 
terms  of  eloquent  scurrility,  and  did  not  fail 
to  do  so,  in  moving  an  amendment  to  the 
address: — "By  this  trade  of  Parliament  the 
king  was  absolute  :  his  will  was  signified  by 
both  Houses  of  Parliament,  who  were  then 
as  much  an  instrument  in  his  hand  as  a 
bayonet  in  the  hands  of  a  regiment.  Like 
a  regiment  they  had  their  adjutant,  who 
sent  10  the  infirmary  for  the  old,  and  to  the 


brothel  for  the  young;  and  men  thus  carted 
as  it  were  into  that  House  to  vote  for  the 
minister,  were  called  the  representatives  of 
the  people," 

The  country,  as  well  as  the  ministers  had 
heard  all  this  abuse  before,  and  had  begun 
altnost  to  regard  it  as  a  discharge  of  blank 
cartridge.  Yet  the  session  is  in  some  meas- 
ure notable  for  a  trifling  Catholic  Relief 
measure,  introduced  by  Sir  Hercules  Lang- 
rishe,  and  rather  unexpectedly  supported  by 
the  Government.  In  fact  it  was  evident  to 
the  English  Government  that  the  Catholics 
were  becoming  a  real  element  for  good  or 
for  evil  in  this  Irish  nation  :  they  had  re- 
fused to  be  extirpated  ;  refused  to  be  brutal- 
ized by  ignorance,  for  they  would  fly  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth  for  education  ;  they  had 
so  well  profited  also  by  the  petty  and  grudg- 
ing relaxations  already  granted  them,  that  a 
large  proportion  of  them  were  rich  and  in- 
fluential ;  they  were,  in  short,  a  power  to  be 
conciliated  if  that  could  be  cheaply  done, 
and  so  detached  from  "  French  principles" 
and  made  grateful  to  the  Government.  It  is 
not,  therefore,  surprising  to  find  Mr.  Secre- 
tary Hobart  (of  course  by  orders  from  Eng- 
land) seconding  the  motion  of  Langrishe 
for  leave  to  bring  in  this  bill.  Sir  Hercules 
thus  defines  the  objects  of  his  bill  for  the 
Catholics : — 

1st.  He  would  give  them  the  practice  and 
profession  of  the  law,  as  a  reasonable  pro- 
vision, and  application  of  their  talents  to 
their  own  country. 

2dly.  He  would  restore  to  them  education, 
entire  aud  unrestrained,  because  a  state  of 
ignorance  was  a  state  of  barbarity.  That 
would  be  accomplished  by  taking  off"  the  ne- 
cessity for  a  license,  as  enjoined  by  the  act 
of  1782. 

3dly.  He  would  draw  closer  the  bonds  of 
intercourse  and  affection,  by  allowing  inter- 
marriage, repealing  that  cruel  statute  which 
served  to  betray  female  credulity,  and  bas- 
tardize the  children  of  a  virtuous  mother. 

4!hly.  He  would  remove  those  obstruc- 
tions to  arts  and  manufactures,  that  limited 
the  number  of  apprentices,  which  were  so 
necessary  to  assist  and  promote  trade.  He 
then  moved,  "  That  leave  be  given  to  bring 
in  a  bill  for  removing  certain  restraints  and 
disabilities  under  which  his  majesty's  Roman 


TRIFLING   MEASURE    OF    CATHOLIC    RELIEF. 


213 


Csitholic    subjects    labor,    from    statutes    at 
present  in  force." 

This  bill  was  prepared  and  concerted  by 
Us  author  in  concert  with  Edmund  Burke  ; 
and  was  perhaps  as  liberal  in  its  provisions 
as  any  bill  which  could  at  that  moment  be 
presented  with  any  chance  of  success :  yet, 
meagre  as  it  was,  it  called  forth  a  storm  of 
bigoted  and  brutal  opposition.  The  General 
Committee  of  the  Catholics — Edward  Byrne, 
Esq.  in  the  chair — held  a  meeting  and 
passed  some  resolutions,  which  it  is  some- 
what humiliating  to  read,  but  which  were 
certainly  politic  in  the  circumstances.  Here 
is  the  document : — 

"Dublin,  February  Uh,  1793. 
"General   Committee    of   Roman   Catho- 
lics.   Edward  Btrne,  Esq,  in  the  Chair. 

^''Resolved,  That  this  committee  has  been 
informed,  that  reports  have  been  circulated, 
that  the  application  of  the  Catholics  for  re- 
lief, extends  to  unlimited  arid  total  emanci- 
pation ;  and  that  attempts  have  been  made, 
wickedly  and  falsely,  to  instil  into  the  minds 
of  the  Protestants  of  this  kingdom  an  opin- 
ion, that  our  applications  were  preferred  in  a 
tone  of  menace.^ 

"  Resolved,  That  several  Protestant  gen- 
tlemen have  expressed  great  satisfaction  on 
being  individually  informed  of  the  real  ex- 
tent and  respectful  manner  of  the  applica- 
tions for  relief;  have  assured  us,  that  nothing 
could  have  excited  jealousy,  or  apparent  op- 
position to  us,  from  our  Protestant  country- 
men, but  the  above-mentioned  misapprehen- 
sions. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  therefore  deem  it  ne- 
cessary to  declare,  that  the  whole  of  our 
late  applications,  whether  to  his  majesty's 
ministers,  to  men  in  power,  or  to  private 
members  of  the  legislature,  as  well  as  our 
intended  petition,  neither  did,  nor  does  con- 
lain  any  thing,  or  extend  further,  either  in 
substance  or  in  principle,  than  the  four  fol- 
lowing objects  : 

"  1st.  Admission  to  the  profession  and 
practice  of  the  law. 

"  2d.  Capacity  to  serve  in  county  magis- 
tracies. 

"  3d.  A  right  to  be  summoned,  and  to 
serve  on  grand  and  petty  juries. 

"  4th.  The   ri"ht   of  voting   in    counties 


only  for  Protestant  members  of  Parliament  ; 
in  such  a  manner,  however,  as  that  a  Roman 
Catholic  freeholder  should  not  vote,  unless 
he  either  rented  and  cultivated  a  farm  of 
twenty  pounds  per  annum,  in  addition  to 
his  forty  shillings  freehold ;  or  else  possessed 
a  freehold  to  the  amount  of  twenty  pounds 
a  year." 

That  is  to  say,  the  Catholic  Committee 
found  itself  obliged  earnestly  to  disavow  the 
sacrilegious  thought  of  being  allowed  to 
vote  on  the  same  qualification  as  the  Piotes- 
tant  forty-shilling  freeholders ;  disclaimed 
with  horror  the  idea  of  voting  for  Catholic 
members  of  Parliament ;  and  publicly  de- 
clared to  Parliament  and  to  all  mankind 
that  they  did  not  presume  to  aspire  to 
"  total  emancipation."  But  humble  and 
scanty  as  their  claim  was,  it  was  more  than 
the  Langrishe  bill  proposed  to  grant  them. 
There  was  no  provision  in  it  for  admitting 
them  to  the  elective  franchise  upon  any 
terms  whatever.  The  comnjiltee  prepared 
a  petition,  which  was  signed  by  some  of  the 
most  respectable  mercantile  men  of  Dublin, 
and  while  the  bill  was  in  progress,  the  peti- 
tion was  presented  by  Mr.  Egan.  This  gave 
rise  to  a  conversation  on  the  following  Mon- 
day (20th  February).  On  that  day  Mr. 
David  La  Touche  moved,  that  the  petition 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  committee,  presented 
to  the  House  on  the  preceding  Saturday, 
should  be  read  by  the  clerk :  it  was  read, 
and  he  then  moved,  that  it  should  be  re- 
jected. The  motion  was  seconded  by  Mr. 
Ogle,  The  greater  part  of  the  House  was 
very  violent  for  the  rejection  of  the  petition. 
Some  few,  who  were  against  the  prayer  of 
the  petition,  objected  to  the  harsh  measure 
of  rejection.  Several  of  the  opposition 
members  supported  Mr.  La  Touche's  motion. 
Even  Mr.  G.  Ponsonby,  on  this  occasion 
voted  against  his  friend  Mr.  Grattan.  The 
solicitor-general  attempted  to  soften  the  re- 
fusal to  the  Catholics  by  moving,  that  the 
prayer  of  the  petition,  as  far  as  it  related 
to  a  participation  of  the  elective  franchise 
should  not  then  be  complied  with.  The 
jittorney-geneial  and  some  other  stanch 
supporters  of  Government,  had  spoken  simi- 
lar language;  that  they  hoped  quickly  to 
see  all  relio-ious  distinctions  and  restrictions 


214 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


done  away,  but  that  the  fulness  of  time  was 
not  yet  come.  Mr.  Forbes,  the  Hon.  F. 
Hutchinson,  Colonel  (nowLoid)  Hutchinson, 
Mr.  Smith,  Mr.  Haidy,  and  Mr.  Grattan 
spoke  strongly  against  the  motion  and  in 
favor  of  admitting  the  Catholics  to  a  share 
in  the  elective  franchise.  Much  virulent 
abuse  Was  heaped  upon  that  part  of  the 
body  of  llomau  Catholics  which  was  sup- 
posed to  be  represented  by  the  Catholic 
Committee.  At  a  very  late  hour  the  House 
divided,  208  for  rejecting  the  petition,  and 
23  only  against  it.  Then  Mr,  La  Touche 
moved,  that  the  petition  from  the  society  of 
the  United  Irishmen  of  Belfast,  should  be 
also  rejected :  and  the  question  being  put 
was  carried  with  two  or  three  negatives. 

The  bill  itself  passed  quietly  through  the 
committee;  and  on  the  third  reading.  Sir 
Hercules  Langrishe  congratulated  the  coun- 
try on  the  growth  of  the  spirit  of  liberality. 
The  growth  was  slow,  and  the  liberality 
was  rather  narrow  :  nor  would  this  measure 
deserve  mention — as  it  was  soon  superseded 
by  a  much  larger  one — but  to  show  the  very 
humble  and  unpretending  position  taken  by 
the  only  body  then  representing  the  Cath- 
olics. It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that 
war  in  Europe  was  by  this  time  imminent 
and  certain  ;  and  though  England  had  not 
yet  formally  joined  the  coalition  against 
France,  that  event  was  becoming  daily  more 
inevitable ;  and  the  Government  was  very 
desirous,  as  usual  in  such  moments  of  danger, 
to  send  a  message  of  peace  to  Ireland,  and 
to  show  the  three  millions  of  Catholics  that 
their  real  friends  were,  not  those  "fraternal" 
United  Irishmen,  but  Mr.  Pitt  and  the  Earl 
of  Westmoreland. 

Upon  all  other  questions,  the  state  of 
parties  in  Parliament  continued  nearly  the 
same  that  it  had  been  for  many  years;  that 
is,  the  Castle  was  always  certain  of  more 
than  a  two-thirds  majority.  Mr.  G.  Pon- 
sonby,  after  an  elaborate  argument,  moved 
for  leave  to  bring  in  a  bill  repealing  every 
law  which  prohibited  a  trade  from  Ireland 
with  the  countries  lying  eastward  of  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope ;  which  was  lost  by 
156  votes  against  70.  On  the  same  dav, 
Mr.  Forbes,  faithful  to  his  special  mission, 
brouglit  forward  his  regular  Place  and  Pen- 
sion   bills :  they    were    both    put    off   to    a 


distant  day,  without  a  division,  though  not 
without  some  debate.  Indeed  these  attacks 
on  the  places  and  pensions  were  now  mora 
intolerable  to  the  Government  and  its  sup- 
porters than  ever  before;  and  they  were 
louder  than  ever  in  their  reprobation  of  such 
Jacobin  movements,  as  a  manifest  attempt 
to  diminish  the  royal  prerogative  and  bring 
in  French  principles. 

A  singular  motion  was  made  this  session, 
which  merits  notice  as  an  illustration  of  tho 
shameless  and  desperate  corruption  of  the 
times.  Mr.  Browne  moved  to  bring  in  a 
bill  to  repeal  an  act  of  the  last  session  touch- 
ing the  "weighing  of  butter,  hides,  and 
tallow"  in  the  city  of  Cork,  and  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  weighmaster  in  that  city. 
This  office  had  long  been  in  the  gift  of  the 
corporation  of  the  city,  and  the  corporation 
had  always  found  one  weighmaster  more 
than  enough  :  but  the  Government,  in  pur- 
suance, said  Mr.  Browne,  of  their  settled 
policy  of  "  creating  influence,"  had  taken 
the  appointment,  split  it  into  three  parts, 
and  bestowed  it  on  three  rnembers  of  Par- 
liament. Mr.  Grattan  seconded  the  motion. 
It  was  opposed  by  the  chancellor  of  the 
exchequer  on  the  express  ground  that  it  was 
an  "  insult  to  the  crown,"  and  therefore  a 
manifest  piece  of  French  democracy  and 
infidelity,  intended  to  overthrow  the  throne 
and  the  altar.  There  was  a  sharp  debate, 
in  which  Patriots  said  many  cutting  things; 
and  at  half-past  two  in  the  morning  the 
motion  was  negatived  without  a  division. 
Is  it  wonderful  that  the  minds  of  honest 
people  were  now  altogether  turned  away 
from  such  a  Parliament  ?  It  was  prorogued 
on  the  18th  of  April.  The  Speaker,  in  his 
address  to  the  viceroy,  speaks  of  one  gratify- 
ing fact,  "the  extension  of  trade,  agriculture, 
and  manufactures,  which  has  with  a  rapid 
and  uninteriupted  progress  raised  this  king- 
dom to  a  state  of  prosperity  and  wealth 
never  before  experienced  in  it."  But  at  the 
same  time  he  let  his  excellency  know,  that 
this  prosperity  "  would  soon  cease  "  if  they 
did  not  carefully  cherish  the  blessed  consti- 
tution in  church  and  state.  "Its  preserva- 
tion, therefore,"  he  continued,  "  must  ever 
be  the  great  object  of  their  care,  and  there 
is  no  principle  on  which  it  is  founded  so 
essential  to  its  preservation,  nor  more  justly 


AGITATIOX   UPON   THK   CATHOLIC   CLAIMS. 


215 


dear  to  their  patriotic  and  loyal  feelings, 
than  that  which  has  settled  the  throne  of 
these  realms  on  his  majesty's  illustrious 
lioiuse ;  on  it,  and  on  the  provisions  for 
securing  a  Frotestant  Parliament,  depends 
the  Protestant  Ascendency,  and  with  it  the 
continuance  of  the  many  blessings  we  now 
enjoy." 

It  appears  from  the  studied  allusions  to 
the  Protestant  Ascendency,  which  in  the 
speech  of  the  Speaker  were  evidently  aimed 
against  the  petition  of  the  Catholics  for  a 
participation  in  the  elective  franchise,  that 
Mr.  Foster  wished  to  raise  a  strong  and 
general  opposition  to  that  measure  through- 
out the  country  :  but  the  speech  of  the  lord- 
lieutenant  imported,  that  the  Government, 
moved  by  the  impulse  of  the  British  coun- 
cils, was  disposed  rather  to  extend  than 
contract  the  indulgences  to  the  Roman 
Catholics.  His  majesty  approved  of  their 
wis«iom  in  the  liberal  indulgences  that  had 
been  granted,  but  suggested  no  apprehen- 
sions of  danger  to  the  Protestant  interest, 
which  had  been  almost  a  matter  of  course 
in  all  viceregal  speeches,  to  the  great  com- 
fort of  the  "Ascendency." 

This  year  was  a  season  of  most  vehement 
agitation  and  discussion  upon  the  Catholic 
claims.  That  body,  was,  of  course,  greatly 
dissatisfied  with  the  miserable  measure  of 
relief  granted  by  the  shabby  bill  of  Sir  Her- 
cules Langrishe.  Mr.  Simon  Butler,  chair- 
man of  the  Dublin  society  of  United  Irish- 
men, published,  by  order  of  that  society,  a 
••  Digest  of  the  Popery  Laws,"  bringing  into 
one  view  the  whole  body  of  penalties  and 
disabilities  to  which  Catholics  still  remaTned 
subject  after  all  the  small  and  nibbling  at- 
tempts or  pretences  of  relief.  The  pamphlet 
thus  truly  sums  up  the  actual  condition  of 
the  Catholics  at  that  moment,  after  Sir  Her- 
cules Langrishe's  Act : — 

'■  Such  is  the  situation  of  three  millions 
of  good  and  faithful  subjects  in  their  native 
land !  Excluded  from  every  trust,  power, 
or  emolument  of  the  state,  civil  or  mili- 
tary; excluded  from  all  the  benefits  of  the 
constiiution  in  all  its  parts;  excluded  from 
all  cur[)orate  rights  and  immunities;  ex- 
pelled from  grand  juries,  restrained  in  petit 
juries;  excluded  fiom  every  direction,  from 
eveiy  trust,  from  every  incorporated  society, 


from  every  establishment,  occasional  or  fix.-d, 
instituted  for  public  defence,  public  police, 
public  morals,  or  public  convenience;  firm 
the  bench,  from  the  bank,  from  the  ex- 
change, from  the  university,  from  the  c(j1- 
lege  of  physicians :  from  what  are  tliev 
not  excluded?  There  is  no  institution 
which  the  wit  of  man  has  invented  or  the 
progress  of  society  produced,  which  private 
charity  or  public  munificence  has  founded 
for  the  advancement  of  education,  learning, 
and  good  arts,  for  the  permanent  relief  of 
age,  infirmity,  or  misfortune,  from  the  super- 
intendence of  which,  and  in  all  cases  where 
common  charity  would  permit,  from  the  en- 
joyment of  which  the  legislature  has  not 
taken  care  to  exclude  the  Catholics  of  Ire- 
land. Such  is  the  state  which  the  corpora- 
tion of  Dublin  have  thought  proper  to  assert, 
'differs  in  no  respect  from  that  of  the 
Protestants,  save  only  in  the  exercise  of  po- 
litical power;'  and  the  host  of  grand  juries 
consider  'as  essential  to  the  existence  of  the 
constitution,  to  the  permanency  of  the  con- 
nection with  England,  and  the  continuation 
of  the  throne  in  his  majesty's  royal  house.' 
A  greater  libel  on  the  constitution,  the  con- 
nection, or  the  succession,  could  not  be  pro- 
nounced, nor  one  more  pregnant  with  dan- 
gerotrs  and  destructive  consequences,  than 
this,  which  asserts,  that  they  are  only  to  be 
maintained  and  continued  by  the  slavery 
and  oppression  of  three  millions  of  good 
and  loyal  subjects." 

At  the  same  time  the  General  Committee 
prepared  a  "  Declaration,"  of  Catholic  tenet* 
on  certain  points  with  regard  to  which  peo- 
ple of  that  creed  had  long  been  wantonly 
belied  :  such  as  keeping  of  faith  with  her- 
etics ;  the  alleged  pretension  of  the  Pope  to 
absolve  subjects  from  their  allegiance ;  of 
clergymen  to  dispense  them  from  oaths,  and 
the  like.  All  these  alleged  doctrines  the 
Declaration  indignantly  and  contemptuous- 
ly denied;  and  it  was  signed  universally 
throughout  Ireland  by  clergy  and  laity.  To 
the  Declaration  was  added  a  republication 
of  the  well-known  "Answers  of  six  Cath- 
olic Universities  abroad  to  the  queries  which  ; 
had  been  propounded  to  them,  at  the  re-  ! 
quest  of  Mr.  Pitt,  thiee  years  before,  on  be- 
half of  the  English  Catholics."  The  uni- 
versities Were  tliose  of  Paris,  Louva'n,  A^cala. 


216 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


Douay,  Salainanca,  and  Valladolid.  The 
queries  and  the  answers  form  a  higlily  im- 
portant ilocument  for  the  history  of  the 
time.  We  give  the  queries  in  full,  and  an 
extract  or  two  from  the  answers — onlv  pre- 
mising that  Mr.  Pitt  sought  lliese  dechira- 
tions,  not  to  satisfy  Uis  own  mind,  because 
he  was  too  well  informed  to  need  this,  but  only 
to  stop  the  mouths  of  benighted  country 
g-entlemen  and  greedy  Ascendency  politicians, 
who  would  be  sure  to  bawl  out  against  the 
concessions  to  Catholics  which  he  in  that 
})enlous  time  and  for  political  reasons  was 
determined  to  grant. 

THE    QUERIES. 

1.  Has  the  Pope,  or  cardinals,  or  any  body 
of  men,  or  any  individual  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  any  civil  authority,  power,  jurisdic- 
tion, or  pre-eminence  whatsoever,  within  the 
realm  of  England  ? 

2.  Can  the  Pope  or  cardinals,  or  any 
body  of  men,  or  any  individual  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  absolve  or  dispense  his 
majesty's  subjects,  from  their  oath  of  alle- 
giance, upon  any  pretext  whatsoever. 

3.  Is  there  any  principle  in  the  tenets  of 
the  Catholic  faith,  by  which  Catholics  ate 
justified  in  not  keeping  faith  with  heretics, 
or  other  persons  difi'ering  from  them  in 
religious  opinions,  in  any  transaction,  either 
of  a  public  or  a  private  nature  ? 

And  the  six  universities  responded  unani- 
mously and  simultaneously  in  the  negative 
upon  all  the  three  points.  The  answers  are 
all  exceedingly  distinct  and  categorical. 
That  of  the  university  of  Alcala,  in  Spain, 
may  serve  as  a  specimen  : — 

"  To  the  first  question  it  is  answered — 
That  none  of  the  persons  mentioned  in  the 
proposed  question,  either  individually,  or  col- 
lectively in  council  assembled,  have  any 
light  in  civil  matters;  but  that  all  civil 
power,  jurisdiction,  and  pre-eminence  are  de- 
rived from  inheritance,  election,  the  consent 
of  the  people,  and  other  such  titles  of  that 
liature. 

•'To  the  second  it  is  answered,  in  like  man- 
ner—That none  of  the  persons  above-men- 
tioned have  a  power  to  absolve  the  subjects 
of  his  Britannic  majesty  from  their  oaths 
of  allegiauco. 


"To  the  third  question  it  is  answered — That 
I  he  doctrine  which  would  exempt  Catholics 
from  the  obligation  of  keeping  faith  with 
heretics,  or  with  any  other  peisons  who  dis- 
sent from  them  in  matters  of  religion,  in- 
stead of  being  an  article  of  Catholic  faith,  is 
entiiely  repugnant  to  its  tenets. 

"Signed  in  the  usual  form.  March  l7th, 
1789." 

The  learned  doctors  of  some  of  theso 
universities  could  not  refrain,  while  they 
gave  their  answers,  from  admini.-teiing  a 
rebuke  to  those  who  asked  such  questions. 
For  instance,  the  Faculty  of  Divinity  at 
Louvain,  "Having  been  requested  to  give  an 
opinion  upon  the  questions  above  stated, 
does  it  with  readiness — but  is  struck  with 
astonishment  that  such  questions  should,  at 
the  end  of  this  18th  centurj-,  be  pi'oposed  to 
any  learned  body,  by  inhabitants  of  a  king- 
dom [England]  that  glories  iu  the  talents 
and  discernment  of  its  natives." 

The  publication  of  the  Catholic  Declara- 
tion, with  the  opinions  of  the  universities, 
was  very  far  indeed  from  satisfying  the  theo 
logians  of  the  Piotestant  interest ;  especiaHj 
as  there  came  forth  at  the  same  time  the 
detailed  plan  for  electing  delegates  this  year 
to  the  Convention  of  Catholics  which  had 
already  been  decided  upon.  These  Papi-^ts 
were  evidently  preparing  to  rise  a  little  out 
of  their  abject  humility.  The  Protestant 
theologians  thought  themselves  too  acute  to 
be  imposed  upon  by  all  those  fine  protesta- 
tions of  Papists,  and  professions  made  by 
Popish  universities.  Since  when,  they  de- 
sired to  know,  was  it  held  that  the  declara- 
tion of  persons  charged  with  systematic  per- 
fidy— that  they  were  persons  who  keep 
faith — was  held  to  be  evidence  of  their 
good  character?  They  also  cited  examples 
of  the  Pope  having  actually,  in  former  ages, 
absolved,  or  attempted  to  absolve  subjects 
from  their  allegiance.  Besides,  was  it  not 
well  known  that  those  universities  in  France 
and  Spain  were  full  of  Popish  doctors,  who 
would  desire  nothing  better  than  to  delude 
the  minds  of  unsuspecting  Irish  Protestants, 
and  so  pave  the  way  for  the  overthrow  of 
the  Protestant  Church,  resumption  of  for- 
feited estates,  and  fulfilment  of  Pastorini's 
prophecies !  It  seems  to  have  been  more 
especially  the  "plan'' for  election  of  dele- 


OPINIONS    OF    THE    GRAND    JUPaES    ON    THE    CONVENTION. 


217 


gates  to  the  Catholic  Cunvention  that  excited 
the  alarm  and  wrath  of  the  "Ascendency." 

Iiumediatcly  on  the  appearance  of  this 
plan,  a  general  outcry  was  raised  against  it; 
sedition,  tuinult,  con>piracy,  and  treason, 
were  echoed  from  county  to  county,  from 
grand  jury  to  grand  jury.  Some  legislators, 
higli  in  the  confidtMice  of  their  sovereign, 
smd  armed  with  the  influence  of  station  and 
office,  presided  at  those  meetings,  and  were 
foremost  in  arraigning  measures,  upon  the 
merits  of  which  in  anoiher  place  and  in  an- 
other function  they  were  finally  to  deter- 
mine. 

The  exaggerated  and  alarming  language 
of  most  of  The  grand  juries  imported,  that 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland  were  on  the  eve  of 
a  general  insurrection,  ready  to  hurl  the 
king  from  his  throne,  and  tear  the  whole 
frame  of  the  constitntion  to  pieces. 

The  Leitrim  grand  jury  denominated  the 
plan  "  An  inflammatory  and  dangerous  pub- 
lication,'' aiwJ  stated,  "that  they  feU  ii  ne- 
cessaiy  to  come  forward  at  that  period  to 
declare,  that  they  were  ready  to  support, 
with  their  lives  and  fortunes,  their  present 
most  valuable  constitution  in  church  and 
state ;  anil  thajt  they  would  resist,  to  the  ut- 
most of  their  power,  the  attempts  of  any 
body  of  men,  however  numerous,  who 
should  presume  to  threaten  innovation  in 
either." 

The  gi'and  jury  of  the  county  of  Cork 
deuominated  the  plan  "  An  unconstitutional 
pioceeding,  of  the  most  alarming,  dangeious, 
and  seditious  tendency  ;  an  attempt  to  over- 
awe Parliament;"  tliey  stated  their  deter- 
mination to  "protect  and  defend,  with  their 
lives  and  property,  the  present  constitution 
in  church  and  state."  That  of  Roscommon, 
after  the  usual  epithets  of  "alarming,  dan- 
gerous, and  seditious,"  asserted  that  the 
plan  called  upon  the  whole  body  of  the 
Roman  Catholics  of  Ireland  to  associate 
themselves  in  the  metropolis  of  that  king- 
dom, upon  the  model  of  the  national  assem- 
bly of  France,  which  had  already  plunged 
that  devoted  country  into  a  state  of  anarchy 
and  tumult  unexampled  in  any  civilized  na- 
tion :  they  Slated  it  to  be  "an  attempt  to 
over-awe  Parliament;"  they  mentioned 
their  serious    and    sensible    alarms    for    the 

existence   of  their  present  happy    establish- 
28 


ment  in  church  and  state;  and  their  deter- 
mination, "at  the  hazard  of  every  thing  dear 
to  them,  to  uphold  and  maintain  the  Pro-t- 
estant  interest  of  Ireland." 

The  grand  jury  of  Sligo  Resolved.,  "that 
they  would,  at  all  times,  and  by  every  con-, 
stitutional  means  in  their  power,  resist  and 
oppose  every  attempt  then  making,  or  there* 
after  to  be  made,  by  the  Roman  Catholics,  t<> 
obtain  their  elective  franchise,  or  any  par- 
ticipation in  the  government  of  the  country.'' 
And  that  of  Donegal  declared,  that  though 
"  they  regarded  the  Catholics  with  tender^ 
ness,  they  would  maintain,  at  the  hazard  ot* 
every  thing  dear  to  them,  the  Protestant  in- 
terest of  Ireland." 

The  grand  jury  of  Fermanagh,  profess- 
ing also  "  the  warmest  attachment  to  their 
Roman  Catholic  brethien,"  felt  it,  however, 
necessary  to  come  forward  at  that  period  to 
declare,  that  they  were  "  ready  with  their 
lives  and  fortunes  to  support  their  present 
invaluable  constitution  in  church  and  state." 
And  that  of  the  County  of  Derry,  after  ex- 
pressing their  apprehensions  lest  that  pro- 
ceeding "  might  lead  to  the  formation  of  a 
hierarchy  (consisting  partly  of  laity)  which 
would  destroy  the  Protestant  Ascendency, 
the  freedom  of  the  elective  franchise,  and 
the  established  constitution  of  this  country," 
tendered  their  lives  and  fortunes  to  support 
the  happy  constitution  as  established  at  the 
revolution  of  1688.  A  very  great  majority 
of  the  loading  signatures  affixed  to  those 
resolutions,  were  tiiose  of  men  either  high 
in  the  government  of  the  country,  or  enjoy- 
ing lucrative  places  under  it,  or  possessing 
extensive  borough  interest. 

The  grand  jury  of  the  county  of  Louth, 
with  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons 
at  their  head,  declared,  "that  the  allowing 
to  Roman  Catholics  the  right  of  voting  for 
members  to  Serve  in  Parliament,  or  admit- 
ting them  to  any  participation  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  kingdom,  was  incompatible 
with  the  safety  of  the  Protestant  establish- 
ment, the  continuance  of  the  succession  to 
the  crown  in  the  illustrious  House  of  Hano- 
ver, and  finally  tended  to  shake,  if  not  de- 
stroy, their  connection  with  Great  Britain, 
on  the  continuance  and  inseparability  of 
which  depended  the  happiness  and  pri.sper- 
ity  of  that  kingdom ;  that  they  would  op- 


218 


IIISTOliY    or    IKELAND. 


pose  everv  attempt  towanls  sncli  :i  fiaiiger- 
oiis  innovation,  and  that  they  would  support 
with  their  lives  and  fortunes  the  present 
constitution,  and  the  settlement  of  the 
throne  on  liis  majesty's  Protestant  house." 
The  freeholders  of  ttie  county  of  Limerick 
charged  the  Catholi&-  Committee  with  an 
intention  to  over-awe  the  legislature,  to  force 
a  repeal  of  the  penal  laws,  and  to  create  a 
Popish  democracy  for  their  government  and 
direction  in  pursuit  of  whatever  objects 
might  be  holden  out  to  them  by  turbulent 
and  seditious  men.  They  then  instructed 
their  representatives  in  Parliament,  "  at  all 
events,  to  oppose  any  proposition  which 
might  be  made  for  extending  to  Cath- 
olics the  I'ight  of  elective  franchise:"  at 
this  meeting  the  chancellor  was  present. 
The  corporation  of  Dublin  in  strong  terms 
denied  the  competency  of  Parliament  to 
extend  the  right  of  franchise  to  the  Cath- 
olics, which  they  called  "alienating  their 
most  valuable  inheritance;"  and  roundly 
asserted  against  the  fact,  that  "  the  last  ses- 
sion of  Parliament  left  the  Roman  Catholics 
in  no  wise  different  fi-oin  their  Protestant 
fellow-subjects,  save  only  in  the  exercise  of 
political  power." 

Some  of  the  grand  juries  indignantly  re- 
jected the  proposals  made  to  them  of  com- 
ing to  any  resolutions  injurious  to  their  Cath- 
olic brethren.  Agents  had  been  employed 
to  tamper  with  every  grand  jury  that  met 
during;  the  summer  assizes.  Nothing  could 
tend  more  directly  than  this  measure  of  pre- 
eng;iging  the  sentiments  of  the  country 
against  three  millions  of  its  inhabitants,  to 
raise  and  foment  discord  and  disunion  be- 
tween Protestants  and  Catholics.  Counter- 
resolutions,  answers  and  replies,  addresses  and 
pro;estations,  were  published  and  circulated 
in  the  public  papers  from  some  grand  jury- 
men, and  from  many  different  bodies  of 
Catholics ;  several  bold  and  severe  pubhca- 
tions  appeared  during  tlie  course  of  the 
summer,  not  only  from  individuals  of  the 
Catholic  body,  but  from  the  friends  of  their 
cause  aiTiongst  the  Protestants.  It  is  scarcely 
questionable  but  that  the  virulent  and  acir 
monious  opposition  raised  against  the  Cath- 
olic petition  for  a  very  limited  participation 
in  the  elective  franchise,  enlivened  the  sense 
of  their  grievances,  opened  their  views,  and 


united  their  energies  into  a  common  effort 
to  procure  a  general  repeal  of  the  whole 
Penal  Code. 

The  General  Committee  of  the  Catholics, 
and  the  United  Irish  Society  were  unavoid- 
ably coming  closer  together.  In  a  debate 
of  the  committee,  Mr.  Keogh,  a  gentleman 
of  great  manliness  of  character  as  well  as 
power  of  intellect,  fairly  said  that  for  a  late 
publication  (Digest  of  the  Popery  Law>), 
the  United  Irishmen  and  their  respected 
chairman,  Mr.  Simon  Butler,  demanded  their 
warmest  gratitude.* 

At  that  time  the  United  Irish  Society  was 
the  only  association  of  any  kind  which  even 
admitted  a  Catholic  into  its  ranks.  No 
Catholic  could  be  in  the  Whig  Club;  nor 
would  it  even  permit  the  Catholic  question 
to  be  agitated  there.  This  point  was  de- 
cided in  a  singular  debate  of  the  Whig  Club 
in  November,  1792,  when  Mr.  Huband,  hav- 
ing proposed  that  the  sense  of  the  meeting 
should  be  taken  upon  the  course  to  be  pur- 
sued by  members  with  respect  to  Catholic 
claims — 

Some  gentlemen  decidedly  asserted,  that 
they  did  not  think  the  Catholic  question 
ought  to  be  mentioned  or  discussed  in  the 
Whig  Club.  They  were  averse  to  their 
having  any  concern  in  it,  and  one  went  so 
far  as  to  say,  that  if  it  were  admitted  to  be 
debated  in  that  society,  he  would  with  his 
own  hand  strike  his  name  out  of  the  list  of 
the  members. 

*  Mr.  Plowden,  in  an  i\polocretic  sort  of  way,  says 
upon  this  occasion,  "It  was  natural  for  persons  stag- 
gering under  oppression  cordially  to  grasp  every 
hand  that  held  out  relief."  Nothing  can  be  more 
provoking  than  the  affectation  of  "loyalty"  to  tiie 
House  of  Hanover  which  certain  Catholic  writers,  pre- 
vious to  emancipation,  thought  it  needful  to  make. 
Plowden,  in  another  place,  speaking  of  the  same 
publication  made  by  the  United  Irishmen,  says  : — 
"  It  would  be  unfair,  if  the  historian  were  to  repre- 
sent the  transactions  of  a  particular  period  from 
consequences  that  appeared  at  a  distant  interval  of 
time,  and  the  subsequent  fate  of  many  of  the  actors 
in  the  scenes.  It  is  his  duty  faithfully  to  represent 
them  as  tliey  really  pa.ssed  at  the  time.  Merit  and 
demerit  can  only  attach  from  previous  or  co-e.xisting 
circumstances;  not  from  the  posthumous  issue  en- 
gendered in  the  womb  of  time  by  future  base  and 
unavowed  connections.  It  was  not  because  an  in- 
dividual was  guilty  of  treason  in  tiie  year  179S,  that 
every  previ)u»  act  or  transaction  in  which  that  in- 
dividual was  concerned  for  tlie  twenty,  ten,  or  five 
preceding  years,  was  atfected  with  the  venom  of  hia 
latter  crime." 


CATHOLIC    CONVKNTIuN    IN    DUHMN'. 


219 


On  which  Mr.  A.  Ham.  Rowjin  observed, 
that  lie  would  be  as  tenacious  as  any  other 
gentleman,  of  remaining  in  any  society 
where  improper  subjects  were  proposed  for 
discussion  ;  but  that  for  his  part,  he  would 
not  liesitate  to  strip  off  his  Whig  Club  uni- 
form, and  throw  it  to  the  waiter,  if  the 
Catholic  question  were  deemed  an  unfit  sub- 
je<'t  for  their  discussion. 

Mr.  W,  Brown  called  the  attention  of 
gentlemen  to  the  purpose  of  their  associa- 
tion. They  placed  themselves  in  the  front 
of  the  public  cause,  to' further  it,  not  to  stop 
its  further  progress;  the  second  principle  of 
their  declaration  was,  a  solemn  engagement 
to  support  the  rights  of  the  people,  etc. 
Who,  said  he,  are  the  people  ?  I  dare  any 
gentleman  to  name  the  people  of  Ireland 
without  including  the  Roman  Catholics. 
What !  is  it  a  question,  shall  three  millions 
of  Irishmen  continue  slaves  or  obtain  their 
freedom  !  Is  it  a  question  to  be  deserted  by 
men  professing  patriotism,  professing  to  re- 
dress the  public  oppression,  pledged  to  stand 
together  in  defence  of  their  country's  liber- 
ties?    No  ;  it  is  not. 

To  desert  the  cause  of  tlie  Catholics, 
would  be  to  desert  the  principles  of  their  in- 
stitution, it  would  be  to  deserve  the  calumny 
thrown  against  them  by  their  enemies,  that 
they  were  an  opposition  strugglirg  tor  power, 
not  a  band  of  patriots  for  the  public  weal; 
it  would  rob  their  names  of  honor,  their 
rank  and  wealth  of  consequence,  and  it 
would  finally  sink  them  from  a  station  of 
political  importance,  down  to  the  obscurity 
and  insignificance  of  au  interested  and  im- 
potent party. 

On  the  question  being  put,  whether  the 
Catholic  question  should  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration or  not  on  Wednesday  fortnight, 
it  was  negatived  on  a  division  by  thirteen. 

The  long-talked-of  Convention  of  the 
Catholics  was  actually  held  in  December  of 
this  year:  the  elections  of  delegates  had 
been  regularly  and  quietly  held,  in  pursuance 
of  the  "plan,"  and  the  fii'st  meeting  of  the 
delegates  assembled  at  Tailors'  Hall,  Dub- 
lin, on  the  2d  of  December,  1792;  two 
hundi'fid  delegates  being  present. 

While  this  peaceable  convention  was 
holding  its  meetings,  another  phenomemm 
appeared  in  Dublin,  which  gave  still  greater 


uneasiness  both  to  the  "  Ascf'ndeticy "  and 
to  the  Castle.  The  National  Guard,  a  new 
military  body,  was  arrayeii  and  disciplined  in 
Dublin.  They  wore  green  uniforms,  with 
buttons  engraved  with  a  harp,  under  a  cap 
of  liberty,  instead  of  a  crown.  Tlieir  lead- 
ers were  A.  H.  Rowan  and  James  Napper 
Tandy  ;  they  affected  to  address  each  other 
by  the  appellation  of  citizen,  in  imitation  of 
the  French.  This  corps  was  in  high  favor 
with  the  populace,  and  was  always  cordi.d- 
ly  greeted  as  they  appeared  in  the  street  or 
on  parade.  Government  really  felt  al^rm  : 
a  general  insurrection  was  apprehended  : 
they  pretended  to  have  information  of  the 
particular  nights  fixed  for  that  purpose. 
The  magistrates,  by  order  of  Government, 
patrolled  the  streets  with  bodies  of  horse 
each  night.  It  was  given  out  from  the 
Castle,  that  the  custom-house,  the  post-office, 
and  the  jail,  were  the  first  places  to  be  at- 
tacked;  and  that  the  signal  for  rising  was  to 
have  been  the  pulling  down  of  the  statue  of 
King  William  in  College  Green  with  ropes. 
Many  other  false  rumors  of  conspiracies  and 
assassinations  were  set  afloat.  In  the  mean 
while  the  National  Guards,  and  all  the  Vol- 
unteer corps  of  Dutlin,  were  summoned  to 
assembl^e  on  Sunday,  the  Uth  of  December, 
1792,  to  celebrate  the  victory  of  the  French, 
and  the  triumph  of  universal  liberty.  The 
summons  began  with  an  affectation  of  Gal- 
licism, "  Citizen  Soldier^''  However,  the 
meeting  was  prevented  ;  and  Government 
issued  a  proclamation,  on  the  8th  of  Decem- 
ber, against  their  assembling.  The  National 
Guards  did  not  assemble;  and  the  only  per- 
sons who  appeared  on  parade  were,  A.  H. 
Rowan,  J.  N.  Tandy,  and  Carey  the  printer. 
This  Catholic  Convention,  and  this  Na- 
tional Guard  appeared  dangerous  in  the 
eves  of  Fitzgibbon  (now  Earl  of  Clare) — the 
object  of  his  life  was  the  legislative  union  , 
and  he  foresaw  that  unless  conventions  of 
delegates  and  associations  of  armed  citizens 
were  prohibited  and  prevented  by  law,  that 
great  measure  never  could  be  carried.  Ac- 
cordingly his  busy  brain  was  already  busy  in 
maturing  a  series  of  measures  to  dt-prive  all 
Irishmen,  whether  Protestant  or  Catholic,  of 
every  means  of  expressing  their  wishes  by 
delegates,  and  every  means  of  asserting 
their  rights  by  arms. 


220 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


CHAPTER    XXVIL 

1792— 179  ;i 

The  Ciitholic  Convention — Keconciliation  of  differ- 
ences iimoiigst  tlie  C;itli<>rR's — Their  deputation  to 

I  the  kin i<— Successes  of  tiie  French  fortunate  for 
the  Catholics — Duniouriez  and  Jemappes— Gra- 
cious reception  of  the  Catholic  deputation— Bel- 
fast mob  draw  tlie  carriatrc  of  Calhnlic  delegates- 
Secret  Comniittcc  of  the  Lords — Report  on  Dc- 
fenderft  and  United  Irishmen— Attempt  of  com- 
mittee to  connect  the  two — Lord  Clare  creates 
"alarm  amonfj  the  better  classes'" — Proclamation 
against  unlawful  assemblies— Lord  Edward  Fitz- 
gerald— French  Re(>nblio  declares  war  against 
England — Large  measure  of  Catholic  relief  innnc- 
diately  proposed — Moved  by  Secretary  Hoburt — 
Act  carried — Its  provisions — What  it  yields,  and 
what  it  w^ithholds — Arms  and  gunpowder  act — 
Act  against  conventions — Lord  Clare  the  real 
author  of  British  policy  in  Ireland  as  now  estal> 
ished — Effect  and  intcntifui  of  the  "  Convention 
act" — No  such  law  in  Enjrland — Militia  bill — Cath- 
olic Committee — No  reform — Close  of  session. 

The  Catholic  Convention  met  under 
rather  favorable  auspices.  In  the  course  of 
the  summer  a  reconciliation  or  coalition  had 
been  generally  effected  between  the  commit- 
tee and  several  of  the  sixty-four  addressers, 
including  bishops.  Convinced  that  his  ma. 
jesty's  ministers  in  England  were  disposed 
to  favor  their  pretensions,  it  was  found  politi- 
cal in  the  body  to  act  in  concert ;  and  to 
this  accommodating  disposition  and  desii-e  of 
internal  union,  is  to  be  attributed  the  modera- 
tion of  the  pubHc  acts  of  that  convention 
Tht-y  framed  a  petition  to  the  king,  which 
was  a  firm  though  modest  representatioii 
of  their  grievances:  it  was  signed  by  Dr, 
Troy  and  Dr.  Moylan  on  behalf  of  them- 
selves and  the  other  Roman  Catholic  prel- 
ates and  clergy  of  Ireland,  and  by  the  sev- 
eral delegates  for  the  different  districts 
which  they  respectively  represented.  They 
then  proceeded  to  choose  five  delegates 
to  present  it  to  his  majesty :  the  choice 
fell  upon  Sir  Thomas  French,  Mr.  Byrne, 
Mr.  Keogh,  Mr,  Devereux,  and  Mr.  Bel  lew. 
These  gentlemen  went  by  short  seas :  in 
tlieir  road  to  Donaghadee  they  passed 
through  Belfast  in  the  morning,  and  some 
of  the  most  respectable  inhabitants  waited 
upon  them  at  the  Donegal  Arms,  where 
they  remained  about  two  houis :  upon  their 
departure,  the  populace  took  their  horses 
from  their  carriages  and  dragged  them 
through  the  town  amidst  the  liveliest  shouts 


of  joy  and  wishes  for  their  success.*  The 
delegates  returned  these  expressions  of  af- 
fection and  sympathy,  by  the  most  grateful 
acknowledgements  and  assurances  of  their 
determination  to  maintain  that  union  which 
formed  the  strength  of  Ireland.  On  the  2d 
of  January,  1793,  the  gentlemen  delegated 
by  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  attended  the 
levee  at  St,  James's,  were  introduced  to  his 
majesty  by  Mr.  Dundas,  secretary  of  state 
for  the  home  department,  and  had  the  honor 
of  presenting  their  humble  petition  to  his 
majesty,  who  was  pleased  most  graciously  to 
receive  it. 

His  majesty  liad  his  reasons.  Fortunately 
for  the  Catholics,  England  was  at  this  moment 
in  a  condition  of  extreme  diflBculty  and  peril. 
She  was  already  engaged  in  the  coalition  of 
Euiopean  powers  to  crush  the  new-born 
Hercules  of  France,  The  French,  under 
Dumouriez,  had  happily  driven  back  the 
Prussian  invaders  from  the  passes  of  the  Ar- 
gonne.  Dumouriez  had  followed  up  his 
successes,  entered  Belgium  and  gained  over 
the  Austrians  the  glorious  victory  of  Je- 
mappes. The  King  of  France  had  already 
been  removed  from  his  throne  to  the  Tem- 
ple prison  ;  and  on  the  very  day  when  the 
King  of  England  was  so  graciously  re(teiving 
the  Catholic  delegates,  that  uidiappy  French 
monarch  was  awaiting  his  trial,  sentence, 
and  execution  at  the  hands  of  his  people : 
all  of  which  took  place  a  few  days  after- 
wards. This  event  was  to  be  the  signal  for 
England  to  enter  actively  into  the  war. 
Ever  since  August  of  last  year  the  British 
Court  had  refused  all  communication  with 
M.  Cliauvelin,  the  French  envoy,  an-d  he  was 
finally  dismissed  from  England  imtnediately 
on  the  arrival  of  news  of  King  Louis'  exe- 
•  Of  this  extraordinary  demonstration,  never  ex- 
ainpled  before,  and  never  imitated  since,  Wolfe 
Tone  says  ; — "  Wliatever  effect  it  might  have  on  the 
negotiation  in  England,  it  certainly  tended  to  rai.^o 
and  confirm  the  hopes  of  the  Catholics  at  home, 
'  Let  our  delegates,'  said  they,  '  if  tiiey  are  refused, 
return  by  tlie  same  route.'  To  those  who  look  be- 
yond the  surface  it  was  an  interesting  spcclaalc,  and 
pregmnit  with  material  consequences,  to  see  the 
Dissenter  of  the  North  drawing,  witli  his  own  hands, 
the  Catholic  of  the  South  in  triumph,  through  wliat 
may  be  denominated  the  capital  of  Presbyterianism, 
However  repugnant  it  might  be  to  the  wishes  of  the 
British  n)inister,  it  was  a  wholesome  suggestion  to 
his  prudence,  and  when  he  scanned  the  wliole  busi- 
ness in  Ids  i|iind,  was  probably  not  dismissed  from 
his  conlemplatiou." 


REPOIIT    OX    PEFEXDEIIS    AXI)    UNITED    UlISHMEN. 


221 


cution.  War,  tlieretbiv,  was  now  inevitable, 
and  war  on  such  a  scale  and  against  such  a 
foe  as  would  tax  the  utmost  energies  and 
resources  of  Great  Britain.  It  was  deler- 
mined  accordingly  to  endeavor  to  purchase 
the  three  millions  of  Irish  Catholics,  who 
make  such  excellent  recruiting  material;  so 
that  instead  of  having  Irish  brigades  against 
them,  they  might  have  Irish  regiments  for 
them.  It  was  also  a  part  of  this  policy  to 
detach  the  Catholics  from  the  United  Irish- 
men, to  disgust  them  with  "  French  prin- 
ciples," and  predispose  them  to  loolc  favor- 
ably on  the  Legislative  Union.  The  dele- 
gates returned  from  London,  in  the  compla- 
cent language  of  Mr.  Plowden  : — "  the  wel- 
come heralds  of  the  benign  countenance  and 
reception  they  had  received  from  the  father 
of  his  people." 

On  the  10th  of  January,  lT92,  the  Irish 
Parliament  met.  The  speech  from  the 
throne  recommended  attention  to  the  claims 
of  the  Catholics.  The  House  of  Lords  very 
early  in  the  session  appointed  a  secret  com- 
mittee to  inquire  into  the  state  of  the  nation, 
with  special  reference  to  the  troubles  in  the 
North  between  Peep-of-Day  Boys  and  De- 
fenders. Th§  Secret  Committee  made  a 
most  extraordinary  report;  in  which  thev 
appear  to  find  no  criminal  rioters  in  the 
North  except  the  poor  Defenders.  "All,  so 
far  as  the  committee  could  discover,  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  persuasion,  poor  ignorant 
laboring  men,  sworn  to  secrecy,  and  im- 
pressed with  an  opinion  that  they  were  as- 
sisting the  Catholic  cause."  The  committee 
further  endeavored  to  connect  in  some  wav 
with  those  agrarian  distuibers,  the  political 
demonstrations  of  the  United  Irishmen  at 
Belfast  and  other  towns.  They  report  with 
high  indignation : — 

"That  an  unusual  ferment  had  for  some 
months  past  disturbed  several  parts  of  the 
North,  particularly  the  town  of  Belfast  and 
the  county  of  Antrim  ;  it  was  kept  up  and 
encouraged  by  seditious  papers  and  pamph- 
lets of  the  most  dangerous  tendency,  printed 
at  very  cheap  and  inconsiderable  rates  in 
Dublin  and  Belfast,  which  issued  almost  daily 
from  certain  societies  of  men  or  clubs  in  both 
those  places,  calling  themselves  committees 
under  various  descriptions,  and  carrying  on 
a  constant  correspondence  with  each  other. 


These  publications  were  circulated  amongst 
the  people  with  the  utmost  industry,  and  ap- 
peared to  be  calculated  to  defame  the  Gov- 
ernment and  Parliament,  and  to  render  the 
people  dissatisfied  with  their  condition  and 
with  their  laws.  The  conduct  of  the  French 
was  shaynpfulh/  extolled,  and  recommended 
to  the  public  view  as  an  example  for  imita- 
tion ;  hopes  and  expectations  had  been  held 
up  of  their  assistance  by  a  descent  upon  that 
kingdom,  and  prayers  had  been  offered  up  at 
Belfast  from  the  pulpit,  for  the  success  of 
their  arms,  in  the  presence  of  military  asso- 
ciations, which  had  been  newly  levied  and 
arrayed  in  that  town.  A  body  of  men  asso- 
ciated themselves  in  Dublin,  under  the  title 
of  the  First  National  Battalion  :  their  uniform 
was  copied  from  the  French,  green  turned  up 
with  white,  white  waistcoats  and  striped  trou- 
sers, gilt  buttons,  impressed  with  a  harp 
and  letters  importing  '  First  National  Battal- 
ion,' no  crown,  but  a  device  over  the  harp 
of  a  cap  of  liberty  upon  a  pike;  two  patteru 
coats  had  been  left  at  two  shops  in  Dublin. 
Several  bodies  of  men  had  been  collected  in 
different  parts  of  the  North,  armed  and  dis- 
ciplined under  officers  chosen  by  themselves, 
and  composed  mostly  of  the  lowest  classes  of 
the  people.  These  bodies  were  daily  increas- 
ing in  numbers  and  force,  they  liad  exerted 
their  best  endeavors  to  procure  military  men 
of  experience  to  act  as  their  officers,  some  of 
them  having  expressly  stated,  that  there  were 
men  enough  to  be  had,  but  that  officers  were 
what  thev  wanted.  Stands  of  armsand  gun- 
powder to  a  very  large  amount,  much  above 
the  common  consumption,  had  been  sent  with- 
in the  last  few  months  to  Bt-lfast  and  New- 
ry,  and  orders  given  for  a  much  greater  quan- 
titv,  which  it  appeared  could  be  wanted  on- 
ly for  military  operations.  At  Belfast,  bod- 
ies of  men  in  arms  were  drilled  and  exercised 
for  several  hours  almost  every  night  by  can- 
dle-light, and  attempts  had  been  made  to  se- 
duce the  soldiery,  which,  much  to  the  hon- 
or of  the  king's  forces,  had  proved  ineifL^ct- 
ual.  The  declared  object  of  these  military 
bodies  was  to  procure  a  reform  of  Parliament ; 
but  the  obvious  intention  of  most  of  them 
appeared  to  be  to  over-awe  the  Parliament 
and  the  Government,  and  to  dictate  to  both. 
The  committee  forbore  mentioning  the  names 
of  several  persons,  lest  it  should  in  any  man- 


222 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


uer  affect  any  criiuinal  prosecution,  or  involve 
llic  peisonal  safety  of  any  inau  who  Imd  come 
forward  to  give  lliein  infornj.ition.  The  re- 
sult of  their  inquiries  was,  that  in  tlieir  opin- 
ion it  was  incoujpatible  with  tlie  public  safety 
and  tranquillity  of  that  kingdom,  to  permit 
bodies  of  men  in  arms  to  assemble  when 
they  pleased  without  any  legal  authority  : 
and  that  the  existence  of  a  self-created  repre- 
sentative body  of  any  description  of  the  king's 
subjects,  taking  upon  itself  the  government 
of  them,  and  levying  taxes  or  subscriptions^ 
eti'.,"  ought  not  to  be  permitted. 

It  is  very  easy  to  see  the  object  of  this 
report :  it  was  simply  Lord  Clare's  method 
of  preparing  the  way  for  his  coercion  acts, 
which  were  to  apply  not  only  to  the  Defend- 
ers but  also  to  the  United  Irishmen  and  to 
the  Catholic  Convention  itself. 

The  policy  adopted  towards  the  Catholics 
at  that  time  took  the  form  which  it  has  worn 
ever  since,  and  which  may  be  described  in 
;four  words — to  conciliate  the  rich  and  to  co- 
erce the  poor.  This  extravagant  report  of  the 
Lords'  committee,  giving  so  overcharged  a 
picture  of  the  insurrectionary  spirit  of. the 
North,  was  in  order  to  create  "alarm  among 
the  better  classes,''  the  uniform  preparative 
for  coercion  and  oppression  in  Iieland. 

On  the  31st  of  January  the  House  of  Com- 
mons took  into  consideration  a  proclamation 
of  the  lord-lieutenant  and  privy  couuc-il,  da- 
ted the  8th  December  last,  for  dispersing  all 
unlawful  assemblies :  and  Lord  Ileadfort 
moved  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  viceroy  for 
this  proclamation  "  to  preserve  domestic 
tranquillity  from  those  whose  declared  objects 
were  tumult^  disaffection,  and  sedition"  This 
occasioned  some  debate ;  but  the  address 
passed  without  a  division.  This  proceed- 
ing of  the  House  proves  that  the  gieat  Gov- 
ernment majority  in  the  House,  as  well  as 
the  Lords,  were  in  full  concurrence  with  the 
Government  in  favor  of  coercion.  It  is  fur- 
ther interesting  from  an  incident  which  be- 
fell at  the  close  of  the  debate — Lord  Edward 
Fitzgerald,  in  a  very  vehement  tone,  declar- 
ed, "I  give  my  most  hearty  disapprobation 
to  that  address,  for  I  do  think  that  the  lord- 
lieutenant  and  the  majority  of  this  House, 
are  the  worst  subjects  the  king  has."  A  loud 
cry  of  "to  the  bar,"  and  "take  down  his 
words,''    immediately    echoed    from    every 


part  of  the  House.  The  House  was  cleared 
in  an  instant,  and  strangers  were  not  re-ad- 
mitted for  neaily  three  hours. 

He  was  admitted  to  explain  himself,  and 
on  his  explaining,  the  House 

^''Resolved,  nem.  con.,  That  the  excuse  of- 
fered by  the  Right  Hon.  Edward  Fitzgerald, 
commonly  called  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald, 
for  the  said  words  so  spoken,  is  unsatisfac- 
tory and  insufficient:"  and  he  was  ordered 
to  attend  at  tlie  bar  on  the  next  day,  when 
his  apology  was  received,  though  not  with- 
out a  division  upon  its  sufBciency  :  for  receiv- 
ing it,  135;  against  it,  66. — (12  Par.  Deb., 
p.^82.) 

Mr.  Grattan  also  expressed  himself  with 
some  indignation  in  this  debate,  on  the 
classing  up  the  remnant  of  his  old  Volun- 
teers along  with  such  seditious  company  as 
United  Irishmen  and  National  Guards :  for 
Mr.  Secretary  Ilobart  had  read  to  the 
House,  as  part  of  the  outrageous  proceed- 
ings which  had  dictated  the  strong  meas- 
ure of  the  proclamation,  a  certain  summons 
of  the  corps  of  goldsmiths,  calling  on  the 
delegates  of  that  corps  to  assemble  and 
celebrate  the  retreat  of  the  Duke  of  Bruns- 
wick (from  Valmy),  and  the  French  victory 
in  the  Low  Countries  (Jemappes).  Mr. 
Grattan  was  soon  to  learn  that  in  the  appli- 
cation of  the  new  laws  which  were  now  to 
be  enacted  the  remnant  of  the  classic  old 
Volunteers  was  to  be  held  no  more  sacred 
than  the  most  republican  United  Irish  club, 
or  the  poorest  lodge  of  Defenders. 

On  the  1st  of  February  the  French  Re- 
public declared  war  against  England  (which 
was  now  known  to  be  the  very  head  and  heart 
of  the  coalition  against  France) :  and  on  the 
14th  of  that  month  the  Irish  secretar}-,  Mr. 
Ht)bart,  presented  a  petition  from  some  Cath- 
olics, and  described  at  length  the  measure 
which  he  intended  to  introduce.  A  few  days 
after,  he  brought  in  his  "  Relief  Bill,"  and 
had  it  read  a  first  time.  It  was  opposed  by 
Mr.  Ogle,  and  by  the  famous  Dr.  Duigenan. 
Throughout  its  passage  it  was  supported  by 
the  Court  party,  because  it  was  a  Court 
measure;  and  Mr.  Grattan,  Mr.  Curran,  and 
most  of  the  opposition  supported  it,  of 
course.  Dr.  Duigenan  raked  up  several 
times  all  the  most  hideous  accusations  that 
ever    bigotiy   had    invented   and   ignorance 


pnovTSioxs  OF  xnE  catholic  kklikf  bill. 


J23 


lirlievcd  against  Papists,  in  order  to  oppose 
the  aslant  of  any  relief  to  sncli  iniscreants. 
On  the  second  reading,  Mr.  G.  Ponsonby  and 
Mr.  Latouche  spoke  against  it.  When  the 
bill  was  in  committee,  Mr.  George  Knox,  in 
a  liberal  and  able  speech  moved,  that  the 
committee  might  be  empowered  to  receive  a 
clause  to  admit  Roman  Catlu>lics  to  sit  and 
vote  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Major 
Doyle  seconded  the  motion,  which  was 
strongly  supported  by  Mr.  Daly,  Col.  Hutch- 
inson, Mr.  M,  Smith,  Mr.  John  O'Neil,  Mr. 
Hardy,  and  some  other  gentlemen  friendly 
to  Catholic  emancipation  ;  it  was,  however, 
rejf'cted  upon  a  division  by  163  against  69. 
The  bill  finally  passed  both  Houses  and 
received  the  royal  assent,  on  the  9th  of 
April.  This  act,  which  was  received  with  so 
nuich  gratitude,  and  was  extolled  as  such  a 
triumph  of  liberality,  enables  Catholics  to 
vote  for  members  of  Parliament — that  is, 
for  Protestant  members  and  none  other — 
admits  them  to  the  bar,  that  is,  the  outer 
bar — all  the  honors  and  high  places  of  the 
pi-ofession  being  reserved  for  Protestants  — 
enables  them  to  vote  for  municipal  officers — 
that  is,  Protestant  officers  exclusively — per- 
mits them  to,  possess  arms,  provided  tliey 
possess  a  certain  freehold  and  personal  es- 
tate, and  take  certain  oaths,  neither  of  which 
conditions  applied  to  Protestants ;  allows 
them  to  serve  on  juries,  but  not  to  sit  on 
parish  vestries  ;  admits  them,  under  certain 
lestiictions,  to  hold  military  and  naval  com- 
missions, certain  of  the  higher  grades  being 
e.xcepted — and  it  subjects  the  exercise  of 
most  of  these  new  privileges  to  the  taking 
of  a  most  insulting  and  humiliating  oath. 
As  this  act  (33  Geo.  HI.,  c.  21.)  settled  for 
thirty-six  years  the  whole  condition  and  re- 
lations of  the  Catholics,  it  is  here  given  in 
full  :— 

"33  Geo.  HI.,  c.  xxi. 

^  An  Act.  for  the  Belief  of  His  Majesty's 
Popish  or  Roman  Catholic  Subjects  of 
Ireland. 

"  Whereas,  various  acts  of  Parliament 
h;ive  been  passed,  imposing  on  his  majesty's 
subje(;ts  professing  the  Roman  Catholic  re- 
ligi(m,  many  restraints  and  disabilities,  to 
which  other  subjects  of  this  realm  are  not 
liable;  and  from  the  peaceable  and  loyal  de- 


meanor of  his  majesty'.s  Popish  or  Roman 
Catholic  subjects,  it  is  fit  that  such  restiaints 
and  disabilities  shall  be  discontinued  :  Be  it 
therefore  enacted,  by  the  king's  most  excel- 
lent majesty,  by  and  with  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  Lords,  spiritual  and  temporal, 
and  Conmions  in  this  present  Parliament  as- 
sembled, and  by  the  authority  of  the  same, 
That  his  majesty's  subjects,  being  Papists, 
or  persons  professing  the  Popish  or  Roman 
Catholic  religion,  or  married  to  Papists  or 
persons  professing  the  Popish  or  Roman 
Catholic  religion,  or  educating  any  of  their 
children  in  that  religion,  shall  not  be  liable 
or  subject  to  any  penalties,  forfeitures,  dis- 
abilities, or  incapacities,  or  to  any  laws  for 
the  limitation,  charging,  or  discovering  of 
their  estates  and  property,  real  and  personal, 
or  touching  the  acquiring  of  property  or 
securities  affecting  property;  save  such  as 
his  majesty's  subjects  of  the  Protestant  re- 
ligion are  liable  and  subject  to ;  and  that 
such  parts  of  all  oaths  as  are  required  to  be 
taken  by  persons  in  order  to  qualify  them- 
selves for  voting  at  elections  of  members  to 
serve  in  Parliament;  and  also  such  parts  of 
all  oaths  required  to  be  taken  by  persona 
voting  at  elections  for  members  to  serve  in 
Parliament,  as  import  to  deny  that  the  per- 
son taking  the  same  is  a  Papist  or  married 
to  a  Papist,  or  educates  his  children  in  the 
Popish  religion,  shall  not  hereafter  be  re- 
quired to  be  taken  by  any  voter,  but  shall 
be  omitted  by  the  person  administering  the 
same ;  and  that  it  shall  not  be  necessary,  in 
order  to  entitle  a  Papist,  or  person  profess- 
ing the  Popish  or  Roman  Catholic  religion 
to  vote  at  an  election  of  members  to  serve 
in  Parliament,  that  he  should  at,  or  previous 
to  his  voting,  take  the  oaths  of  allegiance 
and  abjuration,  any  statute  now  in  force  to 
the  contrary  of  any  of  the  said  matters  in 
any  wise  notwithstanding. 

"  n.  Provided  always,  and  be  it  farther 
enacted,  That  all  Papists  or  persons  profess- 
ing the  Popish  or  Roman  Catholic  religion, 
who  may  claim  to  have  a  right  of  voting  for 
members  to  serve  in  Parliament,  or  of  vot- 
ing for  magistrates  in  any  city,  town  corpo- 
rate, or  borough,  within  this  kingdom,  be 
hereby  required  to  perforin  all  qualifications, 
registries,  and  other  requisites,  which  are 
now   required    of  his    majesty's   Protestaut 


21?  4 


HISTORY    OF   lUELAXD. 


suujects,  in  like  cases,  by  any  law  or  laws 
uuw  of  force  in  this  kiiigLloni,  save  and  ex- 
cept such  oatlis  and  parts  of  oaths  as  are 
heiein  before  excepted. 

'•III.  And  provided  always,  That  nothing 
hereiiibefure  contained  shall  extend,  or  be 
construed  to  extend,  to  repeal  or  alter  any 
law  or  act  of  railiainent  now  in  force,  by 
which  certain  qualifications  are  required  to 
be  performed  by  persons  enjoying  any  offices 
or  places  of  trust  under  his  majesty,  his 
heirs  and  successors,  other  than  as  herein- 
after is  enacted. 

'•IV.  Provided  also.  That  nothing  herein 
contained,  shall  extend,  or  be  construed  to 
extend  to  give  Papists,  or  persons  professing 
the  Pupish  religion,  a  right  to  vote  at  any 
parish  ves;ry  for  levying  of  money  to  re- 
build or  repair  any  pari^sh  church,  or  respect- 
ing the  demising  or  disposal  of  the  income 
of  any  estate  belonging  to  any  church  or 
parish,  or  for  the  salary  of  the  parish  clerk, 
or  at  the  election  uf  any  churchwarden. 

"V.  Provided  always.  That  nothing  con- 
tained in  this  act  shall  extend  to,  or  be  con- 
strued to  affect  any  action  or  suit  now  de- 
pending, which  shall  have  been  brought  or 
instituted  previous  to  the  commencement  of 
this  session  of  Parliament. 

"  VI.  Provided  also,  That  nothing  herein 
contained,  shall  extend  to  authorize  any  Pa- 
pist, or  person  professing  the  Popish  or 
Roman  Catholic  religion,  to  have  or  keep  in 
his  hands  or  possession,  any  arms,  armor, 
ammunition,  or  any  warlike  stores,  sword- 
blades,  barrels,  locks,  or  stocks  of  guns,  or 
fire-arms,  or  to  exempt  such  person  from  any 
forfeiture,  or  penalty  inflicted  by  any  act 
respecting  arms,  armor,  or  ammunition,  in 
the  hands  or  possession  of  any  Papist,  or 
respecting  Papists  having  or  keeping  such 
warlike  stores,  save  and  except  Papists,  or 
persons  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion, 
seized  of  a  freehold  estate  of  one  hundred 
pounds  a  year,  or  possessed  of  a  personal 
estate  of  one  thousand  pounds  or  upwards, 
who  are  hereby  authorized  to  keep  arms  and 
ammunition  as  Protestants  now  by  law  may ; 
and  also,  save  and  except  Papists  or  Roman 
Catholics  possessing  a  freehold  estate  of  ten 
pounds  yearly  value,  and  less  than  one  hun- 
dred pounds,  or  a  personal  estate  of  three  hun- 
dred, and  less  than  one  thousand  pounds,  who 


shall  have  at  the  session  of  the  peace  in  the 
county  in  which  they  reside,  taken  the  oath 
of  allegiance  prescribed  to  be  taken  by  au 
act  passed  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
years  of  his  present  majesty's  reign,  entitled, 
'Art  act  to  enable  his  majesty^s  subjects,  of 
ivhatever  persuasion,  to  testify  their  alley ianre 
to  him  ;'  and  also  in  open  court,  swear  and 
subscribe  an  affidavit,  that  they  are  possessed 
of  a  freehold  estate  yielding  a  clear  yearly 
profit  to  the  person  making  the  same  of  ten 
pounds,  or  a  personal  property  of  three  hun- 
dred pounds  above  his  just  debts,  specifying 
thei'ein  the  name  and  nature  of  such  free- 
hold, and  nature  of  such  personal  property, 
which  affidavits  shall  be  carefully  preserved 
by  the  clerk  of  the  peace,  who  shall  have 
for  his  trouble  a  fee  of  sixpence,  and  no 
more,  for  every  such  affidavit ;  and  the  per- 
son making  such  affidavit,  and  possessing 
such  propeity,  may  keep  and  use  arms  and 
ammunition  as  Protestants  may,  so  long  as 
they  shall  respectively  possess  a  property 
of  the  annual  value  of  ten  pounds  and  up- 
wards, if  freehold,  or  the  value  of  threw 
hundred  pounds  if  personal,  any  statute  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

"VII.  And  be  it  enacted.  That  it  shall 
and  may  be  lawful  for  Papists,  or  persons 
professing  the  Popish  or  Roman  Catholic, 
religion,  to  hold,  exercise,  and  enjoy  all  civil 
and  military  offices,  or  places  of  trust  or 
profit  under  his  majesty,  his  heirs  and  suc- 
cessors, in  this  kingdom;  and  to  hold  or 
take  degrees,  or  any  professorship  in,  or  be 
masters  or  fellows  of  any  college,  to  be 
hereafter  founded  in  this  kingdom,  provided 
that  such  college  shall  be  a  member  of  the 
University  of  Dublin,  and  shall  not  be 
founded  exclusively  for  the  education  of 
Papists,  or  persons  professing  the  Popish  or 
Roman  Catholic  religion,  nor  consist  exclu- 
sively of  masters,  fellows,  or  other  persons 
to  be  named  or  elected  on  the  foundation 
of  such  college,  being  persons  professing  the 
Popish  or  Roman  Catholic  religion ;  or  to 
hold  any  office  or  place  of  trust  in,  and  to 
be  a  member  of  any  lay-body  corporate,  ex- 
cept the  College  of  the  holy  and  undivided 
Trinity  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  near  Dublin, 
without  taking  and  subscribing  the  oaths  of 
allegiance,  supremacy,  or  abjuration,  or 
makiuof   or  subscribinsf  the  declaration  re* 


PUOVISIOXS    OF   THE    CATHOLIC    RELIEF    BILL. 


221 


quired  to  be  taken,  made,  and  subscribed,  to 
enable  any  such  person  to  bold  and  enjoy 
any  of  such  places,  and  without  reccivintr 
the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  accord- 
inj^  to  the  rights  and  ceremonies  of  the 
Church  of  Iiehuid,  any  law,  statute,  or  by- 
law of  any  ooiporation  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding;  provided  that  every  such  per- 
son shall  take  and  subscribe  the  oath  ap- 
pointed by  the  said  act  passed  in  the  thir- 
teenth and  fourteenth  years  of  his  majesty's 
reign,  entitled,  '  An  act  to  enable  liis  ma- 
jesty's subjects,  of  whatever  persuasion,  to 
testify  their  allegiance  to  him  ;'  and  also  the 
oath  and  declaratiou  following,  that  is  to 
say: 

•"I,  A.  B.,  do  hereby  declare,  that  I  do 
profess  the  Roman  Catholic  religion.  I,  A., 
B.,  do  swear,  that  I  do  abjure,  condemn,  and 
detest,  as  unchristian  and  impious,  the  prin- 
ciple that  it  is  lawful  to  murder,  destroy,  or 
any  ways  injure  any  person  whatsoever,  for, 
or  under  the  pretence  of  being  a  heretic; 
and  I  do  declare  solemnly  befoie  God,  that 
I  believe,  that  no  act  in  itself  unjust,  im- 
moral, or  wicked,  can  ever  bo  justified  or 
excused  by,  or  under  pretence,  or  color,  that 
it  was  done  either  for  the  good  of  the 
church,  or  in  obedience  to  any  ecclesiastical 
power  whatsoever.  I  also  declare,  that  it  is 
not  an  article  of  the  Catholic  faith,  neither 
am  I  thereby  required  to  believe  or  profess, 
that  the  Pope  is  infallible,  or  that  I  am 
bound  to  obey  an  order  in  its  own  nature 
immoral,  though  the  Pope  or  any  ecclesias- 
tical power  should  issue  or  direct  such  order, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  I  hold,  that  it  would 
be  sinfid  in  me  to  pay  any  respect  or  obedi- 
ence thereto;  I  further  declare,  that  I  do 
not  believe  that  any  sin  whatsoever  commit- 
ted by  me  can  be  forgiven  at  the  mere  will 
of  any  Pope,  or  any  priest,  or  of  any  person 
whatsoever ;  but  that  sincere  soirow  for  past 
sins,  a  firm  and  sincere  resolution  to  avoid 
future  guilt,  and  to  atone  to  God,  are  pre- 
vious and  indispensable  requisites  to  estab- 
lish a  well-founded  expectation  of  forgive- 
ness, and  that  any  person  who  leceives  ab- 
solution without  these  previous  requisites,  so 
far  from  obtaining  thereby  any  remission  of 
his  sins,  incurs  the  additional  guilt  of  viola- 
ting a  sacrament;  and  I  do  swear,  that  I  will 

defend  to  the  utmost  of  mv  power  the  set- 
29 


tiement  and  arrangement  of  pioperty  in  this 
country  as  established  by  the  laws  now  in 
being;  I  do  hereby  disclaim,  disavow,  and 
soleintdy  abjure  any  intention  to  subvert 
the  present  church  establishment  for  the 
purpose  of  substituting  a  Catholic  establish- 
ment in  its  stead ;  and  I  do  solemnly  swear, 
that  I  will  not  exercise  any  privilege,  to 
which  I  am  or  may  become  entitled,  to  dis- 
turb and  weaken  the  Protestant  religion  and 
Protestant  government  in  this  kingdom. 
So  help  me  God.' 

"VIII.  And  be  it  enacted,  That  Papists, 
or  persons  professing  the  Popish  or  Roman 
Catholic  religion,  may  be  capable  of  being 
elected  professors  of  medicine,  upon  the 
foundation  of  Sir  Patrick  Dunn,  any  law  or 
statute  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

"  IX.  Provided  altva;/s,  and  be  it  enacted^ 
That  nothing  herein  contained  shall  extend, 
or  be  construed  to  extend,  to  enable  any 
person  to  .sit  or  vote  in  either  House  of  Par- 
liament, or  to  hold,  exeicise,  or  enjoy  t\m 
office  of  lord-lieutenant,  lord-deputy,  or 
other  chief  governor  or  governois  of  this 
kingdom,  lord  high  chancellor  or  keeper,  or 
commissioner  of  the  great  seal  of  this 
kingdom,  lord  high  treasure)',  chancellor 
of  the  exchequer,  chief  justice  of  the 
Court  of  King's  Bench,  or  Common  Pleas, 
lord  chief  baron  of  the  Court  of  Exchequer, 
justice  of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  or 
Common  Plea^,  or  baron  of  the  Court  of 
Exchequer,  judge  of  the  High  Court  of  Ad- 
miralty, master  or  keeper  of  the  rolls,  secre- 
tary of  state,  keeper  of  the  privy  seal,  vice- 
treasurer,  or  deputy  vice-tieasurer,  teller 
and  cashier  of  the  Exchequer,  or  auditor 
general,  lieutenant  or  governor,  or  custom 
rotulorum  of  counties,  secretary  to  the  lord- 
lieutenant,  lord-deputy,  or  other  chief  gov- 
ernor or  governors  of  this  kingdom,  member 
of  his  majesty's  most  honorable  privy  coun- 
cil, prime  sergeant,  attorney-general,  solicitor- 
general,  second  and  third  sergeants  at  law,  or 
king's  council,  masters  in  chancery,  provost 
or  fellow  of  the  College  of  the  holy  and  un- 
divided Trinity  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  near 
Dublin;  postmaster-general,  master,  and 
lieutenant-general  of  his  majesty's  ordnance, 
commander-in-chief  of  his  majesty's  forces, 
generals  on  the  staff,  and  sheriffs  and  sub- 
sherifts  of  any  county  in  this  kingdom  ;  or 


226 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


any  office  contraiy  to  the  rules,  orders,  and 
directiiais  made  and  established  by  the  lord- 
lieutenant  and  council  in  pursuance  of  the 
act  passed  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
years  of  King  Charles  the  Second,  entitled, 
'An  act  for  the  explaining  of  some  doubts 
arising  upon  an  act  entitled.  An  act  for 
the  better  execution  of  his  majesty's  gracious 
declaration  for  the  settlement  of  this  king- 
dom of  Ireland,  and  satisfaction  of  the  sev- 
eral interests  of  adventurers,  soldiers,  and 
other  his  subjects  there,  and  for  making 
some  alteiations  of,  and  additions  unto  the 
suid  act,  for  the  more  speedy  and  efiectual 
settlement  of  this  kingdom,'  unless  he  shall 
have  taken,  made,  and  subscribed  the  oaths 
and  declarations,  and  performed  the  several 
requisites,  -which  by  any  law  heretofore 
made,  and  now  of  force,  are  required  to  en- 
able any  person  to  sit  or  vote,  or  to  hold,  ex- 
ercise, and  enjoy  the  said  offices  respectively. 

"X.  Provided  also,  and  be  it  enacted.  That 
nothing  in  this  act  contained  shall  enable 
any  Papist,  or  person  professing  the  Popish 
or  Roman  Catholic  religion,  to  exercise  any 
right  of  presentation  to  any  ecclesiastical 
benefice  whatsoever. 

"  XL  And  be  it  enacted,  That  no  Papist,  or 
person  professing  the  Popish  or  Roman 
Catholic  religion,  shall  be  liable  or  subject  to 
any  penalty  for  not  attending  divine  service 
on  the  Sabbath  day,  called  Sunday,  in  his  or 
her  parish  church. 

"  XII.  Provided  also,  and  be  it  enacted. 
That  nothing  herein  contained,  shall  be  con- 
strued to  extend  to  authorize  any  Popish 
priest,  or  reputed  Popish  priest,  to  celebrate 
marriage  between  Protestant  and  Protestant, 
or  between  any  person,  who  hath  been  or 
professed  himself  or  herself  to  be  a  Protes- 
tant at  any  time  within  twelve  months  before 
such  celebration  of  marriage,  and  a  Papist, 
unless  such  Protestant  and  Papist  shall  have 
been  first  married  by  a  clergyman  of  the 
Protestant  religion,  and  that  every  Popish 
priest,  or  reputed  Popish  priest,  who  shall 
celebrate  any  marriage  bet  wen  two  Protes- 
tants, or  between  any  such  Protestant  and 
Papist,  uuless  such  Protestant  and  Papist 
shall  have  been  first  married  by  a  clergyman 
of  the  Protestant  religion,  shall  forfeit  the 
sum  of  five  hundred  pounds  to  his  majesty, 
upon  conviction  thereof. 


''  XIII.  And  whereas  it  may  be  expedient, 
in  case  his  majesty,  his  heiis  and  successors, 
shall  be  pleased  so  to  alter  the  statutes  of  the 
College  of  the  holy  and  undivided  Trinity 
near  Dublin,  and  of  the  University  of  Dub- 
lin, as  to  enable  persons  professing  the  Ro- 
man C  ttholic  religion  to  enter  into  or  to  take 
degrees  in  the  said  university,  to  remove  any 
obstacle,  which  now  exists  by  statute  law  ;  be 
it  enacted,  That  from  and  after  the  first  day 
of  June,  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
ninety-three,  it  shall  not  be  necessary  for 
any  person  upon  taking  any  of  the  degrees 
usually  conferred  by  the  said  university, 
to  make  or  subscribe  any  declaration,  or 
to  take  any  oath,  save  the  oaths  of  allegiance 
and  abjuration,  any  law  or  statute  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding. 

"  XIV.  Provided  always.  That  no  Papist 
or  Roman  Catholic,  or  person  professing  the 
Roman  Catholic  or  Popish  religion,  shall  take 
any  benefit  by  or  under  this  act,  unless  he 
shall  have  first  taken  and  subscribed  the  oath 
and  declaration  in  this  act  contained  and  set 
forth,  and  also  the  said  oath  appointed  by  the 
said  act  passed  in  the  thirteenth  and  four- 
teenth years  of  his  majesty's  reign,  entitled, 
'An  act  to  enable  his  majesty's  subjects,  of 
whatever  persuasion,  to  testify  their  allegiance 
to  him,'  in  some  one  of  his  majesty's  four 
courts  in  Dublin,  or  at  the  general  sessions  of 
the  peace,  or  at  any  adjournment  thereof  to 
be  holden  for  the  county,  city,  or  borough 
wherein  such  Papist  or  Roman  Catholic,  or 
person  professing  the  Roman  Catholic  or 
Popish  religion,  doth  inhabit  or  dwell,  or  be- 
fore the  going  judge  or  judges  of  assize  in  the 
county  wherein  such  Papist  or  Roman 
Catholic,  or  person  professing  the  Roman 
Catholic  or  Popish  religion,  doth  inhabit 
and  dvvell,  in  open  court. 

"XV.  Provided  always,  and  belt  enacted, 
That  the  names  of  such  persons  as  shall 
so  take  and  subscribe  the  said  oath  and  dec- 
laration, with  their  titles  and  additious,  shall 
be  entered  upon  the  rolls,  for  that  purpose  to 
be  appointed  by  said  respective  courts;  and 
that  the  said  rolls  once  in  every  year  shall 
be  transmitted  to,  and  deposited  in  the  Rolls 
Office  in  this  kingdom,  to  remain  among>t 
the  records  thereof,  and  the  masters  or 
keepers  of  the  rolls  in  this  kingdom,  or  their 
lawful  deputy  or  deputies,  are  hereby  em- 


ARMS    AND    GUNPOWDER    AND    CONVKNTION    ACTS. 


227 


powered  and  required  to  give  and  deliver  to 
such  person  or  persons  so  taking  and  sub- 
scribing the  said  oaths  and  declaration,  a  cer- 
tificate or  certificates  of  such  person  or  per- 
sons having  taken  and  subscribed  the  said 
oaths  and  declaration,  for  each  of  which  cer- 
tificates the  sum  of  one  shilling  and  uo  more 
shall  be  paid. 

"XVI.  And  be  it  further  provided  and 
enacted,  That  from  and  after  the  first  day  of 
April,  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
ninety -three,  no  freeholder,  burgess,  freeman, 
or  inhabitant  of  this  kingdom,  being  a  Pa- 
pist or  Roman  Catholic,  or  person  professing 
the  Roman  Catholic  or  Popish  religion,  shall 
at  anytime  be  capable  of  giving  his  vote  for 
the  electing  of  any  knight  or  knights  of  any 
shire  or  county  within  this  kingdom,  or  citi- 
zen or  burgess  to  serve  in  any  Parliament, 
until  he  shall  have  first  produced  and  shown 
to  the  high  sherifl;"  of  the  said  county,  or  his 
deputy  or  deputies,  at  any  election  of  a  knight 
or  knights  of  the  said  shire,  and  to  the  re- 
spective chief  officer  or  officers  of  any  city, 
borough,  or  town-corporate,  to  whom  the 
return  of  any  citizen  or  burgess  to  serve 
in  Parliament  doth  or  shall  respectively 
belong,  at  the  election  of  any  citizen  or  bur- 
gess to  serve  in  Parliament,  such  certificate 
of  his  having' taken  and  subscribed  the  said 
oath  and  declaration,  either  from  the  Rolls 
Office,  or  from  the  proper  officer  of  the  court 
in  which  the  said  oaths  and  declaration  shall 
be  taken  and  subscribed  ;  and  such  person 
being  a  freeholder,  freeman,  burgess,  or  in- 
habitant so  producing  and  showing  such  cer- 
tificate, shall  be  then  permitted  to  vote,  as 
amply  and  fully  as  any  Protestant  freeholder, 
freeman,  burgees,  or  inhabitant  of  such  coun- 
ty, city,  borough,  or  town-corporate,  but  not 
otherwise." 

This  law,  it  may  be  thought,  saved  toler- 
ably well  the  main  privileges  of  the  odious 
'•Ascendency;"  and  still  left  the  two  sects,  or 
two  nations-  in  the  relative  position  of  a  su- 
perior and  an  inferior  cas^e  ;  but  the  require- 
ments of  English  policy  at  this  time  were  ab- 
solute and  undeniable.  It  was  however  felt 
by  the  thoroughgoing  Protestants  of  Iieland 
to  be  a  sore  humiliation  thus  at  last  to  have 
to  acknowledge  the  civil  existence  of  Papists 
at  all,  and  that  Papists  no  longer  breathed 


altogether  by  "connivance."  But  the  iriila- 
tion  of  the  Protestant  interest  was  soothed 
by  certain  oth^r  measures  which  the  Govern- 
ment carried  through  this  session — the  Gun- 
powder Act  and  the  Convention  Act.  The 
Gunpowder  Act,  entitled  "An  act  to  prevent 
the  importation  of  Arms  Gunpowder,  and 
Ammunition  into  this  Kingdom,  and  the  re- 
moving and  keeping  of  Gunpowder,  Arms, 
and  Ammunition  without  license,"  contained 
very  oppressive  provisions,  authorizing  ma- 
gistrates and  police  to  make  searches  for 
arms  ;  and  may  be  called  the  first  of  the  reg- 
ular series  of  "Arms  Acts,"  with  which  Ire- 
land is  so  familiar  down  to  the  present  day. 
It  was  not  at  all  opposed  in  Parliament :  in- 
deed, like  all  the  other  Arms  Acts,  it  purported 
to  be  a  temporary  measure,  to  be  in  force 
oidy  until  the  1st  of  January,  1V94,  and  the 
end  of  then  next  session  of  Parliament.  The 
Government  pretended  that  it  was  needed 
just  at  that  time  to  defeat  and  suppress 
the  seditious  conspiracy  which  Lord  Clare 
and  the  Committee  of  the  Lords  had  discov- 
ered ;  but  which  did  not  then  exist  at  all ; 
and  which  afterwards  was  occasioned,  or  in- 
deed rendered  necessary,  by  the  atrocious 
abuse  of  the  very  coercive  laws  which  were 
said  to  be  intended  to  defeat  it. 

But  the  second  of  these  two  acts,  the 
Convention  Act,  Lord  Clare's  special  and 
favorite  measure,  stamps  that  nobleman  as 
the  true  author  and  creator  of  British  policy 
in  Ireland,  from  his  own  tiirie  until  this  hour. 
The  bill  was  introduced  into  the  House  of 
Lords  by  Lord  Clare  himself.  Its  real  and 
plain  object  was  to  prevent  the  prevalence  of 
the  successful  example  of  the  Catholic  Con- 
vention, and  to  anticipate  a  Convention 
which  it  was  alleged  that  the  United  L'ish 
Society  was  about  to  convene  at  Athlone. 

This  act  (33  Geo.  III.,  c.  29)  to  prevent  the 
election  or  appointment  of  unlawful  assem- 
blies, under  pretence  of  preparing  or  present- 
ing public  petitions  or  other  addresses  to  his 
majesty  or  the  Parliament,  recites,  that  the 
election  or  appoiulment  of  assemblies,  pur- 
porting to  represent  the  people,  or  any  de- 
sciiption  of  the  p'  oplf,  under  pretence  of  pre- 
paring or  presenting  petitions,  complaints,  re- 
monstrances, and  declarations,  and  other 
addresses  to  the  king,  or  to  both  or  either 
Houses  of  Parliament,  for  alteration  of  mat- 


>28 


niSTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


ters  e.-t;iljlis!ied  by  law,  for  redress  of  alleged 
grievances  in  church  and  state,  may  be  made 
use  of  to  serve  the  ends  of  factions  and  sedi- 
tious persons,  to  the  violation  of  the  public 
peace,  and  the  iiTeat  and  manifest  encouragre- 
ment  of  riot,  tumult,  and  disorder  :  and  it 
enacts,  that  all  such  assemblies,  committees, 
or  olhev  bodies  of  persons  elected,  or  other- 
wise constituted  or  appointed  are  unlawful  as- 
semblies, and  that  all  persons  giving  or  pub- 
lishiu'T  notice  of  tlie  election  to  be  made 
of  such  persons  or  delegates,  or  attending,  or 
voting  or  acting  therein  by  any  means,  are 
guilty  of  a  high  misdemeanor.  The  act  con- 
cludes with  a  declaration,  "that  nothing  in  it 
shall  impede  the  undoubted  right  of  his  maj- 
esty's subjects  to  petition  the  king  or  Parlia- 
ment for  redress  of  any  public  or  private 
grievance." 

This  measure  srave  rise  to  long  and  acri- 
monious  debates.  When  it  was  in  commit- 
tee, Mr.  Grattan  made  a  vigorous  speech 
against  it:  his  chief  objection  to  it  was,  that 
it  was  a  false  declaration  of  law,  and  deprived 
the  subject  of  his  constitutional  right  of  pe- 
titioning effectually  against  grievances  by 
rendering  the  previous  measure  of  consulta- 
tion and  deliberation  criminal.  Especially  he 
was  indignant  that  it  by  implication  con- 
demned all  previous  conventions  of  delegates 
which  had  ever  been  held,  including  his  own 
Volunteer  Convention.  He  said — "  This  bill 
is  said  to  be  an  expedient  to  restore  peace  ; 
■why  then  is  it  a  reflection  ?  Why  do  the 
preamble  and  declaration  pronounce  every 
man  who  has  been  a  delegate,  all  the  Volun- 
teers, the  delegates  at  Dungannon,  the  dele- 
gates of  the  convention,  the  committee  of  the 
lawyers'  corps,  and  the  corps  that  appointed 
that  committee  ;  the  committee  of  the  Cath- 
olics, their  late  conventions,  and  all  the 
Catholics  who  appointed  that  convention — 
that  is  the  whole  Catholic  body — offenders, 
men  guilty  of  an  unlawful  assembly,  and  this 
moment  liable  to  be  prosecuted !  For  so 
much  has  the  bill  in  object :  not  the  peace 
of  the  country,  but  reflection  on  great  bodies, 
the  gratification  of  spleen  at  the  expense  of 
the  constitution,  by  voting  false  doctrine 
into  law,  and  the  brightest  passages  of  your 
history  into  unlawful  assemblies.  Gentle- 
irien  have  conceived  this  bill  an  expedient  to 
quell  insurgents  :  let  them  read  the  bill.     It 


is  not  a  riot  act ;  it  does  not  go  against  riots 
that  are,  but  conventions  that  are  not.  The 
title  of  the  bill,  as  first  brought  in,  was  to 
prevent  riots  and  tumults  arising  from  con- 
ventions; but  as  the  bill  had  nothing  to  say 
to  riots,  and  no  riots  appeared  to  have  arisen 
from  conventions,  such  title  was  in  decency 
dropped,  and  the  object  of  the  bill  was  now 
professed  to  be  an  act  against  conventions. 
Gentlemen  said  a  national  convention  at 
Athlone  was  intended.  He  did  believe  that 
such  a  one  had  been  intended  some  time  ago, 
but  that  then  it  was  not  so ;  or  if  then 
intended,  that  it  would  be  trifling  and  con- 
temptible. His  objection  to  the  bill  was, 
that  it  was  a  trick,  making  a  supposed 
National  Convention  at  Athlone,  in  1793,  a 
pretext  for  preventing  delegation  forever." 

All  opposition  was  vain.  The  Govern- 
ment had  fabricated  an  alar-m^  purposely  to 
get  this  act  passed.  Mr.  Secretary  Hobart's 
remarks  on  occasion  of  this  debate,  expose 
clearly  enough  the  whole  policy  of  the  Gov- 
ernment : — • 

Mr.  Hobart  declared,  nothing  gave  him 
more  pain,  than  that  the  debate  on  this  bill 
should  have  extended  to  such  length,  or  that 
it  should,  on  the  close  of  the  session,  create 
any  thing  like  a  disunion  of  sentiment.  He 
declared  that  nothing  but  the  very  alarming 
state  to  which  the  country  had  been  reduced 
by  a  spirit  of  popular  commotion,  excited  by 
conventions,  usurping  the  privileges  of  rep- 
resentation, and  assuming  to  control  Parlia- 
ment, could  have  induced  him  to  consent  to 
the  introduction  of  this  bill;  and  even  the 
nobleman,  who  had  brought  it  into  the  other 
House,  before  he  had  done  so,  had  considered 
it  over  and  over  again,  and  did  not  bring  it 
forward  until  absolute  necessity  called  for 
some  effectual  measure  to  stem  the  torrent  of 
sedition,  at  a  time  when  writs  had  been  is- 
sued by  the  society  called  United  Irishmen, 
for  the  purpose  of  assembling  the  convention 
at  Athlone,  and  under  a  conviction,  that  if 
Parliament  should  break  up  without  adopt- 
ing the  bill,  which  in  his  idea  never  did,  nor 
never  was  intended  to  meddle  with  the  con- 
stitutional rights  of  the  people,  the  constitu- 
tion itself  might  be  subverted  before  Parlia- 
ment could  be  assembled. 

The  act  passed  :  on  the  final  division,  the 
teller  in  favor  of  the  passage  was  Arthur 


MILITIA    BILL CATHOLIC    COMMITTEE. 


229 


Wellcsk-y.  Tliere  is  not,  and  never  was,  any 
f^uch  law  in  England,  From  that  day  to 
tins,  it  has  efl'ectuall}'  prevented  the  people  of 
Ireland  from  deliberating  in  an  orderly  and 
authoritative  manner,  by  means  of  accredited 
delegates,  upon  their  own  affairs.  It  was  af- 
terwards the  rock  ahead  which  confronted 
O'Connell  in  all  his  agitation.  This  law  it 
was  which  prevented  his  calling  together  the 
promised  '"Council  of  Three  Hundred,"  and 
left  him  only  the  alternative  of  inorganic 
"Monster  meetings" — which  latter  indeed 
were  also  made  criminal  by  a  prudent  inter- 
pretation of  law. 

In  this  same  session  of  Parliament,  and  be- 
fore the  passage  of  the  Catholic  Relief  bill, 
there  was  passed  a  new  Militia  bill,  intro- 
duced by  Lord  Hillsborough,  to  establish  the 
militia,  as  his  lordship  said,  "as  neaily  as  cir- 
cumstances would  permit,  on  the  same  plan 
as  that  of  England."  The  whole  number  of 
men  he  proposed  to  be  16,000,  upon  a  lougli 
estimate  500  for  each  county.  The  new 
Mibtia  law  was  one  of  the  mo^t  efficient  of 
that  Series  of  measures  now  secured  by  the 
Government  to  enable  them  at  any  time  to 
crush  down  every  popular  raovemeut  which 
was  not  to  their  own  taste. 

The  General  Committee  of  the  Catholics 
had  adjourne'd  after  dispatching  their  dele- 
gates to  the  king,  and  they  liad  left  a  sub- 
committee sitting  in  Dublin,  with  power  to 
act  for  them  between  their  rising  and  their 
next  meeting ;  but  they  made  a  material 
alteration  in  its  constitution,  by  associating 
to  the  twelve  members  who  then  formed  it, 
the  whole  of  the  country  delegates,  each  of 
whom  was  henceforward  to  be,  ipso  facto^  a 
member  thereof.  They  then  resolved,  unan- 
imously, that  they  would  reassemble  when 
duly  summoned  by  the  sub-committee,  who 
were  invested  with  powers  for  that  pui-pose. 
"  We  will  attend,"  cried  a  member  from  a 
remote  county  [O'  Gorman,  of  Mayo),  "if  we 
are  summoned  to  meet  across  the  Atlantic." 

The  sub-committee  had  entered  into  a 
series  of  negotiations  with  Mr,  Secretary  Ho- 
bart  respecting  the  details  of  their  Relief  bill. 
But  although  the  original  demand  in  the 
address  to  the  king  was  for  (/eneral  relief, 
including  admission  to  both  Houses  of  Par- 
liament, it  soon  became  evident  to  the  min- 
ister that  they  would  take  much  less.    Wolfe 


Tone,   in   Ids   indignant    narrative   of  these 
proceedings,  says: — 

"  In  the  first  interview  with  the  Irish 
minister,  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  were 
at  once  given  up,  and  the  question  began  to 
be,  not  how  much  must  be  conceded,  but 
how  much  might  be  withheld.  So  striking 
a  chav.ge  did  not  escape  the  vigilance  of 
the  administration;  they  instantly  recovered 
from  the  panic  which  had  led  them  into 
such  indiscreet,  and,  as  it  now  appeared, 
unnecessary  concessions  at  the  opening  of 
Parliament ;  they  dexterously  seduced  the 
Catholics  into  the  strong  ground  of  negotia- 
tion, so  well  known  to  themselves,  so  little 
to  their  adversaries ;  they  procrastinated, 
and  they  distinguished,  they  started  doubts, 
they  pleaded  difficulties ;  the  measure  of 
relief  was  gradually  curtailed,  and,  daring 
the  tedious  and  anxious  progress  of  discus- 
sion, whilst  the  Catholic  mind,  their  hopes 
and  fears,  were  unremittingly  intent  on  the 
progress  of  their  bill,  which  was  obviously 
and  designedly  suspended,  the  acts  already 
commemorated  (Militia,  Gunpowder,  and 
Convention  Acts)  were  driven  through  both 
Houses  with  the  utmost  impetuosity,  and, 
with  the  most  cordial  and  unanimous  con- 
currence of  all  parties,  received  the  royal 
assent." 

In  fact,  the  leading  Catholics,  wliether 
prelates  or  landed  proprietors,  seemed  to  be, 
or  atiected  to  be,  quite  satisfied  with  the 
poor  relief  they  had  obtained :  and  we  find 
henceforth  less  and  less  disposition  on  their 
part  to  join  in,  or  to  countenance,  the  ultra- 
liberal  views  of  the  United  Irishmen.*  In 
truth,  there  was  no  body  of  men  in  the  three 
kingdoms  more  naturally  disposed  to  abhor 
"  French  principles"  than  the  Catholic  peers, 
gentry,  and  bishops,  who  thought  their  own 
interests  safer  under  the  British  Government 
than  in  the  liberty  and  equality  of  a  republic 
*  One  of  tlie  most  strikiiii,'  indications  of  tiie  snc- 
oess  which  iittended  the  policy  of  Government  to 
attach  to  thein  the  leading  Catliolies,  and  esipecially 
tlie  bishops,  and  so  keep  the  Catholic  body  out  of 
tlie  United  Irish  ranks,  appears  in  the  tone  of  the 
pastoml  letters  of  various  prelates  to  tlieir  flocks,  in 
whieli  they  warned  them  aorainst  "  nefarious  designs" 
and  lawless  persons.  From  this  moment,  also,  the 
laborious  Mr.  Plowden,  in  his  useful  Historical  Re- 
vieiD,  never  has  a  good  word  for  the  unfortunate 
Defenders,  oraiiy  other  Irishmen  who  did  not  choose 
to  submit  quietly  and  patiently  to  the  very  uttermost 
extremities  of  tyranny. 


230 


HISTOKY   OF   IRELAND. 


on  the  French  model.  The  ablest  workers, 
it  is  true,  on  the  General  Committee,  John 
Keogh,  McNcven,  and  Richard  McCormick. 
joined  the  United  Irish  Society,  which  had 
not  yet  become  revolutionary,  republican, 
and  separatist,  but  which  was  soon  to  be 
forced  into  that  extreme  position. 

The  same  session  of  Parliament  of  1793, 
saw  the  passage  of  some  measures  which 
had  been  amongst  the  favorite  objects  of 
the  opposition  for  years.  It  seemed,  indeed, 
at  the  commencement  of  that  session  as  if 
the  principle  of  Parliamentary  Pteforui  were 
to  be  admitted  and  fully  carried  out.  The 
several  great  objects  which  had  been  urged 
by  the  opposition,  ever  since  the  last  Parlia- 
ment, with  great  perseverance  and  ability, 
were  the  Responsibility  bill,  the  Place  and 
the  Pension  bill.  There  were  also  other  meas- 
ures of  great  consequence,  but  of  less  gen- 
eral importance  ;  such  as  the  disqualifying 
of  revenue  officers  from  sitting  in  Parliament, 
and  the  repeal  of  the  Police  act.  By  the  Re- 
sponsibility bill,  no  money  could  be  disposed 
of  by  the  sole  order  from  the  king,  as  was 
before  the  case;  for  Irish  officers  were  to 
sign  all  warrants;  and  every  warrant  and 
officer  came  before  Parliament.  The  neces- 
sary consequence  of  such  a  bill  was,  that  the 
hereditary  revenue  was  given  up,  and,  like 
the  additional  supply,  voted  annually.  The 
great  effect  and  consequence  of  such  a  meas- 
ure, any  man  who  understood  government, 
must  see  at  a  glance. 

By  the  Pension  bill  all  pensioners  for  years 
or  during  pleasure  were  excluded ;  and  the 
sura,  which  then  was  near  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  poun  is  a  year,  was  reduced 
to  eighty  thousand. 

By  the  Place  bill,  all  new  places  from  the 
date  of  the  bill  were  disqualified.  Officers 
of  revenue,  whose  duty  required  their  absence 
from  Dublin,  were  excluded  :  and  the  prin- 
ciple of  excluding  them  all  was  carried. 

Besides  the  acts  already  mentioned,  the 
following  popular  acts  were  passed  in  the 
session  of  1793,  viz.  (33  Geo.  III.,  c.  xxv.)  : 


"  An  Act  to  encoui'age  the  Improvement  of 
Barren  Land  ;"  (xxxi.)  "An  Act  for  regula- 
ting the  Trade  of  Ireland  to  and  from  the 
East  Indies,  under  certain  conditions  and 
provisions  for  a  time  therein  mentioned  ;" 
(33  Geo.  Ill,,  c.  xxxiv.)  "An  Act  for  the 
support  of  the  Honor  and  Dignity  of  Ilis 
Majesty's  Crown  in  Ireland,  and  for  granting 
to  His  Majesty  a  Civil  List  Establishment, 
under  certain  Provisions  and  Regulations;" 
(33  Geo.  III.,  c.  xli.)  "An  Act  for  securing 
the  Freedom  and  Independence  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  by  excluding  therefrom  Per- 
sons holding  any  Offices  under  the  Crown, 
to  be  hereafter  created,  or  holding  certain 
Offices  therein  enumerated,  or  Pensions  for 
Term  of  Years,  or  during  His  Majesty's  Pleas- 
ure ;"  (33  Geo.  HI.,  c.  xlviii.)  "An  Act  to 
remove  Doubts  respecting  the  Functions  of 
Juries  in  Cases  of  Libel ;"  (33  Geo.  HI., 
c.  lii.)  *'An  Act  for  the  Advancement  of 
Trade  and  Manufactures,  by  granting  the 
Suras  therein  mentioned  for  the  Support  of 
Commercial  Credit.'' 

But  no  general  measure  of  reform  could 
be  carried.  The  conciliatory  disposition  of 
the  Government  abated  sensibly  in  propor 
tion  as  the  French  successes  on  the  Continen 
seemed  more  doubtful.  In  fact,  Dumouriez 
lost  the  Low  Countries  as  quickly  as  he  had 
won  them  :  rather  indeed  he  had  given  up 
his  conquests  to  the  Allies ;  having,  as  is 
well  known,  become  a  traitor  to  his  countiyt 
The  miserable  wretch  subsisted  for  many 
years  on  a  pension  from  the  English  Govern- 
ment, and  died  in  Buckinghamshire,  in  1823. 
It  was  believed  for  a  time  in  England  that 
the  French  Revolution  was  going  back,  and 
that  the  danger  was  in  a  great  measure  past. 
They  resolved  therefore  to  rely  on  the  tri- 
fling concessions  they  had  already  made  to 
conciliate  the  opposition  party  and  the  upper 
classes  of  the  Catholics,  and  to  make  relent' 
less  use  of  their  new  coercion  acts  in  "stamp- 
ing out"  United  Irishmen. 

The  session  was  closed  on  the   16th    of 
August,  1793. 


TRIALS    OF    DEFKNDERS — PACKING   JtJRIKS. 


2.'31 


CHAPTER    XXYIir. 

1793— 17  yf). 

Small  results  of  Catholic  Relief  Hill— distinctions  still 
kept  up — Exeiteiiieiit  atraiiist  the  (.''atlioiioa— Trials 
of  Defenders — Faokiiij^  Juries — Pros^ress  of  United 
Irishism — Opposed  by  Catliolie  bishops— Arrests 
of  Bond  find  Butler — Prosecution  of  A.  Hamilton 
Kowiiii — Last  effort  for  Parliikuientary  Reform — 
Defeated — United  Irish  MeetiuiT  in  Diil^lin  disper- 
sed by  the  Police— Rev.  \\'\n.  Jackson  and  Wolfe 
Tone — Rowan  charsrcd  with  Treason — Rowan  es- 
capes— Tone  allowed  to  quit  the  country — Vow 
of  the  Cave  Hill — Fitzwilliain's  Administration 
—  Fitzwilliani  deceived  by  Pitt — Dismissal  of  Mr. 
B*tresford — Plan  of  Mr.  Pitt — Insurrection  first — 
"  Union  "  afterwards — Fitzwilliani  recalled — Great 
Despondency — The  "  Orangemen  "  -»- Beginning 
of  Coercion  and  Auarcliy. 

The  limited  and  grudging  measure  for 
relief  (if  the  Catholics  had  by  no  means  had 
the  effect  of  destroying  the  odious  distinc- 
tions which  had  so  long  divided  Irishmen 
of  different  religious  persuasions.  The  law 
indeed  was  changed,  but  the  insolent  and 
exclusive  spirit  which  had  inspired  the 
Penal  Code ;  the  very  marked  and  offen- 
sive disabilities  which  still  left  the  Catholic 
people  in  a  condition  of  legal  inferiority, 
gave  the  "  Ascendency  "  ample  opportunity 
to  make  them  feel  daily  and  hourly  that  they 
were  still  a  proscribed  and  oppressed  race. 
Great  difficulbies  at  first  prevailed  in  raising 
the  different  regiments  of  militia;  for  al- 
though Catholics  were  rendered  capable  of 
serving  in  them,  no  Catholic  officers  were 
appointed ;  this  marked  reprobation  of  all 
gentlemen  of  that  communion  so  directly  in 
the  teeth  of  the  act,  diifused  a  general  dif- 
fidence amidst  the  lower  orders,  and  it  was 
found  necessary  to  appoint  several  Catholic 
officers,  before  the  militia  corps  could  be 
completed. 

Catholics  were  not  yet  eligible  as  mayors 
or  sherilis,  but  there  was  now  no  legal  ex- 
clusion of  them  from  the  guilds  of  mer- 
chants. Accordingly,  thirty  highly  respect- 
able Catholic  merchants  of  Dublin  applied 
for  admission  into  their  guild,  but  were 
rejected  on  the  mere  ground  of  their  re- 
ligion. In  every  part  of  the  kingdom  con- 
tinual efforts  were  made  to  traduce  and 
vilify  the  whole  Catholic  body,  in  order  to 
defeat  and  annul  the  measures  which  the 
legislature  had  passed  in  their  favor.  Never, 
perhaps,  in   all  the  history  of  the  country, 


had  the  viiulent  malignity  of  the  bigot? 
been  so  busy  in  chai-ging  upon  Catholic? 
all  manner  of  evil  principles  and  practices 
Their  indignant  denials  of  these  imputations 
were  utterly  unheeded.  Every  town  cor- 
poration followed  the  example  of  that  of 
Dublin,  and  excluded  Catholics  even  from 
the  poor  privilege  of  belonging  to  the  guild 
of  their  trades.  The  growth  and  progress 
of  Defenderism,  particularly  in  the  countv 
of  Meath,  afforded  fuel  to  the  enemies  of  the 
Catholic  body,  which  they  studied  to  im- 
plicate in  the  outrages  which  were  some- 
limes  committed.  Painful  industry  was 
employed  to  work  up  the  imaginations 
of  the  inhabitants  into  the  expectation  of 
a  general  massacre  of  all  the  Protestants 
throughout  that  countv.  No  arts  wei-e 
left,  untried  to  criminate  the  Catholic  body  ; 
every  exceptionable  word  or  action  of  an  in- 
dividual, however  contem|)lible,  was  charged 
on  the  whole ;  and  the  object  was  now, 
not  so  much  to  suppress  the  Defenders,  as 
to  fasten  their  enormities  on  the  Catholic 
body. 

On  several  trials  which  took  place  at  the 
assizes  for  Meath  County  in  prosecuting 
men  charged  with  being  Defenders,  the 
juries  were  comj)Osed  exclusively  of  Prot- 
estants. Catholics,  it  is  true,  were  legally 
competent  to  sit  on  juries,  but  in  every  case 
of  prosecution  by  the  crown,  the  Protestant 
sheriff  took  care  to  show  them  that  they 
were  not  regarded  as  "good  and  lawful 
men."  Irritated  and  humiliated  by  such 
continued  oppression,  it  is  not  wonderful 
if  many  of  the  Catholics  began  to  despair 
of  being  ever  allowed  to  live  in  peace  and 
honor  in  their  native  land  without  such  a 
revolution  as  would  destroy  both  the  "As- 
cendency "  and  the  English  connection  along 
with  it.  Great  numbers  of  them  about  this 
time  joined  the  United  Irish  Society,  which 
was  not  yet  indeed  a  revolutionary  or  re- 
publican body  in  form,  although  its  princi- 
pal leaders  were  revolutionists  in  piinciple, 
and  already  foresaw  the  necessity  which 
shortly  after  drove  them  into  armed  insur- 
rection. The  Catholic  bishops,  it  must  be 
admitted  (if  it  be  any  credit  to  them),  most 
vehemently  opposed  the  United  Irishmen, 
and  omitted  no  occasion  of  protesting  their 
"loyalty,"    and     pouring    execration    upon 


232 


HISTORY    OF    IKELAIO). 


"  Freiicli  iiriiiciplcs."  In  tlie  humble  ad- 
dress to  the  Khig  fmra  nine  Catholic  bishops, 
we  find  these  strong  expressions,  which  prove 
a  spirit  of  the  most  determined  submissive- 
iiess  under  oppression  : — 

"Whilst  we  lament  the  necessity  that  in- 
flicts the  calamities  of  war  upon  any,  even 
the  most  depraved  of  our  fellow-creatures, 
we  incessantly  supplicate  the  Almiglity  Dis- 
poser of  events,  that,  blessing  your  Majesty's 
arms  with  success.  He  may  crown  you  with 
the  glory  of  stopping  the  progress  of  that 
atheistical  faction,  which  aims  at  the  sub- 
version of  every  religious  and  moral  prin- 
ciple. 

"  We  look  towards  that  unhappy  nation, 
which  is  the  object  of  hostility,  and  aclvnowl- 
edge  with  humble  thanksgiving  the  goodness 
of  Divine  Providence,  which,  under  the  best 
of  constitutions,  has  bestowed  on  the  land 
we  live  in,  freedom  exempt  from  anarchy, 
protection  guarded  against  oppression,  and 
a  prince  calculated  by  his  wisdom  and  virtue 
to  preserve  tliat  happy  condition  of  society." 

It  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  our  country 
that  these  four  archbishops  and  five  bishops 
did  actually  bear  this  high  testimony  to  the 
freedom  and  happiness  of  Ireland,  at  a  time 
when  every  accused  Catholic  was  tried  be- 
fore a  packed  jury  of  his  enemies — when  no 
Catholic  could  be  a  magistrate  or  sheriff, 
and  therefore  no  Catholic  had  the  least 
chance  of  justice  in  any  court — when  the  un- 
fortunate flocks  of  these  prelates  were  having 
their  stacks  of  grain  sold  to  pay  tithes  to  cler- 
gymen they  never  saw,  and  church-rates  to 
support  churches  which  they  never  entered. 

Tlie  government  now  began  a  system  of 
active  operations  against  tlie  United  Irish- 
men. Two  of  their  chiefs,  Simon  Butler 
and  Oliver  Bond,  the  first  a  barrister,  the 
second  a  Dublin  merchant,  had  already,  in 
1792,  been  summoned  to  the  bar  of  the  House 
of  Lords,  charged  with  having  acted  as 
chairman  and  secretary  of  one  of  the  meet- 
ings in  Taylor's  Hall,  at  which  an  address 
to  the  people  was  adopted,  very  strongly 
denouncing  the  corrupt  composition  of  Par- 
liament. This  was  construed  as  an  offence 
against  the  privilege  of  Parliament  ;  and 
Butler  and  Bond  were  condemned  to  be 
imprisoned  for  six  months,  and  to  pay  each 
a  fine  of  £500.     The  next  leader  marked 


for  vengeance  was  the  famous  Archibald 
Hamilton  Rowan,  the  friend  of  Tone,  and 
one  of  the  boldest  of  the  early  chiefs  of  the 
Society.  It  was  determined  to  prosecute 
him  ou  a  charge  of  sedition,  on  account  of 
an  address  "  to  the  Volunteers,"  adopted 
at  a  meeting  where  he  acted  as  secretary. 
The  address  had  been  adopted  and  ptib- 
lished  two  years  before  ;  yet  the  govern- 
ment had  hesitated  all  this  while  to  bring 
him  to  trial.  In  fact,  arrangements  had 
first  to  be  perfected  to  ensure  the  packing 
of  the  jury.  This  was  done  by  making 
Jolm  Giffard,  one  of  the  most  unscrupulous 
and  indefatigable  partizans  of  the  "Ascen- 
dancy," one  of  the  Sheriffs  of  Dublin  ;  he 
knew  precisely  on  what  jurors  the  Castle 
could  depend.  It  was  on  occasion  of  this 
trial  that  the  system  of  jury-packing  was 
thoroughly  organized  and  reduced  to  an 
art ;  it  has  since  that  time  formed  the  chief 
.instrument  of  British  government  in  Ire- 
land. 

The  prosecuted  address  was  written  by 
Drennan  ;  and  its  first  paragraph  will  show 
the  nature  of  the  "  sedition  : " — 

"  Citizen-soldiers,  you  first  took  up  arms 
to  protect  your  country  from  foreign  ene- 
mies and  from  domestic  disturbance  ;  for 
the  same  purposes  it  now  becomes  necessary, 
that  you  should  resume  them  ;  a  proclama- 
tion has  been  issued  in  England  for  em- 
bodying the  militia,  and  a  proclamation  has 
been  issued  by  the  Lord- Lieutenant  and 
Council  in  Ireland  for  repressing  all  seditious 
associations  ;  in  consequence  of  both  these 
proclamations,  it  is  reasonable  to  apprehend 
danger  from  abroad  and  danger  at  home, 
from  whence  but  from  apprehended  danger 
are  these  menacing  preparations  for  war 
drawn  through  the  streets  of  this  capital,  or 
whence  if  not  to  create  that  iuternal  com- 
motion which  was  not  found,  to  sliake  that 
credit  which  was  not  affected,  to  blast  that 
volunteer  honor  which  was  hitherto  inviolate, 
are  those  terrible  suggestions  and  rumors 
and  whispers  that  meet  us  at  every  corner, 
and  agitate  at  least  our  old  men,  our  women, 
and  children  ;  whatever  be  the  motive,  or 
from  whatever  quarter  it  arises,  alarm  has 
arisen,  and  you  volunteers  of  Ireland  are 
therefore  summoned  to  arms  at  the  instance 
of  government  as  well  as  "by  the  respoasi« 


LAST  EFFORT  OF  PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM. 


233 


bility  attached  to  your  character,  and  the 
permanent  obligations  of  your  constitution. 
We  will  not  at  this  day  condescend  to  quote 
authorities  for  the  right  of  having  and  of 
using  arms,  but  we  will  cry  aloud,  even 
amidst  the  storm  raised  by  the  witchcraft 
of  a  proclamation,  that  to  your  formation 
was  owing  the  peace  and  protection  of  this 
island,  to  your  relaxation  has  been  owing  its 
relapse  into  impotence  and  insignificance,  to 
your  reuovatiou  must  be  owing  its  future 
freedom  and  its  present  tranquillity  ;  you 
are  therefore  summoned  to  arms,  in  order  to 
preserve  your  country  in  that  guarded  quiet, 
which  may  secure  it  from  external  hostility, 
and  to  maintain  that  internal  regimen 
throughout  the  land,  which,  superseding  a 
notorious  police,  or  a  suspected  militia,  may 
preserve  the  blessings  of  peace  by  a  vigilant 
preparation  for  war." 

The  address  went  on  to  recommend  a 
civil  and  military  convention,  which  was  not 
against  the  law  at  that  time,  though  in  the 
next  year  the  "  Convention  Act"  was  passed 
to  prevent  all  such  assemblies. 

Upon  this  the  Attorney-General  filed  an 
ex-oficio  information.  The  trial  came  on  the 
Syth  of  January,  1194:,  though  the  informa- 
tion had  been  filed  as  far  back  as  the  8th 
of  the  preceding  June.  Upon  calling  over 
the  jury  one  of  them  was  objected  against, 
as  holding  a  place  under  the  crown,  but  the 
Attorney-General  insisted  upon  the  illegality 
of  the  objection,  and  observed,  that  it  went 
against  all  that  was  honorable  and  respect- 
able in  the  land.  It  was,  therefore,  overruled 
by  the  court.  After  a  trial  of  about  ten 
hours,  the  jury  found  Rowan  guilty.  This  was 
very  unexpected  by  Mr.  Rowan's  party.  A 
motion  was  afterwards  made  in  court  to  set 
aside  the  verdict,  and  grant  a  new  trial 
grounded  on  several  affidavits.  The  motion 
was  argued  for  six  days,  and  was  at  last 
discharged.  The  grounds  upon  which  the 
defendant's  counsel  rested  their  case  were, 

1.  Upon  the  declaration  of  a  juror  against 
Mr.  Rowan,  viz.,  that  the  country  would 
never  be  quiet  till  lie  was  hanged  or  banished. 

2.  Upon  the  partiality  of  Mr.  Giffard,  the 
sheriff,  who  had  so  arrayed  the  panel  as  to 
have  him  tried  by  an  unfair  jury.  3.  Upon 
the  incredibility  of  one  LisLer,  the  chief  and 
only  witness  agaiuat  him  ;  and  4.  The  mis- 

30 


direction  of  the  court.  The  sentence  of  the 
court  upon  Mr.  Rowan  was  to  pay  to  His 
Majesty  a  fine  of  £500  and  be  imprisoned 
two  years,  to  be  computed  from  the  29th 
of  January,  1794,  and  until  the  fine  were 
paid,  and  to  find  security  for  his  good  be- 
havior for  seven  years,  himself  in  £2,000, 
and  two  su.)-elies  in  £1,000  each.  The  ver- 
dict and  judgment  of  the  court  gave  great 
dissatisfaction  to  the  popular  party.  Theif 
disapprobation  of  the  verdict  was  expressed 
in  court  by  groans  and  hisses. 

Parliament  met  on  the  21st  of  January; 
and  in  March,  Mr.  Wm.  Brabazon  Ponsonby 
presented  his  bill  for  amending  the  state  of 
the  representation  of  the  people  in  Parlia- 
ment. Mr.  Grattan  and  Sir  Lawrence 
Parsons  supported  the  bill  ;  the  government 
party  does  not  seem  to  have  even  taken  the 
trouble  to  debate  the  question,  being  quite 
sure  of  the  result.  On  motion  of  Sir  Her- 
cules Langrishe  it  was  ordered  to  be  read  a 
second  time  that  day  six  months  ;  and  so 
ended  all  efforts  for  reform  in  the  Irish  Par- 
liament. The  Houses  were  prorogued  ou 
the  25th  of  March. 

In  the  meantime,  Hamilton  Rowan  was 
lying  in  Newgate,  according  to  his  sentence. 
The  United  Irish  Society  of  Dublin  voted 
him  an  address  in  his  prison,  vehemently 
denouncing  the  packing  of  juries,  and  prom- 
ising "  inflexible  determination  to  pursue  the 
great  ol)ject  of  our  association — a?i  equal 
and  impartial  representation  of  the  people  in 
Farliament."  But  the  government  was  now 
determined  to  treat  these  extra-parliamen- 
tary reformers  without  ceremony.  On  the 
4  th  of  May,  their  ordinary  place  of  meeting, 
the  Taylor's  Hall  in  Back  lane,  was  invaded 
by  the  police,  the  meeting  dispersed  and  the 
papers  seized.  After  this  event  many  of 
the  more  timid,  or  prudent  members,  fell  off 
altogether  from  the  society  ;  but  the  njore 
resolute  and  indignant,  especially  the  re- 
publican portion  of  the  body,  made  up  their 
minds  from  this  moment  to  re-orgunizo  the 
society  upon  a  distinctly  revolutionary  and 
military  basis,  which  they  effected  in  the 
course  of  the  next  year.  Tlieir  reasons  for 
taking  this  extreme  resolution  were — that 
as  the  people  were  not  fairly  represented  in 
Parliament,  and  had  no  hope  of  being  so 
represented — as   the    Convention    Act  had 


234 


HISTOEY   OF   IRELAND. 


deprived  them  of  the  right  to  consult  on 
their  coraraon  affairs  pubUcly,  by  means  of 
delegates  appointed  for  that  purpose — and 
as  even  trial  by  jury  was  now  virtually 
abolished,  so  that  no  man's  life  or  liberty 
had  any  longer  the  slightest  protection  from 
the  laws,  they  were  thrown  back  upon  their 
original  rights  and  remedies  as  human 
beings — that  is  to  say,  the  right  and  remedy 
of  revolution, 

A  few  days  before  the  attack  of  the 
police  upon  Taylor's  Hall,  a  certain  Rev. 
William  Jackson,  a  clergyman  of  the  Church 
of  England,  was  arrested  in  Dublin  on  a 
charge  of  high  treason.  He  had  come  from 
France,  with  instructions  from  the  govern- 
ment of  the  republic  to  have  an  emissary 
appointed  by  the  United  Irish  leaders  who 
should  go  to  Paris  and  negotiate  for  French 
aid  in  a  revolutionary  movement.  He  had 
come  by  way  of  London  ;  and  there  Mr. 
Pitt,  who  was  perfectly  aware  of  his  errand 
and  his  every  movement,  contrived  that  he 
should  be  provided  with  a  companion  upon 
his  mission.  This  was  one  Cockayne,  an 
attorney,  who  came  to  Dublin  with  Mr. 
Jackson,  and  affected  great  zeal  in  the 
cause  of  liberty  and  of  Ireland.  Jackson 
had  letters  of  introduction  to  Lord  Edward 
Fitzgerald,  who  refused,  however,  to  hold 
any  communication  with  him.  He  was  in- 
troduced, however,  to  Wolfe  Tone,  and  had 
several  interviews  with  Rowan  in  prison. 
Tone  at  first  entered  into  his  views,  and 
undertook  to  be  himself  the  agent  who 
should  go  to  France  ;  but  at  the  nest  in- 
terview, having  conceived  suspicions  of 
Cockayne,  if  not  of  Jackson  himself,  he 
drew  back,  and  declined  further  negotiation. 
Rowan,  however,  was  less  cautions,  and  had 
many  interviews  with  Jackson  and  Cockayne, 
in  which  he  endeavored  first  to  secure  Tone's 
services  as  the  French  agent,  and  on  his  re- 
fusal. Dr.  Reynolds'.  All  this  while  Mr. 
Pitt  and  the  government  were  kept  fully 
apprised  of  all  that  was  going  forward  ; 
and  at  length,  when  it  was  supposed  there 
was  evidence  enough  to  involve  Jackson, 
Tone,  Rowan  and  Reynolds  in  a  charge  of 
high  treason,  Jackson  was  arrested,  brought 
to  trial  the  next  year,  convicted  on  the  tes- 
timony of  Cockayne,  and  about  to  be  sen- 
tenced to  death,  when  he  dropped  dead  in 


court,  having  swallowed  arsenic  for  that 
purpose. 

On  the  1st  of  May,  Archibald  Hamilton 
Rowan,  now  certain  of  being  tried,  convicted 
and  executed  for  high  treason,  escaped  from 
Newgate  prison,  arrived  in  France,  and 
thence  proceeded  to  America.  Reynolds 
avoided  arrest  by  timely  flight.  Tone  was 
not  apprehended  ;  but  he  was  given  to  un- 
derstand that  the  accusation  was  hangrin": 
over  him  ;  and  was  left  the  option  of  quitting 
the  country,  but  without  any  promise  being 
exacted  on  his  part  as  to  his  course  for  the 
future.  Before  going  away,  he  wrote  a 
narrative  of  the  two  conversations  he  had 
with  Jackson.  Tone's  son,  in  his  memoir 
of  his  father,  says  :  "  When  my  father  de- 
livered this  paper,  the  prevalent  opinion, 
which  he  then  shared,  was,  that  Jackson 
was  a  secret  emissary  employed  by  the 
British  Government.  It  required  the  un- 
fortunate man's  voluntary  death  to  clear  his 
character  of  such  a  foul  imputation.  What 
renders  this  transaction  the  more  odious,  is, 
that,  before  his  arrival  in  Ireland,  the  life 
of  Jackson  was  completely  in  the  power  of 
the  British  Government.  His  evil  genius 
was  already  pinned  upon  bim  ;  his  mission 
from  France,  his  every  thought  and  his 
views,  were  known.  He  was  allowed  to 
proceed,  not  in  order  to  detect  an  existing 
conspiracy  in  Ireland,  but  to  form  one,  and 
thus  increase  the  number  of  victims.  A 
more  atrocious  instance  of  perfidious,  and 
gratuitous  cruelty  is  scarcely  to  be  found  in 
the  history  of  any  country  but  Ireland." 

In  May,  1765,  Tone  proceeded  to  Belfast 
with  his  family,  met  there  some  of  his  early 
associates  in  the  formation  of  the  first 
United  Irish  Club,  and  made  some  agreeable 
excursions  with  them.  One  of  the  scenes 
which  he  describes  in  his  memoirs  is  im- 
pressive, seen  in  the  light  of  subsequent 
events  :  "  I  remember,  particularly,  two 
days  that  we  passed  on  the  Cave  hill.  On 
the  first,  Russell,  Neilson,  Simms,  M'Crackeu 
and  one  or  two  more  of  us,  on  the  summit 
of  MArt's  fort,  took  a  solemn  obligation, 
which,  I  think  I  may  say,  I  have  on  my 
part  endeavored  to  fulfill — never  to  desist  in 
our  efforts,  until  we  had  subverted  the 
authority  of  England  over  our  country,  and 
asserted  her  independence." 


FITZWILLIAM  S   ADMINISTRATIOX. 


235 


Tone  had  already  solemnly  promised  his 
friends  in  Dublin,  that  if  he  now  retired  to 
the  United  States,  it  would  only  be  to  pro- 
ceed thence  to  France,  and  labor  to  form 
the  alliance  which  he  regarded  as  the  grand 
mission  of  his  life  between  the  French  Re- 
public and  a  republic  in  Ireland. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1795,  owing 
to  certain  arrangements  between  the  Eng- 
lish ministers  and  those  lately  "  coalized  " 
Whigs  who  had  been  admitted  to  a  share  in 
the  administration,  Lord  Westmoreland  was 
recalled  from  Ireland,  and  Lord  Fitzvvilliam 
was  sent  over  as  Lord-Lieutenant.  Tliis 
gave  great  hope  and  satisfaction  to  the 
Irish  Catholics  and  their  friends  in  Parlia- 
ment. Lord  Fitzwilliam  was  a  Whig  of 
the  Burke  school,  a  close  friend  of  the  Duke 
of  Portland  ;  and  it  was  universally  under- 
stood that  he  had  not  undertaken  the  gov- 
ernment of  Ireland  save  on  the  express 
terms  that  complete  Catholic  Emancipation 
would  be  made  a  government  measure.  In- 
deed, this  was  well  known  ;  for  before  con- 
senting to  come  to  Ireland  he  had  induced 
Mr.  G rattan  to  go  over  and  confer  with 
him  on  the  policy  to  be  pursued.  Mr.  Grat- 
tan,  of  course,  made  the  emancipation  of  the 
Catholics  the  main  and  indispensable  point  ; 
and  the  Duke- of  Portland  and  Lord  Fitz- 
william fully  concurred,  with  the  distinct 
assent  also  of  Mr.  Pitt.  For  the  due  un- 
derstanding of  the  cruel  fraud  which  that 
minister  was  now  meditating  upon  the  Irish 
nation,  it  is  needful  that  this  previous  ar- 
rangement of  policy  should  be  made  clear  ; 
and,  fortunately,  we  have  the  evidence,  both 
of  Mr.  Grattan  and  Lord  Fitzwilliam  him- 
self, in  full  contradiction  to  the  reckless  as- 
sertions of  Fitzgibbon.  Mr.  Grattan,  in 
his  Answer  to  Lord  Clare,  says  :  "  In 
summer,  on  a  change  being  made  in  the 
British  Cabinet,  being  informed  by  some  of 
the  learned  persons  therein,  that  the  admin- 
istration of  the  Irish  Department  was  to  be- 
long to  them,  and  that  they  sent  for  us  to 
adopt  our  measures,  I  stated  the  Catholic 
Emancipation  to  be  one  of  them."  And 
Lord  Fitzwilliam,  in  his  letters  to  Lord 
Carlisle,  makes  this  explicit  statement  : 
"  From  the  very  beginning,  as  well  as 
through  the  whole  progress  of  that  fatal 
business,  for  fatal  I  fear  I  must  call  it,  I 


acted  in  perfect  conformity  witli  the  original 
outline  settled  between  me  and  His  Majesty's 
ministry,  previous  to  my  departure  from 
London.  From  a  full  consideration  of  the 
real  merits  of  the  case,  as  well  as  from  every 
information  I  had  been  able  to  collect  of  the 
state  and  temper  of  Ireland,  from  the  year 
1790,  I  was  decidedly  of  opinion,  that  not 
only  sound  policy,  but  justice,  required,  on 
the  part  of  Great  Britain,  that  the  work, 
which  was  left  imperfect  at  that  period, 
ought  to  be  completed,  and  the  Catholics 
relieved  from  every  remaining  disqualifica- 
tion. In  this  opinion  the  Duke  of  Portland 
uniformly  concurred  with  me,  and  when  this 
question  came  under  discussion,  previous  to 
my  departure  for  Ireland,  I  found  the  Cab- 
inet, with  Mr.  Pitt  at  their  head,  strongly 
impressed  with  the  same  conviction.  Had 
I  found  it  otiierwise,  I  never  would  have 
undertaken  the  government.  I  at  first  pro- 
posed that  the  additional  indulgences  should 
be  offered  from  the  throne  ;  the  very  best 
effects  would  be  secured  by  this  act  of  un- 
solicited graciousness  ;  and  the  embarrass- 
ing consequences  which  it  was  natural  to 
foresee  must  result  from  the  measures  being 
left  open  for  any  volunteer  to  bring  forward, 
would  be. timely  and  happily  avoided.  But 
to  this  proposal  objections  were  started, 
that  appeared  of  sufficient  weight  to  induce 
the-  adoption  of  another  plan.  I  consented 
not  to  bring  the  question  forward  on  the 
part  of  government,  but  rather  to  en- 
deavor to  keep  it  back,  until  a  period  of 
more  generrfi  tranquillity,  when  so  many 
material  objects  might  not  press  upon  the 
government,  but  as  the  principle  was  agreed 
on,  and  the  necessity  of  its  being  brought 
into  full  effect  was  universally  allowed,  it 
was  at  the  same  time  resolved,  that  if  the 
Catholics  should  appear  determined  to  stir 
the  business,  and  bring  it  before  Parliament, 
I  was  to  give  it  a  handsome  support  on  the 
part  of  the  government. 

"  I  was  no  sooner  landed,  and  informed 
of  the  real  state  of  things  here,  than  I  found 
that  question  would  forc'e  itself  upon  my 
immediate  consideration.  Faithful  to  the 
system  that  had  been  agreed  on,  and  anxious 
to  attain  the  object  that  had  been  commit- 
ted to  my  discretion,  I  lost  not  a  moment 
in  gaining  every  necessary  information,  or 


23G 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


in  triuismitiing  the  result  to  the  British 
Cabinet.  As  early  as  the  8th  of  January,  I 
wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  State  on  the  sub- 
ject ;  I  told  him  that  I  trembled  about  the 
Komau  Catholics  ;  that  I  had  great  fears 
about  keeping  them  quiet  for  the  session  ; 
that  I  found  the  question  already  in  agita- 
tion ;  that  a  committee  was  appointed  to 
bring  forward  a  petition  to  Parliament, 
praying  for  a  repeal  of  all  remaining  dis- 
qualifications. I  mentioned  my  intentions 
of  immediately  using  what  efforts  I  could  to 
stop  the  progress  of  it,  and  to  bring  the 
Catholics  back  to  a  confidence  in  govern- 
ment. I  stated  the  substance  of  some  con- 
versations I  had  on  the  subject  with  some  of 
the  principal  persons  of  the  country.  It 
was  the  opinion  of  one  of  these,  that  if  the 
postponing  of  the  question  could  be  nego- 
tiated on  grounds  of  expediency,  it  ought 
not  to  be  resisted  by  government.  That 
it  should  be  put  off  for  some  time,  was  al- 
lowed by  another  to  be  a  desirable  thing, 
but  the  principle  of  extension  was  at  the  same 
time  strongly  insisted  on,  and  forcibly  in- 
culcated, as  a  matter  of  the  most  urgent 
necessity." 

Lord  Fitzwilliam  took  possession  of  his 
government  on  the  4th  of  January,  1795. 
Parliament  stood  prorogued  until  the  22d 
of  January.  He  occupied  the  intervening 
time  in  making  some  dismissals  from  office, 
which  created  great  dismay  and  resentment 
in  tlie  Castle  circles,  and  proportional  joy  in 
the  minds  of  the  people.  Mr.  Grattan  was  in- 
vited to  accept  the  post  of  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  but  declined.  Mr.  Ponsonby  and 
Mr.  Curran  were  to  be  made  Attorney  and 
Solicitor-Greneral ;  and  these  appointments  in 
themselves  were  significant  of  a  marked 
change  in  the  Irish  policy.  But  nothing 
struck  the  country  with  such  surprise  and 
pleasure,  mingled  with  a|)prehension,  as  the 
dismissal  of  Mr.  Beresford  from  the  Revenue 
Board.  The  Beresford  family  was  at  that  time 
the  most  powerful  of  the  aristocracy  of  Ire- 
land ;  had  the  two  peerages  of  Waterford 
and  Tyrone,  and  had  also  been  so  successful 
in  its  constant  efforts  to  create  for  itself  a 
controlling  influence  by  means  of  patronage 
and  boroughmongering,  that  it  was  thought 
no  viceroy  could  dare  to  displace  a  Beres- 
ford.    lu  the  letter  cited  before,  addressed 


to  Lord  Carlisle,  Fitzwilliam  says  :  "And 
now  for  the  grand  question  about  Mr. 
Beresford.  In  a  letter  of  mine  to  Mr.  Pitt 
on  this  subject,  I  reminded  him  of  a  conver- 
sation, in  which  I  had  expressed  to  him  (in 
answer  to  the  question  put  to  him  by  me,) 
my  apprehensions,  that  it  would  be  necessary 
to  remove  that  gentleman,  and  that  he  did 
not  offer  the  slightest  objection,  or  say  a 
single  word  in  favor  of  Mr.  Beresford.  Tliis 
alone  would  have  made  me  suppose  that  I 
should  be  exempt  from  every  imputation  of 
breach  of  agreement  if  I  determined  to  re- 
move him  ;  but  when,  on  my  arrival  here,  I 
found  all  those  apprehensions  of  his  danger- 
ous power,  w^hich  Mr.  Pitt  admits  I  had 
often  represented  to  him,  were  fully  justified  ; 
when  he  was  filling  a  situation  greater 
than  that  of  the  Lord-Lieutenant ;  and  I 
clearly  saw,  that  if  I  had  connected  myself 
with  him,  it  would  have  been  connecting 
myself  with  a  person  under  universal  heavy 
suspicions,  and  suVyecting  my  government 
to  all  the  opprobrium  and  unpopularity  at- 
tendant upou  his  mal-administration." 

This  bold  step,  as  it  was  then  felt  to  be, 
still  further  confirmed  the  joyful  expectation, 
that  an  ample  Catholic  Relief  bill  would 
suon  be  brought  in  and  sustained  by  the 
government.  All  the  Catholics  and  liberal 
Protestants  were  highly  pleased  at  the  pros- 
pect. The  Northern  Star,  organ  of  the 
United  Irishmen,  published  in  Belfast,  had 
triumphantly  announced  Catholic  Emanci- 
pation as  a  matter  settled.  The  Catholics 
generally  agreed  to  put  their  case  into  the 
hands  of  Mr.  Grattan,  their  old  and  warm 
advocate;  and  it  seems  highly  probable  that 
if  the  compact  made  with  Lord  Fitzwil- 
liam bad  been  observed,  and  all  the  remain- 
ing disabilities  of  Catholics  frankly  removed 
at  once,  the  insurrection  would  never  have 
taken  place,  and  infinite  misery  and  atrocity 
saved  to  the  country.  But  Mr.  Pitt  knew 
well  that  if  there  were  no  insurrection  there 
would  also  be  no  union.  He  had  his  plans 
already  almost  matured;  and  his  chief  ad- 
viser for  Irish  affairs  was  the  thorough  Lord 
Clare. 

Mr.  Beresford,  the  dismissed  Commission- 
er of  the  Revenue,  at  once  went  to  England, 
laid  his  complaints  before  Mr.  Pitt,  and 
even  had  an  audience  of  the  King.     Lord 


INSUREECTION   FIRST UNION       AFTERWARDS. 


237 


ritzwilliaiu  very  sooa  found,  from  the 
tenor  of  the  letters  he  received  from  Pitt, 
that  the  minister  was  dissatisfied  with  some 
of  his  measures ;  and  disquieting  rumors 
prevailed  that  he  would  not  long  remain  in 
Ireland. 

In  the  meantime,  Catholic  petitions 
poured  into  the  House.  Mr.  Grattan 
moved  for  leave  to  bring  in  his  Catholic 
Relief  bill;  and  leave  was  given  with  only 
three  dissentient  voices.  This  was  of  itself 
a  very  remarkable  feature  in  Irish  politics ; 
and  what  was  even  more  notable  was  the 
fact  that  no  counter-petitions  of  Protestants 
were  sent  in.  The  nation  was  in  good  hu- 
mor; and  the  House  voted  larger  supplies 
in  men  and  money  for  carrying  on  the  war 
than  had  ever  been  voted  in  Ireland  before. 
Now  the  unpleasant  rumors  became  more 
positive,  and  assumed  more  consistence.  On 
the  28th  of  February,  Sir  Lawrence  Par- 
sons, in  his  place  in  Parliament,  asked  the 
members  opposite  if  the  rumors  were  true; 
but  received  no  answer.  Sir  Lawrence 
added,  "he  was  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  con- 
strue the  silence  of  the  right  honorable  and 
honorable  gentlemen  into  a  confirmation  of 
this  rumor;  and  he  deplored  most  deeply  the 
event,  which,  at  the  present  time,  must 
tend  to  throw  alarming  doubts  on  the 
promises,  which  had  been  held  out  to  the 
people,  of  measures  to  be  adopted  for  tlie 
promotion  of  their  happiness,  the  concilia- 
tion of  their  minds,  and  the  common  at- 
tachment of  every  class  of  his  majesty's 
faithful  subjects  of  Ireland,  in  support  of 
the  same  happy  constitution.  If  those 
measures  were  now  to  be  relinquished, 
which  gentlemen  had  promised  with  so 
much  confidence  to  the  country,  and  on  the 
faith  of  which,  the  House  had  been  called 
on  to  vote  the  enormous  sum  of  one  million 
seven  hundred  thousand  pounds,  he  must 
consider  his  country  as  brought  to  the  most 
awful  and  alarming  crisis  she  had  ever 
known  in  any  period  of  her  history." 

He  then  moved  an  address  to  His  Excel- 
lency, entreating  him  to  remain  in  his  gov- 
ernment; Mr.  Duquery  seconded  the  mo- 
tion, and  used  very  strong  language  with 
respect  to  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Pitt,  "  who, 
not  satisfied,"  he  said,  "with  having  in- 
volved the  country  in  a  disastrous  war,  in- 


tended to  complete  the  mischief  by  risking 
the  internal  peace  of  Ireland,  making  that 
country  the  dupe  of  his  fraud  and  artifice, 
in  order  to  swindle  the.  nation  out  of  £1, 
700,000  to  support  the  war  on  the  faith 
of  measures  which  it  now  seemed  were  to 
be  refu,sed." 

And  now  all  proceedings  on  the  Catho- 
lic Relief  bill  were  suspended,  by  positive 
orders  from  England;  and  as  Mr.  Grattaa 
had  acted  in  bringing  it  forward  as  a  min- 
isterial supporter  he  could  only  acquiesce, 
though  with  the  gloomiest  forebodings. 

Again,  on  the  2d  of  March,  Sir  Law- 
rence Parsons  made  a  very  violent  speech, 
severely  reprobating  the  bad  faith  of  the 
British  Cabinet  with  regard  to  Lord  Fitz- 
william.  "But  the  great  object,"  he  said, 
"  of  the  motion  he  was  about  to  make  was 
to  calm  the  public  mind,  to  give  the  people 
an  assurance  that  the  measures  which  were 
proposed  would  not  bo  abandoned;  that 
the  Parliament  would  keep  the  means  in 
their  hands  until  they  were  accomplished; 
and  that  they  would  not  be  prorogued  un- 
til they  were  fairly  and  fully  discussed.  He 
did  not  pretend  to  say  specifically  what 
these  measures  were.  The  first  he  believed 
to  be  the  Catholic  bill;  and  if  a  resistance 
to  any  one  measure  more  than  another  was 
likely  to  promote  dreadful  consequences  it 
was  this.  He  said  nothing  as  to  the  orig- 
inal propriety  of  the  measure;  but  tliis 
much  he  would  say,  that  if  the  Irish  admin- 
istration had  countenanced  the  Catholics  in 
this  expectation,  without  the  concurrence  of 
the  British  Cabinet,  they  had  much  to  an- 
swer for.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  Brit- 
ish Cabinet  had  held  out  an  assent,  and  had 
afterwards  retracted;  if  the  daemon  of  dark- 
ness should  come  from  the  Infernal  regions 
upon  earth,  and  throw  a  fire-brand  amongst 
the  people,  he  could  not  do  more  to  pro- 
mote mischief.  Tiie  hopes  of  the  public 
were  raised,  and  in  one  instant  they  were 
blasted.  If  the  House  did  not  resent  that 
insult  to  the  nation  and  to  themselves,  they 
would  in  his  mind  be  most  contemptible; 
for  although  a  majority  of  the  people  might 
submit  to  be  mocked  in  so  barefaced  a  man- 
ner, the  case  was  not  as  formerly,  when 
all  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  was  against 
the  Catholics;  and  to  back  them,  the  force 


238 


HISTOEY   OF   lEELAND. 


of  England."  Now,  although  the  claim  of 
the  Catholics  was  well  known  and  under- 
stood, not  one  petition  controverting  it  had 
been  presented  from  Protestants  in  any 
part  of  Ireland.  No  remonstrance  ap- 
peared, no  county  meeting  had  been  held. 
What  was  to  be  inferred  from  all  this,  but 
that  the  sentiments  of  the  Protestants  were 
for  the  emancipation  of  the  Catholics  ?  A 
meeting  was  held  on  Saturday  last  at  the 
Royal  Exchange  of  the  merchants  and 
traders  of  the  metropolis,  which  was  as  nu- 
merously attended  as  the  limits  of  that 
building  would  admit.  The  Governor  of 
the  Bank  of  Ireland  was  in  the  chair.  An 
address  was  resolved  on  to  His  Excellency 
Lord  Fitzwilliam,  full  of  affection,  and  re- 
solutions strong  as  they  could  be  in  counte- 
nance of  the  Catholic  claim.  He  would 
ask  them,  was  the  British  minister  to  con- 
trol all  the  interests,  talents,  and  inclina- 
tions in  that  country  ?  He  protested  to 
God,  that  in  all  the  history  he  had  read,  he 
'had  never  met  with  a  parallel  of  such  omin- 
ous infatuation  as  that  by  which  he  ap- 
peared to  be  led.  "  Let  them  persevere," 
said  he,  "  and  you  must  increase  your  army 
to  myriads;  every  man  must  have  five  or 
six  dragoons  in  his  house."  Sir  Lawrence 
ended  with  a  motion  to  limit  the  Money 
bill;  but  this  motion  was  voted  down  by  a 
large  majority.  Members  could  hardly  yet 
believe  that  so  great  a  villany  was  intend- 
ed, Mr.  Conolly,  however,  remarked  "that 
he  would  vote  for  it  if  he  did  not  hear 
something  satisfactory  " — namely  about  the 
retention  of  I;ord  Fitzwilliam.  "Within  a 
few  days  after  Lord  Fitzwilliam  was  re- 
called from  Ireland.  No  more  was  heard 
about  Catholic  Relief  for  nearly  forty  years. 
Lord  Camden  succeeded  as  viceroy,  and  the 
country  was  delivered  over  to  its  now  inev- 
itable ordeal  of  slaughter  and  desolation  ; 
an  ordeal  which,  in  Mr.  Pitt's  opinion,  was 
needful  to  pave  the  way  for  the  Legislative 
Union.  Mr.  Plowden  has  very  truly  de- 
scribed the  effect  of  these  transactions  upon 
the  nation: — 

"The  report  of  Earl  Fitzwilliam's  intended 
removal  was  no  sooner  credited,  than  an 
universal  despondency,  in  some  instances 
bordering  on  desperation,  seized  the  whole 
nation.     Meetino-s  were  formed  throughout 


the  kingdom,  in  order  to  convey  to  their 
beloved  and  respected  Governor,  their  high 
sense  of  his  virtue  and  patriotism,  and  their 
just  indignation  at  his  and  their  country's 
enemies.  The  deep  and  settled  spirit  of 
discontent  which  at  this  time  pervaded  all 
ranks  of  people,  was  not  confined  to  the 
Catholics.  The  Dissenters  and  as  many  of 
the  Protestants  of  the  establishment,  as  had 
not  an  interest  in  that  monopoly  of  power 
and  influence,  which  Earl  Fitzwilliam  had 
so  openly  attacked  and  so  fearfully  alarmed, 
felt  the  irresistible  effect :  all  good  Irishmen 
beheld  with  sorrow  and  indignation,  the  re- 
conciliation of  all  parties,  interests,  and  relig- 
ions defeated,  the  cup  of  national  union 
dashed  from  their  eager  lips,  and  the  spirit 
of  discord  let  loose  upon  the  kingdom  with 
an  enlarged  commission  to  inflame,  aggra- 
vate, and  destroy.  Such  were  the  feelings, 
and  such  the  language  of  those  who  de- 
plored the  removal  of  that  nobleman,  in  the 
critical  moment  of  giving  peace,  strength, 
and  prosperity  to  their  country.  And  how 
large  a  part  of  the  Irish  nation  lamented 
the  loss  of  their  truly  patriotic  Governor, 
may  be  read  in  the  numberless  addresses 
and  resolutions  that  poured  in  ilpon  him 
both  before  and  after  his  actual  departure, 
expressive  of  their  grief,  despair,  and  indig- 
nation at  that  ominous  event.  They  came 
from  every  description  of  persons,  but  from 
Right  Boys,  Defenders,  and  the  old  de- 
pendants upon  the  castle."  The  people  of 
Ireland,  of  all  sects  and  classes  seemed 
seized  with  a  sudden  undefined  horror  at 
the  prospects  before  them.  They  saw  that 
a  great  opportunity  was  lost.  And  they 
had  no  mortal  quarrel  with  one  another, 
save  the  quarrel  always  made  for  them, 
always  forced  on  them,  by  an  English  min- 
ister sitting  safe  in  his  Cabinet  at  Westmin- 
ster. Many  on  both  sides  who  were  des- 
tined soon  to  meet  in  deadly  struggle  could 
have  prayed  that  this  cup  might  pass.  On 
the  25th  of  March,  1795,  Lord  Fitzwilliam 
took  his  departure  from  Ireland,  when  the 
resentment,  grief,  and  indignation  of  the 
public  were  most  strongly  marked.  It  was 
a  day  of  general  gloom  :  the  shops  were 
shut;  no  business  of  any  kind  was  transact- 
ed, and  the  whole  city  put  on  mourning. 
His  coach  was  drawn  to  the  water  side  by 


GREAT   DESPONDENCY — THE   "ORANGEMEN. 


239 


some  of  the  most  respectable  citizens,  and 
cordial  sorrow  appeared  ou  every  counte- 
nance. The  reception  of  Earl  Camden, 
who  arrived  in  Dublin  five  days  after,  wore 
a  very  different  complexion  ;  displeasure 
appeared  generally  :  many  strong  traits  of 
disapprobation  were  exhibited,  and  some  of 
the  populace  were  so  outrageous,  that  it 
became  necessary  to  call  out  a  military 
force  in  order  to  quell  the  disturbances  that 
ensued. 

Still  the  rage  for  meetings  and  addresses 
continued.  On  the  9th  of  April  a  most 
numerous  and  respectable  meeting  of  the 
Catholics  was  had  in  their  chapel  in  Francis 
street,  to  receive  the  report  of  their  dele- 
gates, who  had  presented  their  petition  at 
St.  James' :  when  Mr.  Keogh  reported, 
that  in  execution  of  their  mission,  they  had 
on  the  13th  of  March  presented  their  peti- 
tion to  His  Majesty,  and  had  received  what 
■was  generally  termed  a  gracious  reception. 
That  they  had  afterwards  felt  it  their  .duty 
to  request  an  audience  with  the  Duke  of 
Portland,  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the 
Home  Department,  to  receive  such  informa- 
tion as  he  should  think  fit  to  impart  rela- 
tive to  His  Miijesty's  determination  on  the 
subject  of  their  address.  That  his  grace 
declined  givrng  any  information  whatever, 
save  that  His  Majesty  had  imparted  his 
pleasure  thereon  to  the  Lord-Lieutenant, 
and  that  he  was  the  proper  channel  through 
which  that  information  should  pass.  Here 
their  mission  was  determined.  Mr.  Keogh 
continued  to  deliver  his  sentiments  upon  the 
critical  situation  of  affairs,  and  amongst 
many  strong  things,  which  fell  from  him, 
one  observation  gave  particular  offence  to 
government.  He  was  not,  he  said,  sorry 
that  the  measure  had  been  attempted, 
though  it  had  been  defeated  :  for  it  pointed 
out  one  fact  at  least,  in  which  the  feelings 
of  every  Irishman  were  interested,  and  by 
which  the  Irish  Legislature  would  be 
roused  to  a  sense  of  its  own  dignity.  It 
showed  that  the  internal  regulations  of 
Ireland,  to  which  alone  an  Irish  Parliament 
was  competent,  were  to  be  previously  ad- 
justed by  a  British  Cabinet.  Whilst  this 
debate  was  going  on,  a  very  large  party  of 
the  young  men  of  the  college  came  into  the 
chapel,  and  were  most  honorably  received. 


Some  of  them  joined  in  the  debate.  They 
came  that  hour  from  presenting  an  address 
to  Mr.  Grattan,  to  thank  and  congratulate  i 
him  upon  his  patriotic  efforts  in  the  cause  I 
of  Catholic  Emancipation,  and  the  reform  i 
of  those  abuses,  which  had  inflamed  public 
indignation,  to  which  Mr.  Grattan  made  an  ^ 
appropriate  answer.  Every  patriotic  Irish- 
man must  look  back  with  unavailing  regret 
to  the  lost  opportunity,  or  rather  to  the 
cruel  deception,  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam's  short 
administration.  There  was  really  at  that 
moment  a  disposition  to  bury  the  hatchet 
of  strife.  At  no  subsequent  period,  down 
to  this  day,  were  the  two  nations  which 
make  up  the  Irish  population,  so  well  dis- 
posed to  amalgamate  and  unite.  But  that 
did  not  suit  the  exigencies  of  British  policy. 
There  was  to  be  an  insurrection,  in  order 
that  there  might  be  a  Legislative  Union.  la 
this  same  eventful  year  of  1795,  British 
policy  was  materially  aided  by  a  new  and 
portentous  institution — the  Orange  Society. 
The  recall  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  and  the  abso- 
lute and  most  inevitable  despair  of  obtain- 
ing either  Reform  of  Parliament  or  Catho- 
lic Emancipation  under  the  existing  order 
of  things,  had  driven  vast  numbers  of  the 
people,  of  both  religions,  into  the  United 
Irish  Society.  A  spirit  of  union  and  frater- 
nity was  spreading  fast.  "  Then,"  says  Mr. 
Plowden,  "  the  gentlemen  in  place  became 
frightfully  alarmed  for  their  situations  ;  ac- 
tive agents  were  sent  down  to  Armagh,  to 
turn  the  ferocity  and  fanaticism  of  the  Peep 
of  Day  Boys  into  a  religious  contest  with 
the  Catholics,  under  the  specious  appear- 
ance of  zeal  for  Church  and  King.  Personal 
animosity  was  artfully  converted  into  relig- 
ious rancor  ;  and  for  the  specious  purpose 
of  taking  off  the  stigma  of  delinquency,  the 
appellation  of  Peep  of  Day  Boys  was 
changed  into  that  of  Orangemen."  It  was 
in  the  northern  part  of  Armagh  County 
that  this  bloody  association  originated,  and 
Mr.  Thomas  Veruer  enjoyed  the  bad  emi- 
nence of  being  its  first  "  Grand  Master." 
Tlieir  test  is  said  to  have  been  :  "  In  the 
awful  presence  of  Almighty  God,  I,  A.  B., 
do  solemnly  swear,  that  I  will,  to  the 
utmost  of  my  power,  support  the  King  and 
the  present  government;  and  I  do  further 
swear,  that  I  will  use  my  utmost  exertions 


240 


HISTORY   OP  IRELAND. 


to  exterminate  all  the  Catholics  of  the  king- 
dom of  Ireland."  But  this  oath,  being 
secret,  has  latterly  been  denied  by  the 
Orangemen  of  respectability  and  conse- 
quence. It  has  been  generally  credited, 
that  it  was  taken  by  all  the  original  lodges, 
and  continued  afterwards  to  be  taken  by 
the  lower  classes.  The  Orange  oath  is 
given  in  the  above  terms  in  a  pamphlet 
published  in  1197,  called  "  A  View  of  the 
Present  State  of  Ireland,"  which  is  attrib- 
uted to  Arthur  O'Connor.  But  whatever 
may  have  been  the  original  form  of  engage- 
ment, or  however  it  may  have  since  been 
changed  by  more  politic  "  Grand  Masters," 
nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  the 
Orange  Society  did  immediately  and  most 
seriously  apply  themselves  to  the  task  of 
exterminating  the  Catholics.  There  is  quite 
as  little  doubt  that  this  shocking  society 
was  encouraged  by  the  government,  and  by 
most  of  the  mngistrates  and  country  gentle- 
men to  keep  alive  religions  animosity,  and 
prevent  the  spread  of  the  United  Irish  or- 
ganization. An  union  of  Irishmen,  upon 
the  just,  liberal,  and  fraternal  basis  of  this 
organization,  would  have  rendered  impossi- 
ble that  other  "  Union  "  on  which  Mr.  Pitt 
had  set  his  heart — the  Union  of  Ireland 
with  England.  The  recall  of  Lord  Fitzwil- 
liam  and  the  arrival  of  Lord  Camden  gave 
the  signal  for  the  bloody  anarchy,  through 
which  Ireland  was  doomed  to  pass  for  the 
next  four  years,  and  which,  it  was  deliber- 
ately calculated,  was  to  end  in  her  extinc- 
tion as  a  nation. 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

1795—1797. 
"To  Hell  or  Connaught"  —  "Vigor  beyond  the 
Law  " — Lord  Carhampton's  Vigor — Insurrection 
Act — Indemnity  Act — Tiie  latter  an  invitation  to 
Magistrates  to  break  the  law — Mr.  Grattan  on  the 
Orangemen — His  Resolution — The  Acts  Passed — 
Opposed  by  Grattan,  Parsons,  and  Lord  Edward 
Fitzgerald — Insurrection  Act  destroys  Liberty  of 
the  Press — Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus — TJ.  I. 
Society — New  Members — Lord  E.  Fitzgerald — Mac 
Neven — Emmet — Wolf  Tone  at  Paris— His  Journal 
—Clarke— Carnot—Hoche—Bantry  Bay  Expedi- 
tion— Account  of,  in  Tone's  Journal — Fleet  An- 
chors in  Bantry  Bay— Account  of  the  affair  by 
Secret  Committee  of  the  Lords— Government  fully 
Informed  of  all  the  Projects. 

The  chief  object  of  the  government  and 
its  agents  was  now  to  invent  and  dissemi- 


nate fearful  rumors  of  intended  massacres 
of  all  the  Protestant  people  by  the  Catho- 
lice.     Dr.   Madden   says :     "  Efforts    were 
made  to  infuse  into  the  mind  of  the  Pro- 
testant feelings  of  distrust  to  his  Catholic 
fellow-countrymen.     Popish  plots  and  con- 
spiracies were  fabricated  with  a  practical 
facility,   which  some  influential  authorities 
conceived  it  no  degradation  to  stoop  to  ; 
and  alarming  reports  of  these  dark  confed- 
erations   were    circulated  with   a    restless 
assiduity."     The  effects  were  soon  apparent 
in  the  atrocities  committed  by  the  Orange- 
men  in  Armagh,   and   by  the  magistrates 
and  military  in  other  countries.     The  per 
secuted    "  Defenders"    of    Armagh    made 
some  feeble  attempts  to  protect  themselves, 
though  almost  without  arras.     This  resist- 
ance led  to  the  transaction  called  "  Battle 
of  the  Diamond,"  near  the  village  of  that 
name,  on   the   2 1st   of    September,    1795. 
Several  writers  have  alleged  that  the  Cath- 
olics  invited    this   conflict  by   a  challenge 
sent  to  the  Orangemen.     Of  course,  the  lat- 
ter, having  abundance  of  arras,  and  being 
sure  of  the  protection  of  the  magistrates, 
were  not  slow  to  accept  such  an  invitation  ; 
but  nothing  can  be  more  absurd  than  to 
term  the  affair  a  battle.     Not  one  of  the 
Orange  party  was  killed  or  wounded.    Four 
or  five  Defenders  were  killed,  and  a  propor- 
tionate number  wounded  ;  and  this  is  the 
glorious  battle   that  has   been  toasted    at 
Orange   banquets   from    that   day   to   the 
present.     Mr.  Eraraet*    thus  describes  the 
transaction:    "The  Defenders    were  speed- 
ily defeated  with  the  loss  of  some  few  killed 
and  left  on  the  field  of  battle,  besides  the 
wounded,  whom  they  carried  away.     *     * 
The  Catholics,  after  this,  never  attempted 
to  make  a  stand,  but  the  Orangemen  com- 
menced a  persecution  of  the  blackest  dye. 
They  would  no  longer  permit  a  Catholic  to 
exist  in  the  country.     They  posted  up  on 
the  cabins  of  these  unfortunate  victims  tliis 
pithy   notice,    "To   Hell   or   Connaught;" 
and  appointed  a  limited  time  in  which  the 
necessary  removal  of  persons  and  property 
was  to  be  made.     If,  after  the  expiration  of 
that  period,  the  notice  had  not  been  complied 
with,  the  Orangemen  assembled,  destroyed 
the  furniture,  burned  the  habitations,  and 

•  Pieces  of  Irish  History. 


'VIGOR   BEYOND    THE   LAW. 


241 


forced  the  ruined  families  to  fly  elsewhere  for 
shelter."  Mr.  Emmet  adds,  "  While  the?e 
outrages  were  going  on,  the  resident  magis- 
trates were  not  found  to  resist  them,  and  in 
some  instances  were  even  more  than  inactive 
spectators."  Dr.  Madden  has  preserved  and 
printed  a  number  of  the  "  notices,"  ill- 
spelled,  but  sufiBciently  intelligible,  which 
were  posted  on  the  cabin  doors.  But  the 
Orangemen  by  no  means  confined  them- 
selves to  mere  forcible  ejectment  of  their 
enemies.  Many  fearful  murders  were  com- 
mitted on  the  unresisting  people  ;  and 
what  gives  perhaps  the  clearest  idea  of  the 
persecution  is  the  fact  that  senen  thousand 
persons  were  estimated  in  the  next  year  to 
have  been  either  killed  or  driven  from  their 
homes  in  that  one  small  county  alone.* 
But  the  unhappy  outcasts,  even  when  they 
escaped  with  their  lives,  had  no  shelter  to 
fly  to.  In  most  cases  they  could  only  wan- 
der on  the  mountains  until  either  death  re- 
lieved them,  or  they  were  arrested  and  im- 
prisoned ;  while  the  younger  men  were  sent, 
without  ceremony,  to  one  of  the  "  tenders," 
then  lying  in  various  seaports,  and  thence 
transferred  on  board  British  men-of-war. 
This  was  the  device  originally  of  Lord  Car- 
harapton,  then  commanding  in  Ireland.  It 
was  called  a  "-vigor  beyond  the  law;"  a  del- 
icate phrase  which  has  since  come  very 
much  into  use  to  describe  outrages  commit- 
ted by  magistrates  against  the  law.  Dur- 
ing all  the  rest  of  this  year  the  greater  part 
of  Leiuster,  with  portions  of  Ulster  and 
Munster,  were  in  the  utmost  terror  and 
agony;  the  Orange  magistrates,  aided  by 
the  troops,  arresting  and  imprisoning,  with- 
out any  charge,  multitudes  of  unoffending 
people,  under  one  pretext  or  another.  It 
is  right  to  present  a  sample  of  the  story  as 
told  by  "  loyal  men."  Thus,  then,  the  mat- 
ter is  represented  by  Sir  Richard  Musgrave, 
p.  145:  "Lord  Carhampton,  finding  that 
the  laws  were  silent  and  inoperative  in  the 
counties  which  he  visited,  and  that  they  did 
not  afford  protection  to  the  loyal  and  peace- 
able subjects,  who  in  most  places  were  obliged 
to  Jly  from  their  habitations,  resolved  to  re- 

♦  Mr.  Plowden,  who  is  as  hostile  to  the  Defenders 
as  any  Orangeman,  saya  from  ttve  to  seven  thousand. 
O'Connor,  Emmet  and  MacNeven,  in  their  Memoirs 
of  tlie  Union,  say  "  seven  thoasand  driven  from  their 
homes." 

3t 


store  them  to  their  usual  energy,  by  the 
following  salutary  system  of  severity  : 
'  In  each  county  he  assembled  the  most 
respectable  gentlemen  and  landholders  in 
it,  and  having,  in  concert  with  them,  exam- 
ined the  charges  against  the  leaders  of  this 
banditti,  who  were  in  prison,  but  defied  jus- 
tice, he,  wilh  the  concurrence  of  these  gen- 
tlemen, sent  the  most  nefarious  of  them  on 
board  a  tender,  stationed  at  Sligo,  to  serve 
in  His  Majesty's  navy.'  "  There  is  no  doubt 
that  great  numbers  of  people  were  obliged 
to  fly  from  their  habitations  ;  but  then 
these  were  the  very  people  whom  Lord 
Carhampton  and  the  magistrates  called 
banditti,  and  sent  to  the  tender  as  "  nefa- 
rious." Such  is,  however,  a  specimen  of 
the  history  of  these  times  as  told  upon 
Orange  authority. 

In  the  midst  of  these  painful  scenes. 
Parliament  assembled  on  the  2 1  st  of  Janu- 
ary, 1796.  Lord  Camden,  in  his  speech 
from  the  throne,  congratulated  them  ou 
"  the  brilliant  successes  of  the  Austrian 
armies  upon  the  Rhine;"  and  then,  alluding 
to  dangerous  secret  societies,  he  intimated 
that  certain  additional  powers  would  be 
called  for ;  in  other  words,  martial  law. 
The  Attorney-General  lost  no  time  in  bring- 
ing forward  an  Insurrection  Act  and  an 
Indemnity  Act — the  latter  being  for  the 
puipose  of  indemnifying  magistrates  and 
military  officers  against  the  consequences 
of  any  of  their  illegal  outrages  upon  the 
people. 

Mr.  Curran  wished  to  know  the  extent 
and  nature  of  that  delinquency,  which  it 
was  intended  to  indemnify  ;  when  Mr.  M. 
Beresford  observed,  the  word  delinquency 
was  not  applicable  to  the  persons  intended; 
a  part  of  the  country  was  alarmingly  dis- 
turbed; the  magistrates  and  others  invested 
with  power  had,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
necessity  of  proclaiming  martial  law  univer- 
sally, acted  in  that  particular  district,  as  if 
martial  law  were  proclaimed  :  this  conduct, 
so  far  from  being  delinquency,  was  justifi* 
able  and  laudable,  and  of  happy  conse- 
quence in  the  event. 

On  the  28th  of  the  month,  the  Attorney- 
General  adverted  to  the  notice  he  had 
given  on  the  first  night  of  the  session,  of 
his  intention  of  bringing  in  two  bills  :  the 


242 


HISTORY   OP   IBELAND. 


object  of  one  of  them  was,  for  preventing  in 
future  insurrections,  and  tumults,  and  riots 
in  this  kingdom ;  and  the  object  of  the  other 
bill  was,  to  indemnify  certain  magistrates 
and  others,  who,  in  tlieir  exertions  for  the 
preservation  of  the  public  tranquillity,  might 
have  acted  against  the  forms  and  rules  of 
iaw  ;  he  stated  that  the  bill  for  the  more 
effectually  preventing  of  insurrections,  tu- 
mults, and  riots,  by  persons  styling  them- 
selves Defenders,  and  other  disorderly  per- 
sons, was,  however  repugnant  to  his  feel- 
ings. 

He  said,  that  the  act  then  in  force  for 
administering  unlawful  oaths  was  not  suffi- 
ciently strong,  and  the  administering  of  un- 
lawful oaths  was  the  source  of  all  the  trea- 
sonable actions  which  had  taken  place  in 
the  country:  the  bill  proposed,  that  the  ad- 
ministering of  unlawful  oaths  should  be 
felony  of  death;  but  he  would  propose, 
that  that  bill  should  be  but  a  tempo- 
rary law ;  there  was  also  a  clause  in 
the  bill  to  enable  the  magistrates,  at 
the  quarter  sessions,  to  take  up  all  idle 
vagrants  and  persons  who  had  no  visible 
means  of  earning  a  livelihood,  and  send 
them  to  serve  on  board  the  fleet  ;  he  said 
he  did  not  propose  to  hurry  this  bill  through 
the  House,  but  give  time  for  the  considera- 
tion, as  it  might  be  necessary  to  add  much, 
and  make  several  alterations.  He  then 
moved  for  leave  "  to  bring  in  a  bill  for  the 
more  effectual  prevention  of  insurrections, 
tumults,  and  riots,  by  persons  styling  them- 
selves Defenders,  and  other  disorderly  per- 
sons;" and  leave  was  given  to  bring  in  the 
bill.  Then  he  moved  for  leave  "  to  bring  in 
a  bill  for  indemnifying  such  magistrates  and 
others,  who  might  have,  since  the  1st  of 
January,  1795,  exceeded  the  ordinary 
forms  and  rules  of  law  for  the  preservation 
of  the  public  peace,  and  suppression  of  in- 
surrection prevailing  in  some  parts  of  this 
kingdom." 

There  was  earnest  opposition  against 
these  two  bills,  but  without  effect :  they 
were  both  passed  into  laws  ;  and  they  had 
the  effect,  which  they  were  certainly  intended 
to  have,  of  exciting,  or  at  least  hastening, 
tlie  insurrection  of  1798.  It  is  observable 
that  the  motive  assigned  by  the  govern- 
ment officials    for  passing  these   laws  was 


always  the  outrages  and  alleged  secret  asso- 
ciations of  Defenders.  Not  a  word  was 
said  about  the  real  outrages  and  extermina- 
ting oaths  of  Orangemen.  Indeed,  the 
measures  in  question  were  really  directed 
not  against  either  Defenders  or  Orangemen, 
but  against  the  United  Irishmen,  the  only 
association  of  which  the  government  had  the 
slightest  fear.  Besides  the  two  bills,  the 
Attorney-General  proposed  four  supplement- 
al resolutions  asserting  the  necessity  of 
giving  enlarged  powers  to  magistrates  to 
search  for  arras  and  to  make  arrests.  On 
the  reading  of  these  resolutions,  Mr.  Grattau 
observed,  that  he  had  heard  the  right  honor- 
able gentleman's  statement,  and  did  not 
suppose  it  to  be  inflamed  ;  but  he  must  ob- 
serve at  the  same  time  it  was  partial ;  he 
did,  indeed,  expatiate  very  fully  and  justly 
on  the  offences  of  the  Defenders  ;  but  with 
respect  to  another  description  of  insurgents, 
whose  barbarities  had  excited  general  ab- 
horrence, he  had  observed  a  complete  silence; 
that  he  had  proceeded  to  enumerate  the 
counties  that  were  afflicted  by  disturbances, 
and  he  had  omitted  Armagh  ; — of  that, 
neither  had  he  comprehended  the  out- 
rages in  his  general  description,  nor  in  his 
particular  enumeration  :  of  those  outrages, 
he  had  received  the  most  dreadful  accounts  ; 
that  their  object  was  the  extermination  of 
all  the  Catholics  of  that  county  ;  it  was  a 
persecution  conceived  in  the  bitterness  of 
bigotry,  carried  on  with  the  most  ferocious 
barbarity,  by  a  banditti,  who  being  of  the 
religion  of  the  state,  had  committed  with 
the  greater  audacity  and  confidence,  the 
most  horrid  murders,  and  had  proceeded 
from  robbery  and  massacre  to  extermina- 
tion ;  that  they  had  repealed,  by  their  own 
authority,  all  the  laws  lately  passed  in  fa- 
vor of  the  Catholics,  had  established  in  the 
place  of  those  laws,  the  inquisition  of  a  mob, 
resembling  Lord  George  Gordon's  fanatics, 
equaling  them  in  outrage,  and  surpassing 
them  far  in  perseverance  and  success. 

That  their  modes  of  outrage  were  as 
various  as  they  were  atrocious  ;  they  some- 
times forced,  by  terror,  the  masters  of  fami- 
lies to  dismiss  their  Catholic  servants — they 
sometimes  forced  landlords,  by  terror,  to 
dismiss  their  Catholic  tenantry — they  seized 
as  deserters,  numbers  of  Catholic  weavers-— 


ME.    GEATTAN   ON    THE   OEANGEMEN — HIS   BESOLUTION. 


243 


sent  them  to  the  county  jail,  transmitted 
them  to  Dublin,  where  they  remained  in 
close  prison,  until  some  lawyers,  from  com- 
passion, pleaded  their  cause,  and  procured 
their  enlargement,  nothing  appearing  against 
them  of  any  kind  whatsoever.  Those  in- 
surgents, who  called  themselves  Orange 
Boys,  or  Protestant  Boys,  that  is,  a  ban- 
ditti of  murderers,  committing  massacre  in 
the  name  of  God,  and  exercising  despotic 
power  in  the  name  of  liberty — those  insur- 
gents had  organized  their  rebellion,  and 
formed  themselves  into  a  committee,  who  sat 
and  tried  the  Catholic  weavers  and  inhabi- 
tants, when  apprehended  falsely  and  illegally 
as  deserters.  That  rebellions  committtee, 
they  called  the  committee  of  elders,  who, 
when  the  unfortunate  Catholic  was  torn  from 
his  family  and  his  loom,  and  brought  before 
them,  in  judgment  upon  his  case — if  he  gave 
them  liquor  or  money,  they  sometimes  dis- 
charged him — otherwise  they  sent  him  to  a 
recruiting  office  as  a  deserter.  They  had 
very  generally  given  the  Catholics  notice  to 
quit  their  farms  and  dwellings,  which  notice 
was  plastered  on  the  house,  and  conceived 
in  these  short  but  plain  words :  "  Go  to 
Hell,  Connaught  won't  receive  you — fire  and 
faggot.  Will  Tresham  and  John  Thrust- 
out."  That  they  followed  these  notices  by 
a  faithful  and  punctual  execution  of  the 
horrid  threat — soon  after  visited  the  house, 
robbed  the  family,  and  destroyed  what  they 
did  not  take,  and  finally  completed  the 
atrocious  persecutions  by  forcing  the  unfor- 
tunate inhabitants  to  leave  their  land,  their 
dwellings,  and  their  trade,  and  to  travel 
with  their  miserable  family,  and  with  what- 
ever their  miserable  family  could  save  from 
the  wreck  of  their  houses  and  tenements, 
and  take  refuge  in  villages,  as  fortifications 
against  invaders,  where  they  described 
themselves,  as  he  had  seen  in  their  affida- 
vits, in  the  following  manner:  "We,  (men- 
tioning their  names,)  formerly  of  Armagh, 
weavers,  now  of  no  fixed  place  of  abode  or 
means  of  living,  &c."  In  many  instances 
this  banditti  of  persecution  threw  down  the 
houses  of  the  tenantry,  or  what  they  called 
racked  the  house,  so  that  the  family  must  fly 
or  be  buried  in  the  grave  of  their  own  cabin. 
The  extent  of  the  murders  that  had  been 
committed  by  that   atrocious  and  rebellious 


banditti  he  had  heard,  but  had  not  heard 
them  so  ascertained  as  to  state  them  to  that 
house  ;  but  from  all  the  inquiries  he  could 
make  he  collected,  that  the  Catholic  inhabi- 
tants of  Armagh  had  beeai  actually  put  out 
of  the  protection  of  the  law  ;  that  the 
magistrates  had  been  supine  or  partial,  and 
that  the  horrid  banditti  had  met  with  com- 
plete success  and,  from  the  magistracy,  with 
very  little  discouragement.  This  horrid 
persecution,  this  abominaljle  barbarity,  and 
this  general  extermination  had  been  acknowl- 
edged by  the  magistrates,  who  found  the 
evil  had  now  proceeded  to  so  shameful  an 
excess,  that  it  had  at  length  obliged  them 
to  cry  out  against  it.  On  the  28tli  of  De- 
cember, thirty  of  the  magistrates  had  come 
to  the  following  resolution,  which  was  evi- 
dence of  the  designs  of  the  insurgents,  and 
of  their  success  :  "  Resolved,  That  it  ap- 
pears to  this  meeting,  that  the  County  of 
Armagh  is  at  this  moment  in  a  state  of  un- 
common disorder  ;  that  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic inhabitants  are  grievously  oppressed  by 
lawless  persons  unknown,  who  attack  and 
plunder  their  houses  by  night,  and  threaten 
them  with  instant  destruction,  unless  they 
abandon  immediately  their  lands  and  habi- 
tations." 

The  "  Insurrection  act "  was  intended  to 
give  magistrates  most  unlimited  powers  to 
arrest  and  imprison,  and  search  houses  for 
arms  ;  the  other  act,  called  of  "  Indemnity," 
was  an  actual  invitation  to  break  the  law. 
Mr.  Grattan,  whose  speeches,  more  than 
any  records  or  documents,  illustrate  this 
period  of  the  history  of  his  country,  com- 
menting on  this  latter  act,  says  :  "A  bill 
of  indemnity  went  to  secure  the  ofi'ending 
magistrates  against  the  consequences  of  their 
outrages  and  illegalities  ;  that  is  to  say,  in 
our  humble  conception,  the  poor  were 
stricken  out  of  the  protection  of  the  law, 
and  the  rich  out  of  its  penalties  ;  and  then 
another  bill  was  passed  to  give  such  lawless 
proceedings  against  His  Majesty's  subjects 
continuation,  namely,  a  bill  to  enable  the 
magistrates  to  perpetrate  by  law,  those  of- 
fences which  they  had  before  committed 
against  it ;  a  bill  to  legalize  outrage,  to  bar- 
barize law,  and  to  give  the  law  itself  the 
cast  and  color  of  outrage.  By  such  a  bill, 
tiie  magistrates  were  enabled,  without  legal 


244 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


process,  to  send  on  board  a  tender  His 
Majesty's  subjects,  and  the  country  was 
divided  into  two  classes,  or  formed  into  two 
distinct  nations,  living  under  the  same  King, 
and  inhabiting  the  same  island  ;  one  con- 
sisting of  the  King's  magistrates,  and  the 
other  of  the  King's  subjects  ;  the  former 
without  restraint,  and  the  latter  without 
privilege/' 

Both  the  bills  passed;  but  amongst  those 
who  opposed  them  to  the.  last  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  by  the  side  of  Mr.  Grattan  and 
Sir  Lawrence  Parsons,  it  is  with  pleasure  that 
one  finds  the  honored  name  of  Lord  Edward 
Fitzgerald.  The  debates  on  these  bills  and 
resolutions  furnish  perhaps  the  most  authen- 
tic documents  for  the  history  of  the  time, 
and  especially  for  the  lawless  outrages  which 
were  then  devastating  the  north  of  Ireland. 
One  of  the  Attorney-General's  resolutions 
spoke  of  the  necessity  of  punishing  persons 
who  "  seized  by  force  the  arms  of  His 
Majesty's  subjects."  Mr.  Grattan  moved 
an  amendment,  to  add  "  and  also  the  per- 
sons of  His  Majesty's  subjects,  and  to  force 
them  to  abandon  their  lands  and  habita- 
tions ; "  and  in  the  third  resolution,  after  the 
words  "  murdering  those  who  had  spirit  to 
give  information,"  to  add,  "  also  attempting 
to  seize  the  persons,  and  obliging  His 
Majesty's  subjects,  by  force,  to  abandon 
their  lands  and  habitations." 

But  the  amendment,  as  it  evidently  con- 
templated the  protection  of  the  unhappy 
Catholics  of  Armagh  County,  was  opposed 
by  the  Attorney-General,  and  rejected  as  a 
matter  of  course. 

One  of  the  clauses  of  the  "  Insurrection 
act "  was  vehemently,  but  vainly,  opposed 
by  Sir  Lawrence  Parsons :  it  was  to  em- 
power any  two  magistrates  to  seize  upon 
persons  who  should  publish  or  sell  a  news- 
paper or  pamphlet  which  they,  the  two 
magistrates,  should  deem  seditious,  and 
without  any  form  of  trial  to  send  them  on 
board  the  fleet.  This  was  a  total  annihila- 
tion of  the  Press,  saving  only  the  Castle 
Press. 

When  it  is  recollected  that  the  magis- 
tracy and  Protestant  country  gentlemen  of 
Ireland  were  at  that  time  inflamed  with  the 
most  furious  rage  against  their  Catholic 
countrymen,  sind  were  besides  purposely  ex- 


cited by  rumors  of  intended  Popish  risings 
for  the  extirpation  of  Protestants,  (which 
many  of  them,  in  their  ignorance,  believed,) 
it  will  be  seen  what  a  terrible  power  these 
acts  conferred  upon  them.  They  naturally 
conceived,  and  very  justly,  that  the  law 
now  made  it  a  merit  on  their  part  to  hreak 
the  law,  provided  it  were  done  to  the  op- 
pression and  ruin  of  the  Catholic  people; 
and  felt  that  they  were  turned  loose  with 
a  full  commission  to  burn,  slay,  rob,  and 
ravish.  It  will  be  seen  that  they  largely 
availed  themselves  of  these  privileges. 
There  was  but  one  thing  now  wanted  ;  and 
this  was  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Cor- 
pus act.  This  was  supplied  in  the  next  ses- 
sion of  Parliament,  which  took  place  on 
the  13th  of  October;  and  from  that  moment 
Ireland  stood  utterly  stripped  naked  of  all 
law  and  government. 

In  the  meantime  the  United  Irish  Soci- 
ety had  been  steadily  increasing  and  busily 
laboring  and  negotiating.  Some  valuable 
members  had  lately  joined  it,. in  despair  of 
any  peaceable  or  constitutional  remedy. 
The  chief  of  these  was  the  generous  and 
gallant  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  brother 
to  the  then  Duke  of  Leinster,  formerly  a 
Major  in  the  British  army,  and  who  had 
served  under  Cornwallis  against  the  Amer- 
icans. Since  his  return  to  Europe  he  had 
several  times  visited  the  Continent,  and 
mingled  much  with  revolutionary  society  in 
France.  Having  seen  so  much  of  the 
world,  he  was  not  so  ignorant  and  stupid  as 
were  most  of  the  Irish  gentry  at  that  pe- 
riod ;  and  his  natural  nobility  of  soul  was 
revolted  by  the  brutal  usage  to  which  he 
saw  his  countrymen  subjected  at  the  hands 
of  the  "  Ascendancy."  It  is  probable,  too, 
that  he,  the  descendant  of  an  ancient  Gallo- 
Hibernian  house,  settled  in  Ireland  more 
than  six  centuries,  which  had  given  chiefs 
to  the  ancient  Clan-Geralt,  and  had  been 
called  "  more  Irish  than  the  Irish,"  had  far 
more  sympathy  with  the  Irish  race  than  the 
mob  of  Cromwellian  and  Williaraite  gran- 
dees who  then  ruled  the  country.  Arthur 
O'Connor  was  another  valuable  accession  to 
the  ranks  of  the  United  Irishmen.  He  was 
also  highly  connected,  though  by  no  means 
equally  so  with  Lord  Edward  ;  but  he  was 
nephew  of  Lord   Longueville,  had   sat  in 


ST7SPENSI0N   OF   HABEAS    CORPUS. 


245 


Parliament  for  Philipstown,  and  had  la- 
bored zealously  for  a  time  on  the  forlorn 
hope  of  the  opposition,  by  the  side  of  G rat- 
tan and  Curran.  Another  was  Thomas 
Addis  Emmet,  a  barrister,  a  Tvarm  friend 
of  Wolf  Tone,  who  had  been  long  intimate- 
ly associated  in  principle  with  the  leaders 
of  the  United  Irish  Association,  and  had 
been  privy  to  the  design  of  Tone,  to  negoti- 
ate a  French  alliance  ;  a  fourth  was  Dr. 
William  James  Mac  Neven,  a  physician  in 
Dublin,  originally  of  Galway  County,  but 
who  had  been  educated  on  the  Continent, 
as  most  of  the  young  professional  men 
among  the  Catholics  then  were.  These 
four  became  members  of  the  "  Executive 
Directory "  of  the  United  Irish  Society ; 
and  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  when  its 
military  organization  was  formed,  was  made 
Commander-in-Chief.  It  was  after  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Insurrection  and  Indemnity 
acts,  and  in  the  recess  between  the  two  ses- 
sions of  Parliament  of  1796,  that  the 
United  Irishmen  began  to  make  definitive 
preparations  for  armed  resistance.* 

Theobald  Wolfe  Tone  was  now  in  Paris, 
having  arrived  at  Havre  the  1st  of  Febru- 
ary, 1796,  bearing  a  letter  of  introduction 
to  Charles  De  la  Croix,  Minister  for  For- 
eign Affairs,  -from  the  French  Envoy  at 
Philadelphia.  He  hud  another  letter  to 
James  Monroe,  then  the  representative  of 
the  United  States  in  Paris,  who  very  kindly 
guided  him  in  his  proceedings  to  gain  the 
ear  of  the  French  authorities.  He  had 
several  interviews  with  De  la  Croix,  with 
Clarke  (who  was  afterwards  Due  de  Fel- 
tre,)  and,  what  was  of  more  importance, 
with  the  illustrious  Caruot,  Chief  of  the 
Executive  Directory,  who  really  himself 
controlled  at  that  moment  the  movements 
of  all  the  French  armies.  The  journal  kept 
by  Tone  during  the  remainder  of  that  year, 
is  at  times  very  entertaining,  and  again  ex- 
tremely affecting — especially  where  he  re- 
cords the  few  pieces  of  intelligence  which 
reached  him  from  Ireland  in  those  days  of 
interrupted  communications.  For  example, 
one  day  at  Rennes,  he  writes  :     "  October 

*  See  examination  of  Arthur  O'Connor  before  the 
Secret  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords :  Com. — 
When  did  the  military  organizati(m  begin?  O'Con- 
nor— Shortly  after  the  Executive  had  resolved  on  re- 
sistance to  the  Irish  Government,  and  on  an  alliance 
with  France  in  May,  ITUG. 


I^th. — This  morning  before  we  set  out.  Gen- 
eral Harty  sent  for  me,  and  showed  me  an 
English  paper  that  he  had  just  borrowed, 
the  Morning  Post,  of  September  24th,  in 
which  was  an  article  copied  from  the  North- 
ern Star  of  the  16th  precedent.  By  this 
unfortunate  article,  I  see  that  what  I  have 
long  expected,  with  the  greatest  anxiety,  is 
come  to  pass.  My  dear  friends,  Russell 
and  Sam.  Neilson,  were  arrested  for  high 
treason  on  that  day,  together  with  Rowley 
Osborne,  Haslett,  and  a  person,  whom  I 
do  not  know,  of  the  name  of  Shanaghan. 
The  persons  who  arrested  them  were  the 
Marquis  of  Downshire,  the  Earl  of  West- 
meath,  and  Lord  Londonderry,  together 
with  that  most  infamous  of  all  scoundrels, 
John  Pollock.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive 
the  effect  this  heavy  misfortune  has  upon 
my  mind.  If  we  are  not  in  Ireland  time 
enough  to  extricate  them,  they  are  gone ; 
for  the  Government  will  move  heaven, 
earth,  and  hell  to  insure  their  condemna- 
tion.    Good  God  !     If  they  fall—" 

His  progress  in  negotiating  for  substan- 
tial aid  from  France  had  at  first  been  slow, 
and  sometimes  looked  discouraging.  He 
was  required  to  draw  up  two  "  memorials  " 
upon  the  state  and  resources  of  Ireland,  for 
the  Government ;  and  in  these  memorials, 
and  in  the  conversations  which  he  records 
with  Clarke  and  Carnot,  it  is  chiefly  impor- 
tant to  remark,  that  he  always  pressed  ur- 
gently for  a  large  force,  such  as  would  en. 
able  the  chiefs  of  the  United  Irishmen  at 
once  to  establish  a  provisional  governmeut, 
and  prevent  anarchy;  that  he  strenuously 
opposed  a  recommendatiou  of  Clarke,  for 
exciting  both  in  England  and  Ireland  a 
species  of  chouannerie,  or  mere  peasant  in- 
surrection, with  no  other  object  than  to  cre- 
ate confusion,  and  operate  as  a  diversion. 
Tone  admitted  that  it  might  be  natural  and 
justifiable  for  the  French  to  retaliate  in 
this  way,  what  the  English  had  done  to- 
them  in  La  Vendee;  but  his  own  object  was 
the  independence  of  his  country,  which,  he 
rightly  thought,  would  not  be  served  by 
mere  riot  and  confusion.  We  find  also  in 
these  notes  that  Clarke  and  Carnot  several 
times  questioned  him  about  the  dispositions 
of  the  Catholic  clergy,  and  how  they  might 
be  expected  to  act  iu  case  of  a   landing, 


246 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


He  always  replied  that  uo  reliance  could  be 
placed  upon  the  clergy  at  first,  especially  if 
the  expedition  were  not  in  sufficient  force  to 
put  down  quickly  all  resistance;  that  they 
were  opposed  to  republicanism  and  revolu- 
tion, but  if  the  French  went  in  sufficient 
force  the  clergy  neither  would  nor  could 
give  serious  opposition  to  the  liberation  of 
his  country. 

While  Tone  was  laboring  through  these 
summer  months  to  get  those  ministers  im- 
pressed with  his  own  ideas,  and  wondering 
at  their  hesitation,  when  it  was  in  their 
power  to  deal  a  mortal  blow  upon  English 
power,  another  negotiation  was  going  on, 
which  at  the  time  was  unknown  to  him.  It 
is  stated  in  the  Report  of  the  Lords'  Secret 
Committee,  hereafter  to  be  cited,  that  the 
agent  of  the  United  Irishmen  in  this  second 
negotiation  was  Edward  John  Lewins,  an 
attorney  in  Dublin ;  but  this  is  probably  an 
error.  At  all  events,  it  is  certain  that  the 
French  Directory  was  at  that  moment  in 
correspondence  with  the  Irish  chiefs  through 
other  channels  than  Wolfe  Tone;  and  that 
Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  and  Arthur 
O'Connor  had  come  to  Switzerland  by  way 
of  Hamburg  to  meet  agents  of  the  Direc- 
tory; and  General  Hoche  had  repaired  to 
Basle,  just  over  the  French  frontier,  to  con- 
fer with  those  gentlemen.  In  deciding 
upon  so  vast  an  armament,  the  Ministers  of 
the  French  Republic  were  certainly  justified 
in  procuring  all  possible  authentic  informa- 
tion about  Ireland  ;  and  in  checking  the 
memorials  of  Tone  by  the  reports  of  other 
well-known  leaders  of  the  United  Irishmen. 
They  had  incautiously  opened  their  negotia- 
tions with  the  Directory  through  the  medi- 
um of  M.  Barthelemi,  of  whose  integrity 
they  had  no  suspicion;  and  Dr.  Madden  in- 
forms us  that  by  this  error  "  they  at  once 
placed  the  secret  of  their  mission  in  the 
sympathizing  bosom  of  Mr.  William  Pitt."* 
The  Secret  Committee  of  the  Lords,  indeed, 
in  1798,  details  the  negotiation  with  perfect 
correctness,  and  hints  at  the  means  by 
which  the  expedition  was  frustrated.  How- 
soever that  may  be,  it  is  evident  that  the 
reports  of  Lord  E.  Fitzgerald  and  Arthur 
O'Connor  respecting  their  friend  Wolfe  Tone 
were  in  all  respects  satisfactory.     The  next 

*  Madden's  United  Irislimen,  2d  series,  p.  3'JO. 


time  he  was  in  the  Cabinet  of  General 
Clarke,  on  his  expressing  a  wish  to  be  en- 
abled to  write  to  his  friends,  to  tell  them  he 
was  alive  and  well  at  Paris,  Clarke,  says 
the  journal,  answered,  "  *  As  to  that,  your 
friends  know  it  already.'  I  replied,  '  Not 
that  I  knew  of.'  He  answered,  'Aye,  but 
I  know  it,  but  cannot  tell  you  at  present 
how.'  He  then  went  on  to  tell  me  he  did 
not  know  how  to  explain  himself  further, 
'for,'  added  he,  'if  I  tell  you  ever  so  little, 
you  will  guess  the  rest.'  So  it  seems  I  am 
a  cunning  fox  without  knowing  it.  He 
gave  me,  however,  to  understand  that  he 
had  a  communication  open  with  Ireland, 
and  showed  me  a  paper,  asking  me  did  I 
know  the  handwriting.  I  did  not.  He 
then  read  a  good  deal.  It  stated  very 
briefly,  that  fourteen  of  the  counties,  in- 
cluding the  entire  North,  were  completely 
organized  for  the  purpose  of  throwing  olT 
the  English  yoke  and  establishing  our  inde- 
pendence; that,  in  the  remaining  eighteen, 
the  organization  was  advancing  rapidly, 
and  that  it  was  so  arranged  that  the  inferi- 
ors obeyed  their  leaders,  without  examining 
their  orders,  or  even  knowing  who  they 
were,  as  every  one  knew  only  the  person 
immediately  above  him.  That  the  militia 
were  about  20,000  men,  17,000  of  whom 
might  be  relied  on,  that  there  were  about 
12,000  regular  troops,  wretched  bad  ones, 
who  would  soon  be  settled  in  case  the  busi- 
ness were  attempted.  Clarke  was  goiug  on, 
but  stopped  here  suddenly,  and  said,  laugh- 
ing, '  There  is  something  there  which  I 
cannot  read  to  you,  or  you  will  guess.'  I 
begged  him  to  use  his  discretion  without 
ceremony.  He  then  asked  me,  did  I  know 
of  this  organization  ?  I  replied  that  I 
could  not,  with  truth,  say  positively  I  kuew 
it,  but  that  I  had  no  manner  of  doubt  of  it; 
that  it  was  now  twelve  months  exactly  since 
I  left  Ireland,  in  which  time,  I  was  satisfied, 
much  must  have  been  done  in  that  country, 
and  that  he  would  find  in  my  memorials 
that  such  an  organization  was  then  begun, 
was  rapidly  spreading,  and,  I  had  no  doubt, 
would  soon  embrace  the  whole  people.  It 
is  curious,  the  coincidence  between  the 
paper  he  read  me  and  those  I  have  given 
here,  though,  upon  second  thought,  as  truth 
is  uniform,  it  would  be  still  more  extraordi- 


"WOLFE   TONE   AT    PARIS. 


247 


nary  if  they  should  vary.  I  am  delighted 
beyond  measure  with  the  progress  which 
has  been  made  in  Ireland  since  my  banish- 
ment. I  see  they  are  advancing  rapidly 
and  safely,  and,  personally,  nothing  can  be 
more  agreeable  to  me  than  this  coincidence 
between  what  I  have  said  and  written,  and 
the  accounts  which  I  see  they  receive  here. 
The  paper  also  stated,  as  I  had  done,  that 
we  wanted  arms,  ammunition,  and  artillery; 
in  short,  it  was  as  exact,  in  all  particulars, 
as  if  the  same  person  had  written  all.  This 
ascertains  my  credit  in  France  beyond  a 
doubt.  Clarke  then  said,  as  to  my  busi- 
ness, he  was  only  waiting  for  letters  from 
General  Hoche,  in  order  to  settle  it  finally; 
that  I  should  have  a  regiment  of  cavalry, 
and,  it  was  probable,  it  might  be  fixed  that 
day;  that  the  arrangement  of  the  forces  in- 
tended for  the  expedition  was  intrusted  to 
Hoche,  by  which  I  see  we  shall  go  from 
Brittany  instead  of  Holland.  All's  one  for 
that,  provided  we  go  at  all." 

A  few  days  after  this,  and  just  when  poor 
Tone  was  almost  in  his  last  straits  for 
money,  he  was  sent  for  to  the  Luxembourg 
Palace,  and  there,  in  the  Cabinet  of  M. 
Fleury,  a  very  handsome  young  man  came 
np  to  him  very  warmly,  seemed  to  have 
known  him  alL  his  life,  and  introduced  him- 
self as  General  Hoche — the  most  rising  man 
at  that  moment  among  the  young  military 
chiefs  of  the  republic.  It  was  he  who  had 
had  the  honor  of  defending  Dunkirk  success-, 
fully  against  the  English,  and  afterwards  of 
defeating  utterly  the  Vendean  force,  equip- 
ped and  armed  by  the  same  English,  and 
landed  at  Quiberon  under  the  guns  of  Ad- 
miral Warren's  fleet.  In  short,  it  was  against 
the  English  he  had  done  most  of  his  service, 
and  he  coveted  the  privilege  of  commanding 
the  formidable  expedition  which  was  now 
fully  resolved  on  for  the  liberation  of  Ire- 
land, He  informed  Tone  that  the  latter 
was,  to  be  attached  to  his  personal  staff,  with 
the  grade  of  Chef  de-Brigade.  At  last, 
then,  the  grand  object  of  Wolfe  Tone's  life 
and  labors  seemed  on  the  point  of  being  at- 
tained. He  was  delighted  with  Hoche,  who 
quite  agreed  with  him  in  his  views  of  the 
scale  on 'which  the  expedition  should  be 
made,  and  of  the  necessity  of  proceeding  by 
the  laws  of  regular  warfare,  not  of  clwuan- 


nerie.  For  the  due  comprehension  of  the 
true  intent  and  aims  of  this  celebrated  ex- 
pedition we  may  here  give  a  passage  from 
Tone's  record  of  his  conference  with  its 
chief : — 

"  He  asked  me  in  case  of  a  landing  being 
effectuated,  might  he  rely  on  finding  pro- 
visions, and  particularly  bread  ?  I  said  it 
would  be  impossible  to  make  any  arrange- 
ments in  Ireland,  previous  to  the  landing, 
'because  of  the  surveillance  of  the  Govern- 
ment, but  if  that  were  once  accomplished, 
there  would  be  no  want  of  provisions  ;  that 
Ireland  abounded  in  cattle,  and,  as  for 
bread,  I  saw  by  the  Gazette  that  there  was 
not  only  no  deficiency  of  corn,  but  that  she 
was  able  to  supply  England,  in  a  great  de- 
gree, during  the  late  alarming  scarcity  in 
that  country,  and  I  assured  him,  that  if  the 
French  were  once  in  Ireland,  he  might  rely 
that,  whoever  wanted  bread,  they  should 
not  want  it.  He  seemed  satisfied  with  this, 
and  proceeded  to  ask  me,  might  we  count 
upon  being  able  to  form  a  provisory  govern- 
ment, either  of  the  Catholic  Committee,  men- 
tioned in  my  memorials,  or  of  the  chiefs  of 
the  Defenders  ?  I  thought  I  saw  an  open 
here,  to  come  at  the  number  of  troops  in- 
tended for  us,  and  replied,  that  that  would 
depend  on  the  force  whicii  might  be  landed  ; 
if  that  force  were  but  trifling,  I  could  not 
pretend  to  say  how  they  might  act,  but  if  it 
was  considerable,  I  had  no  doubt  of  their 
co-operation.  '  Undoubtedly,'  replied  be, 
'  men  will  not  sacrifice  themselves,  when 
they  do  not  see  a  reasonable  prospect 
of  support ;  but,  if  I  go,  you  may  be 
sure  I  will  go  in  sufficient  force.'  He 
then  asked,  did  I  think  ten  thousand  men 
would  decide  them?  I  answered,  undoubt- 
edly, but  that  early  in  the  business  the 
Minister  had  spoken  to  me  of  two  thousand, 
and  that  I  had  replied  that  such  a  number 
could  effect  nothing.  No,  replied  he,  they 
would  be  overwhelmed  before  any  one  could 
join  them.  I  replied,  I  was  glad  to  hear 
him  give  that  opinion,  as  it  was  precisely 
what  I  had  stated  to  the  Minister,  and  I 
repeated  that,  with  the  force  he  mentioned, 
I  could  have  no  doubt  of  support  and  co- 
operation sufficient  to  form  a  provisory  gov- 
ernment. He  then  asked  me  what  I  thought 
of  the  priests,  or  was  it  likely  they  would 


248 


HISTORY   OF   IBELANI). 


give  us  any  trouble  ?  I  replied  I  certainly 
did  not  calculate  on  their  assistance,  but 
neither  did  I  think  they  would  be  able  to 
give  us  any  effectual  opposition  ;  that  their 
influence  over  the  minds  of  the  common  peo- 
ple was  exceedingly  diminished  of  late,  and 
I  Instanced  the  case  of  the  Defenders,  so 
often  mentioned  in  my  memorials,  and  in 
these  memorandums.  I  explained  all  this, 
at  some  length,  to  him,  and  concluded  by 
saying,  that,  in  prudence,  we  should  avoid 
as  much  as  possible  shocking  their  prejudices 
unnecessarily,  and  that,  with  common  dis- 
cretion, I  thought  we  might  seaure  their 
neutrality  at  least,  if  not  their  support.  I 
mentioned  this  merely  as  my  opinion,  but 
added  that,  in  the  contrary  event,  I  was  sat- 
isfied it  would  be  absolutely  impossible  for 
them  to  take  the  people  out  of  our  hands. 
We  then  came  to  the  army.  He  asked  me 
how  I  thought  they  would  act  ?  I  replied, 
for  the  regulars  I  could  not  pretend  to  say, 
but  that  they  were  wretched  bad  troojxs  ; 
for  the  militia,  I  hoped  and  believed  that 
when  we  were  once  organized,  they  would 
not  only  not  oppose  us,  but  come  over  to  the 
cause  of  their  country  en  masse  ;  neverthe- 
less, I  desired  him  to  calculate  on  their  oi> 
positiou,  and  make  his  arrangements  accord- 
ingly ;  that  it  was  the  safe  policy,  and  if  it 
become  necessary,  it  was  so  much  gained. 
He  said  he  would,  undoubtedly,  make  his 
arrangements  so  as  to  leave  nothing  to 
cliance  that  could  be  guarded  against  ;  that 
he  would  come  in  force,  and  bring  great 
quantities  of  arms,  ammunition,  stores,  and 
artillery,  and,  for  his  own  reputation,  see 
that  all  the  arrangements  were  made  on  a 
proper  scale.  I  was  very  glad  to  hear  him 
speak  thus  ;  it  sets  my  mind  at  ease  on 
diverse  points.  He  then  said  there  was  one 
important  point  remaining,  on  which  he  de- 
sired to  be  satisfied,  and  that  was  what 
form  of  government  we  would  adopt  on  the 
event  of  our  success  ?  I  was  going  to 
answer  him  with  great  earnestness,  when 
General  Clarke  entered,  to  request  we 
would  come  to  dinner  with  citizen  Carnot. 
We,  accordingly,  adjourned  the  conversation 
to  the  apartment  of  the  President,  where  we 
•  found  Carnot,  and  one  or  two  more.  Hoche, 
after  some  time,  took  me  aside  and  repeated 
his  question,    I  replied,  '  Most  undoubtedly. 


a  republic'  He  asked  again,  '  Was  I 
sure  ? '  I  said,  as  sure  as  I  could  be  of  any- 
thing ;  that  I  knew  nobody  iu  Ireland  who 
thought  of  any  other  system,  nor  did  I  be- 
lieve there  was  anybody  who  dreamt  of 
monarchy.  He  asked  me  was  there  no 
danger  of  the  Catholics  setting  up  one  of 
their  chiefs  for  King?  I  replied,  '  Not  the 
smallest,'  and  that  there  were  no  chiefs 
amongst  them  of  that  kind  of  eminence. 
This  is  the  old  business  again,  but  I  believe 
I  satisfied  Hoche  ;  it  looks  well  to  see  him 
so  anxious  on  that  topic,  on  which  he 
pressed  me  more  than  on  all  the  others." 

From  this  time  preparations  were  pushed 
forward  with  more  or  less  activity;  but  by 
no  means  fast  enough  to  satisfy  the  ardent 
spirit  of  Tone.  The  rendezvous  for  the 
troops  was  appointed  at  Hennes,  the  old 
capital  of  Bretagne  ;  while  the  fleet,  con 
sisting  of  ships  of  war  and  transports,  was 
getting  ready  at  Brest.  During  the  several 
months  which  intervened,  as  news  occasion- 
ally came  in  from  Ireland,  telling  of  the 
systematic  outrages  on  the  country  people, 
and  new  arrests  and  measures  of  "  vigor  be- 
yond the  law,"  his  anxiety  and  impatience 
redoubled.  On  the  2Sth  of  July  he  writes  : 
"I  see  the  Orange  Boys  are  playing  the 
devil  in  Ireland.  1  have  no  doubt  it.  is  the 
work  of  the  Government.  Please  God,  if  I 
get  safe  into  that  country,  I  will  settle 
those  gentlemen,  and  their  instigators  also 
more  especially."  Again,  late  in  August, 
he  writes  : — 

"  The  news,  at  least  the  report  of  to  day, 
is,  that  Richery  and  the  Spaniards  are  be- 
fore Lisbon,  and  that  a  French  army  is  in 
full  march  across  Spain,  in  order  to  enter 
Portugal ;  that  would  be  a  blow  to  Master 
John  Bull  fifty  times  worse  than  the  affair 
of  Leghorn.  Why  the  unhappy  Portuguese 
did  not  make  their  peace  at  the  same  time 
with  Spain,  I  cannot  conceive,  except,  as 
was  most  probably  the  case,  they  durst  not 
consult  their  own  safety  for  fear  of  offending 
the  English.  What  an  execrable  nation 
that  is,  and  how  cordially  I  hate  them.  If 
this  affair  of  Portugal  is  true,  there  will  not 
remain  one  port  friendly  to  England  from 
Hamburg  to  Trieste,  and  probably  much 
further  both  ways.  It  is  impossible  she  can 
stand  this  long.     Well,  if  the  visitation  of 


BANTRY   BAY   EXPEDITION. 


249 


Providence  be  sometimes  slow,  it  is  always 
sure.  If  our  expedition  succeeds,  I  think 
we  will  give  her  the  amp  de grace,  and  make 
her  pay  dear  for  the  rivers  of  blood  she  has 
made  to  flow  in  our  poor  country,  her  mas- 
sacres, her  pillages,  and  her  frauds  ;  'Alors, 
ce  sera  notre  lour  J  We  shall  see  !  We 
shall  see  !  Oh  that  I  were,  this  fine  morn- 
ing, at  the  head  of  my  regiment  ou  the  Cave 
Hill  !     Well,  all  in  good  time." 

And  still  the  time  flew,  while  innumerable 
causes  of  delay  interfered  with  the  dispatch 
of  tlie  fleet.  And  in  the  meantime  Camden 
and  Carhampton's  reign  of  terror  was  iu  full 
sway,  goading  the  people  to  desperation  ; 
and  the  fiery  Chef -de- Brigade  gnawing  his 
own  heart  in  Paris,  or  in  Rennes. 

At  last,  but  not  until  the  15th  of  Decem- 
ber, all  was  on  board.  The  troops  were  to 
have  amounted  to  15,000  men,  but  they 
were  actually  13,975  men,  with  abundance 
of  artillery  and  ammunition,  and  arms  for 
45,000  men.  Tone  was  on  board  the  liiie- 
of-battle  ship  Indomptahh,  of  80  guns.  There 
were  on  the  whole  17  sail  of  the  line,  13 
frigates,  5  corvettes,  making,  with  trans- 
ports, 43  sail.  General  Hoche  and  the  Ad- 
miral in  command  of  the  fleet  were  on  board 
a  frigate  ;  and  the  second  General  in  com- 
mand, of  the  latid  forces  was,  unfortunately — 
Grouchy — of  unlucky  memory.  A  wretched 
fatality  was  upon  this  fine  expedition  from 
the  very  start.  The  first  night  it  was  at 
sea  it  lost  both  its  chiefs  ;  as  the  Fraternite 
frigate  was  separated  from  the  others,  and 
they  never  saw  more  of  it  until  after  they 
had  returned  to  France.  An  extract,  some- 
what condensed,  from  Wolfe  Tone's  diary, 
may  form  the  most  interesting  account  of 
the  fortunes  and  fates  of  the  Bautry  Bay 
Expedition  : — 

"  Admiral  Morand  de  Galles,  General 
Hoche,  General  Debelle,  and  Colonel  Shee, 
are  aboard  the  Fraternite,  and  God  knows 
what  has  become  of  them.  The  wind,  too, 
coutiuues  against  us,  and,  altogether,  I  am 
in  terrible  low  spirits.  How  if  these  damned 
English  should  catch  us  at  last,  after  hav- 
ing gone  on  successfully  thus  far.  Our 
force  leaving  Brest  water  was  as  follows  : 
Indomptable,  80  guns  ;  Nestor,  Cassard, 
Droits  de  I'Hommo,  Tourville,  Eole,  Fou- 
gueux,  Mucius,  Redoutable,  Patriote,  Plu- 
32 


ton,  Constitution,  Trajan,  Watigny,  Pegase, 
Revolution,  and  the  unfortunate  Seduisant, 
of  74  guns  ( 1 7  sail  of  the  line) ;  La  Cocarde, 
Bravoure,  ImmortalittJ,  Bellone,  Coquille, 
Romaine,  Sirene,  Impatiente,  Surveillante, 
Charente,  Resolue,  Tartare,  and  Fraternity, 
frigates  of  36  guns  (13  frigates) ;  Scevola 
and  Fidele  amies  en  flutes,  Mutine,  Renard, 
Atalaute,  Voltigeur,  and  Affronteur,  cor- 
vettes, and  Nicodeme,  Justine,  Yille  d'Orient, 
Su0"ren,  Experiment,  and  Alegre,  transports, 
making  in  all  4  3  sail.  Of  these  there  are 
missing  this  day,  at  three  o'clock,  the 
Nestor  aud  Seduisant,  of  74;  the  Fraternity, 
Cocarde,  and  Romaine,  frigates  ;  the  Mutine 
and  Voltigeur,  corvettes  ;  and  three  other 
transports. 

^'Dece/nber  20/h. — Last  night,  in  moderate 
weather,  we  contrived  to  separate  again,  and 
this  morning,  at  eight  o'clock,  we  are  but 
fifteen  sail  in  company,  with  a  foul  wind, 
and  hazy.  We  shall  lie  beating  about  here, 
within  thirty  leagues  of  Cape  Clear,  until 
the  English  come  and  catch  us,  which  will 
be  truly  agreeable.  At  ten,  several  sail  in 
sight  to  windward  ;  I  suppose  they  are  our 
stray  sheep.  It  is  scandalous  to  part  com- 
pany twice  iu  four  days  in  such  moderate 
weather  as  we  have  had,  but  sea  affairs  I 
see  are  not  our  forte.  Captain  Bedout  is  a 
seaman,  which  I  fancy  is  more  than  can  be 
said  for  nine-tenths  of  his  confreres. 

"Dei'£'mber  2lst. — Last  night,  just  at  sunset, 
signal  for  seven  sail  iu  the  offing  ;  all  iu  high 
spirits,  in  hopes  that  it  is  our  comrades  ; 
stark  calm  all  the  fore  part  of  the  night ;  at 
length  a  breeze  sprung  up,  and  this  morn- 
ing, at  daybreak,  we  are  under  Cape  Clear, 
distant  about  four  leagues,  so  I  have,  at  all 
events,  once  more  seen  my  country  ;  but  the 
pleasure  I  should  otherwise  feel  at  this,  is 
totally  destroyed  by  the  absence  of  the 
General  who  has  not  joined  us,  and  of  whom 
we  know  nothing.  The  sails  we  saw  last 
night  have  disappeared,  and  we  are  all  iu 
uucertainty.  It  is  most  delicious  weather, 
with  a  favorable  wind,  and  everything,  in 
short,  that  we  can  desire,  except  our  absent 
comrades.  At  the  moment  I  write  tins  we 
are  under  easy  sail,  within  three  leagues,  at 
most,  of  the  coast,  so  that  I  can  discover, 
here  aud  there,  patches  of  snow  on  the 
mouutaius.     What   if  the  Geueral   should 


250 


HISTOET   OF  lEELAND, 


not  join  us.  If  we  cruise  here  five  days, 
according?  to  our  instructions,  the  EngHsh 
will  be  upon  us,  and  then  all  is  over.  We 
are  thirty-five  sail  in  company,  and  seven  or 
eight  absent.  Is  that  such  a  sepai'ation  of 
our  force,  as,  under  all  the  circumstances, 
will  warrant  our  following  the  letter  of  our 
orders,  to  the  certain  failure  of  the  expedi- 
tion ?  If  Grouchy  and  Bouvet  be  men  of 
spirit  and  decision,  they  will  land  imme- 
diately, and  trust  to  their  success  for  justi- 
fication. If  they  be  not,  and  if  this  day 
passes  without  our  seeing  the  General,  I 
much  fear  the  game  is  up.  I  am  in  un- 
describable  anxiety,  and  Cherin,  who  com- 
mands aboard,  is  a  poor  creature,  to  whom 
it  is  vain  to  speak  ;  not  but  I  believe  he  is 
brave  enough,  but  he  has  a  little  mind. 
There  cannot  be  imagined  a  situation  more 
provokingly  tantalizing  than  mine  at  this 
moment,  within  view,  almost  within  reach 
of  my  native  land,  and  uncertain  whether  I 
shall  ever  set  my  foot  on  it.  We  are  now, 
nine  o'clock,  at  the  rendezvous  appointed; 
stood  in  for  the  coast  till  twelve,  when  we 
were  near  enough  to  toss  a  biscuit  ashore; 
at  twelve,  tacked  and  stood  out  again,  so 
now  we  have  begun  our  cruise  of  five  days 
in  all  its  forms,  and  shall,  in  obedience  to 
the  letter  of  our  instructions,  ruin  the  expe- 
dition, and  destroy  the  remnant  of  the 
French  navy,  with  a  precision  and  punctual- 
ity which  will  be  truly  edifying.  We  opened 
Bantry  Bay,  and,  in  all  my  life,  rage  never 
entered  so  deeply  into  my  heart  as  when  we 
turned  our  backs  on  the  coast.  At  half 
after  one,  the  Atalante,  one  of  our  missing 
corvettes,  hove  in  sight,  so  now  again  we 
are  in  hopes  to  see  the  General.  Oh  !  if  he 
were  in  Grouchy's  place,  he  would  not  hesi- 
tate one  moment.  Continue  making  short 
boards  ;  the  wind  foul. 

"December  22d. — This  morning,  at  eight, 
we  have  neared  Bantry  Bay  considerably, 
but  the  fleet  is  terribly  scattered;  no  news 
of  the  Fraternite  ;  I  believe  it  is  the  first 
instance  of  an  Admiral  in  a  clean  frigate, 
with  moderate  weather,  and  moonlight 
nights,  parting  company  with  his  fleet. 
Ca])tain  Grammont,  our  First  Lieutenant, 
told  me  his  opinion  is  that  she  is  either  taken 
or  lost,  and,  in  either  event,  it  is  a  terrible 
blow  to  us.     All  rests  now  upon  Grouchy, 


and  I  hope  he  may  turn  out  well  ;  he  has  a 
glorious  game  in  his  hands,  if  he  has  spirit 
and  talent  to  play  it.  If  he  succeeds,  it  will 
immortalize  him.  I  do  not  at  all  like  the 
countenance  of  the  Etat  Major  in  this  crisis. 
When  they  speak  of  the  expedition,  it  is  in 
a  style  of  despondency,  and,  when  they  are 
not  speaking  of  it,  they  are  playing  cards 
and  laughing  ;  they  are  every  one  of  them 
brave  of  their  persons,  but  I  see  nothing  of 
that  spirit  of  enterprise,  combined  with  a 
steady  resolution,  which  our  present  situa- 
tion demands.  They  stared  at  me  this 
morning,  when  I  said  that  Grouchy  was  the 
man  in  the  whole  army  who  had  least  rea- 
son to  regret  the  absence  of  the  General, 
and  began  to  talk  of  responsibility  and  dif- 
ficulties, as  if  any  great  enterprise  was 
without  responsibility  and  difficulties.  I 
was  burning  with  rage,  however  I  said 
nothing,  and  will  say  nothing  until  I  get 
ashore,  if  ever  I  am  so  happy  as  to  arrive 
there.  We  are  gaining  the  Bay  by  slow 
degrees,  with  a  head  wind  at  east,  where  it 
has  hung  these  five  weeks.  To  night  we 
hope,  if  nothing  extraordinary  happens,  to 
cast  anchor  in  the  mouth  of  the  Bay,  and 
work  up  to-morrow  morning;  these  delays 
are  dreadful  to  my  impatience.  I  am  now 
so  near  the  shore  that  I  can  see,  distinctly, 
two  old  castles,  yet  I  am  utterly  uncertain 
whether  I  shall  ever  set  foot  on  it.  Ac- 
cording to  appearances,  Bouvet  and  Grouchy 
are  resolved  to  proceed;  that  is  a  great 
point  gained,  however.  Two  o'clock;  we 
have  been  tacking  ever  since  eight  this 
morning,  and  I  am  sure  we  have  not  gained 
one  hundred  yards;  the  wind  is  right  ahead, 
and  the  fleet  dispersed,  several  being  far  to 
leeward.  I  have  been  looking  over  the 
schedule  of  our  arms,  artillery,  and  ammuni- 
tion ;  we  are  well  provided :  we  have 
41,160  stand  of  arms,  twenty  pieces  of  field 
artillery,  and  nine  of  siege,  including  mortars 
and  howitzers  ;  61,200  barrels  of  powder, 
1,000,000  musket  cartridges,  and  700,000 
flints,  besides  an  infinite  variety  of  articles 
belonging  to  the  train,  but  we  have  neither 
sabres  nor  pistols  for  the  cavalry;  however, 
we  have  nearly  three  regiments  of  hussars 
embarked,  so  that  we  can  dispense  with 
them.  I  continue  very  discreetly  to  say 
little  or  nothing,  as  my  situation  just  now  is 


ACCOUNT    OF,    IN   TONES   JOURNAL. 


251 


rather  a  delicate  one  ;  if  we  were  once 
asliore,  and  things  turn  out  to  my  mind,  I  shall 
soon  be  out  of  my  trammels,  and,  perhaps, 
in  that  respect,  I  may  be  better  off  with 
Grouchy  than  with  Heche.  If  the  people 
act  with  spirit,  as  I  hope  they  will,  it  is  no 
matter  who  is  General,  and,  if  they  do  not, 
all  the  talents  of  Hoche  would  not  save  us; 
so  it  comes  to  the  same  thing  at  last.  At 
half-past  six,  cast  anchor  off  Beer  Island, 
being  still  four  leagues  from  our  landing 
place:  at  work  with  General  Clicrin,  writing 
and  translating  proclamations,  &e.,  all  our 
printed  papers,  including  my  two  pamplilets, 
being  on  board  the  Fraternite,  which  is 
pleasant. 

"December  23fZ. — Last  night  it  blew  a 
heavy  gale  from  the  eastward,  with  snow, 
so  that  the  mountains  are  covered  this 
morning,  which  will  render  our  bivouacs  ex- 
tremely amusing.  It  is  to  be  observed, 
that  of  the  thirty-two  points  of  the  com- 
pass, the  E.  is  precisely  the  most  unfavor- 
able to  us.  In  consequence,  we  are  this 
morning  separated  for  the  fourth  time; 
sixteen  sail,  inclnding  nine  or  ten  of  the 
line,  with  Bouvet  and  Grouchy,  are  at 
anchor  with  us,  and  about  twenty  are  blown 
to  sea;  luckily  the  gale  set  from  the  shore, 
so  I  am  in  hopes  no  mischief  will  ensue. 
The  wind  is  still  high,  and,  as  usual,  right 
ahead;  and  I  dread  a  visit  from  the  Eng- 
lish, and  altogether  I  am  in  great  uneasi- 
ness. Oh  1  that  we  were  once  ashore,  let 
what  might  ensue  after;  I  am  sick  to  the 
very  soul  of  this  suspense.  It  is  curious  to 
see  how  things  are  managed  in  this  best  of 
all  possible  worlds.  Wo  are  here,  sixteen 
sail,  great  and  small,  scattered  up  and 
down  in  a  noble  bay,  and  so  dispersed  that 
there  are  not  two  together  in  any  spot, 
save  one,  and  there  they  are  now  so  close, 
that  if  it  blows  to-night  as  it  did  last  night, 
they  will  inevitably  run  foul  of  each  other, 
unless  one  of  them  prefers  driving  on  shore. 
We  lie  in  this  disorder,  expecting  a  visit 
from  the  English  every  hour,  without 
taking  a  single  step  for  our  defense,  even  to 
the  common  one  of  having  a  frigate  in  the 
harbor's  mouth,  to  give  us  notice  of  their 
approach;  to  judge  by  appearances,  we 
have  less  to  dread  here  than  in  Brest  water, 
for  when  we  were  there,  we  had  four  cor- 


vettes stationed  off  the  goulet,  besides  the 
signal  posts.  I  confess  this  degree  of  se- 
curity passes  my  comprehension.  The  day 
has  passed  without  the  appearance  of  one 
vessel,  friend  or  enemy,  the  wind  rather 
more  moderate,  but  still  ahead.  To-night, 
on  examining  the  returns  with  Waudre, 
Chef  d'Etat  Major  of  the  Artillery,  I  Gnd  our 
means  so  reduced  by  the  absence  of  the  miss- 
ing, that  I  thiid<  it  hardly  possible  to  make 
an  attempt  here,  vvith  any  prospect  of  suc- 
cess; in  consequence,  I  look  Cherin  into  the 
Captain's  room,  and  told  him  frankly  my 
opinion  of  our  actual  state,  and  that  I 
thought  it  our  duty,  since  we  must  look 
upon  the  main  object  as  now  unattainable,  un- 
less the  whole  of  our  friends  returned  to-mor- 
row, and  the  English  gave  us  our  own  time, 
which  was  hardly  to  be  expected,  to  see 
what  could  be  best  done  for  the  honor  and 
interest  of  the  republic,  with  the  force  which 
remained  in  our  hands,  and  I  proposed  to 
him  to  give  me  the  Legion  des  Francs,  a 
company  of  the  Artilkrie  legere,  and  as  many 
officers  as  desired  to  come  volunteers  in  the 
expedition,  with  what  arms  and  store  re- 
mained, which  are  now  reduced,  by  our  sepa- 
ration, to  four  field  pieces,  20,000  firelocks 
at  most,  ],000  lbs.  of  powder,  and  3,000,000 
cartridges,  and  to  land  us  in  Sligo  Bay,  and 
let  us  make  the  best  of  our  way;  if  we  suc- 
ceeded, the  republic  would  gain  infinitely  in 
reputation  and  interest,  and,  if  we  failed, 
the  loss  would  be  trifling,  as  the  expense  was 
already  incurred,  and  as  for  the  legion,  he 
knew  what  kind  of  desperadoes  it  was  com- 
posed of,  and  for  what  purpose ;  conse- 
quently, in  the  worst  event,  the  republic 
would  be  well  rid  of  them;  finally,  I  added, 
that  though  I  asked  the  command,  it  was 
on  the  supposition  that  none  of  the  Gen- 
erals would  risk  their  reputation  on  such  a 
desperate  enterprise,  and  that  if  another  was 
found,  I  would  be  content  to  go  as  a  simple 
volunteer.  This  was  the  outline  of  ray  pro- 
posal, which  I  pressed  on  him  with  such 
arguments  as  occurred  to  me,  concluding  by 
observing  that,  as  a  foreigner  in  the  French 
service,  my  situation  was  a  delicate  one,  and 
if  I  were  simply  an  officer,  I  would  obey 
in  silence  the  orders  of  superiors,  but, 
from  my  connections  in  Ireland,  having  ob- 
tained the  confidence  of  the  Directory,  so 


252 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


far  as  to  induce  them  to  appoint  me  to  the 
rank  of  Chef -de-Brigade,  and  of  General 
Hoche,  who  had  nominated  me  Adjutant- 
General,  I  thought  it  my  duty,  both  to 
France  and  Ireland,  to  speak  on  this  occa- 
sion, and  that  I  only  offered  my  plan  as  a 
fis  aller,  in  case  nothing  better  suggested 
itself  Cherin  answered  that  I  did  very 
right  to  give  ray  opinion,  and  that  as  he 
expected  a  council  of  war  would  be  called 
to-morrow,  he  would  bring  me  with  him, 
and  I  should  have  an  opportunity  to  press 
it.  The  discourse  rested  there,  and  to-mor- 
row we  shall  see  more,  if  we  are  not  agree- 
ably surprised,  early  in  the  morning,  by  a 
visit  from  the  English,  which  is  highly  prob- 
able. I  am  now  so  near  the  shore,  that  I 
can  in  a  manner  touch  the  sides  of  Bantry 
Bay  with  my  right  and  left  hand,  yet  God 
knows  whether  I  shall  ever  tread  again  on 
Irish  ground.  Another  thing,  we  are  now 
three  dnys  in  Bantry  Bay;  if  we  do  not  laud 
immediately,  the  enemy  will  collect  a  su- 
perior force,  and,  perhaps,  repay  us  our  vic- 
tory of  Quiberon,  In  an  enterprise  like 
ours,  everything  depends  upon  the  prompti- 
tude and  audacity  of  our  first  movements, 
and  we  are  here,  I  am  sorry  to  say  it,  most 
pitifully  languid.  It  is  mortifying,  but  that 
is  too  poor  a  word;  I  could  tear  my  flesh 
with  rage  and  vexation,  but  that  advances 
liothiug,  and  so  I  hold  my  tongue  in  gen- 
eral, and  devour  my  melancholy  as  I  can. 
To  come  so  near,  and  then  to  fail,  if  we  are 
to  fail  1  And  every  one  aboard  seems  now 
to  have  given  up  all  hopes. 

"Decejnber  lilh. — This  morning  the  whole 
Etat  Major  has  been  miraculously  con- 
verted, and  it  was  agreed,  in  full  council, 
that  General  Cherin,  Colonel  Waudrd,  Chef 
d'Etat  Major  of  the  Artillery,  and  myself, 
should  go  aboard  the  Immortality,  and 
press  General  Grouchy  in  the  strongest 
manner  to  proceed  on  the  expedition,  with 
the  ruins  of  our  scattered  army.  Accord- 
ingly, we  made  a  signal  to  speak  with  the 
Admiral,  and  in  about  an  hour  we  were 
aboard.  I  must  do  Grouchy  the  justice  to 
say,  that  the  moment  we  gave  our  opinion 
in  favor  of  proceeding,  he  took  his  part  de- 
cidedly, and  like  a  man  of  spirit;  he  instantly 
set  about  preparing  the  ordre  de  batailk, 
and  we  finished  it  without  delay.     We  are 


not  more  than  6,500  strong,  but  they  are 
tried  soldiers,  who  have  seen  fire,  and  I  have 
the  strongest  hopes  that,  after  all,  we  shall 
bring  our  enterprise  to  a  glorious  termina- 
tion. It  is  a  bold  attempt,  and  truly 
original.  All  the  time  we  were  preparing 
the  ordre  de  batailk,  we  were  laughing  most 
immoderately  at  the  poverty  of  our  means, 
and  1  believe,  under  the  circumstances,  it 
was  the  merriest  council  of  war  that  was 
ever  held;  but  'Des  Chevaliers  francais  tel  est 
le  caradere.''  Grouchy,  the  Commander-in- 
Chief,  never  had  so  few  men  under  his  orders 
since  he  was  Adjutant-General;  Waudre, 
who  is  Lieutenant-Colonel,  finds  himself 
now  at  the  head  of  the  artillery,  which  is  a 
furious  park,  consisting  of  one  piece  of 
eight,  one  of  four,  and  two  six-inch  howit- 
zers; when  he  was  a  Captain,  he  never 
commanded  fewer  than  ten  pieces,  but  now 
that  he  is  in  fact  General  of  the  Artillery,  he 
prefers  taking  the  field  with  four.  He  is  a 
gallant  felluw,  and  offered,  on  my  proposal 
last  night,  to  remain  with  me  and  command 
his  company,  in  case  General  Grouchy  had 
agreed  to  tlie  proposal  I  made  to  Cherin.  It 
is  altogether  an  enterprise  truly  unique;  we 
have  not  one  guinea;  we  have  not  a  tent; 
we  have  not  a  horse  to  draw  our  four  pieces 
of  artillery;  the  General-in-Chief  marches 
on  foot;  we  leave  all  our  baggage  behind 
us;  we  have  nothing  but  the  arms  in  our 
hands,  the  clothes  on  our  backs,  and  a  good 
courage,  but  that  is  sufficient.  With  all 
these  original  circumstances,  such  as  I  be- 
lieve never  were  found  united  in  an  expedi- 
tion of  such  magnitude  as  that  we  are  about 
to  attempt,  we  are  all  as  gay  as  larks.  I 
never  saw  the  French  character  better  ex- 
emplified, than  in  this  morning's  business. 
Weil,  at  last  I  believe  we  are  about  to  disem- 
bark; God  knows  how  I  long  for  it.  But 
this  infernal  easterly  wind  continues  without 
remorse,  and  though  we  have  been  under 
way  three  or  four  hours,  and  made  I  be- 
lieve three  hundred  tacks,  we  do  not  seem 
to  my  eyes  to  have  gained  one  hundred 
yards  in  a  straight  line.  One  hour  and  a 
half  of  good  wind  would  carry  us  up,  and, 
pirhaps,  we  may  be  yet  two  days.  My 
enemy,  the  wind,  seems  just  now,  at  eight 
o'clock,  to  relent  a  little,  so  we  may  reach 
Bantry  by  to-morrow.     The  enemy  has  now 


FLEET  ANCHORED  IX  BANTRT  BAT. 


253 


had  four  days  to  recover  from  his  panic, 
and  prepare  to  receive  us  ;  so  much  the 
worse,  but  I  do  not  mind  it.  We  purpose 
to  make  a  race  for  Cork,  as  if  the  devil 
were  in  our  bodies,  and  when  we  are  fairly 
there,  we  will  stop  for  a  day  or  two  to 
take  breath,  and  look  about  us.  From 
Bantry  to  Cork  is  about  forty-Gve  miles, 
which,  with  all  our  efforts,  will  take  us  three 
days,  and  I  suppose  we  may  have  a  brush 
by  the  way,  but  I  think  we  are  able  to  deal 
with  any  force  that  can,  at  a  week's  notice, 
be  broug:ht  against  us. 

"  Beamier  25fk. — These  memorandums  are 
a  strange  mixture.  Sometimes  I  am  in  pre- 
posterously high  spirits,  and  at  other  times  I 
am  as  dejected,  according  to  the  posture  of 
our  affairs.  Last  night  I  had  the  strongest 
expectations  that  to-day  we  should  debark, 
but  at  two  this  morning  1  was  awakened  by 
the  wind.  I  rose  immediately,  and,  wrap- 
ping myself  in  my  great  coat,  walked  for  an 
hour  in  the  gallery,  devoured  by  the  most 
gloomy  reflections.  The  wind  continues 
right  ahead,  so  that  it  is  absolutely  impos- 
sible to  work  up  to  the  landing  place,  and 
God  knows  when  it  will  change.  The  same 
wind  is  exactly  favorable  to  bring  the  Eng- 
lish upon  us,  and  these  cruel  delays  give  the 
enemy  time  to  assemble  his  entire  force  in 
this  neighborhood,  and  perhaps  (it  is,  un- 
fortunately, more  than  perhaps,)  by  his 
superiority  in  numbers,  in  cavalry,  in  artil- 
lery, in  money,  in  provisions,  in  short  in  every- 
thing we  want,  to  crush  us,  supposing  we 
are  even  able  to  effectuate  a  landing  at  last, 
at  the  same  time  that  the  fleet  will  be 
caught  as  in  a  trap.  Had  we  been  able  to 
land  the  first  day  and  march  directly  to  Cork, 
we  should  have  infallibly  carried  it  by  a  coup 
de  mam;  and  then  we  should  have  a  footing 
in  the  country,  but  as  it  is — if  we  are  taken, 
my  fate  will  not  be  a  mild  one;  the  best  I 
can  expect  is  to  be  shot  as  an  emigre  rentre, 
ijnless  I  have  the  good  fortune  to  be  killed 
in  the  action;  for  most  assuredly  if  the 
enemy  will  have  us,  he  must  fight  for  us. 
Perhaps  I  may  be  reserved  for  a  trial,  for 
the  sake  of  striking  terror  into  others,  in 
which  case  I  shall  be  hanged  as  a  traitor, 
and  emboweled,  &c.  As  to  the  embowel- 
ing, 'je  m^enfiche '  if  ever  they  hang  me,  they 
are  welcome  to  embowel  me  if  they  please. 


These  are  pleasant  prospects!  Nothing  on 
earth  could  sustain  me  now,  but  the  con- 
sciousness that  I  am  engaged  in  a  just  and 
righteous  cause.  For  my  family,  I  have,  by 
a  desperate  effort,  surmounted  my  natural 
feelings  so  far,  that  I  do  not  think  of  them 
at  this  moment.  This  day,  at  twelve,  the 
wind  blows  a  gale,  still  from  the  east,  and 
our  situation  is  now  as  critical  as  possible, 
for  it  is  morally  certain  that  this  day  or  to- 
morrow on  the  morning,  the  English  fleet 
will  be  in  the  harbor's  mouth,  and  then  adieu 
to  everything.  In  this  desperate  state  of 
affairs,  I  proposed  to  Cherin  to  sally  out 
with  all  our  forces,  to  mount  to  the  Shan- 
non, and,  disembarking  the  troops,  make  a 
forced  march  to  Limerick,  which  is  probably 
unguarded,  the  garrison  being,  I  am  pretty 
certain,  on  its  march  to  oppose  us  here;  to 
pass  the  river  at  Limerick,  and,  by  forced 
marches,  push  to  the  North.  I  detailed  all 
this  on  a  paper  which  I  will  keep,  and 
showed  it  to  Captain  Bedout,  and  all  the 
Generals  on  board,  Cherin,  Simon,  and 
Chasseloup.  They  all  agreed  as  to  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  plan,  but  after  settling  it, 
we  find  it  impossible  to  communicate  with 
the  General  and  Admiral,  who  are  in  the 
Tmmortalite,  nearly  two  leagues  ahead,  and 
the  wind  is  now  so  high  and  foul,  and  the 
sea  so  rough,  that  no  boat  can  live,  so  all 
communication  is  impracticable,  and  to- 
morrow morning  it  will,  most  probably,  be 
too  late;  and  on  this  circumstance,  perhaps, 
the  fate  of  the  expedition  and  the  liberty  of 
Ireland  depends.  I  cannot  conceive  for 
what  reason  the  two  Commanders-in-Chief 
are  shut  up  together  in  a  frigate.  Surely 
they  should  be  on  board  the  flag-ship.  But 
that  is  not  the  first  misfortune  resulting 
from  this  arrangement.  Had  General  Hoche 
remained,  as  he  ought,  on  board  the  In- 
doraptable,  with  his  Etat  Major,  he  would 
not  have  been  separated  and  taken  by  the 
English,  as  he  most  probably  is;  nor  should 
we  be  in  the  difficulties  we  now  find  ourselves 
in,  and  which  most  probably  to-morrow  will 
render  insurmountable.  "Well,  it  does  not 
signify  complaining.  Our  first  capital  error 
was  in  setting  sail  too  late  from  the  Bay  of 
Camaret,  by  which  means  we  were  obliged 
to  pass  the  Raz  in  the  night,  which  caused 
the  loss  of  the  Seduisant,  the  separation  of 


254 


mSTORT    OF   lEEIiAOT). 


the  fleet,  tlie  capture  of  tlie  General,  and 
ftbove  all,  the  loss  of  time  resulting  from  all 
tliis,  and  which  is  never  to  be  recovered. 
Our  second  error  was  in  losing  an  entire  day 
iu  cniis'ng  off  the  Bay,  when  we  might  have 
entered  and  effected  a  landing  with  thirty- 
five  sail,  which  would  have  secured  every- 
thing, and  now  our  thii'd  error  is  having  our 
Commander-in-Chief  separated  from  the  Etat 
Major,  which  renders  all  communication 
utterly  impossible.  My  prospects  at  this 
hour  are  as  gloomy  as  possible.  I  see  noth- 
ing before  me,  unless  a  miracle  be  wrought 
in  our  favor,  but  the  ruin  of  the  expedition, 
the  shivery  of  my  country,  and  my  own  de- 
struction. Well,  if  I  am  to  fall,  at  least  I 
will  sell  my  life  as  dear  as  individual  re- 
sistance can  make  it.  So  now  I  have  made 
up  my  mind.  I  have  a  merry  Christmas  of 
it  to-day. 

December  26<A.— Last  night,  at  half  after 
six  o'clock,  in  a  heavy  gale  of  wind  still 
from  the  east,  we  were  surprised  by  the 
Admiral's  frigate  running  under  onr  quarter, 
and  hailing  the  Indomitable,  with  orders  to 
cut  our  cable  and  put  to  sea  instantly;  the 
frigate  then  pursued  her  course,  leaving  us 
all  in  the  utmost  astonishment.  Our  first 
idea  was  that  it  might  be  an  English  frigate, 
lurking  in  the  bottom  of  the  Bay,  which 
took  advantage  of  the  storm  and  darkness 
of  the  night  to  make  her  escape,  and  wished 
to  separate  our  squadron  by  this  stratagem ; 
for  it  seems  utterly  incredible,  that  an  Ad- 
miral should  cut  and  run  in  this  manner, 
without  any  previous  signal  of  any  kind  to 
warn  the  fleet,  and  that  the  first  notice  we 
should  have  of  his  intention,  should  be  his 
hailing  us  in  this  extraordinary  manner, 
with  such  unexpected  and  peremptory  or- 
ders. After  a  short  consultation  with  his 
officers,  (considering  the  storm,  the  darkness 
of  the  night,  that  we  have  two  anchors  out, 
and  only  one  spare  one  in  the  hold,)  Captain 
Bedout  resolved  to  wait,  at  all  events,  till 
to-morrow  morning,  in  order  to  ascertain 
whether  it  was  really  the  Admiral  who 
hailed  us.  The  morning  is  now  come,  the 
gale  continues,  and  the  fog  is  so  thick  that 
we  cannot  see  a  ship's  length  ahead;  so  here 
we  lie  in  the  utmost  uncertainty  and  anxiety. 
In  all  probability  we  are  now  left  without 
Admiral  or  General;  if  so,  Cherin  will  com- 


mand the  troops,  and  Bedout  the  fleet,  but, 
at  all  events,  there  is  an  end  of  the  expe- 
dition. Certainly  we  have  been  persecuted 
by  a  strange  fatality,  from  the  very  night 
of  our  departure  to  this  hour.  We  have 
lost  two  Commanders-in-Chief;  of  four  Ad- 
mirals not  one  remains;  we  have  lost  one 
ship  of  the  line,  that  we  know  of,  and  prob- 
ably many  others  of  which  we  know  noth- 
ing; we  have  been  now  six  days  in  Bautry 
Bay,  within  five  hundred  yards  of  the  shore, 
without  being  able  to  effectuate  a  landing; 
we  have  hav^e  been  dispersed  four  times  in 
four  days,  and,  at  this  moment,  of  forty- 
three  sail,  of  which  the  expedition  con- 
sisted, we  can  muster  of  all  sizes  but  four- 
teen. There  only  wants  our  falling  in  with 
the  English  to  complete  our  destruction; 
and,  to  judge  of  the  future  by  the  past, 
there  is  every  probability  that  that  will  not 
be  wanting.  All  our  hopes  are  now  re- 
duced to  get  back  in  safety  to  Brest,  and 
I  believe  we  will  set  sail  for  that  port  the 
instant  the  weather  will  permit.  I  confess, 
myself,  I  now  look  on  the  expedition  a§ 
impracticable.  The  enemy  has  had  seven 
days  to  prepare  for  us,  and  three,  or  per- 
haps four,  days  more  before  we  could  ar- 
rive at  Cork;  and  we  are  now  too  much 
reduced,  in  all  respects,  to  make  the  at- 
tempt with  any  prospect  of  success — so, 
all  is  over  !  It  is  hard,  after  having  forced 
my  way  thus  far,  to  be  obliged  to  turn 
back;  but  it  is  my  fate,  and  I  must  sub- 
mit. Xotwithstanding  all  our  blunders,  it 
is  the  dreadful  stormy  weather  and  easterly 
winds,  which  have  been  blowing  furiously, 
and  without  intermission,  since  we  made 
Bantry  Bay,  that  have  ruined  us.  Well, 
England  has  not  had  such  an  escape  since 
the  Spanish  Armada,  and  that  expedition, 
like  ours,  was  defeated  by  the  weather;  the 
elements  fight  against  us,  and  courage  is 
here  of  no  avail.  Well,  let  me  think  no 
more  about  it;  it  is  lost,  and  let  it  go  ! 

"  December  2^th. — Yesterday  several  ves- 
sels, including  the  Indomptable,  dragged 
i  their  anchors  several  times,  and  it  was  with 
great  difficulty  they  rode  out  the  gale. 
At  two  o'clock,  the  Revolution,  a  14, 
made  signal  that  she  could  hold  no  longer, 
and,  in  consequence  of  the  Commodore's 
permission,   who  now  commands   our  little 


FLEET  ANCHORED  IN  BANTRY  BAY. 


255 


squadron,  cut  lier  only  cable  and  put  to  sea. 
In  t!ie  night,  the  Patriote  and  Fhiton,  of 
74  each,  were  forced  to  go  to  sea,  with  the 
Nicomede  flute,  so  that  this  morning  we  are 
reduced  to  seven  sail  of  tlie  hue  and  one 
frigate.  Any  attempt  here  is  now  des- 
perate, but  I  still  think,  if  we  were  debarked 
at  the  mouth  of  tlie  Shaimon,  we  might  yet 
recover  all.  At  ten  o'clock,  the  Commo- 
dore made  signal  to  get  under  way,  which 
was  delayed  by  one  of  the  ships,  which  re- 
quired an  hour  to  get  ready.  This  hour  we 
availed  ourselves  of  to  hold  a  council  of 
war,  at  which  were  present.  Generals 
Cherin,  Harty,  and  Humbert,  who  came 
from  their  ships  for  that  purpose;  Adjutant- 
Generals  Simon,  Chasselonp,  and  myself; 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Waudre,  commanding 
the  artillery,  and  Favory,  Captain  of  En- 
gineers, together  with  Commodore  Bedout, 
who  was  invited  to  assist;  General  Harty, 
as  senior  officer,  being  President.  It  was 
agreed  that,  our  force  being  now  reduced 
to  4,168  men,  our  artillery  to  two  four- 
pounders,  our  ammunition  to  1,500,000 
cartridges  and  500  rounds  for  the  artillery, 
with  500  pounds  of  powder — this  part  of 
the  country  being  utterly  wild  and  savage, 
furnishing  neither  provisions  nor  horses,  and 
especially  as  'the  enemy,  having  seven  days' 
notice,  together  with  three  more  which  it 
would  require  to  reach  Cork,  supposing  we 
even  met  with  no  obstacle,  had  .time  more 
than  sufficient  to  assemble  his  forces  in  num- 
bers sufficient  to  crush  our  little  army;  con- 
sidering, moreover,  that  this  province  is  the 
only  one  of  the  four  which  has  testified  no 
disposition  to  revolt;  that  it  is  the  most  re- 
mote from  the  party  which  is  ready  for  in- 
surrection ;  and,  finally.  Captain  Bedout 
having  communicated  his  instructions,  which 
are,  to  mount  as  high  as  the  Shannon,  and 
cruise  there  five  days;  it  was  unanimously 
agreed  to  quit  Bantry  Bay  directly,  and 
proceed  for  the  mouth  of  the  Shannon,  in 
hopes  to  rejoin  some  of  our  scattered  com- 
panions; and  when  we  are  there  we  will  de- 
termine, according  to  the  means  in  our 
hands,  what  part  we  shall  take.  I  am  the 
more  content  with  this  determination,  as  it 
is  substantially  the  same  with  the  paper 
which  I  read  to  General  Cherin  and  the 
rest,  the  day  before  yesterday.     The  wind, 


at  last,  has  come  round  to  the  southward, 
and  the  s'gnal  is  now  flying  to  get  under 
way.  At  half  after  four,  there  being  eveiy 
appearance  of  a  stormy  night,  three  vessels 
cut  their  cables  and  put  to  sea.  The  In- 
domptable,  having  with  great  difficulty 
weighed  one  anchor,  we  were  forced,  at 
length,  to  cut  the  cable  of  the  other,  and 
make  the  best  of  our  way  out  of  the  Bay, 
being  followed  by  the  whole  of  our  little 
squadron,  now  reduced  to  ten  sail,  of  which 
seven  are  of  the  line,  one  frigate,  and  two 
corvettes  or  luggers. 

"Decejnber  2Sth. — Last  night  it  blew  a 
perfect  hurricane.  At  one  this  morning,  a 
dreadful  sea  took  the  ship  in  the  quarter, 
stove  in  the  quarter  gallery,  and  one  of  the 
dead-lights  in  the  great  cabin,  which  was 
instantly  filled  with  water  to  the  depth  of 
three  feet.  Immediately  after  this  blow, 
the  wind  abated,  and,  at  daylight,  having 
run  nine  knots  an  hour,  under  one  jib  onlv, 
during  the  hurricane,  we  found  ourselves  at 
the  rendezvous,  having  parted  company  with 
three  ships  of  the  line  and  the  frigate,  which 
makes  our  sixth  separation.  The  frigate 
Coquille  joined  us  in  the  course  of  the  day, 
which  we  spent  "standing  off  and  on  the 
shore,  without  being  joined  by  any  of  our 
missing  companions. 

"December  29th. — At  four  this  morning, 
the  Commodore  made  the  signal  to  steer  for 
France:  so,  there  is  an  end  of  our  expedi- 
tion for  the  present;  perhaps,  forever.  I 
spent  all  yesterday  in  my  hammock,  partly 
through  sea-sickness,  and  much  more  through 
vexation.  At  ten,  we  made  prize  of  an  un- 
fortunate brig,  bound  from  Lisbon  to  Cork, 
laden  with  salt,  which  we  sunk. 

"Decmiber  SOth  and  Slst. — On  our  way  to 
Brest.  It  will  be  well  supposed  I  am  in  no 
great  humor  to  make  memorandums.  This 
is  the  last  day  of  the  year  1796,  which  has 
been  a  very  remarkable  one  in  my  history. 

"January  Ist,  1797. — At  eight  this  morn- 
ing made  the  island  of  Ushant,  and  attwtlve 
opened  the  Goukt.  AVe  arrive  seven  sail: 
the  Indoraptablo,  of  80;  the  Watiguy,  Cas- 
sard,  and  Eole,  74;  the  Coquille,  36;  the 
Atalante,  20,  and  the  Yautour  Inggei',  of 
1 4.  We  left  Brest  forty-three  sail,  of  which 
seventeen  were  of  the  line.  I  am  utterly 
astonished   that    we   did   not   see   a  single 


256 


HISTOKT  OF   IRELAND. 


Ena:lish  ship-of-wai  going  nor  coming  back. 
They  must  have  tasen  their  raensures  very 
ill,  not  to  intercept  us,  but,  perhaps,  they 
htive  picked  up  some  of  our  missing  ships. 
Well,  this  evening  will  explain  all,  and  we 
sliall  spe  now  what  is  become  of  our  four 
Admirals,  and  of  our  two  Generals-in- 
Chief." 

So  ended  the  great  "  Bantry  Bay  Expe- 
dition." Fifteen  days  after  the  arrival  of 
Tone  at  Brest,  the  missing  frigate  La  Frater- 
nity, with  General  Hoche  and  the  Admiral 
on  board,  made  hff  way  after  many  dangers 
into  the  port  of  La  Rochelle. 

In  addition  to  the  hostility  of  the  ele- 
ments, this  attempt  at  an  invasion  of  Ireland 
had  certain  other  disadvantages  to  contend 
with:  it  was  directed  to  that  portion  of  the 
island  which  was  the  least  ripe  for  insurrec- 
tion, and  in  which  the  United  Irisli  Society 
was  least  extended  and  organized.  It  ar- 
rived at  a  part  of  the  coast  surrounded  by 
desolate  mountains,  where  there  were  but 
small  resources  for  a  commissariat,  where  no 
good  horses  could  be  found  for  the  artillery 
and  wagons,  and  where  the  wretched  popu- 
lation had  scarcely  ever  heard  either  of  a 
French  Republic  or  of  an  United  Irish 
Society,  or  of  Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fra- 
ternity. This  was  against  the  wishes  and 
counsels  of  Wolfe  Tone,  who  was  in  favor 
of  the  landing  somewhere  near  Dublin  or 
Belfast.  So  ignorant  and  so  ill-prepared 
were  the  natives  of  Bear  and  Bantry,  that 
they  regarded  tike  liberating  force  as  a  hostile 
invasion;  and  Plowden  informs  us  that  when 
a  boat  was  sent  ashore  from  the  squadron 
to  reconnoitre  the  country,  "  it  was  imme- 
diately captured,  and  multitudes  appeared 
on  the  beach  in  readiness  to  oppose  a  land- 
ing." In  addition  to  this,  the  English  Gov- 
ernment had  always  full  and  accurate 
information  as  to  the  whole  plan  of  invasion, 
and  had  thus  been  enabled  to  deceive  the 
leaders  of  the  United  Irishmen  by  false  in- 
formation. The  whole  affair  is  thus  accu- 
rately explained  in  the  Report  of  the  Secret 
Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  1198, 
(viii  Lord's  Journal,  p.  142): — 

"  It  appears  by  the  Report  of  the  Secret 
Committee  of  this  House,  made  in  the  last 
session  of  Parliament,  that  a  messenger  had 
been  dispatched  by  the  Society  of  United 


Irishmen  to  the  Executive  Directory  of  the 
French  Republic,  upon  a  treasonable  mis- 
sion, between  the  month  of  June,  one  thou- 
sand seven  hundred  and  ninety-five,  and  the 
raonlh  of  January,  one  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  ninety-six,  at  which  time  the 
messenger  so  sent  had  returned  to  Ireland; 
and  your  committee  have  strong  reason  to 
believe,  that  Edward  John  Lewins,  who 
now  is,  and  has  been,  for  a  considerable 
time,  the  accredited  resident  ambassa- 
dor of  the  Irish  Rebellious  Union  to  the 
French  Republic,  was  the  person  thus  dis- 
patched in  the  summer  of  one  thousand 
seven  hundred  and  ninety-five.  It  nppears 
to  your  committee,  that  the  proposition  so 
made  by  the  French  Directory,  of  assistance 
to  the  rebels  of  this  kingdom,  was  taken  into 
consideration  by  the  Executive  Directory 
of  the  Irish  Union  immediately  after  it  was 
communicated  to  them,  that  they  did  agree 
to  accept  the  proffered  assistance,  and  that 
their  determination  was  made  known  to  the 
Directory  of  the  French  Republic  by  a 
special  messenger;  and  your  committee  have 
strong  reason  to  believe,  that  the  invasion 
of  this  kingdom  which  was  afterwards  at- 
tempted, was  fully  arranged  at  an  interview 
which  took  place  in  Switzerland,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
ninetj'-six,  near  the  French  frontier,  between 
Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  the  aforesaid 
Mr.  Arthur  O'Connor,  and  General  Hoche. 
It  appears  to  your  committee,  that  in  the 
month  of  October  or  November,  one  thou- 
sand seven  hundred  and  ninety-six,  the  hos- 
tile armament  which  soon  after  appeared  in 
Bantry  Bay,  was  announced  to  the  Irish 
Directory  by  a  special  messenger  dispatched 
from  France,  who  was  also  instructed  to  in- 
quire into  the  state  of  preparation  in  which 
this  country  stood,  which  armament  was 
then  stated  to  the  Irish  Directory  to  consist 
of  fifteen  thousand  troops,  together  with  a 
considerable  quantity  of  arms  and  ammuni- 
tion, intended  for  the  use  of  the  Irish  Repub- 
lican Union.  In  a  few  days  after  the  de- 
parture of  the  messenger,  who  had  been  thus 
sent  to  announce  the  speedy  arrival  of  this 
armament  on  the  coasts  of  this  kingdom,  it 
appears  to  your  committee,  that  a  letter  from 
France,  was  received  by  the  Irish  Directory, 
which  was  considered  by  them   as  autlientic, 


KEIGN   OF   TERROR   IK   ARMAGH    COUNTY. 


257 


Btiiting  that  the  projected  descent  was  jiost- 
poned  for  some  months,  and  to  tliis  circnm- 
stance  it  has  been  fairly  acknowledged  to 
your  committee,  by  one  of  the  Irish  Direc- 
tory, that  tills  country  was  indebted  for  the 
good  conduct  of  the  people  in  the  Province 
of  Mnnster,  when  the  enemy  appeared  in 
Bantry  Bny.  He  has  confessed,  that  thexc 
cvntrndidory  c-ommumcations  threw  the  Irish 
Directory  off  their  giiard,  in  consequence  of 
wliich  they  omitted  to  prepare  the  people 
for  the  reception  of  the  enemy.  He  has  con- 
fessed, tliat  the  people  were  loyal  because 
they  were  left  to  themselves." 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

1797. 
Reign  of  Terror  in  Armagh  Connty — No  Orangemen 
ever  Punished — "  Defenders  "  called  Banditti — 
"  Faulkner's  Journal,"  Organ  of  the  Castle — 
Cheers  on  the  Orangemen— Mr.  Curran's  State- 
ment of  the  Havoc  in  Arniagli — Increased  Rancor 
against  Catholics  and  IT.  I.  after  the  Bantry  Fay 
Affair — Efforts  of  Patriots  to  Establish  a  Permanent 
Armed  Force  —  Opposed  by  Government^-And 
Why — Proclamation  of  Counties — Bank  Ordered  to 
Suspend  Specie  Payments — Alarm — Dr.  Duigenan 
— Secession  ft-om  Parliament  of  Grattan,  Curran, 
&c. — General  Lake  in  the  North — "  Northern  Star" 
Office  Wrecked  by  Troops — Proclamation — Out- 
rages in  the  Year  1797— Salutary  Effect  of  the 
United  Irish  System  on  the  Peace  of  the  Country 
— Armagh  Assizes — Slanderous  Report  of  a  Secret 
Committee — Good  Effects  of  United  Irishism  in  the 
South — Miles  Byrne — Wexford  County. 

During  the  whole  of  the  year  that  saw 
Tone  negotiating  in  France  for  the  great 
Bantry  Bay  expedition,  the  Government  in 
Ireland,  well  seconded  by  magistrates, 
sheriffs,  military  officers  and  Orangemen, 
was  steadily  proceeding,  wnth  a  ferocious 
deliberation,  in  driving  the  people  to  utter 
despair.  Many  districts  of  Armagli  County 
were  already  covered  with  the  blackened 
ruins  of  poor  cabins,  lately  the  homes  of  in- 
nocent people,  thousands  of  whom,  with 
their  old  people,  their  women  and  little 
children,  were  wandering  homeless  and  starv- 
ing, or  were  already  dead  of  hunger  and 
cold,  when  the  Grand  Jury  of  Armagh,  at 
the  Lent  Assizes,  bethinking  them  that  it 
would  be  well  to  soften  or  do  away  with  the 
impressions  produced  by  these  horrible 
events,  and  the  comments  of  which  they 
were  the  subject,  agreed  to  an  address  and 
resolutions  expressive  of  their  full  determin- 
es 


ation  to  j)nt  the  coercion  laws  in  force,  and 
to  enforce  strict  justice.  Mr.  Plowdeu  says, 
artlessly:  "Their  annunciation  of  impartial 
justice,  and  a  resolution  to  punish  offendevs 
of  every  denomination,  was  ralher  unseason- 
able, when  there  remained  no  longer  any  of 
one  denomination  to  commit  outrages  upon, 
or  to  retaliate  injuries."  He  might  have 
added  that,  many  of  the  gentlemen  composing 
that  Grand  Jury  had  themselves  encouraged 
and  participated  in  the  extermination  of  the 
Catholics.  But  they  knew  very  well  that  no 
coercion  law  of  that  Parliament  was  at  all  in- 
tended to  be  enforced  against  Orangemen; 
that  the  "  urdawful  oaths  forbidden  under 
pain  of  death,"  did  not  mean  to  include  the 
purpk  oath  of  Orangemen  to  extirpate  Cath- 
olics, but  only  the  United  Irish  oath,  to  en- 
courage brotherly  union,  and  seek  "  an  im- 
partial representation  for  all  the  people  of 
Ireland."  In  fact,  no  Orangeman  was  ever 
prosecuted;  nor  was  any  punishment  ever 
inflicted  on  the  exterminators  of  Armagh 
Catholics. 

This  statement  might  seem  almost  incred- 
ible in  any  civilized  nation;  but  the  proofs 
of  the  gross  partiality  of  the  Legislature 
and  Government,  or  rather  of  their  strict 
alliance  with  the  Orange  faction,  are  too 
numerous  and  clear  to  be  doubted.  For 
example,  a  report  of  a  secret  committee  of 
the  Commons,  shortly  after  this  time,  in- 
forms us,  "that  in  the  summer  of  1796,  the 
outrages  committed  by  a  banditti,  calling 
themselves  Defenders,  in  the  Counties  of 
Roscommon,  Leitrim,  Longford,  Meath, 
Westmeath,  and  Kildare,  together  with  a 
religious  feud  prevailing  in  the  County  of 
Armagh,  induced  the  Legi.-ilatiire  to  pass  a 
temporary  act  of  Parliament,  generally  called 
the  Insurrection  act,  by  which  the  Lord- 
Lieutenant  and  Council  were  enabled,  upon 
the  requisition  of  seven  magistrates  of  any 
county,  assembled  at  a  sessions  of  the  peace, 
to  proclaim  the  whole  or  any  part  thereof, 
to  be  in  a  state  of  disturbance;  within  which 
limits  this  law,  giving  increased  power  to 
the  magistracy,  was  to  have  operation." 
What  is  here  mildly  called  a  "religious 
feud  "  was  the  extirpation  of  one  sect  of 
people  by  another,  on  account  of  their  re- 
ligion alone. 

The  British  Government   in  Ireland  has 


258 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


never  been  able  to  dispense  with  an  organ 
at  the  Press,  in  the  pay  of  the  Castle.^  The 
chief  Government  paper  of  that  day  was 
Faidlcjier's  Journal,  wliich  was  then  savage 
in  its  denunciations  of  Catholics,  Defenders, 
and  United  Irisliraen,  but  had  only  praise 
for  the  Armagh  Orangemen. 

The  Dublin.  Evening  Post  of  the  24th  of 
September,  1796,  contained  the  following 
observations :  "  The  most  severe  stroke 
made  against  the  character  and  conduct  of 
the  Viceroy,  as  a  moral  man  and  first  magis- 
trate of  a  free  people,  who  '  ought  not  to 
hold  the  sword  in  vain,''  nor  to  exercise  it 
■parfially,  has  been  in  Faulkner^s  Journal  of 
this  day.  That  hireling  print  is  undeniably 
in  the  pay  of  his  lordhhip's  administration; 
and  what  administration  permits,  it  is  sup- 
posed to  prompt  or  patronize.  In  that 
print,  the  blind  fury  of  the  banditti,  which 
usurps  and  disgraces  the  name  of  Orange  in 
the  North  is  applauded,  and  all  their  bloody 
excesses  justified.  Murder  in  all  its  horrid 
forms,  assassinations  in  cold  blood,  the 
mutilation  of  members  without  respect  to 
age  or  sex,  the  firing  of  whole  hamlets,  so 
that  when  the  inhabitants  have  been  looked 
after  nothing  but  their  ashes  were  to  be" 
found;  the  atrocious  excursions  of  furious 
hordes,  armed  with  sword,  fire,  and  faggot, 
to  exterminate  a  people,  for  presuming  to 
obey  the  divine  command,  written  by  the 
finger  of  God  himself,  '  Honor  thy  father  and 
thy  mother,'  and  walking  in  the  religion 
which  seemed  good  in  their  eyes.  These  are 
the  flagitious  enormities  which  attract  the 
mercenary  applause  of  Faulkner's  Journal, 
the  literary  prop  of  the  Camden  administra- 
tion." 

And  in  this  very  same  month  of  Septem- 
ber, while  Faulkner's  Journal  was  doing 
tliis  kind  of  service  for  Castle  pay,  the 
Northern  Star  of  Belfast,  an  able  and  mod- 
erate organ  of  the  United  Irishmen,  had  its 
office  attacked  and  ransacked  by  soldiers; 
Samuel  Keilson,  its  editor,  and  several 
others,  were  arrested,  carried  to  Dublin, 
thrown  into  prison,  and  kept  there  for  more 
than  a  year  without  having  been  brought  to 
any  trial. 

On  the  13th  of  October,  1790,  Parlia- 
ment met.  In  his  speech  from  the  throne. 
His  Excellency  now  for  the  first  time  took 


tender  and  oblique  notice  of  the  disturbances 
of  Armagh.  "  I  have,  however,  to  lament, 
that  in  one  part  of  the  country  good  order 
has  not  yet  been  entirely  restored ;  and  that 
in  other  districts  a  treasonable  system  of 
secret  confederation,  by  the  administering 
of  illegal  oaths  still  continues,  although  no 
means  within  the  reach  of  Government  have 
been  left  untried  to  counteract  it." 

Mr.  G  rattan,  in  the  debate  upon  the  ad- 
dress, objected  to  this  speech,  as  betraying 
gross  partiality,  and  moved  the  following 
amendment: — 

"To  represent  to  His  Majesty,  that  the 
most  efi'ectual  method  for  strengthening  the 
country  and  promoting  unanimity,  was  to 
take  such  measures,  and  to  enact  such  laws, 
as  to  ensure  to  all  His  Majesty's  subjects 
the  blessings  and  privileges  of  the  constitu- 
tion, without  any  distinction  of  religion." 
The  amendment  was  secouded  by.  Mr.  W. 
B.  Ponsonby. 

The  debate  was  carried  on  till  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning  with  extreme  heat  and  viru- 
lence. Mr.  G rattan's  amendment  was  op- 
posed, as  unseasonable  and  vioknt,  by 
several  of  those  who  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  voting  with  him  on  all  occasions;  inso- 
much that  the  minority  on  the  division  con- 
sisted only  of  12  against  149.  In  the 
course  of  this  debate  Lord  Castlereagh  re- 
plied with  great  warmth  to  Mr.  Grattan; 
and  Mr.  Pelham  spoke  more  at  length  than 
he  usually  did.  He  particularly  adverted  to 
the  two  topics,  which  had  formed  the  prin- 
cipal ground  of  the  debate;  namely,  the 
question  of  Catholic  Emancipation,  and  the 
disturbances  of  Armagh.  "As  to  the  first, 
he  thought  it  very  improperly  brought  for- 
ward at  that  juncture.  It  was  then  no  time 
to  make  distinctions  between  Catholics  and 
Protestants;  no  such  distindion  was  made 
by  Government." 

As  for  the  disturbances  in  Armagh,  of 
course  Mr.  Secretary  Pelham  defended  the 
Government  and  the  magistrates;  and  said, 
if  the  Insurrection  act  had  not  been  applied 
there,  as  in  some  other  counties,  it  was  be- 
cause the  magistrates  had  not  thought  the 
nature  of  the  troubles  "  would  justify  the 
application  of  that  very  severe  law." 

It  was  in  this  session  that  the  Habeas 
Corpus  act  was  suspended.  This  suspension, 


EFFORTS   OF   PATRIOTS    TO    ESTABLISH    A    PERMANENT    ARMED    FORCE. 


259 


together  with  the  Insurrection  and  Indem- 
nity acts,  completed  the  arrangements  for 
putting  out  of  the  pale  of  the  law  about 
nine-tenths  of  the  population. 

When  Mr.  Secretary  Pelham  moved,  on 
the  26th  of  October,  1796,  that  the  House 
should  adjourn  for  about  a  fortnight;  Mr. 
Curran  strongly  opposed  it;  particularly 
upon  the  grounds  of  the  necessity  of  putting 
an  immediate  check  upon  the  still  contin- 
uing outrageous  disturbances  of  Armagh, 
which  surpassed  in  horror  everything  he  had 
ever  heard  or  read.  He  had  on  the  first 
day  of  the  session  stated  the  number  of 
families  that  had  become  the  victims  of  that 
infernal  barbarity  at  700;  it  was  with  great 
pain  he  mentioned,  that  upon  more  minute 
inquiry,  he  found  as  many  more  must  be 
added  to  the  miserable  catalogue;  he  was 
in  possession  of  evidence,  ready  to  be  exam- 
ined at  their  bar,  and  whom  he  hoped  they 
would  hear,  that  would  satisfy  them  upon 
oath,  that  not  less  than  1,400  families  had 
been  thus  barbarously  expelled  from  their 
houses,  and  then  were  wandering  about  the 
neiuhboriug  counties,  save  such  of  them  as 
might  have  been  murdered,  or  burned  in 
their  cottages,  or  perished  in  the  fields,  or 
highways,  by  fatigue  and  famine,  and 
despair;  and  that  horrid  scene  had  been 
transacted,  and  was  still  continuing  in  the 
open  day,  in  the  heart  of  the  kingdom, 
without  any  effectual  interference  whatsoever. 

This  public  testimony  of  Mr  Curran, 
which  he  would  not  have  dared  to  give  in 
open  Parliament  if  it  could  have  been  con- 
tradicted, may  finish  the  picture  of  the 
north  of  Ireland  in  this  year.  There  were 
now  several  successive  adjournments  until 
the  6th  of  January,  1797.  In  the  meantime, 
the  French  fleet  had  appeared  in  Bantry 
Bay,  and  disappeared  again,  giving  rise  to 
numberless  rumors  throughout  the  island, 
and  rousing  sentiments  of  rage  and  horror 
in  one  party,  of  hope  and  joy  in  another,  but 
on  the  whole,  intensifying  the  bitterness  and 
vindictive  passion  of  the  "Ascendancy " 
against  Catholics  and  United  Irishmen,  wiio 
had  so  nearly  succeeded  in  bringing  upon 
them  such  terrible  visitors.  On  the  re-as- 
sembling of  Parliament,  many  members 
brought  forward  resolutions  of  inquiry  or 
complaint  as  to  the  remiss  conduct  of  the 


Governraeut  on  occasion  of  the  threatened 
invasion,  of  which  it  was  well  known  Gov- 
ernment had  possessed  timely  intelligence. 
The  reformers  and  emancipators  of  the 
House  showed  what  the  Castle  thought  a 
very  suspicious  anxiety  for  the  defense  of 
the  country,  when  they  proposed  very  large 
additions  to  the  armed  yeomanry  of  the 
country.  The  administration  did  not  forget ' 
that  in  1782  it  had  been  this  same  alleged 
lack  of  sufficient  defense  against  foreign 
enemies  which  gave  occasion  to  the  volun- 
teering, and  that  when  the  voluateers  were 
enrolled  and  armed,  they  very  naturally 
acted  as  if  they  considered  England  the 
only  foreign  enemy  they  had.  The  Gov- 
ernment, therefore,  would  not  suffer  any 
measure  of  general  armament  to  pass,  but 
assented  to  a  proposal  of  Sir  John 
Blaquiere,  for  raising  an  additional  force  of 
10,000  men;  this,  however,  to  be  in  the 
nature  of  militia,  officered  by  Government, 
and  the  Goverument  was  to  have  eutu'e 
control  of  its  organization  and  its  personnel. 
On  a  subsequent  night,  Sir  Lawrence 
Parsons  made  another  attempt,  by  a  resolu- 
tion that  it  was  necessary  to  have  a  per- 
manent force  for  protection  of  the  country. 
The  motion  was  opposed  with  bitter  violence 
by  Mr.  Secretary  Pelham.  Mr.  Grattan 
followed;  and  the  real  nature  of  the  ques- 
tion at  issue  will  be  manifest  in  this  ex- 
tract from  his  speech  :  "  The  Secretary 
asked,  who  could  be  more  interested  for  the 
safety  of  Ireland  than  the  British  ^Minister  ? 
He  would  answer,  Ireland  herself.  To  refer 
to  the  British  Minister  the  safety  of  that 
country  was  the  most  sottish  folly;  it  was 
false  and  unparliamentary  to  say,  that  the 
House  had  no  right  to  recommend  a  meas- 
ure, such  as  the  houoi;able  baronet  pro- 
posed. Had  it  been  a  proposit:ion  to  in- 
crease the  regular  standing  army,  it  might, 
perhaps,  have  been  a  little  irregular;  but 
when  an  increase  of  1 0,000  to  the  standing 
army  was  proposed  by  a  right  honorable 
baronet  the  other  night,  it  was  not  consid- 
ered as  an  affront.  Now  another  honor- 
able baronet  comes  forward  to  give  an 
army  five  fold  as  many,  and  five  fold  as 
cheap,  and  administration  are  affronted. 
Why  ?  Because  that  army  was  of  the 
people.      If    the  doctrine  the  right  honor- 


260 


mSTOKY   OF   IKEL.\ND. 


able  member  adviuiced  were  true,  and  tdat 
the  duty  of  Parliament  now  were  become 
nothing  more  than  merely  to  vote  taxes,  and 
echo  tlu-ee  millions,  when  the  Minister  said 
lhree  millions  are  wanted,  then,  indeed, 
achbm  est  de  parliamento;  a  reform  of  the 
representation  was  become  then  more  than 
ever  necessary." 

It  was  easy  for  the  Ministers  to  perceive 
what  was  in  the  minds  of  Mr.  Grattau  and 
his  friends  :  to  liave  another  popular  army 
.strong  enougli  at  once  to  preserve  the  pub- 
lic peace  and  to  protect  the  Constitution  of 
the  country;  and  Ministers  were  fully  re- 
solved that  neither  of  these  things  should  be 
done:  the  public  peace  was  to  be  destroyed 
by  insurrection,  in  order  that  the  Constitu- 
tion should  be  destroyed  by  legislative 
"  union."  On  this  motion  of  Sir  Lawrence 
Parsons  there  was  a  division  at  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning — 25  voted  for  it,  125 
against  it. 

In  December,  January,  and  February,  of 
this  winter,  many  districts  in  the  Counties  of 
Ulster  were  "  proclaimed  "  under  the  Insur- 
rection act;  and  more  than  the  horrors  of 
martial  law  were  now  raging  there.  The 
anxiety  and  excitement  of  the  country  had 
re-acted  disastrously  upon  trade  and  general 
business  interests;  and  in  the  midst  of  this 
came  a  sudden  order  from  the  Privy  Council 
to  the  Governor  and  Company  of  the  Bank 
of  Ireland  to  suspend  specie  payments.  The 
manifest  object  of  this  measure  was  still 
further  to  aggravate  that  "  alarm  of  the 
better  classes,"  which  is  a  needful  and  un- 
failing agency  of  British  domination  in  Ire- 
land; and  it  had  the  desired  effect.  But  it 
also  excited  some  attention  in  England; 
and  Mr.  Whitbread,  in  the  English  Com- 
mons, and  Lord  Moira,  in  the  Lords,  made 
ineffectual  efforts  to  procure  an  inquiry  into 
the  conduct  of  Ministers  with  regard  to 
Ireland.  It  is  needless  to  say,  these  attempts 
were  vehemently  resisted  by  the  administra- 
tion, and  were  defeated  by  vast  majorities. 
British  Ministers  wanted  no  inquiry;  they 
already  knew  all;  and  all  was  proceeding 
precisely  as  they  had  ordered  and  intended. 
A  singular  feature  of  this  incident  is,  that 
the  debates  on  the  state  of  Irehmd  in  the 
English  Parliament  roused  the  patriotic  in- 
dignation of  the  notorious  Doctor  Duigenan, 


then  a  member  of  the  Irish  Parliament  for 
Armagh,  a  doctor  of  the  civil  law  and  a 
renegade  Papist,  therefore  more  desperately 
vindictive  against  Papists,  and  more  abusive 
of  their  tenets  than  any  Orangeman  in  the 
land.  The  Doctor  was  seized  with  a  sudden 
fit  of  Irish  patriotism;  and  gave  notice  ia 
the  House,  on  the  30th  of  March,  that  after 
the  recess  he  would  move  a  resolution  con- 
demnatory of  such  unconstitutional  inter- 
ferences, and  refuting  the  false  statements 
made  in  the  other  Parliament  respecting 
Ireland  by  Lord  Moira,  Mr.  Whitbread, 
and  Mr.  Fox.  Mr.  Grattan  desired  him  to 
give  due  notice  of  that  motioa;  as  it  was  his 
intention  to  demonstrate  that  the  state- 
ments were  both  true,  and  also  constitu- 
tional. But  Mr.  Grattan  had  nov/,  at  length, 
come  to  perceive  that  labors  in  that  Parlia- 
ment were  utterly  thrown  away.  Accord- 
ingly, he  determined  to  secede  from  the  body. 
In  a  speech  of  his  upon  the  state  of  the 
North,  where  General  Lake  was  now 
dragooning  the  people  with  unexampled 
ferocity,  he  protested  solemnly,  but  most 
hopelessly,  that  the  true  remedy  for  all  the 
troubles  lay  in  a  just  government  and  reform 
of  Parliament;  and  speaking  of  the  United 
Irish  Society:  "Notwithstanding  your  Gun- 
powder act,  it  has  armed  and  increased  its 
military  stores  under  that  act;  notwithstand- 
ing your  Insurrection  act,  another  bill  to 
disarm,  it  has  greatly  added  to  its  maga- 
zines; and  notwithstanding  the  suspension  of 
the  Habeas  Corpus  bill  and  General  Lake's 
proclamation,  it  has  multiplied  its  prose- 
lytes. I  should  have  asked,  had  I  been  on 
the  Secret  Committee,  whether  the  number 
of  United  Irishmen  had  not  increased  very 
much  since  General  Lake's  proclamation, 
and  by  General  Lake's  proclamation.  It 
appears,  I  say,  from  that  report,  that  just 
ii<  your  system  of  coercion  advanced,  the 
United  Irishmen  advanced  ;  that  the  meas- 
ures you  took  to  coerce,  strengtliened;  to 
disperse,  collected;  to  disarm,  armed  ;  to 
render  them  weak  and  odious,  made  them 
popular  and  powerful  ;  whereas,  on  the  other 
hand,  you  have  loaded  Parliament  and  Gov- 
ernment with  the  odium  of  an  oppressive 
system,  and  with  the  further  odium  of  re- 
jecting these  two  popular  topics,  which  you 
allow  are  the  most  likely  to  gain  the  heart 


GENERAL  LAKE  IN  THE  NORTH. 


261 


of  the  nation,  and  be  the  beloved  objects  of 
the  people." 

Mr.  Grattan  closed  his  speech  and  the 
debate  with  these  words  :  "  We  have  offered 
you  our  measure ;  you  will  reject  it ;  we 
deprecate  yours  ;  you  will  persevere  ;  having 
no  hopes  left  to  persuade  or  dissuade,  and 
having  discharged  our  duty,  n-e  shall  trouble 
you  no  more,  and  after  this  day,  shall  not  at- 
tend the  House  of  Commons^  17  Par.  Deb,, 
p.  570. 

Accordingly,  at  the  next  general  election, 
Mr.  Grattan   and  Lord   Henry  Fitzgerald 
declined  to  be  returned  for  Dublin.      ]Mr. 
Curran,  Arthur  O'Connor,   and    Jjord  Ed- 
ward   Fitzgerald     followed     the    example. 
There  has  been  much  discussion  upon  this 
"  secession."     It  has  been  urged  on  the  one 
hand,  that  Grattan  and  Curran  and  Lord 
Henry  Fitzgerald,  who  still  appealed  to  the 
Constitution,  and   acknowledged  the  exist- 
ence and  authority  of  a  British  Government 
in    Ireland,    were    wrong    to  abandon  the 
legal  and  constitutional  field.    On  the  other, 
it  has  been  argued,  that  having  abandoned 
that,  the  only  manly  and  rational  course  left 
them  was  to  join  the  United  Irishmen,  as 
O'Connor  and   Lord  Edward  had  already 
done.     It  is  hard  to  blame  those  excellent 
men  and  true- Irishmen,  Grattan  and  Curran. 
If  they  had  joined  the  United  Irish  Society, 
they  would  have  probably  found  themselves 
immediately  in  Newgate,  as  O'Connor  and 
Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  soon  after  did,  be- 
sides, they  were  not  republicans,  and  abhor- 
red "  French  principles"'  as  earnestly  as  Lord 
Clare  himself. 

When  Wolfe  Tone,  in  his  French  exile, 
heard  of  the  secession,  his  observation  in  his 
journal  is  :  "I  see  those  illustrious  patriots 
are  at  last  forced  to  bolt  out  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  and  come  amongst  the  people, 
as  John  Keogh  advised  Grattan  to  do  long 
since."  They  did  bolt  from  the  House  of 
Commons,  but  did  not  come  amongst  the 
people. 

In  short,  he  saw  now  that  the  unhappy 
country  was  delivered  over  to  its  bloody 
agony,  and  that  he  could  do  no  more  than 
look  on  in  silence.  General  Lake  had  en- 
tered upon  his  mission  with  zeal;  many  seiz- 
ures of  concealed  arms  and  ammunition  were 
made.     In  the  execution  of  these  orders, 


some  barbarous  outrages  were  committed  by 
the  military,  which  tended  to  inflame  and 
exasperate  the  minds  of  the  peoj)le,  which 
were  already  too  highly  inflamed.  Not  only 
some  women  and  children  had  been  murder- 
ed, but  the  houses  of  some  respectable  per- 
sons were  pillaged  and  demolished,  upon  the 
bare  suspicion  of  their  being  United  Irish- 
men. 

The  newspaper  called  the  Morning  Star, 
in  Belfast,  after  it  had  been  sacked  a  few 
months  earlier,  had  been  refitted,  and  was 
again  carried  on  with  spirit,  exposing  the 
evil  designs  of  the  Ministers,  and  publishing 
boldly  essays  and  letters  in  favor  of  civil 
liberty.  It  was,  of  course,  necessary  now 
that  the  paper  should  be  suppressed  alto- 
gether. Neilson,  its  first  editor,  and  the 
two  Simras,  its  proprietors,  were  all  now  in 
Newgate  prison,  though  not  accused  of  any 
offence  whatever.  Tlie  newspaper  was  re- 
quired by  military  authority  to  insert  au 
article  reflecting  on  the  loyalty  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Belfast;  the  article  did  not  appear  as 
ordered  ;  the  next  morning,  a  detachment 
of  soldiers  marched  out  of  the  barracks, 
attacked  the  printing  office,  and  utterly 
demolished  every  part  of  it,  breaking  the 
presses,  scattering  the  types,  and  seizing  the 
books.  Thus  disappeared  the  Morning 
Star,  and  it  never  rose  again.  There  was 
after  that  nobody  daring  enough  to  eveu 
record,  or  allude  to,  far  less  to  denounce, 
the  hideous  atrocities  which  the  policy  of 
the  Castle  required  to  be  perpetrated. 

It  was  now  the  avowed  opinion  of  Gov- 
ernment, that  the  treason  was  in  the  course 
of  the  winter  of  1796,  and  the  spring  of 
1797,  too  deeply  rooted  to  yield  to  the 
remedy  of  the  law,  even  where  it  was  put  in 
force  by  the  magistrates  with  activity.  Such 
an  assumption  was  prominently  calculated  to 
open  the  door  to  the  strongest  measures,  and 
the  general  command  given  to  the  civil  and 
military  officers,  by  proclamation,  to  use  the 
exertions  of  their  utmost  force,  and  to  op- 
pose with  their  full  power  all  such  as  should 
resist  them  in  the  execution  of  their  duty, 
which  was  to  search  for  and  seize  concealed 
arms,  admitted  of  a  latitude  of  power,  not 
very  likely  to  be  temperately  regulated  by 
raw  troops  let  in  upon  a  country  denounced 
rebellious,  and  devoted  to  military  rigor,  as 


262 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


a  necessary  substitute  for  the  iuefiScacy  of 
the  municipal  law.  A  regiment  of  Welsh 
cavalry,  called  the  Ancient  Britons,  com- 
manded by  Sir  Watkin  William  Wynne, 
were  at  all  times  prominently  conspicuous 
for  the  rigorous  execution  of  any  orders  for 
devastation,  destruction,  or  extermination. 
They  were  marked  for  it  by  the  rebels,  and 
in  thtt  course  of  the  rebellion  they  were  cut 
to  pieces  almost  to  a  man. 

That  proclamation,  above  mentioned, 
which  was  published  on  the  llth  of  May, 
was  sent  to  Lord  Carhampton,  with  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Peliiam,  on  the  18th  of  May,  in 
consequence  of  which  his  lordship  imme- 
diately published  tiie  following  ox'der:  "In 
obedience  to  the  order  of  the  Lord-Lieute- 
nant in  Council,  it  is  the  Commander-in- 
Chief's  commands,  that  the  military  do  act, 
without  waiting  for  directions  from  the  civil 
magistrates,  in  dispersing  any  tumultuous  or 
unlawful  assemblies  of  persons  threatening 
the  peace  of  the  realm,  and  the  safety  of 
the  lives  and  properties  of  His  Majesty's 
loyal  subjects  wheresoever  collected." 

This  proclamalion,  together  with  the  laws 
then  in  existence,  and  the  known  wishes  of  the 
authorities,  left  everything  at  the  discretion 
of  the  soldiery;  they  w eve  to  determine  what 
•was  an  unlawful  assembly;  and  we  shall 
find  that  they  often  treated  as  such,  families 
asleep  in  their  own  beds  at  night,  provided 
there  were  any  pretext  for  suspecting  the 
existence  of  weapons  in  the  house,  or  any 
information  of  au  United  Irish  oath  having 
been  administered  there. 

Of  the  outrages  done  iu  the  course  of 
this  year,  1797,  it  is  now  impossible  to  pro- 
cure anything  like  a  complete  account.  Yet 
a  few  examples  well  authenticated  must  be 
given,  to  show  how  martial  law  worked  in 
those  days.  Doctor  Madden,  the  indefati- 
gable Collector  of  Documents  relating  to  the 
period,  has  re-published  the  pamphlet,  before 
cited,  called,  "  View  of  the  Present  State 
of  Ireland."  It  was  published  the  same 
year  iu  London,  because  no  printer  in  Ire- 
land could  have  dared  to  print  it.  The 
statements  of  this  pamphlet  have  never 
been  contradicted;  and  old  James  Hope, 
one  of  the  last  survivors  of  the  United 
Irishmen,  and  a  person  of  intelligence  and 
integrity,  thus  indorsed  it  to   Dr.  Madden: 


"  This  pamphlet  contains  more  truth  than 
all  the  volumes  I  have  seen  written  on  the 
events- of  1797  and  1798."  We  select  a 
few  extracts  : — 

"  In  the  month  of  May  last,  a  party  of 
the  Essex  Fencibles,  accompanied  by  the 
Enniskillen  Yeomen  Infantry,  commanded 
by  their  First-Lieutenant,  marched  to  the 
house  of  a  Mr.  Potter,  a  very  respectable 
farmer,  who  lived  within  five  miles  of  Ennis- 
killen, in  the  County  of  Fermanagh.  On 
their  arrival,  they  demanded  Mr.  Potter, 
saying  they  were  ordered  to  arrest  him,  as 
he  was  charged  with  being  an  United  Irish- 
man. His  wife,  with  much  firmness,  replied, 
'that  to  be  an  United  Irishman  was  an 
honor,  not  a  disgrace;  that  her  husband 
had  gone  from  home  the  preceding  day  on 
business,  and  had  not  yet  returned.'  They 
assured  her  that  if  he  did  not  surrender  him- 
self in  three  hours  they  would  burn  his  house. 
Mrs.  Potter  answered,  '  that  she  did  not 
know  exactly  where  he  then  was,  but,  if  shd 
did  know,  she  believed  it  would  be  impossible 
to  have  him  home  iu  so  short  a  ti?ne.'  In 
less  than  three  hours  they  set  fire  to  the 
house,  which  was  a  very  neat  one,  only 
about  five  years  built;  the  servants  brouglit 
out  some  beds  and  other  valuable  articles, 
in  the  hope  of  preserving  them,  but  the  mili- 
tary dashed  all  back  into  the  flames.  The 
house  and  property,  to  the  amount  of  six 
or  seven  hundred  pounds,  were  consumed, 
and  Mrs.  Potter,  with  seven  children,  one 
of  them  not  a  month  old,  were  turned  out, 
at  the  hour  of  midnight,  into  the  fields. 

"In  June,  1797,  a  party  of  the  Ancient 
Britons  (a  fencible  regiment,  commanded 
by  Sir  Watkin  William  Wynne,)  were 
ordered  to  examine  the  house  of  Mr.  Rice, 
an  inn-keeper  iu  the  town  of  Coolavil, 
County  of  Armagh,  for  arms;  but  on  making 
very  diligent  search,  none  could  be  found. 
There  were  some  country  people  drinking 
in  the  house,  and  discoursing  in  their  Jiative 
language;  the  soldiers  damned  tlieir  eternal 
Irish  souls,  said  they  were  speaking  treason, 
and  instantly  fell  on  them  with  their  swords, 
and  maimed  several  desperately.  Miss 
Rice  was  so  badly  wounded  that  her  life  was 
despaired  of,  and  her  father  escaped  with 
much  difficulty,  after  having  received  many 
cuts  from  the  sabres  of  these  assassins. 


OUTRAGES   IN   THE    TEAR   1797. 


263 


"  In  June,  some  persons  had  been  refresh- 
ing themselves  at  an  inn  in  Newtownards, 
County  of  Down,  kept  by  a  Mr.  M'Corraick, 
and  it  was  alleged  that  they  were  over- 
heiird  uttering  words  termed  seditious. 
jSrCormifk  was  afterwards  called  on  to  give 
information  who  they  were;  he  denied  hav- 
ing any  knuwledge  of  them,  observing  that 
many  people  might  come  into  his  house 
whom  he  did  not  know,  and  for  whom  he 
could  not  be  accountable.  He  was  taken 
into  custody,  and  next  day  his  house  and 
extensive  property  were  reduced  to  ashes. 
The  house  of  Dr.  Jackson  was  torn  down 
on  suspicion  of  his  being  an  United  Irish- 
man; and  many  other  houses  in  that  town 
and  barony  were  destroyed,  or  otherwise  de- 
molished, by  English  Fencibles,  on  similar 
pretexts. 

"  On  the  22d  of  June,  Mr.  Joseph  Clot- 
ney,  of  Ballinahinch,  was  committed  to  the 
Military  Barracks,  Belfast,  and  his  house, 
furniture,  and  books,  worth  three  thousand 
pounds,  destroyed;  also  the  valuable  house 
of  Mr.  Armstrong,  of  that  place,  was  totally 
demolished. 

A  party  of  fencibles,  then  quartered 
in  Enniskillen,  were  ordered,  under  the  com- 
mand of  a  captain  and  adjutant,  accom- 
panied by  tlie  First  Fermanagh  Yeomanry, 
into  an  adjoining  county  to  search  for  arms. 
About  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  they  ar- 
rived at  the  house  of  one  Durnian,  a  farmer, 
which,  without  any  previous  intimation 
whatever,  they  broke  open,  and,  on  entering 
it,  one  of  the  fencibles  fired  his  musket 
through  the  roof  of  the  house;  an  officer 
instantly  discharged  his  pistol  into  a  bed 
where  two  young  men  were  lying,  and 
wounded  them  both.  One  of  them,  the  only 
child  of  Durnian,  rose  with  great  difficulty, 
and  on  making  this  efi'ort,  faint  with  the  loss 
of  blood,  a  fencible  stabljed  him  througli 
the  bowels.  His  distracted  mother  ran  to 
support  him,  but  in  a  few  moments  she 
sank  upon  the  floor,  covered  with  the  blood 
which  issued  from  the  side  of  her  unfor- 
tunate son;  by  this  time  the  other  young 
man  had  got  on  his  knees  to  implore  mercy, 
declaring  most  solemnly  that  they  had  not 
been  guilty  of  any  crime,  when  another 
fencible  deliberately  knelt  down,  leveled  his 
musket  at  him,  and  was  jubt  going  to  fire, 


when  a  sergeant  of  yeomanry  rushed  in, 
seized,  and  prevented  his  committing  tlie 
horrid  deed.  There  were  persons  who  smiled 
at  the  humauity  of  the  sergeant. 

"  Information  had  been  lodged  that  a 
house  near  Newry  contained  conceuled 
arms.  A  party  of  the  Ancient  Britons  re- 
paired to  the  house,  but  not  finding  the  ob- 
ject of  their  search,  they  set  it  on  fire. 
The  peasantry  of  the  neighborhood  came 
running  from  all  sides  to  extinguish  the 
flames,  believing  the  fire  to  have  been  acci- 
dental— it  was  the  first  military  one  in  that 
part  of  the  country.  As  they  came  up  they 
were  attacked  in  all  directions,  and  cut 
down  by  the  fencibles;  thirty  were  killed, 
among  whom  were  a  woman  and  two 
children.  An  old  man  (above  seventy 
years,)  seeing  the  dreadful  slaughter  of  his 
neighbors  and  friends,  fled  for  safety  to  some 
adjacent  rocks;  he  was  pursued,  and,  though 
on  his  knees  imploring  mercy,  a  brutal 
Welshman  cut  off"  his  head  at  a  blow. 

"  1  have  stated  incontrovertible  truths. 
Months  would  be  insufficient  to  enumerate 
all  the  acts  of  wanton  cruelty  which  were 
inflicted  on  the  inhabitants  of  Ireland  from 
the  1st  day  of  April  to  the  24th  day  of 
July,  1797." 

The  same  authority  narrates  this  fact  also, 
but  without  date:  "The  house  of  Mr. 
Bernard  Crosson,  of  the  parish  of  Mullana- 
brack,  was  attacked  by  Orangemen,  in  con- 
sequence of  being  a  reputed  Catholic.  His 
son  prevented  them  from  entering  by  the 
front  door,  upon  which  they  broke  in  at 
the  back  part  of  the  house,  and,  firing  on 
the  inhabitants,  killed  Mr.  Crosson,  his  son, 
and  daughter.  Mr.  Hugh  M'Fay,  of  the 
parish  of  Seagoe,  had  his  house  likewise 
attacked  on  the  same  pretence,  himself 
wounded,  his  furniture  destroyed,  and  his 
wife  barbarously  used." 

The  same  writer  mentions  that,  "informa- 
tion having  been  lodged  against  a  few  in- 
dividuals living  in  the  village  of  Kilrea,  in 
the  County  of  Derry,  for  being  United 
Irishmen,  a  party  of  the  military  were  or- 
dered to  apprehend  them;  the  men  avoided 
the  capture,  and  about  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  a  reverend  magistrate,  accom- 
panied by  a  clergyman  and  a  body  of 
soldiers,  came  to  the  village,  and  nut  finding 


264 


HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 


the  men,  who  had  avoided  cnpture,  they 
burned  all  their  houses,  except  four,  which 
could  not  be  burned  without  endan,c;eriiig 
the  whole  village.  These  they  gutted,  and 
consumed  their  contents." 

It  must  be  remembered  that  these  scenes, 
which  are  but  a  few  samples,  all  took  place 
in  the  year  1197,  and  before  there  was 
any  insurrection  in  Ireland;  and  all  in  two 
or  three  counties  of  one  province.  But  if 
there  was  no  insurrection,  it  was  fully  re- 
solved at  the  Castle  to  provoke  one.  A  re- 
markable saying  used  a  short  time  before  by 
a  remarkable  man,  and  a  very  fit  partizan 
of  the  Irish  Government,  leaves  but  little 
doubt  upon  the  real  aims  and  wishes  of  the 
"Ascendancy."  The  man  was  John  Claudius 
Boresford,  of  the  noble  house  of  Tyrone  and 
Waterford,  and  one  of  the  most  ferocious 
tyrants  iu  the  world — we  shall  hear  of  him 
again  at  the  "Riding  School."  On  the  30th 
of  March,  in  this  year,  in  his  place  in  Parlia- 
ment, he  thus  corrects,  or  rather  confirms, 
the  saying  attributed  to  him  : — 

"  Mr.  J.  C.  Beresford  begged  to  correct 
a  misstatement  which  had  gone  abroad,  of 
what  he  had  said  in  a  former  debate,  on  the 
Insurrection  bill.  It  had  been  stated  in  a 
country  paper,  and  from  thence  copied  into 
those  of  Dublin,  that  he  had  expressed  a 
wish  '  that  the  whole  of  the  North  of  Ire- 
land were  in  open  rebellion,  that  the  Gov- 
ernment might  cut  them  off.'  Tliis  had  been 
very  assiduously  circulated,  to  the  detriment 
of  his  character;  and  was,  he  could  confi- 
dently say,  a  falsehood.  What  he  had  said 
was,  '  that  there  were  certain  parts  of  the 
the  North  of  Ireland  in  a  state  of  concealed 
rebellion;  and  that  he  wished  those  places 
were  rather  in  a  state  of  open  rebellion,  that 
the  Government  might  see  the  rebellion,  and 
crush  it.' " 

It  was  observed  that  after  the  late  exten- 
pjve  spread  of  the  United  Irish  Society  in 
the  North,  "  Defenderism  "  had  in  a  great 
measure  ceased  there.  Many  thousands  of 
those  who  had  been  Defenders  joined  their 
Presbyterian  neighbors  in  the  "  Union." 
This,  iu  fact,  was  the  great  object  of  the 
Union,  and  the  warmest  hope  of  its  pro- 
moters. The  United  Irish  Societies  of  Ul- 
ster alone,  according  to  a  return  seized  by 
Government  iu  Belfast^  couuted,  at  least  on 


paper,  one  hundred  thousand  men  in  the 
month  of  April.  They  became  more  confi- 
dent in  their  strength;  and  having  resolved 
to  defer  any  general  rising  uniil  the  follow- 
ing year,  they  would  not  be  goaded  into  a 
premature  outbreak.  During  the  Summer 
Assizes,  although  there  were  very  numei'ons 
convictions  for  the  usual  class  of  offenses 
attributed  to  United  Irishmen  and  Defender.s, 
(for  it  was  never  thought  of  to  prosecute 
Orangemen — the  only  criminals,)  yet  there 
were  also  several  acquittals,  greatly  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  United  Irish,  and  to  the 
dismay  of  the  Government.  This  certainly 
arose  from  the  greater  difficulty  which  tlie 
sheriffs  now  had  in  packing  sure  juries,  not 
being  able  to  tell  now  who  might,  or  might 
not,  be  United  Irishmen.  Mr.  Curran  de- 
fended many  cases  on  the  Northeast  Circuit; 
amongst  which  may  be  mentioned  those 
which  occurred  in  Armagh.  There  were  in 
the  jail  of  that  town  twenty-eight  persons 
accused  of  this  species  of  alleged  offense; 
of  whom,  however,  two  trials  only  were 
brought  to  trial.  In  the  former,  a  suborned 
soldier,  who  was  brought  forward  to  prose- 
cute one  Dogherty,  was,  upon  Dogherty's 
acquittal,  put  into  the  dock  in  his  place,  to 
abide  his  trial  for  perjury.  The  Grand 
Jury  found  bills  against  him,  and  he  re- 
mained in  custody  to  abide  his  trial. 

Tlie  only  other  trial  was  that  of  the  King 
against  Hanlon  and  Nogher,  charged  with 
contemptuously,  maliciously,  and  feloniou.sly 
tendering  to  the  prosecutor  an  unlawful  oath 
or  engagement,  to  become  one  of  an  unlaw- 
ful, wicked,  and  seditious  society  called 
United  Irishmen. 

One  witness  only  was  produced  in  sup- 
port of  this  indictment,  a  soldier  of  the 
Twenty-fourth  Light  Dragoons,  of  the 
name  of  Fisher,  who  swore  to  the  adminis- 
tration of  an  oath,  "to  be  united  in  brother- 
hood to  pull  down  the  head  clergy  and  half- 
pay  officers."  He,  npon  his  cross-examina- 
tion, said  that  the  obligation  had  been  shown 
and  read  to  him,  in  a  small  book  of  four 
leaves,  which  he  had  read  and  would  know 
again.  The  Constitution  of  the  United 
Irishmen  was  then  put  into  his  hands  by 
the  defendant's  counsel,  and  he  admitted  the 
test  contained  iu  it  to  be  the  same  that  he 
had  takea. 


BLANDEEOtrS   KEPORT    OF   A   SECRET    COMMITTEE. 


265 


On  the  part  of  the  prisoners,  A.  T. 
Stewart,  Esq.,  of  Acton,  was  examined  and 
cross-examined  by  the  Crown.  The  sura  of 
bis  testimony  was,  that  this  Society  had 
made  a  rapid  progress  through  the  people 
of  all  religions,  ranks,  and  classes;  that  be- 
fore its  introduction  into  that  country,  the 
moat  horrible  religious  persecutions  existed, 
attended  with  murder  and  extirpation;  that 
since  its  introduction  these  atrocities  had 
subsided,  as  far  as  he  could  learn.  He  ad- 
mitted he  had  heard  of  murders  laid  to  their 
charge,  but  could  hardly  believe  such 
charges,  as  he  conceived  thera  incompatible 
with  anything  he  ever  could  learn  of  the 
principles  or  consequences  of  their  insti- 
tution. 

The  jailor  was  also  examined,  who  said, 
that  fewer  persons  had  been  sent  to  him 
upon  charges  of  wrecking  or  robbing  houses, 
or  of  murder,  than  before,  and  that  he  un- 
derstood the  religious  parties  began  to 
agree  better  together,  and  to  fight  less. 

There  was  no  other  material  evidence. 
Mr.  Curran  spoke  an  hour  and  three-quar- 
ters in  defense  of  the  United  Irishmen.  That 
he  was  deliglited  to  find,  after  so  many  of 
them  had  been  immured  in  dungeons,  with- 
out trial,  that  at  length  the  subject  had 
come  fairly  Before  the  world — and  that  in- 
stead of  being  a  system  of  organized  treason 
and  murder,  it  proved  to  be  a  great  bond 
of  national  union,  founded  upon  the  most 
acknowledged  principle  of  law,  and  every 
sacred  obligation  due  to  our  country  and 
Creator. 

Mr.  Baron  George  gave  his  opinion  de- 
cidedly, that  the  obligation  was,  under  the 
act  of  Parliament,  illegal.  The  Jury  with- 
drew, and  acquitted  he  pi'isouer,  and  thus 
ended  the  Assizes  of  Armagh. 

The  "Union"  continued  to  recruit  its 
numbers  in  the  North;  but  with  still  greater 
secrecy,  and  the  count  ry  remaining  perfectly 
tranquil,  notwithstanding  the  cruel  outrages 
of  magistrates  and  military,  trade  somewhat 
revived,  and  most  people  seemed  to  be  re- 
turning peacefully  to  their  ordinary  pursuits. 
In  short,  the  United  Irish  of  Ulster  were 
resolved  not  to  rise  until  they  should  be  at 
least  assured  of  the  co-operation  of  the  other 
three  provinces,  if  not  of  aid  from  France. 
A  report  of  the  "  Secret  Committee"  of  the 
34 


Commons,  made  this  summer,  eongratulatcd 
the  country  upon  this  apparent  decline  in 
the  troasonal)le  spirit.  Such,  the  Commit- 
tee stated,  had  been  the  beneficial  conse- 
quences of  the  "  measures  adopted  in  the 
year  1797  " — that  is,  of  the  rigors  of  martial 
law,  searches  for  arms,  burnings  of  houses, 
and  slaughters  of  women  and  children.  We 
have  already  seen,  however,  that  the  greater 
tranquillity  and  good  order  of  the  North 
arose  precisely  from  the  spread  of  this  very 
"  treason,"  which  ihe  Committee  pretended 
to  regard  as  being  itself  the  only  disturb- 
ance. This  Committee  goes  on  to  report, 
that  the  leaders  of  the  treason,  apprehensive 
lest  the  enemy  might  be  discouraged  from 
any  further  plan  of  invasion,  by  the  loyal 
disposition  manifested  throughout  Munster 
and  Connaught  on  their  former  attempt,  de- 
termined to  direct  all  their  exertions  to  the 
propagation  of  the  system  in  those  pro- 
vinces, which  had  hitherto  been  but  par- 
tially infected.  With  this  view  emissaries 
were  sent  into  the  South  and  West  in  great 
numbers,  of  whose  success  in  forming  new 
societies  and  administering  tlie  oaths  of  the 
O"nion,  there  were,  in  the  course  of  some 
few  mouths,  but  too  evident  proofs  in  the 
introduction  of  the  same  disturbances  and 
enormities  into  Munster,  with  which  the 
northern  province  had  been  so  severely 
visiied. 

lu  May,  1797,  although  numbers  had 
been  sworn  both  in  Munster  and  Leinster, 
the  strength  of  the  organization,  exclusive 
of  Ulster,  lay  chiefly  in  the  metropolis,  and 
in  the  neighboring  Counties  of  Dublin,  Kil- 
dare,  Meath,  Westmeath,  and  the  King's 
County.  It  was  very  observable,  that  the 
counties  in  which  Defenderism  had  prevailed, 
easily  became  converts  to  the  new  doctrines; 
and  in  the  summer  of  1797,  the  usual  con- 
comitants of  this  sr)(xies  of  treason,  namely, 
the  plundering  houses  of  arms,  the  fabrica- 
tion of  pikes,  and  the  murder  of  those  who 
did  not  join  their  party,  began  to  appear  in 
the  midland  counties. 

"  In  order  to  engage  the  peasantry  in  the 
southern  counties,  particularly  in  the  Coun- 
ties of  Waterford  and  Cork,  the  more 
eagerly  in  their  cause,  the  United  Irishmen 
found  it  expedient  in  urging  their  general 
principles,  to  dwell  with  peculiar  energy  oa 


266 


HISTORY   OF   lEELAIO). 


the  supposed  oppressiveness  of  tithes,  which 
had  been  the  pretext  for  the  old  TT^i/e 
Boy's  insurrections.  And  it  is  observable, 
that  in  addition  to  the  acts  of  violence 
usually  resorted  to  by  the  party  for  the 
furtherance  of  their  purposes,  the  ancient 
practice  of  burning  the  corn,  and  houghing 
the  cattle  of  those  against  lohom  their  resent- 
ment was  directed,  was  revived,  and  very 
gener^illy  practised  in  those  counties. 

"  With  a  view  to  excite  the  resentment  of 
the  Catholics,  and  to  turn  that  resentment 
to  the  purposes  of  the  party,  fabricated  and 
false  tests  were  represented  as  having  been 
taken  to  exterminate  Catholics,  and  were  in- 
dustriously disseminated  by  the  emissaries 
of  the  treason  throughout  the  provinces  of 
Leinster,  Muuster,  and  Connauglit.  Reports 
were  frequently  circulated  amongst  the  ig- 
norant of  the  Catholic  persuasion,  that  large 
bodies  of  men  were  coming  to  put  them  to 
death.  This  fabrication,  however  extrava-. 
gant  and  absurd,  was  one  among  the  many 
wicked  means  by  which  the  deluded  peas- 
antry were  engaged  the  more  rapidly  and 
deeply  in  the  treason."  * 

So  far  the  Committee;  and  this  document 
is  but  one  of  many  examples  of  legislative 
slander  at  the  time,  and  of  histories  written 
by  "  loyal  men  "  since.  The  report  classes 
under  the  same  head  of  "enormities"  the 
fabrication  of  pikes  and  the  murder  of  those 
who  did  not  join  their  party.  It  is  true  the 
United  Irishmen  did  everywhere  get  pikes 
forged ;  but  utterly  untrue  that  they  did  in 
any  instance  murder  any  one  for  not  joining 
them.  As  for  "burning  the  corn  and 
houghing  the  cattle  of  those  against  whom 
their  resentment  was  directed  " — it  is  true 
that  the  "  supposed  oppressiveness  of  tithes," 
and  of  church  rates,  had  for  many  years  been 
the  occasion  of  such  acts  of  outrage  against 
tithe  proctors,  &c.,  but  quite  untrue  that  out- 
rages of  this  kind,  or  any  other  kind,  in- 
creased when  the  United  Irish  Societies 
epread  into  the  midland  and  southern  coun- 
ties. On  the  contrary,  they  diminished. 
We  have  already  seen  the  strong  testimony 
to  this  effect  in  the  North;  and  it  mtiy  be 
laid  down  as  universally  true,  that  the  Irish 
people  on  the  eve  of  an  insurrection,  or  in 
any  violent  political  excitement,  are  always 
*  Plowdea. 


free  from  crime  to  a  most  exemplary  extent; 
which  is  always  considered  an  alarming 
symptom  by  the  authorities. 

"The  good  effects  of  the  United  Irish 
system  in  the  commencement,"  says  Miles 
Byrne,*  "were  soon  felt  and  seen  throughout 
the  Counties  of  Wexford,  Carlow,  and 
Wicklow,  which  were  the  parts  of  the  coun- 
try I  knew  best.  It  gave  the  first  alarm  to 
the  Government;  they  suspected  something 
extraordinary  was  going  on,  finding  that 
disputes,  fighting  at  fairs  and  other  places 
of  public  meeting,  had  completely  ceased. 
The  magistrates  soon  perceived  this  change, 
as  they  were  now  seldom  called  on  to  grant 
summons  or  warrants  to  settle  disputes. 
Drunkenness  ceased  also;  for  an  United 
Irishmen  to  be  found  drunk  was  unknown 
for  many  months.  .  .  .  Such  was  the 
sanctity  of  our  cause."  f  Even  Mr.  Plow- 
den,  though  an  enemy  of  the  United  Irish- 
men, and  ready  enough  to  call  them 
miscreants  for  their  "  treason,"  is  obliged  to 
vindicate  them  from  the  charge  of  encourag- 
ing or  favoring  other  kinds  of  crime.  But 
it  is  true,  that  if  it  be  an  "  enormity  "  to 
"  fabricate  pikes,"  they  were  guilty  of  that 
atrocity. f 

So  much,  it  is  right  to  say,  in  vindication 
of  as  pure,  gallant,  and  self-sacrificing  a 
political  party  as  ever  appeared  in  any  coun- 
try under  the  sun. 

As  for  the    last-cited  statement  in  the 

*  The  excellent,  chivalrous  Miles  Byrne,  who  died 
only  in  1852,  a  Chef-de-Bataillon  in  the  French  service, 
was  one  of  the  first  United  Irishmen  in  Wexford 
Coiintj'.  His  Memoirs,  edited  by  his  widow,  and 
published  in  New  York  and  in  Paris  in  1863,  form  one 
of  the  most  valuable  documents  for  the  history  of  his 
time,  and  the  insurrection  in  Wexford. 

t  The  question  at  one  time  much  agitated — whether 
the  United  Irishmen,  or  any  of  them,  did  or  did  not 
theoretically  hold  tyrannicide,  that  is,  political  as- 
sassination, to  be  lawful,  is  nothing  to  the  purpose; 
it  is  enough  to  know  they  never  practised  it,  and 
their  leaders  professed  their  abhorrence  of  it. 
Singular  to  say,  the  only  United  Irishman  who  ever, 
by  any  writing  of  his,  gave  even  a  pretext  for  such 
an  imputation,  was  the  gentle  poet,  who  sings  "  The 
Loves  of  the  Angels,"  and  "  The  Last  Rose  of  Sum- 
mer." A  letter  of  his,  when  a  student  in  Trinity 
College,  signed  Sophisler,  contains  some  rhetoric  of 
that  sort ;  and  resolutions  written  by  him  and  oflered 
in  one  of  the  U.  I  Clubs  in  College,  were  the  chief 
occasion  of  Lord  Clare's  celebrated  Visitation  to 
the  University;  but  Lord  Clare  himself  admitted  that 
the  resolution  advising  tyrannicide  had  been  re- 
jected. 


GOOD    EFFECTS    OF    UNITED    IRISHISM    IN   THE   SOUTH. 


2G7 


Committee's  report,  it  was  most  accurately 
true  that  large  bodies  of  men  were  at  that 
moment  "  coming  to  put  them  (the  Cath- 
olics) to  death."  Twelve  English  and 
Scottish  militia  regiments,  besides  an  im- 
mense force  of  the  regular  army,  were  com- 
ing, or  already  come,  for  that  express  pur- 
pose; which  purpose  was  also  carried  into 
effect  upon  a  very  great  scale.  And  it  was 
most  natural,  therefore,  that  those  Catholics 
should  be  urged  to  unite  for  their  own  de- 
fense with  those  of  their  countrymen  who 
were  objects  of  the  same  conspiracy;  namely, 
the  Society  of  United  Irishmen. 

Wiien  this  monstrous  report  was  presented 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  there  was 
naturally  some  debate.  Mr.  Fletcher  said, 
that  if  coercive  measures  were  to  be  pur- 
sued, the  whole  country  must  be  coerced, 
for  the  spirit  of  insurrection  had  pervaded 
every  part  of  it. 

Mr.  M.  Beresford  ordered  the  clerk  to 
take  down  these  words,  and  the  gallery  was 
instantly  cleared.  When  strangers  were 
again  admitted,  the  debate  on  the  address 
still  continued,  and  in  the  course  of  it  M.  J. 
C.  Beresford  thought  himself  called  on  to 
defend  the  Secret  Committee  against  an  as- 
sertion which  had  fallen  from  Mr.  Fletcher 
in  the  course  of  his  speech.  The  assertion 
was,  in  substance,  that  he  feared  the  people 
would  be  led  to  look  on  the  report  of  the 
Committee,  as  fabricated  rather  to  justify 
the  past  measures  of  Government,  than  to 
state  facts. 

One  statement,  however,  in  the  report 
was  true — that  during  this  summer  the 
United  Irish  system  did  strike  vigorous 
roots  in  all  the  Counties  of  Leinster,  except, 
perhaps,  Kilkenny.  It  has  been  afdrraed 
that  Wexford,  which  soon  made  the  most 
formidable  figure  in  the  insurrection,  had  so 
few  United  Irishmen  within  its  bounds  up 
to  the  end  of  the  year  1797,  as  not  to  be 
counted  at  all  in  the  official  returns  of  the 
orgaiiized  counties  in  February;  and  it  is 
probable  that  as  the  peasantry  of  Wexford 
were  comparatively  comfortable  and  thrifty, 
and  lived  on  good  terms  with  their  landlords, 
there  was  less  disposition  to  rush  into  insur- 
rectionary organizations  at  first.  Yet  Miles 
Byrne,  who  was  himself  sworn  in  an  United 
Irishman  in  the  summer  of  1797,  tells  us: 


"  Before  a  month  had  elapsed,  almost  every 
one  had  taken  the  test."  He  adds:  "We 
soon  organized  parochial  and  baronial  meet- 
ings, and  named  delegates  to  correspond 
with  the  county  members.  Robert  Graham, 
of  Corcannon,  a  cousin  of  my  mother's,  wag 
named  to  represent  the  county  at  the  meet- 
ing to  be  held  in  Dublin  at  Oliver  Bond's." 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  case  in  Wex- 
ford, it  is  certain  that  Kildare,  Carlow, 
Meath,  and  Dublin,  were  in  the  course  of 
the  summer  completely  organized.  Miles 
Byrne  says:  "Nothing  could  exceed  the 
readiness  and  good  will  of  the  United  Irish- 
men to  comply  with  the  instructions  they 
received  to  procure  arms,  ammunition,  &c., 
notwithstanding  the  difficulties  and  perils 
they  underwent  in  purchasing  those  articles. 
Pikes  were  easily  had  at  tliis  time,  for  al- 
most every  blacksmith  was  an  United  Irish- 
man. The  pike-blades  were  soon  had,  but 
it  was  more  difficult  to  procure  poles  for 
them;  and  the  cutting  down  of  young  ash 
trees  for  that  purpose  awoke  great  attention 
and  caused  great  sucpicion  of  the  object  in 
view."  It  is  certain,  however,  that  the 
County  of  Wexford  neither  suffered  so 
much,  nor  was  so  ripe  for  insurrection,  as 
many  other  counties,  until  after  the  1st  of 
April,  179^,  when  Lord  Castlereagh's 
"  well-timed  measures"  were  taken.  In  the 
meantime  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  and  the 
other  leaders  were  eagerly  and  impatiently 
awaiting  news  of  approaching  succors  from 
France;  keeping  the  people  as  quiet  as  pos- 
sible, and  letting  them  prepare  their  arms 
and  steel  their  hearts,  in  full  view  of  the 
corpses  blackening  upon  many  a  gibbet,  and 
heads  impaled  on  spikes  over  many  a  gaol 
door-way,  for  the  crime  of  swearing  to  pro- 
mote the  union  of  Irishmen,  in  order  to  ob- 
tain a  full  and  fair  representation  of  the 
people,*  and  deliverance  from  their  savage 
oppressors. 

*  It  is  right  to  bear  in  mind  throughout,  that  the 
original  test  of  the  United  Irish  Society,  whicli  bound 
them  to  unite  to  procure  fair  representation  of  all 
the  Irish  people  in  Parliament,  was  changed  in  1795 
into  an  engagement  to  unite  for  the  purpose  of  ob- 
taining a  fair  representation  of  all  the  people — ■ 
dropping  the  words  "  in  Parliametd."  Prom  that 
time,  separation  and  a  republican  government  be- 
came the  fixed  objects  of  the  principal  leaders,  but 
not  the  avowed  ones  till  a  little  later,  when,  at  tho 
conclusion    of  every  meeting,  the    chairman  was 


268 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


CHAPTER    XXXI. 

1797—1798. 

Wolfe  Tone's  Negotiations  in  France  and  Holland— 
Lewins— Expedition  of  Dutch  Government  Des- 
tined for  Ireland— Tone  at  the  Texel— His  Journal 
—Tone's  Uneasiness  about  Admitting  Foreign 
Dominion  over  Ireland— MacNeven's  Memoir- 
Discussion  as  to  Proper  Point  for  a  Landing— Tone 
on  Board  the  Vryheid— Adverse  Winds— Rage  and 
Impatience  of  Tone— Disastrous  Fate  of  the  Ba- 
tavian  Expedition— Camperdown. 

The  great  French  armament,  destined 
for  the  liberatioa  of  Irehind,  which  had 
looked  in  at  Bantry  Bay,  had  returned  to 
Brest,  without  so  much  loss  by  the  bad 
weather  as  might  have  been  expected,  and 
without  having  met  a  sii!gle  British  ship- 
cf-war.  Tlie  frigate  Fraternitd,  carrying 
General  Hoche  and  the  Admiral  Morand 
de  Guiles,  arrived  safely  at  La  Kochelle  a 
fortnight  after.  Iloche  was  appointed  to 
the  command  of  tlie  Array  of  the  Sambre 
and  Meuse;  and  Tlieobald  Wolfe  Tone  went 
with  him,  attached  to  his  personal  staff.  A 
great  mutual  regard  seems  to  have  sprung 
up  between  the  young  General  and  his 
gallant  Aide;  and  tlie  latter,  who  had  by 
110  means  given  up  the  project  of  a  French 
liberating  invasion  of  Ireland,  always 
cherished  the  hope  of  seeing  Hoche  ap- 
pointed to  the  chief  command.  On  the 
10th  of  March,  he  writes  to  his  wife  : 
"  This  very  day  tlie  Executive  Directory 
has  ratified  the  nomination  of  General 
Hoche,  and  I  am,  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses, Adjutant-General,  destined  for  the 
Army  of  Sarabre  and  Meuse." 

In  the  end  of  May,  after  a  short  stay 
with  his  family,  who  had  arrived  in  France, 
we  find  him  at  Cologne,  at  the  headquarters 
of  that  army.  In  the  meantime,  Mr.  John 
Edward  Lewins,  already  mentioned  as  an 
agent  of  the  United  Irislimen,  had  arrived 

obliged  to  inform  the  members  of  each  society, 
"  they  had  undertaken  no  light  matter,"  and  he  was 
directed  to  ask  every  delegate  present  what  were 
bis  views  and  his  understanding  of  those  of  his 
Bociety,  and  each  individual  was  expected  to  reply, 
"  a  republican  government  and  a  separation  from 
England."     Fieces  of  Irish  History    Madden. 

All  this  was,  of  course,  as  well  known  to  the  Gov- 
ernment as  to  the  members;  so  that  it  cannot  in 
^candor  be  said,  that  the  U.  I.  were  treated  as  crim- 
inals for  the  mere  fact  of  uniting— \i  was  for  uniting 
to  destroy  British  domiuioa  ia  Ireland,  and  erect  a 
republic  in  its  place. 


in  France,  empowered  to  treat  for  another 
expedition,  and  to  negotiate  a  loan.  When 
Lewins  arrived  in  Holland,  then  called  the 
"Batavian  Republic,"  one  of  the  republics 
dependent  upon  France,  and  at  war  with 
England,  he  found  the  Government  very 
well  disposed  to  essay  this  bold  enterprise 
of  a  descent  upon  Ireland,  and  to  risk  their 
whole  navy  and  army  in  the  effort.  An 
extract  from  Tone's  journal  will  now  af- 
ford the  best  insight  into  the  state  of  this 
negotiation.  While  with  General  Hoche, 
at  his  Quartier  General,  at  Friedberg,  he 
writes,  under  date  of  June  12th,  1797  : — 

"This  evening  the  General  called  me  into 
the  garden  and  told  me  he  had  some  good 
news  for  me.  He  then  asked,  '  Bid  I  know 
one  Lewins?'  I  answered  I  did,  perfectly 
well,  and  had  a  high  opinion  of  his  talents 
and  patriotism.  '  Well,'  said  he,  '  he  is  at 
Neuwied,  waiting  to  see  you  ;  you  must  set 
off  to-morrow  morning  ;  when  you  join  him, 
you  must  go  together  to  Treves,  and  wait  for 
further  orders.'  The  next  morning  I  set  off, 
and,  on  the  14th,  in  the  evening,  reached — 
June  I  Ath,  i^euwied  ;  where  I  found  Lew- 
ins waiting  for  me.  I  cannot  express  the 
unspeakable  satisfaction  I  felt  at  seeing  him. 
I  gave  him  a  full  account  of  all  my  labors, 
and  of  everything  that  had  happened  since 
I  have  been  in  France,  and  he  informed  me, 
in  return,  of  everything  of  consequence  re- 
lating to  Ireland,  and  especially  to  my  friends 
now  in  jeopardy  there. 

June  17th,  Treves;  where  we  arrived  on 
the  17 ill.  What  is  most  material  is,  that 
he  is  sent  here  by  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  United  People  of  Ireland,  to  solicit, 
on  their  part,  the  assistance  in  troops,  arms, 
and  money,  necessary  to  enable  them  to  take 
the  field,  and  assert  their  liberty;  the  organ- 
ization of  the  people  is  complete,  and  nothing 
is  wanting  but  the  point  d'appui.  His  in- 
structions are  to  apply  to  France,  Holland, 
and  Spain.  At  Hamburgh,  where  he  passed 
almost  two  months,  he  met  a  Senor  Nava, 
an  officer  of  rank  in  the  Spanish  navy,  sent 
thither  by  the  Prince  of  Peace,  on  some 
mission  of  consequence  ;  he  opened  himself 
to  Nava,  who  wrote  off,  in  consequence,  to 
his  court,  and  received  an  answer,  general, 
it  is  true,  but  in  the  highest  degree  favora- 
ble :  a  circumstance  which  augurs  well,  is, 


"WOLFE  TONES  NEGOTIATIONS  IN  FRANCE  AND  HOLLAND. 


269 


thnt,  in  forty  days  from  tbe  date  of  Nava's 
letter,  he  received  the  answer,  which  is  less 
time  tlian  he  ever  knew  a  courier  to  arrive 
in,  and  shows  the  earnestness  of  the  Spanish 
Minister.  Lewius'  instructions  are  to  de- 
mand of  Spain  £500,000  sterling,  and 
30,000  stand  of  arms.  At  Treves,  on  the 
19th,  Dalton,  the  General's  Aid-de-Camp, 
came  express  with  orders  for  us  to  return 
to— 

Jiine  list,  Coblentz ;  where  we  arrived 
on  the  21st,  and  met  General  Heche.  He 
told  us  that,  in  consequence  of  the  arrival 
of  Lewins,  he  had  sent  off  Simon,  one  of  his 
Adjutant-Generals,  who  was  of  our  late 
expedition,  in  order  to  press  the  Executive 
Directory  and  Minister  of  the  Marine  ;  that 
he  had  also  sent  copies  of  all  the  necessary 
papers,  including  especially  those  lately  pre- 
pared by  Lewins,  with  his  own  observations, 
enforcing  them  in  the  strongest  manner  ; 
that  he  had  just  received  the  answers  of  all 
parties,  which  were  as  favorable  as  we  could 
desire  ;  but  that  the  Minister  of  the  Marine 
was  absolutely  for  making  the  expedition  on 
a  grand  scale,  for  which  two  months,  at  the 
very  least,  would  still  be  necessary  ;  to 
which  T,  knowing  Brest  of  old,  and  that 
two  months,  in  the  language  of  the  Ma- 
rine, meant  Tonv  at  least,  if  not  five  or  six, 
remarked  the  necessity  of  an  immediate  ex- 
ertions in  order  to  profit  of  the  state  of  mu- 
tiny and  absolute  disorganization  in  which 
the  English  navy  is  at  this  moment,  in  which 
Lewins  lieartily  concurred  ;  and  we  both  ob- 
served that  it  was  not  a  strong  military  force 
that  we  wanted  at  this  moment,  but  arms 
and  ammunition,  with  troops  sufficient  to 
serve  as  a  noyau  de  armee,  and  protect  the 
people  in  their  first  assembling;  adding,  that 
5,000  men  sent  now,  when  the  thing  was 
feasible,  would  be  far  better  than  25,000  in 
three  mouths,  when,  perhaps,  we  might  find 
ourselves  again  blocked  up  in  Brest  Harbor; 
and  I  besought  the  General  to  remember 
that  the  mutiny  aboard  the  English  fleet 
would  most  certainly  be  soon  quelled,  so  that 
there  was  not  a  moment  to  lose  ;  that  if  we 
were  lucky  enough  to  arrive  in  L'eland  be- 
fore that  took  place,  I  looked  upon  it  as 
morally  certain,  that,  by  proper  means,  we 
might  gain  over  the  seamen,  who  have  al- 
ready spoken  of  steering  the  fleet  into  the 


Irish  harbor,  and  so  settle  the  business,  per- 
haps, without  striking  a  blow.  We  both 
pressed  these,  and  such  other  arguments  as 
occurred,  in  the  best  manner  we  were  able; 
to  which  General  Hoche  replied,  he  saw 
everything  precisely  in  the  same  light  we 
did,  and  that  he  would  act  accordingly,  and 
press  the  Directory  and  Minister  of  the  Ma- 
rine in  the  strongest  manner.  He  showed 
Lewins  Simons'  letter,  which  contained  the 
assurance  of  the  Directory,  '  that  they 
would  make  no  peace  with  England  wherein 
the  interests  of  Ireland  should  not  be  fully 
discussed  agreeably  to  the  wishes  of  the 
people  of  that  country.'  This  is  a  very 
strong  declaration,  and  has  most  probably 
been  produced  by  a  demand  made  by  Lewins 
in  his  memorial,  '  that  the  French  Govern- 
ment should  make  it  an  indispensable  con- 
dition of  peace,  that  all  the  British  troops 
be  withdrawn  from  Ireland,  and  the  people 
left  at  full  liberty  to  declare  whether  they 
wished  to  continue  the  connection  with  Eng- 
land or  not.'  General  Hoche  then  told  us 
not  to  be  discouraged  by  the  arrival  of  a 
British  negotiator,  for  that  the  Directory 
were  determined  to  make  no  peace  but  on 
conditions  which  would  put  it  out  of  the 
power  of  England  longer  to  arrogate  to 
herself  the  commerce  of  the  world,  and  dic- 
tate her  laws  to  all  the  maritime  powers. 
He  added  that  preparations  were  making 
also  in  Holland  for  an  expedition,  the  par- 
ticulars of  which  he  would  communicate  to 
us  in  two  or  three  days,  and,  in  the  mean- 
time, desired  us  to  attend  him  to — 

June  'i.ith,  Cologne;  for  which  place  we 
set  off,  and  arrived  the  24  th. 

June  ^hth. — At  nine  o'clock  at  night  the 
General  sent  us  a  letter  from  General  Daen- 
dels,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  of 
the  Batavian  Republic,  acquainting  him  that 
everything  vi'as  in  tlie  greatest  forwardnes-;, 
and  would  be  ready  in  a  very  few  days  ; 
that  the  army  and  the  navy  were  in  the 
best  possible  spirit;  that  the  Committee  for 
Foreign  Affairs  (the  Directory  per  interim 
of  the  Batavian  Pvcpublic)  desired  most  earn- 
estly to  see  him  without  loss  of  time,  in  order 
to  make  the  definitive  arrangements;  and  es- 
pecially they  prayed  him  to  bring  with  hini 
the  deputy  of  the  people  of  Ireland,  which 
Daendels  repeated  two  or  three  times  in  his 


270 


HISTORY   OF   IRELA5fD. 


letter,  lu  consequence  of  this,  I  waited  on 
the  General,  whom  I  found  in  his  bed  in  the 
Court  Imperiale,  and  received  his  orders  to 
set  ofl"  with  Lewins  without  loss  of  time, 
and  attend  liim  at — 

June  21  fh,  the  Hague;  where  we  ar- 
rived accordingly,  having  traveled  day  and 
night.  In  the  eveuing^  we  went  to  the  Com- 
edie,  wheire  we  met  the  General  in  a  sort  of 
public  incognito  ;  that  is  to  say,  he  had 
combed  the  powder  out  of  his  hair,  and  was 
in  a  plain  regimental  frock.  After  the  play, 
we  followed  him  to  his  lodgings  at  the  Lion 
d'or,  where  he  gave  us  a  full  detail  of  what 
was  preparing  in  Hulland.  He  began  by 
telling  us  that  the  Dutch  Governor-General 
Daendels,  and  Admiral  Dewiuter,  were  sin- 
cerely actuated  by  a  desire  to  effectuate 
something  striking  to  rescue  their  country 
from  that  state  of  oblivion  and  decadence  into 
which  it  had  fallen  ;  that  by  the  most  inde- 
fatigable exertions  on  their  part,  they  had 
got  together,  at  the  Texel,  sixteen  sail  of 
the  line,  and  eight  or  ten  frigates,  all  ready 
for  sea,  and  in  the  highest  condition;  that 
they  intended  to  embark  15,000  men,  the 
whole  of  their  national  troops,  3,000  stand 
of  arms,  80  pieces  of  artillery,  and  money 
for  their  pay  and  subsistence  for  three 
months;  that  he  had  the  best  opinion  of  the 
sincerity  of  all  parties,  and  of  the  courage 
and  conduct  of  the  General  and  Admiral, 
but  that  here  was  the  difficulty  :  The  French 
Government  had  demanded  that  at  least 
5,000  French  troops,  the  elite  of  the  army, 
should  be  embarked,  instead  of  a  like  num- 
ber of  Dutch,  in  wdiich  case,  if  the  demand 
was  acceded  to,  he  would  himself  take  the 
command  of  the  united  army,  and  set  off 
for  the  Texel  directly;  but  that  the  Dutch 
Government  made  great  difficulties,  alleging 
a  variety  of  reasons,  of  which  some  were 
good;  that  they  said  the  French  troops 
would  never  submit  to  the  discipline  of  the 
Dutch  navy,  and  that,  in  that  case,  they 
could  not  pretend  to  enforce  it  on  their  own, 
without  making  nnjust  distinctions,  and  giv- 
ing a  i-easonable  ground  for  jealousy  and 
discontent  to  their  army;  'but  the  fact  is,' 
said  Hoche,  '  that  the  Committee,  Daendels, 
and  Dewiuter,  are  anxious  that  the  Batavian 
Republic  should  have  the  whole  glory  of 
the  expedition,  if  it  succeeds  ;  they  feel  that 


their  couutiy  has  been  forgotten  in  Europe, 
and  they  are  risking  everything,  even  to 
their  last  stake  :  for,  if  this  fails,  they  are 
ruined — in  order  to  restore  the  national 
character.  The  demand  of  the  French  Gov- 
ernment is  now  before  the  Committee;  if  it 
is  acceded  to,  I  will  go  myself,  and,  at  all 
events,  I  will  present  you  both  to  the  Com- 
mittee; and  we  will  probably  then  settle  the 
matter  definitively.'  Both  Lewins  and  I 
now  found  ourselves  in  a  considerable  diffi- 
culty. On  the  one  side,  it  was  an  object  of 
the  greatest  importance  to  have  Hoche  and 
his  5,000  grenadiers  ;  on  the  other,  it  was 
most  unreasonable  to  propose  anything 
vvhich  could  hurt  the  feelings  of  the 
Dutch  people,  at  a  moment  when  they  were 
making  unexampled  exertions  in  our  favor, 
and  risking,  as  Hoche  himself  said,  their 
last  ship  and  last  shilling  to  emancipate  us. 
1  cursed  and  swore  like  a  dragon  ;  it  went 
to  my  very  heart's  blood  and  midriff  to  give 
up  the  General  and  our  brave  lads,  5,000 
of  whom  I  would  prefer  to  any  10,000  in 
Europe  ;  on  the  other  hand,  I  could  not  but 
see  that  the  Dutch  were  perfectly  reasonable 
in  the  desire  to  have  the  whole  reputation 
of  an  affair  prepared  and  arranged  entirely 
at  their  expense,  and  at  such  an  expense. 
I  did  not  know  what  to  say.  Lewins,  how- 
ever, extricated  himself  and  me  with  con- 
siderable address.  After  stating  very  well 
our  difficulty,  he  asked  Hoche  whether  he 
thought  that  Daendels  would  serve  under 
his  orders,  and,  if  he  refused,  what  effect 
that  might  have  on  the  Batavian  troops? 
I  will  never  forget  the  magnanimity  of 
Hoche  on  this  occasion.  He  said  he  be- 
lieved Daendels  would  not,  and,  therefore, 
that  the  next  morning  he  would  withdraw 
the  demand  with  regard  to  the  French 
troops,  and  leave  the  Dutch  Government  at 
perfect  liberty  to  act  as  they  thought  proper. 
When  it  is  considered  that  Hoche  has  a  de- 
vouring passion  for  fame  ;  that  his  great 
object,  on  which  he  has  endeavored  to  es- 
tablish his  reputation,  is  the  destruction  of 
the  power  of  England  ;  that  he  has,  for 
two  years,  in  a  great  degree,  devoted  him- 
self to  our  business,  and  made  the  greatest 
exertions,  including  our  memorable  expedi- 
tion, to  emancipate  us;  t  at  he  sees,  at  last, 
the  business  likely  to  be  accomplished  by  an- 


TONE  AT  THE  TEXEL HIS  JOURNAL. 


271 


other,  and,  of  course,  all  the  glory  he  had 
promised  to  himself  ravished  from  him  ; 
when,  in  addition  to  all  this,  it  is  considered 
tliat  he  could,  by  a  word's  speaking,  prevent 
the  possibility  of  that  rival's  moving  one 
step,  and  find,  at  the  same  time,  plausible 
reasons  sufficient  to  justify  his  own  conduct, 
— I  confess  his  renouncing  the  situation 
which  he  might  command  is  an  effort  of  very 
great  virtue.  It  is  true  he  is  doing  exactly 
what  an  honest  man  and  a  good  citizen  ought 
to  do;  he  is  preferring  the  interests  of  his 
country  to  his  own  private  views;  that,  how- 
ever, does  not  prevent  my  regarding  his  con- 
duct, in  this  instance,  with  great  admiration, 
and  I  shall  never  forget  it.  This  important 
difficulty  being  removed,  after  a  good  deal 
of  general  discourse  on  our  business,  we  part- 
ed late,  perfectly  satisfied  with  each  other, 
and  having  fixed  to  wait  ou  the  Committee 
to-morrow  in  the  forenoon.  All  reflections 
made,  the  present  arrangement,  if  it  has  its 
dark,  has  its  bright  sides  also,  of  which 
more  hereafter. 

June  'ISth. — This  morning,  at  ten,  Lewins 
and  I  went  with  General  Hoche  to  the 
Committee  for  Foreign  Affiiirs,  which  we 
found  sittiii";.  There  were  eight  or  nine 
members,  of  whom  I  do  not  know  all  the 
names,  togeflier  with  General  Daendels. 
Those  whose  names  I  learned,  were  citizens 
Hahn,  (who  seemed  to  have  great  influence 
among  them,)  Bekker,  Yan  Leyden,  and 
Grasveldt.  General  Hoche  began  by  stat- 
ing extremely  well  the  history  of  our  affairs, 
since  he  had  interested  himself  in  them;  he 
pressed,  in  the  strongest  manner  that  we 
could  wish,  the  advantages  to  be  reaped 
from  the  emancipation  of  Ireland,  the  almost 
certainty  of  success,  if  the  attempt  were 
once  made,  and  the  necessity  of  attempting 
it,  if  at  all  immediately.  It  was  citizen 
Hahn  who  replied  to  him.  Ho  said  he  was 
heartily  glad  to  find  the  measure  sanction- 
ed by  so  high  an  opinion  as  that  of  General 
Hoche  ;  that  originally  the  object  of  the 
Dutch  Government  was  to  have  invaded 
England,  in  order  to  have  operated  a  diver- 
sion in  favor  of  the  French  army,  which  it 
was  hoped  would  have  been  in  Ireland  ;  that 
circumstances  being  totally  changed  in  that 
regard,  they  had  yielded  to  the  wishes  of 
the  French  Government,  and  resolved  to  go 


into  Ireland;  that,  for  this  purpose,  they  had 
made  the  greatest  exertions,  and  had  now 
at  the  Texel  an  armament  of  16  sail  of  the  i 
line,  10  frigates,  1.5,000  troops  in  the  best 
condition,  80  pieces  of  artillery,  and  pay  for 
the  whole  three  months;  but  that  a  difficulty 
had  been  raised  wit^hin  a  few  days,  in  conse- 
quence of  a  requisition  of  the  Minister  of 
Marine,  Truget,  who  wished  to  have  5,000 
French  troops,  instead  of  so  many  Dutch,  to 
be  disembarked  in  consequence.  That  this 
was  a  measure  of  extreme  risk,  inasmuch  as 
the  discipline  of  the  Dutch  navy  was  very 
severe,  and  such  as  the  French  troops  would 
probably  not  submit  to  ;  that,  in  that  case, 
they  could  not  pretend  to  enforce  it  with  re- 
gard to  their  own  troops,  the  consequence  of 
which  would  be  a  relaxation  of  all  discipline. 
This  was  precisely  what  General  Hoche  told 
us  last  night.  He  immediately  replied,  that, 
such  being  the  case,  he  would  take  on  j)im- 
self  to  withdraw  the  Minister  of  Marine, 
and  satisfy  the  Directory  as  to  the  justice 
of  their  observations  ;  and  that  he  hoped, 
all  difficulty  on  that  head  being  removed, 
they  would  press  the  embarkation  without 
a  moment's  delay.  It  was  easy  to  see  the 
most  lively  satisfaction  ou  all  their  faces,  at 
this  declaration  of  General  Hoche,  which  cer- 
tainly does  him  the  greatest  honor.  General 
Daendels,  especially,  was  beyond  measure 
delighted.  They  told  us  then  that  they 
hoped  all  would  be  ready  in  a  fortnight,  and 
Hahn  observed,  at  the  same  time,  that,  as 
there  was  an  English  squadron  which  ap- 
peared almost  every  day  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Texel,  it  was  very  much  to  be  desired  that 
the  Brest  fleet  should,  if  possible,  put  to 
sea,  in  order  to  draw  off  at  least  a  part  of 
the  British  fleet,  because,  from  the  position 
of  the  Texel,  the  Dutch  fleet  was  liable  to 
be  attacked  iu  detail,  in  saiUug  out  of  the 
port;  and  even  if  ihey  beat  the  enemy,  it 
would  not  be  possible  to  proceed,  as  they 
must  return  to  refit.  To  this.  General 
Hoche  replied,  that  the  French  fleet  could 
not,  he  understood,  be  ready  before  two 
months,  which  put  it  out  of  the  question  ; 
and  as  to  the  necessity  of  returning  to  refit, 
he  observed  that,  during  the  last  war,  the 
British  and  French  fleets  had  often  fought, 
both  in  the  East  and  West  Indies,  and  kej)t 
the  seas  after  j  all  that  was  necessary  being 


272 


mSTORT   OF   IRELAND. 


to  have  on  board  the  necessary  articles  of 
reckange ;  besides,  it  was  certainly  the  busi- 
ness of  the  Dutch  fleet  to  avoid  an  action  by 
all  possible  means.  General  Daendels  ob- 
served that  Admiral  Dewinter  desired  noth- 
ing better  than  to  measure  himself  with  the 
enemy,  but  we  all,  that  is  to  say,  General 
Hoche,  Lewins,  and  nayself,  cried  out  against 
it,  his  only  business  being  to  bring  his  con- 
voy safe  to  its  destination.  A  member  of 
the  committee,  I  believe  it  was  Yan  Leyden, 
then  asked  ns,  supposing  everything  succeed- 
ed to  our  wish,  what  was  the  definite  object 
of  the  Irish  people.  To  which  we  replied 
categorically,  that  it  was  to  throw  off  the 
yoke  of  England,  break  forever  the  connec- 
tion now  existing  with  that  country,  and 
constitute  ourselves  a  free  and  independent 
people.  They  all  expressed  their  satisfaction 
at  this  reply,  and  Yan  Leyden  observed  that 
he  had  traveled  through  Ireland,  and  to 
judge  from  the  luxury  of  the  I'ich,  and  ex- 
treme misery  of  the  poor,  no  country  in  Eu- 
rope had  so  crying  a  necessity  for  a  revolu- 
tion. To  which  Lewins  and  I  replied,  as  is 
most  religiously  the  truth,  that  one  great 
motive  of  our  conduct  in  this  business,  was 
the  conviction  of  the  wretched  state  of  our 
peasantry,  and  the  determination,  if  possi- 
ble, to  amend  it.  The  political  object  of  our 
visit  being  now  nearly  ascertained.  Halm,  in 
the  name  of  the  Committee,  observed  that  he 
hoped  either  Lewins  or  I  would  be  of  the 
expedition.  To  which  Hoche  replied,  '  that 
I  was  ready  to  go,'  and  he  made  the  offer, 
on  my  part,  in  a  manner  peculiarly  agree- 
able to  my  feelings.  It  was  then  fixed  that 
I  should  set  off  for  the  army  of  Sambre  et 
Meuse  for  my  trunk,  and  especially  for  my 
papers,  and  that  Lewins  should  remain  at 
the  Hague,  at  the  orders  of  the  Committee, 
until  my  return,  which  might  be  seven  or 
eight  days.  The  meeting  then  broke  np. 
We  could  not  possibly  desire  to  find  greater 
attention  to  us,  personally,  or,  which  was  far 
more  important,  greater  zeal  and  anxiety  to 
forward  this  expedition,  in  which  the  Dutch 
Government  has  thrown  itself '  a  corps  per- 
du.' They  venture  no  less  than  the  whole 
of  their  army  and  navy.  As  Hoche  ex- 
pressed it,  *  they  are  like  a  man  stripped  to 
his  breeches,  who  has  one  shilling  left,  which 
he  throws  in  the  lottery,  in  the  hope  of  being 
enabled  to  buy  a  coat." 


The  mutations  of  history  are  sometimes 
strange.  Here,  in  1797,  we  find  the  Dutch 
nation" preparing  for  a  grand  national  effort 
to  liberate  and  redeem  the  very  same  people 
whom  a  century  before  it  had  so  powerfully 
contributed,  with  the  Prince  of  Orange  and 
its  "Dutch  Blues,"  to  hurl,  prostrate  under 
the  feet  of  this  very  England  which  the 
Dutch  Republic  was  now  so  eager  to  over- 
throw. 

It  deserves  to  be  noticed,  in  justice  to  the 
Irish  agents,  both  in  Holland  and  in 
France,  that  they  never  contemplated 
bringing  an  overwhelming  force  to  Ireland, 
such  as  might  subdue  the  country  to  hold  it 
in  a  state  of  subjection  to  France,  like  the 
Ligurian,  or  Cisalpine  Republic.  The 
"  Secret  Committee,"  already  so  often  cited, 
which  had  under  examination  Messrs.  Em- 
met, MacXeven,  and  O'Connor,  admit  this 
fact.  "  It  appeared  to  tlie  Committee,  that 
the  Executive  of  the  Union,  though  de- 
sirous of  obtaining  assistance  in  men,  arms, 
and  money,  yet  were  averse  to  a  greater 
force  being  sent  than  might  enable  them  to 
subvert  the  Government,  and  retain  the 
power  of  the  country  in  their  own  hands  ; 
but  that  the  French  showed  a  decided  disin- 
clination at  all  times  to  send  any  force  to 
Ireland,  except  such  as  from  its  magnitude 
might  not  only  give  them  the  hopes  of  con- 
quering the  kingdom,  but  of  retaining  it  af- 
terwards as  a  French  conquest,  and  of  sub- 
jecting it  to  all  the  plunder  and  oppressions 
which  other  nations  subdued  or  deceived  by 
that  nation  had  experienced.  In  Tone's 
journal,  under  date  of  1st  of  July,  oc- 
curs a  passage  showing  how  earnestly 
that  true  Irishman  deprecated  a  French  con- 
quest  of  his  country  :  "  I  then  took  occa- 
sion to  speak  on  a  subject  which  had 
weighed  very  much  upon  my  mind,  I  mean 
the  degree  of  influence  which  the  French 
might  be  disposed  to  arrogate  to  themselves 
in  Ireland,  and  which  I  had  great  reason  to 
fear  would  be  greater  than  we  might  choose 
to  allow  them.  In  the  Gazette,  of  that  day, 
there  was  a  proclamation  of  Buonaparte's, 
addressed  to  the  Government  of  Genoa, 
which  I  thought  most  grossly  improper  and 
indecent,  as  touching  on  the  indispensable 
rights  of  the  people.  I  read  the  most  ob- 
noxious passages  to  Hoche,  and  observed, 
that  if  Buonaparte  commanded  in  Ireland, 


MAC  KEVF.N  S   MEMOIR. 


273^ 


and  were  to  publish  there  so  iiidisfreet  a 
proclamation,  it  would  have  a  most  ruinous 
effect;  that  in  Italy  such  dictation  niij^ht 
pas.^,  but  never  iu  Ireland,  where  we  under- 
stood our  rights  too  well  to  submit  to  it. 
Iloche  answered  me,  '  I  understand  you,  but 
you  may  be  at  ease  in  that  respect ;  Buona- 
parte has  been  my  scholar,  but  he  shall 
never  be  my  master.'" 

Before  proceeding  to  narrate  the  fortunes 
of  this  second  grand  expedition  bound  for 
Ireland,  it  will  be  well  to  consider  the  views 
of  those  Irishmen  who  had  studied  the  sub- 
ject, with  regard  to  a  point  then  extremely 
interesting,  and  which  may  again  become 
interesting  in  the  course  of  human  events — 
namely,  the  most  advisable  or  convenient 
harbors  of  Ireland  for  purposes  of  a  landing 
hostile  to  England.  This  question  fs  treated 
at  length  in  a  memoir,  which  was,  during 
this  same  summer,  intrusted  to  Dr.  Mac- 
Neven,  and  was  by  him  carried  over  to 
France,  in  order  that  no  such  blunder  might 
again  be  made  as  the  approach  to  the  deso- 
late mountainous  coasts  of  Bear  and  Bantry . 
This  memoir,  singular  to  relate,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  British  Government;  but  cer- 
tainly not  through  any  treacheiy  on  the 
part  of  Dv  MacNeven,  who  was  a  most  ex- 
cellent man  ;'  but  O'Connor,  Emmet  and 
MacXeven  tell  us,  in  their  memoirs,  that  on 
their  examination  before  the  Secret  Com- 
mittee of  the  Lords  the  next  year,  they  were 
astonished  beyond  measure  to  see  the  very 
original  of  that  memoir  lying  on  the  table 
• — so  perfect  was  the  spy  system  of  England, 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  maintained  by  an 
enormous  expenditure  of  "Secret  Service 
money." 

The  account  which  the  Seci'et  Committee 
has  given  us  of  that  memoir  is  as  follows  : 
The  next  communication  of  consequence  was 
in  June,  17 97,  when  an  accredited  person 
went  from  hence  to  communicate  with  the 
French  Directory  by  their  desire  ;  he  went 
by  Hamburg,  where  he  saw  the  French 
^Minister,  who  made  some  difficulty  about 
granting  a-  passport,  and  demanded  a  me- 
morial, which  was  written  by  the  accredited 
person,  and  given  to  the  French  Minister 
nuder  tlie  impression  that  the  passport  was 
not  to  be  granted. 

The  memoir  was  written  in  English,  and 
■65 


contained  the  objects  of  his  mission  accord- 
ing to  the  instructions  which  he  had  received 
from  the  Executive.  It  began  by  stating, 
that  the  appearance  of  the  French  in  Ban- 
try  Bay,  had  encouraged  the  least  confident 
of  the  Irish  in  the  hope  of  throwing  off  the 
yoke  of  England  with  the  assistance  of 
France  ;  Unit  the  event  of  that  expedition 
had  proved  the  facility  of  invading  Ireland  ; 
that  in  the  event  of  a  second  expedition,  if 
the  object  were  to  take  Cork,  Oyster  Haven 
would  be  the  best  place  of  debarkation; 
that  the  person  who  had  been  before  accred- 
ited was  instructed  to  point  out  Oyster 
Haven  as  the  best  place  of  debarkation; 
and  it  stated  the  precautions  which  had  becQ 
taken,  by  throwing  up  works  at  Bantry, 
Fermoy,  and  Mallow.  It  further  stated, 
that  the  system  of  the  United  Irishmen  had 
made  a  rapid  progress  in  the  County  of 
Cork,  and  that  Bandon  was  become  a  second 
Belfast;  that  the  system  had  made  great 
progress  in  other  counties,  and  that  the 
people  were  now  well  inclined  to  assist  the 
French;  that  150,000  United  Irishmen  were 
organized  and  enroled  in  Ulster,  a  great 
part  of  them  regimented,  and  one-third  ready 
to  march  out  of  the  province.  It  detailed 
the  number  of  the  King's  forces  in  Ulster, 
and  their  stations  ;  recommended  Lougii- 
svvilly  as  a  place  of  debarkation  iu  the 
North,  and  stated,  that  the  people  iu  the 
peninsula  of  Donegal  would  join  the  French. 
It  stated,  also,  the  strength  of  the  garrison 
in  Londonderry,  aud  that  one  regiment 
which  made  a  part  of  it  was  supposed  to  be 
disaffected.  It  mentioned  Killybegs  also  as 
a  good  place  of  debarkation,  and  stated  that 
the  Counties  of  Tyrone,  Fermanagh,  and 
Monaghan,  M-ere  amongst  the  best  affected 
to  the  cause.  In  case  of  a  landing  at  Killy- 
begs,  it  recommended  a  diversion  in  Sligo, 
and  stated,  that  a  force  of  10,000  United 
Irishmen  might  be  collected  to  fall  upon 
Enniskillen,  which  commanded  the  pass  of 
Lough  Erne;  that  it  was  easy  to  enter  the 
Bay  of  Galway,  but  very  difficult  to  get  out 
of  it ;  that  the  Counties  of  Louth,  Armagh, 
Westmeath,  King's  County,  and  City  of 
Dublin,  were  the  best  organized;  that  the 
Catholic  priests  had  ceased  to  be  alarmed 
at  the  calumnies  which  had  been  propa- 
gated of  French  irreligion,  aud  were  well 


274 


HISTORY   OF   IRKLAND, 


Jiffected  to  the  cause;  that  some  of  them 
had  rendered  great  service  in  propagating 
with  discreet  zeal  the  system  of  the  Union. 
It  declared  that  the  people  of  Ireland  had  a 
lively  sense  of  gratitude  to  France  for  the 
pnrt  which  she  tooli,  and  also  to  Spain  for 
the  interest  she  took  in  the  affairs  of  Ire- 
land. It  engaged  on  the  j)ait  of  the  Na- 
tional Directory,  to  reimburse  the  expenses 
of  France  in  the  expedition  which  had  failed, 
and  of  another  to  be  undertaken.  The 
number  of  troops  demanded  was  a  force  not 
exceeding  10,000,  and  not  less  than  5,000 
men.  It  staled  that  a  brigade  of  English 
artillery  had  been  already  sent  over,  and 
thiit  a  large  body  of  troops  would  probably 
be  sent  if  Ireland  were  attacked.  A  con- 
siderable quantity  of  artillery  and  ammuni- 
tion, with  a  large  staff,  and  a  body  of 
engineers,  and  as  many  Irish  officers  as  pos- 
sible, whose  fidelity  they  were  assured  of 
were  demanded  as  necessary  to  accompany, 
the  expedition.  A  recommendation  was 
given  to  separate  the  Irish  seamen  who  were 
prisoners  of  war  from  the  British,  suppos- 
ing they  would  be  ready  to  join  in  an  expe- 
dition to  liberate  their  country.  It  further 
recommended  a  proclamation  to  be  published 
by  the  French  General,  on  his  arrival  there, 
tliat  the  French  came  as  allies  to  deliver 
the  country,  not  to  conquer  it;  it  also 
recommended  to  the  Directory  to  make  the 
independence  of  Ireland  an  indispensable 
condition  of  the  treaty  of  peace  then  pend- 
ing; and  stated,  that  a  proceeding  so  au- 
thentic could  not  be  disguised  or  misrepre- 
Beiited,  and  would  very  much  encourage  the 
people  of  Ireland.  It  contained  also  an  as- 
surance, that  the  Irish  Militia  would  join 
the  French  if  they  lauded  in  considerable 
force.* 

The  difficulty  in  the  way  of  the  Batavian 
expedition  being  removed,  by  the  generous 
self-abnegation  of  General  Hoche,  (though 
his  heart  was  set  upon  this  service,)  great 


*  The  topographical  researches  into  the  capabili- 
ties of  harbors  for  invasion,  must  be  much  facilitated 
by  t1ie  many  excellent  maps  of  Ireland  published 
vlthin  these  last  few  years;  some  of  which  also 
afford  a  very  perfect  idea  of  the  nature  of  the  coun- 
try inland.  At  the  period  spoken  of  iu  the  text,  the 
best  map  of  Ireland  was,  perhaps,  that  of  Beaumont, 
a  very  useless  one  for  strategical  purposes. 


activity  was  exerted  to  make  everything 
ready.  Tone  was  to  accompany  the  Dutch 
force,  -with  the  same  rank  which  he  held  in 
the  French.  What  greatly  increased  the 
hopes  and  spirits  of  Tone  and  his  allies,  was 
the  famous  "  Mutiny  of  the  Nore,"  on  board 
the  English  fleet,  off  the  mouth  of  the 
Thames,  which  tlireatened  for  a  few  weeks  to 
disable  completely  the  naval  power  of  Eng- 
land. The  mutiny,  however,  was  with  some 
difficulty  quelled  by  some  sanguinary  pun- 
ishments, and  also  by  increasing  the  pay  of 
the  seamen;  so  that  the  British  Channel 
Fleet  was  ready  for  service  again,  as  the 
Dutch  soon  found  out  to  their  cost.  On  the 
4  th  of  July,  we  find  Wolfe  Tone  at  the 
Hiigue,  ready  to  undertake  his  duties.  We 
copy  the  following  extracts  from  Tone's 
Journal : — 

"/w/y  ith. — Instantly  on  my  arrival  I 
waited  on  General  Daendels,  whom  I  found 
on  the  point  of  setting  out  for  the  Texel. 
He  read  the  letter,  and  told  me  everything 
should  be  settled  with  regard  to  my  rank, 
and  that  I  should  receive  two  months'  pay 
in  advance,  to  equip  me  for  the  campaign. 
His  reception  of  me  was  extremely  friendly, 
I  staid  with  Lewins,  at  the  Hague,  three  or 
four  days,  whilst  my  regimentals,  &c.,  were 
making  up,  and  at  length,  all  being  ready, 
we  parted,  he  setting  off  for  Paris,  to  join 
General  Hoche,  and  I  for  the  Texel,  to  join 
General  Daendels. 

''July  8th. — Arrived  early  in  the  morning 
at  the  Texel,  and  went  immediately  on  board 
the  Admiral's  ship,  the  Vryheid,  of  74  guns, 
a  superb  vessel.  Found  General  Daendels 
aboard,  who  presented  me  to  Admiral  De- 
winter,  who  commands  the  expedition.  I 
am  exceedingly  pleased  with  both  one  and 
the  other  ;  there  is  a  frankness  and  candor 
in  their  manners  which  is  highly  interesting. 

"July  lOfh. — I  have  been  boating  about 
the  fleet,  and  aboard  several  of  the  vessiels  ; 
they  are  in  very  fine  condition,  incomparably 
better  than  the  fleet  at  Brest,  and  I  learn 
from  all  hands  that  the  best  possible  spirit 
reigns  in  both  soldiers  and  sailors.  Admiral 
Duncan,  who  commands  the  English  fleet 
off  the  Texel,  sent  in  yesterday  an  officer 
with  a  flag  of  truce,  apparently  with  a  let- 
t«'r,  but  in  fact  to  reconnoitre  our  force, 
Dewinter  was  even  with   him  :  for  he  de- 


adveese  winds. 


275 


tained  his  messenger,  and  sent  back  the 
answer  by  an  officer  of  his  own,  with  instruc- 
tions to  l)ring  back  an  exact  account  of  the 
■force  of  the  enemy. 

"Juhi  Wth. — Tliis  day  our  flag  of  truce  is 
returned,  and  tlie  English  officer  released. 
Duncan's  fleet  is  of  eleven  sail  of  the  line,  of 
whicli  three  are  three-deckers." 

When  both  fleet  and  army  were  quite 
ready,  by  some  fatality  similar  to  that  which 
delayed  the  Brest  fleet  before,  the  wind  set 
in  steadily  iu  an  adverse  direction,  and  so 
continued  day  after  day,  week  after  week.* 
During  the  whole  of  the  two  months  of  July 
and  August  the  departure  was  postponed  ; 
the  sujiplies  put  on  board  the  fleet  were 
nearly  exhausted  ;  and  it  was  known  that 
Admiral  Duncan,  who  cruised  outside,  had 
been  reinforced  considerably.  Changes  of 
plan  were  projwsed,  and  England  or  Scot- 
land was  to  be  the  object  of  the  attempt, 
not  Ireland.  When  General  Daendels  men- 
tioned these  new  projects  to  Wolfe  Tone, 
the  latter  became  seriously  alarmed.  He 
pays  iu  his  journal :  "These  are,  most  cer- 
tainly, very  strong  reasons,  and,  unfor- 
tunately, the  wind  gives  them  every  hour 
fresh  weight.  I  answered,  that  I  did  not 
see  at  present  any  solid  objection  to  pro- 
pose to  his  system  ;  and  that  all  I  had  to 
say,  was,  that,  if  the  Bataviau  Republic 
sent  but  a  corporal's  guard  to  Ireland,  I 
was  ready  to  make  one.  So  here  is  our  ex- 
pedition in  a  hopeful  way.  It  is  most  ter- 
rible. Twice,  within  nine  months,  has 
England  been  saved  by  the  wind.  It  seems 
as  if  the  very  elements  had  conspired  to  per- 
petuate our  slavery,  and  protect  the  insolence 
and  ojipression  of  our  tyrants  What  can  I 
do  at  this  moment  ?  Nothing.  The  people 
of  Ireland  will  now  lose  all  spirit  and  confi- 

*  It  is  painful  to  see  how  Tone's  fiery  spirit,  alreadj' 
irritated  by  clisappointment,  chafed  at  this  cruel  de- 
la}'.  July  17th,  he  says  iu  his  diary:  ''I  hope  the 
wind  will  not  play  us  a  trick.  It  is  terribly  foul  this 
evening.  Hang  it,  and  damn  it  for  me  !  I  am  in  a 
rage,  which  is  truly  astonishing,  and  can  do  nothing 
to  help  myself.     Well !    well ! 

"July  ISth. — The  wind  is  as  foul  as  possible  this 
morning  ;  it  cannot  be  worse.  Hell !  Hell !  Hell ! 
Allah !  Allah !  Allah !  I  am  in  a  most  devouring 
rage  !****** 

"July  l!)</i.— Wind  foul  still.  Horrible  !  Horrible  ! 
Admiral  Pewinter  and  I  endeavor  to  pass  away  the 
time,  playing  the  flute,  which  he  does  very  well; 
we  have  some  good  duets,  and  that  is  some  relief.'* 


dence  in  themselves  and  their  chiefs,  and 
God  only  knows  whether,  if  we  were  even 
able  to  elTectuate  a  landing  with  3,000  men, 
they  might  act  with  courage  and  decision." 

In  the  interval  of  waiting  at  the  Texel, 
two  additional  agents  of  the  Irish  Union 
made  their  appearance  in  Holland.  Tiiese 
were  Tenuant  and  Lowry;  with  instructions 
to  make  sure,  if  possible,  of  some  effectual 
aid,  either  from  France  or  Holland.  They 
put  themselves  at  once  into  communication 
with  Tone  and  Levvins.  Nothir.g  seemed 
immediately  possible  in  that  direction,  at 
least  until  after  this  Dutch  armament  should 
be  definitely  given  up  ;  and  the  Batavian 
autliorities  were  very  reluctant  to  give  it  up. 
General  Daendels  charged  Tone  with  a  mis- 
sion to  the  headquarters  of  the  Army  of 
the  Sambre  and  Meuse,  in  order  to  confer 
with  General  Iloche ;  and  when  he  arrived, 
he  found  Heche  dying.     He  writes  : — 

"September  \Stk  and  19M— My  fears, 
with  regard  to  General  Hoche,  were  but 
too  well  founded.  He  died  this  morning  at 
four  o'clock.  His  lungs  seemed  to  me  quite 
gone.  This  most  unfortunate  event  has  so 
confounded  and  distressed  me  that  I  know 
not  what  to  think,  nor  what  will  be  the  con- 
sequences. Wrote  to  my  wife,  and  to  Geu- 
eral  Daendels  instantly." 

Tone  evidently  believed  that  Dewinter's 
Dutch  fleet  would   never  sail  at  all ;  there 
fore,  after  the  death  of  Hoche,  he  obtained 
leave  to  go  to  Paris,  where  he  was  to  meet 
his  wife  and  children. 

It  is  im})0ssible  to  over-estimate  the  im- 
portance of  the  loss  which  the  Irish  cause  iu 
France  sustained  in  the  death  of  General 
Hoche.  He  had  thoroughly  made  that 
cause  his  own,  through  his  warm  admiration 
for  his  Irish  aide,  as  well  as  from  his  settled 
conviction,  formed  on  military  principles, 
that  to  strike  England  in  Ireland  is  the 
surest  and  easiest  way  to  destroy  her  power. 
It  is  now  known  that  Napoleon  Buonaparte, 
then  the  rival  of  Hoche,  came  afterwards  to 
entertain  strongly  this  opinion  concerm'ng 
Ireland,  although,  unfortunately,  he  was  not 
then  duly  impressed  with  its  importance. 
At  St.  Helena,  he  said  of  Hoche,  that  "he 
was  one  of  the  first  of  French  generals  ;" 
and  that  if  he  had  landed  in  Ireland  he 
would  have   succeeded   in   the  great   enter- 


276 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


l»rise.  And  if  he  had  but  lived  another 
year,  his  influence  might  have  availed  to  di- 
rect upon  the  coast  of  Ireland  that  fine  fleet 
■ind  army  which  made  the  unavailing  and 
diss-strous  invasion  of  Egypt. 

While  Tone  seems  to  have  abandoned 
every  hope  of  decisive  action  on  the  purt  of 
the  Bataviau  Republic,  a  sudden  resolution 
was  taken  at  the  Hague.  In  the  beginning 
of  October,  the  British  Commander  quitted 
his  station,  and  went  to  Yarmouth  Roads  to 
refit.  A  peremptory  order  was  dispatched 
hy  the  Dutch  Government  to  Admiral  De- 
winter  to  put  to  sea.  On  the  morning  of 
the  11th  of  October,  Duncan,  having  made 
great  haste,  came  in  view  of  the  Dutch  fleet 
near  the  coast  of  Ilolhind,  off  a  place  called 
Camperdown.  The  two  fleets  were  nearly 
equal  in  number  of  ships,  but  the  English 
were  much  superior  in  weight  of  metal. 
Dewinter,  seeiug  a  battle  inevitable,  engaged 
with  the  utmost  gallantry.  After  a  bloody 
light,  which  the  Dutch  sustained  with  an 
intrepidity  approaching  desperation.  De- 
winter's  ship  struck,  a  sinking  wreck.  Ten 
Dutch  ships  of  the  line  and  two  frigates 
were  captured  ;  Duncan  became  Lord  Cam- 
perdown ;  and  there  was  an  end  of  Holland 
as  a  great  naval  power. 

Thus  there  was,  and  continued  to  be,  a 
strange  fatality  dooming  the  hopes  of  Ire- 
land in  foreign  aid  to  a  series  of  painful  dis- 
appointments. There  were,  after  this,  two 
more  expeditions  on  a  small  scale,  both 
French,  and  both  intended  to  aid  the  Irish 
insurrection.  As  for  the  "Army  of  Eng- 
land," which  began  to  be  formed  in  this 
very  month  of  October,  it  is  needless  to  en- 
ter into  the  detail  of  that  operation,  as  it 
was  really  never  intended  for  England  at  all, 
still  less  for  Ireland.  Napoleon  Buonaparte 
was  made  Commander-in-Chief.  While  there 
was  apparently  busy  preparation  in  the 
Channel  ports  of  France,  Wolfe  Tone  was 
in  the  highest  spirits  ;  and  had  several  inter- 
views with  the  conqueror  of  Italy,  who  seemed 
bent  at  last  upon  the  grand  enterprise  of 
going  straight  to  London,  promised  Tone 


that  he  should  be  employed  in  the  expedi- 
tion, and  requested  him  to  make  out  a  list 
of  the  leading  Irish  refugees  then  in  Paris, 
who  "  would  all,"  he  said  "  be  undoubtedly 
employed."  So  passed  the  winter  and  the 
spring.  Two  passages  from  Tone's  journal 
will  tell  all  tliat  is  needful  to  be  told  of  the 
Arinec  cf  AtigJeUrre : — 

"May  19 th. — I  do  not  know  what  to 
think  of  our  expedition.  It  is  certain  that 
the  whole  left  wing  of  the  Array  of  England 
is,  at  this  moment,  in  full  march  back  to  the 
Rhine  ;  Buonaparte  is,  God  knows  where, 
and  the  clouds  seem  thickening  more  and 
more  in  Germany,  where  I  have  no  doubt 
Pitt  is  moving  heaven  and  hell  to  embroil 
matters,  and  divert  the  storm  which  was  al- 
most ready  to  fall  on  his  head. 

"May  2ith  and  2bth.—It  is  certain  that 
Buonaparte  is  at  Toulon,  and  embarked 
since  the  14th;  his  speech,  as  I  suspected, 
is  not  as  it  was  given  in  the  last  journals. 
The  genuine  one  I  read  to-day,  and  there 
are  two  sentences  in  it  which  puzzle  me 
completely.  In  the  first,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  address,  he  tells  the  troops  that  they 
form  a  wing  of  the  Army  of  England  ;  in 
the  second,  towards  the  end,  he  reminds 
them  that  they  have  the  glory  of  the  French 
name  to  sustain  in  countries  and  seas  the 
most  distant.  What  does  that  mean  ?  Is 
he  going,  after  all,  to  India  ?  Will  he  make 
a  short  cut  to  London  by  way  of  Calcutta  ? 
I  begin  foully  to  suspect  it." 

In  fact,  the  expedition  to  Egypt  was  al- 
ready at  sea  ;  Tone  remained  attached  to 
that  portion  of  the  "Army  of  England  "  which 
was  still  quartered  in  the  North  of  France, 
and  passed  his  time  between  Rouen  and 
Havre  ;  Lewins  continued  to  represent  the 
United  Irishmen  at  Paris  with  great  tact 
and  honesty.  But  in  the  meantime.  Lord 
Castlereagh  had  already,  by  his  "judicious 
measures,"  caused  the  premature  explosion 
of  the  insurrection  in  Ireland ;  and  the 
island  was  now  ringing  with  the  combat  of 
Oulart  Hill  and  the  storm  of  Enuiscortiiy. 


SPIES  — SECRET    SERVICE   MONET. 


277 


CHAPTER    XXXII. 

1798. 
Spies— Secret  Service  Money — Press  Prosecntion— 
"Remember  Orr!" — Account  of  Orr — Curran's 
Speech — His  Description  of  Informers — Arts  of 
Government — Sowing  Dissensions — Forged  Assas- 
sination List — "Union"  Declines — Aeldresses  of 
"  Lo^valty  " — Maynooth  Grant  Enlarged — Catholic 
Kishops  "  Loyal"— Forcing  a  "  Premature  Explo- 
sion " — Camdeu  and  Carliampton— Outrages  on  the 
People,  to  Force  Insurrection — Testimony  of  Lord 
Jloira— Inquiry  Demanded  in  Parliament — Repulsed 
and  Defeated  by  Clare  and  Castlereagh — Insolence 
and  Unlimited  Power  of  Ministers — General  Aber- 
crombie  Resigns — Remarkable  General  Order — 
Pelham  Quits  Ireland — Castlereagh's  Secretarj' — 
The  Hessians'  Free  Quarters — The  Ancient  Britons 
— Proclamation  of  Martial  Law— Grattan's  Picture 
of  the  Time? — Horrible  Atrocities  in  Wexford — 
Massacres — The  Orangemen — Their  Address  of 
Loyalty — All  these  Outrages  before  any  Insurrec- 
tion. 

During  all  the  time  of  these  negotiations 
ill  France,  the  British  Government  was  most 
intimately  acquainted  with  everything  the 
United  Irishmen  were  doing  or  contemplat- 
ing, by  means  of  great  nuiltitudes  of  spies; 
many,  or  most  of  these  spies  being  them- 
selves sworn  members  of  the  United  Irish 
Society ;  whose  business  was  not  only  to 
watch  and  report,  but  also  to  urge  on  and 
piomote  the  preparations  for  insurrection, 
jind  wlio  were  duly  paid  at  the  Castle  out 
of  the  "  Secr'et  Service  Money."  *  The  sys- 
tem of  not  merely  paying  informers  for  in- 
formation, but  hiring  them  beforehand  to 
join  illegal  societies,  and  there  recommend 
and  urge  forward  the  boldest  and  most  ille- 
gal counsels,  in  order  to  betray  their  trusting 
confederates,  is  a  system  peculiar  to  the 
British  Government  in  Ireland  ;  and  not  par- 
alleled in  atrocity  and  baseness  by  anything 

*  Dr.  Madden  has  procured  and  published  the  ac- 
counts of  this  important  brancli  of  the  public  service 
for  17'J7-8.  These  spies  were  of  all  grades  of  society, 
and  their  functiens  were  very  various.  Some,  lilie 
Reynolds  and  Armstrong,  men  of  education  and 
position,  were  to  associate  with  the  leaders,  and 
carry  all  their  secrets  to  the  Castie ;  others,  like 
James  O'Brien,  were  to  foment  treasons  in  public 
houses,  and  swear  away,  at  assizes,  the  lives  of  those 
who  trusted  them.  The  record  is  a  very  curious  one  ; 
and  :t  may  be  some  satisfaction  to  us,  that  if  our 
countiy  has  been  always  bought  and  sold  for  money, 
we  can  at  least  examine  and  check  the  accounts, 
and  estimate  with  considerable  accuracy  the  money 
value  of  a  traitor,  (or  "loyal  man")  according  to 
his  talents  and  opportunities.  For  seventy  years 
past,  it  has  cost  the  treasury  heavily  to  purchase 
"loyal  men"  in  Ireland,  from  Reynolds  down  to 
Nagle. 


known  to  us  in  the  functions  of  a  French  or 
Austrian  police.  During  the  whole  year 
1797  this  "battalion  of  testimony"  was  in  a 
state  of  high  organization  and  efficiency; 
and  greatly  aided  in  causing  the  insurrection 
to  burst  out  at  the  very  day  and  hour  when 
the  Castle  wished  for  it.  It  would  be  an 
endless  task  to  recount  all  the  oppressions 
which  in  the  latter  part  of  this  year  goaded 
the  people  at  last  to  seek  a  remedy  in  des- 
perate resistance  ;  but  the  case  of  Orr  is  too 
remarkable  and  notorious  to  be  passed  over. 

A  prosecution  was  instituted  against  the 
Press  newspaper  in  1798,  for  seditious  libel 
on  Lord  Camden's  government,  contained  in 
certain  letters  which  appeared  in  that  paper 
in  the  latter  part  of  1797.  The  subject 
matter  of  the  libel  in  the  Press,  signed 
Marcus,  (for  the  publication  of  which  the 
printer  was  prosecuted  by  the  Government,) 
was  the  refusal  of  Lord  Camden  to  extend 
mercy  to  a  person  of  the  name  of  William 
Orr,  of  respectability,  and  remarkable  for 
his  popularity,  who  had  been  capitally  con- 
victed at  Carrickfergus  of  administering  the 
oath  of  the  United  Irishmen's  Society,  and 
was  the  first  person  who  had  been  so  con- 
victed. Poems  were  written,  sermons  were 
preached  ;  after-dinner  speeches,  and  after 
supper  still  stronger  speeches,  were  made, 
of  no  ordinary  vehemence,  about  the  fate  ol 
Orr  and  the  conduct  of  Lord  Camden,  which 
certainly,  in  the  peculiar  circumstances  of 
this  case,  was  bad,  or  rather  stupidly  base 
and  odiously  unjust. 

The  scribes  of  the  United  Irishmen  wrote 
up  the  memory  of  the  man  whom  Camden 
had  allowed  to  be  executed  with  a  full 
knowledge  of  the  foul  means  taken  to  obtain 
a  conviction,  officially  conveyed  to  him  by 
persons  every  way  worthy  of  credit  and  of 
undoubted  loyalty. 

The  evident  object  of  the  efforts  to  make 
this  cry,  "  Remember  Orr,'"  stir  up  the  peo- 
ple to  rebellion,  cannot  be  mistaken — that 
object  was  to  single  out  an  individual  case 
of  suffering  in  the  cause  of  the  Union,  for 
the  sympathy  of  tlie  nation,  and  to  turn  that 
sympathy  to  the  account  of  the  cause.  Orr's 
case  presented  to  the  people  of  Ireland,  at 
that  period,  a  few  extraordmo.ry  features  of 
iniquity  and  of  injustice.  He  was  a  noted, 
active,  and  popular  country  member  of  the 


278 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


society  of  United  Irishmen.  He  was  exe- 
cuted on  accoiuit  of  the  notoriety  of  that 
ciroiinistance,  not  on  account  of  the  -suf- 
ficiency of  the  evidence  or  the  justice  of  the 
conviction  that  was  obtained  against  him  ; 
for  the  crown  witness,  Wheatly,  immediate- 
ly after  tlie  trial,  acknowledged  that  he  had 
perjured  himself  ;  and  some  of  the  jury  came 
forward  likewise,  and  admitted  that  they 
were  drunk  when  they  gave  their  verdict ; 
and  these  facts,  duly  deposed  to  and  attest- 
ed, were  laid  before  the  viceroy,  Lord  Cam- 
den, by  Sir  John  Macartney,  the  magistrate 
who  had  caused  Orr  to  be  arrested,  and 
who,  to  his  honor  be  it  told,  when  he  found 
the  practices  that  had  been  resorted  to, 
used  every  effort,  though  fruitlessly,  to  move 
Lord  Camden  to  save  the  prisoner. 

William  Orr,  of  Ferranshane,  in  the  Coun- 
ty of  Antrim,  was  charged  with  administer- 
ing the  United  Irishman's  oath,  in  his  own 
house,  to  a  soldier  of  the  name  of  Wheatly. 
He  was  the  first  person  indicted  under  the 
act  which  made  that  offense  a  capital  felony 
(36  Geo.  III.).  His  father  was  a  small 
farmer  in  comfortable  circumstances,  and  the 
proprietor  of  a  bleach  green.  James  Hope, 
who  was  intimntcly  acquainted  with  all  the 
circumstances  of  the  case,  informed  Dr.  Mad- 
den, "  that  William  Orr  was  not  actually  the 
person  who  administered  the  oath  to  the  sol- 
dier. The  person  who  administered  the  oath 
was  William  M'Keever,  a  delegate  from  the 
City  of  Derry  to  the  Provincial  Committee, 
who  afterwards  made  his  escape  to  Amer- 
ica." 

In  a  letter  of  Miss  M'Cracken,  dated 
27th  of  September,  1797,  addressed  to  her 
brother,  then  in  Kilmainham  Jail,  is  found 
the  following  reference  to  the  recent  trial  of 
Orr:  "  Orr's  trial  has  clearly  proved,  that 
there  is  neither  justice  nor  mercy  to  be  ex- 
pected. Even  the  greatest  aristocrats  here 
join  in  lamenting  his  fate  ;  but  his  greatness 
of  mind  renders  him  an  object  of  envy 
and  of  admiration  rather  than  of  com- 
passion. I  am  told  that  his  wife  is  gone 
with  a  letter  from  Lady  Londonderry  to  her 
brother  on  his  behalf.  .  .  ,  You  will 
be  surprised  when  I  tell  you  that  old 
Archibald  Thompson,  of  Cushendall,  was 
foreman  of  the  jury,  and  it  is  thought  will  lose 
Lis  senses  if  Mr.   Orr's  sentence  is  carried 


into  execution,  as  he  appears  already  quite 
distracted  at  the  idea  of  a  person  being  con- 
demned to  die  through  his  ignorance,  as  it 
seems  he  did  not  at  all  understand  the  busi- 
ness of  a  juryman.  Hoivcver,  he  held  out 
from.  the.  forenoon  till  six  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing of  the  day  following,  though,  it  is  said, 
he  was  beaten,  and  threatened  with  being 
wrecked,  and  not  left  a  sixpence  in  the  world, 
on  his  refusing  to  bring  in  a  verdict  of  guilty. 
Neither  would  they  let  him  taste  of  the  sup- 
per and  the  drink  which  was  sent  to  the  rest, 
and  of  which  they  partook  to  such  a  beastly 
degree  It  was  not,  therefore,  much  to  be 
wondered  at,  that  an  infirm  old  man  should 
not  have  sufficient  resolution  to  hold  out 
against  such  treatment. 

(Signed,)  Mary  M'Cracken." 

Orr  was  defended  by  Curran  and  Samp- 
son. The  judges  before  whom  he  was  tried 
were  Lord  Yelverton  and  Judge  Cliamber- 
laine.  The  jury  retired  at  six  in  the  evening 
to  consider  their  verdict.  They  sat  up,  delih- 
erating,  all  night,  and  returned  into  court 
at  six  the  following  morning.  The  jury  in- 
quired if  they  might  find  a  qualified  verdict 
as  to  the  prisoner's  gnilt.  The  Judge  di- 
rected them  to  give  a  special  verdict  on  the 
general  issue.  They  retired  again,  and  re- 
turned shortly  with  a  verdict  of  guilty,  and 
a  strong  recommendation  of  the  prisoner  to 
mercy.  Next  day,  Orr  was  brought  up  for 
judgment,  when,  after  an  unsuccessful  mo- 
tion in  arrest  of  judgment,  chiefly  on  the 
the  grounds  of  the  drunkenness  of  the  jury, 
which  Judge  Chamberlaine  would  not  admit 
of  being  made  "  the  foundation  of  any 
motion  to  the  Court,"  Yelverton  pro- 
nounced sentence  of  death,  "  in  a  voice 
scarcely  articulate,  and  at  the  conclusion  of 
his  address  burst  into  tears."  Orr  said, 
pointing  to  the  jury,  "That  jury  has  con- 
victed me  of  being  a  felon.  My  own  heart 
tells  me  that  their  conviction  is  a  falsehood, 
and  that  I  am  not  a  felon.  If  they  hav6 
found  me  guilty  improperly,  it  is  worse  for 
them  than  for  me.  /can  forgive  them.  1 
wish  to  say  only  one  word  more,  and  that  is, 
to  declare  on  this  awful  occasion,  and  in  the 
presence  of  God,  that  the  evidence  against 
me  was  grossly  perjured — grossly  and  wick- 
edly perjured  ! " 

The  witness,  Wheatly,  made  an  affidavit 


"kemember  orrI' 


279 


before  a  maji,istrate  acknowledging  bis  hav- 
ing sworn  falsely  against  Orr.  Two  of  the 
jury  made  depositions,  setting  forth  that 
they  had  been  induced  to  give  a  verdict  con- 
trary to  their  opinion,  when  under  the  in- 
fluence of  liquor.  Two  others  made  state- 
ments tliat  they  had  been  menaced  by  the 
other  jurors  with  denunciations  and  the 
wrecking  of  their  properties,  if  they  did  not 
comijly  with  their  wishes. 

James  0)T,  in  the  Press  newspaper  of  the 
28th  of  October,  1797,  published  a  state- 
ment respecting  his  interference,  with  a 
view  of  saving  his  brother's  life,  to  the  fol- 
lowing effect :  "  He,  James  Orr,  had  been 
applied  to  by  many  gentlemen  to  get  his 
brother  William  to  make  a  confession  of 
his  guilt,  as  a  condition  on  which  they  would 
use  their  interest  to  liave  his  life  spared. 
The  high  sheriff,  Mr.  SkefEngton,  and  the 
sovereign  of  Belfast,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bristowe, 
were  among  the  number — the  former  under- 
taking to  get  the  Grand  Jury  to  sign  a 
memorial  in  his  favor.  James  Orr  imme- 
diately went  to  his  brother,  and  the  latter 
indignantly  refused  to  make  any  such  con- 
fession, for  '  he  had  not  been  guilty  of  the 
crime  he  was  charged  with.'  James  Orr  not 
being  able  to  induce  him  to  sign  it,  returned 
to  Belfast  anS  wrote  out  a  confession,  simi- 
lar in  terms  to  that  required  by  Skeffington 
and  Bristowe,  and/or^e(i  his  brother's  name. 
The  forged  document  was  then  turned  to 
the  account  it  was  required  for.  A  respite 
had  been  granted  ;  but  the  weakness  of  the 
brother  was  made  instrumental  to  the  death 
of  the  prisoner.  The  shaken  verdict  of  the 
drunken  jui-y,  of  the  perjured  witness,  was 
not  suffered  to  preserve  the  prisoner.  The 
forged  testimony  of  his  guilt  was  brought 
against  him.  The  promises  under  which  that 
document  was  obtained  were  forgotten,  and 
thus  '  a  surreptitious  declaration,'  swindled 
from  the  fears  of  au  afflicted  family,  was 
made  the  instrument  to  intercept  the  stream 
of  mercy,  and  counteract  the  report  of  the 
Judge  (one  of  the  Judges,  namely,  Yel- 
verton,)  who  tried  him."  Orr  was  exe- 
cuted outside  of  Carrickfergus,  on  the  14th 
of  October,  1797,  in  his  thirty-first  year, 
solemnly  protesting  his  innocence  of  the 
crime  laid  to  his  charge. 

The  act  of  James  Orr  might  have  led  the 


executive  into  error  ;  but  William  Orr  wrote 
a  letter  to  Lord  Camden,  dated  the  10th  of 
October,  plainly  informing  his  lordship  of 
the  forgery  committed  by  his  brother,  and 
that  the  confession  imputed  to  him  "  was 
base  and  false  ;"  but  stating,  if  mercy  was 
extended  to  him,  "  he  should  not  fail  to  en- 
tertain the  most  dutiful  sense  of  gratitude 
for  such  an  act  of  justice  as  well  as  mercy." 
On  the  day  of  the  execution,  the  great  l)ody 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Carrickfergus  quitted 
the  town,  to  avoid  witnessing  the  fate  of 
Orr, 

A  person  who  visited  Orr  previously  to  his 
trial,  speaks  of  his  personal  appearance  and 
address  as  highly  prepossessing.  His  ap- 
parel was  new  and  fashionable — there  was  a 
remarkable  neatness  in  his  attire.  The  only 
thing  approaching  the  foppery  of  patriotism 
was  a  narrow  piece  of  green  ribbon  round 
his  neck.  He  was  six  feet  two  inches  iu 
height,  particularly  well  made — in  fact,  his 
person  was  a  model  of  symmetry,  strength, 
and  gracefulness.  He  wore  his  hair  slu^rfc 
and  well  powdered.  The  expression  of  his 
countenance  was  frank  and  manly.  He  pos- 
sessed a  sound  understanding,  strong  affec- 
tions, and  a  kindly  disposition.  In  speaking 
of  the  state  of  the  country  to  his  visitor, 
who  remarked  that  the  Government  was 
disposed  to  act  in  a  conciliatory  spirit 
towards  the  country,  he  said:  "No,  no; 
you  may  depend  upon  it  that  there  is  some 
system  laid  down,  which  has  for  its  object 
murder  and  devastation.^'  He  added,  re- 
specting the  treatment  of  the  Dissenters  as 
well  as  the  Catholics,  "  Irivshmen  of  every 
denomination  must  now  stand  or  fall  to- 
gether." 

Thus  a  variety  of  depositions  establishing 
the  drunkenness  of  the  jury  and  the  perjury 
of  Wheatly  were  laid  before  the  Lord- 
Lieutenant.  One  deposition  was  of  the  Rev. 
George  Macartney,  a  magistrate  of  the 
County  of  Antrim,  respecting  Wheatly's 
being  brought  forward  by  Mr.  Kemmis,  and 
on  his  (Wheatly's)  coming  into  court,  re- 
lating to  Mr.  Macartney  his  having  seen  a 
Dissenting  clergyman,  of  the  name  of  Eder, 
whom  he  had  known  elsewhere,  and  was  sure 
he  was  brought  there  to  invalidate  his  testi- 
mony. Another  deposition  was  that  of  the 
clergyman  referred  to,  stating  that  he  had 


280 


mSTORT   OF   IRELAND. 


acconipunied  a  brotlier  clergyman,  the  Rev. 
A.  Montgomery,  to  visit  a  sick  soldier,  ap- 
parently deranged,  nnmed  Wheatly,  a 
Scotclimau,  who  had  attempted  to  commit 
suicide  ;  that  he  confessed  to  Mrs.  Hueys, 
h\  whose  house  he  then  was,  that  he  was  in 
Colonel  Durham's  regiment,  and  had  commit- 
ted a  murder,  which  weighed  heavily  upon  his 
mind,  and  that  he  had  been  instigated  to 
give  false  evidence  against  William  Orr,  of 
whicn  crime  he  sincerely  repented.  A  simi- 
lar deposition,  before  Lord  O'Neil,  was  made 
by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Montgomery.  Two  of 
the  jury  made  depositions  respecting  their 
drunkenness.  Two  others  made  statements 
of  the  menaces  that  had  been  used  by  the 
other  jurors.  But  all  were  of  no  avail. 
Lord  Camden  was  deaf  to  all  the  represent- 
ations made  to  him.  All  the  waters  of  the 
ocean  will  not  wash  away  the  stain  his  ob- 
duracy on  this  occasion  has  left  on  his 
character.  Better  fifty  thousand  times  for 
his  fame  it  were,  if  he  had  never  seen  Ire- 
land. The  fate  of  Orr  lies  heavy  on  the 
memory  of  Lord  Camden. 

The  friends  of  Earl  Camden  in  vain  seek 
to  cast  the  responsibility  of  this  act  on  his 
subordinates  in  the  Irish  Government.  They 
say  he  was  a  passive  instrument  in  the  hands 
of  others.  The  prerogative  of  mercy,  how- 
ever, was  given  to  him,  and  not  to  them. 
On  the  26th  of  October,  1797,  a  letter  ad- 
dressed to  Earl  Camden  appeared  in  the 
Press,  signed  Marcus,  ably  and  eloquently 
written,  but  unquestionably  libellous,  com- 
menting on  the  conduct  of  his  lordship  in 
this  case.  Marcus  used  these  words  in 
reference  to  it:  "The  death  of  Mr.  Orr, 
the  nation  has  pronounced  one  of  the  most 
.sanguinary  and  savage  acts  that  has  dis- 
graced the  laws.  Let  not  the  nation  be 
told  that  you  are  a  passive  instrument  in 
the  hands  of  others.  If  passive  you  be, 
then  is  your  office  a  shadow  indeed.  If  an 
active  instrument,  as  you  ought  to  be,  you 
did  not  perform  the  duty  vi'hich  the  laws  re- 
quired of  you.  You  did  not  exercise  the 
prerogative  of  mercy  —  that  mercy  which 
the  law  entrusted  to  you  for  the  safety  of 
the  subject.  Innocent,  it  appears,  he  was. 
His  blood  has  been  shed,  and  tiie  precedent 
is  awful.  .  .  .  Feasting  in  your  castle, 
iu  the  midst  of  your  myrmidons  and  bishops, 


you  have  little  concerned  yourself  about  the 
expelled  and  miserable  cottager,  whose 
dwelling  at  the  moment  of  your  mirth  was 
in  flames,  his  wife  or  his  daughter  suffer- 
ing violence  at  the  hands  of  some  com- 
missioned ravager,  his  son  agonizing  on  the 
bayonet,  and  his  helpless  infants  crying  in 
vain  for  mercy.  These  are  lamentations 
that  disturb  not  the  hour  of  carousal  or  in- 
toxicated counsels.  The  constitution  has 
reeled  to  its  centre — Justice  herself  is  not 
only  blind,  but  drunk,  and  deaf,  like  Festus, 
to  the  words  of  soberness  and  truth. 

"  Let  the  awful  execution  of  Mr.  Orr  be 
a  lesson  to  all  unthinking  jurors,  and  let 
them  cease  to  flatter  themselves,  that  any 
interest,  recommendation  of  theirs  and  of 
the  presiding  judge,  can  stop  the  course  of 
carnage  which  sanguinary,  and  I  do  not 
fear  to  say,  unconstitutional,  laws  have  or- 
dered to  be  loosed.  Let  them  remember 
that,  like  Macbeth,  the  servants  of  the 
Crown  have  waded  so  far  in  blood,  that 
they  find  it  easier  to  go  on  than  to  go  back." 

Finnerty  was  found  guilty,  and  sentenced 
to  be  imprisoned  for  two  years,  to  pay  a  fine 
of  £20,  and  to  give  security  for  future  good 
behavior  for  seven  years.  Mr.  Curran's 
spee(^h  in  defence  of  this  printer,  Finnerty,  is 
a  model  of  bold,  impassioned,  and  indignant 
l)leading,  which  has,  perhaps,  never  been 
matched  since  in  a  court  of  justice.  One 
passage  of  this  great  speech  rises  above  the 
immediate  case  of  the  orator's  client,  and 
gives  a  bold  and  true  picture  of  the  policy 
of  the  Government  :  "  The  learned  counsel 
has  asserted  that  the  paper  which  he  prose- 
cutes (the  Press)  is  only  part  of  a  system 
formed  to  misrepresent  the  state  of  Ireland 
and  the  conduct  of  its  Government.  Do 
you  not  therefore  discover  that  his  object  is 
to  procure  a  verdict  to  sanction  the  Parlia- 
ments of  both  countries  in  refusing  all  in- 
quiry into  your  grievances  ?  Let  me  ask 
you,  then,  are  you  prepared  to  say,  upon 
your  oaths,  that  those  measures  of  coercion 
which  are  daily  practised  are  absolutely 
necessary,  and  ought  to  be  continued  ?  It 
is  not  upon  Finnerty  you  are  sitting  in  judg- 
ment ;  but  you  are  sitting  in  judgment  upon 
the  lives  and  liberties  of  the  inhabitants  of 
more  than  half  of  Ireland.  You  are  to  say 
that  it  is  a  foul  proceeding  to  condemn  the 


CUERAN  S    SPEECH HIS   DESCRIPTION    OF   INFORMERS. 


281 


Government  of  Ireland  ;  that  it  is  a  foul  act, 
founded  in  foul  motives,  and  ori-rinating  in 
falsehood  and  sedition  ;  that  it  is  an  attack 
upon  a  government  under  which  the  people 
are  prosperous  and  happy  ;  that  justice  is 
here  administered  with  mercy  ;  that  the 
statements  made  in  Great  Britain  are  false — 
are  the  efi'usions  of  party  and  of  discontent  ; 
that  all  is  mildness  and  tranquillity  ;  that 
there  are  no  burnings,  no  transportations  ; 
that  you  never  travel  by  the  light  of  con- 
flagrations ;  that  the  jails  are  not  crowded 
month  after  month,  from  which  prisoners 
are  taken  out,  not  for  trial,  but  for  embark- 
ation !  These  are  the  questions  upou  which, 
I  say,  you  must  virtually  decide.  .  .  I 
tell  you,  therefore,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  it 
is  not  with  respect  to  Mr.  Orr  or  Mr.  Fin- 
iierty  that  your  verdict  is  now  sought ;  you 
are  called  upon,  on  your  oaths,  to  say  that 
the  Govermnent  is  wise  and  merciful  ;  the 
people  prosperous  and  happy  ;  that  military 
law  ought  to  be  continued  ;  that  the  Consti- 
tution could  not  with  safety  be  restored  to 
Ireland  ;  and  that  the  statements  of  a  con- 
trary import  by  your  advocates  in  either 
country  are  libellous  and  false.  I  tell  you 
these  are  the  questions  ;  and  I  ask  you  if 
you  can  have  the  front  to  give  the  expected 
answer  iu  the  face  of  a  community  who 
know  the  country  as  well  as  you  do.  Let 
me  ask  you  how  you  could  reconcile  with 
such  a  verdict  the  jails,  the  tenders,  the 
gibbets,  the  conflagrations,  the  murders,  the 
proclamations  that  we  hear  of  every  day  in 
the  streets,  and  see  every  day  iu  the  coun- 
try ?  What  are  the  processions  of  the 
learned  counsel  himself,  circuit  after  circuit? 
Merciful  God  !  what  is  the  state  of  Ireland, 
and  where  shall  you  find  the  wretched  in- 
habitant of  this  land  ?  You  may  find  him, 
perhaps,  in  jail,  the  only  place  of  security, 
I  had  almost  said  of  ordinary  habitation  1 
If  you  do  not  find  him  there,  you  may  see 
him  flying  with  his  family  from  the  flames 
of  his  own  dwelling — lighted  to  his  dungeon 
by  the  conflagration  of  his  hovel ;  or  you 
may  find  his  bones  bleaching  on  the  green 
fields  of  his  country  ;  or  you  may  find  him 
tossing  on  the  surface  of  the  ocean,  and 
mingling  his  groans  with  tho.se  tempests, 
less  savage  than  his  persecutors,  that  drift 
him  to  a  returuless  distance  from  his  family 
3<i 


and  his    home,  without   charge,  or  trial,  or 
senlentxy 

When  Mr.  Curran  came  to  speak  of  tiiat 
part  of  the  publication  under  trial,  which 
stated  that  informers  were  brought  forward 
by  hopes  of  remuneration — "  Is  that,"  he 
said,  "  a  foul  assertion  ?  Or  will  you,  upon 
your  oaths,  say  to  the  sister  country  that 
there  are  no  such  abominable  instruments 
of  destruction  as  informers  used  in  the  state 
prosecutions  of  Ireland  ?  Let  me  honestlj 
ask  you,  what  do  you  feel,  when  in  my  hear 
ing — when  in  the  face  of  this  audience — you. 
are  asked  to  give  a  verdict  that  every  mab 
of  us,  and  every  man  of  you,  know,  by  the 
testimony  of  your  own  eyes,  to  be  utterly  and 
absolutely  false  ?  I  speak  not  now  of  the 
'public  proclamation  for  informers,  with  a 
promise  of  secresy  and  ex'ravagant  reward. 
I  speak  not  of  tho.se  unfortunate  wretches 
who  have  been  so  often  transferred  from  the 
table  to  the  dock,  and  from  the  dock  to  the 
pillory.  I  speak  of  what  your  own  eyes 
have  seen,  day  after  day,  during  the  pro- 
gress of  this  commission,  while  you  attended 
this  court — the  number  of  horrid  mi.screants 
who  acknowledged,  up^n  their  oaths,  that 
they  had  come  from  the  seat  of  Govern- 
ment— from  the  very  chambers  of  the  Castle, 
(where  they  had  been  worked  upon  by  the 
fear  of  death  and  hope  of  compensation  to 
give  evidence  against  their  fellows,)  that 
the  mild,  the  wholesome,  and  the  merciful 
couucils  of  this  Government  are  holden  over 
those  catacombs  of  living  death,  where  the 
wretch,  that  is  buried  a  inan,  lies  till  his 
heart  has  time  to  fester  and  dissolve,  and  is 
then  dug  up  a  witness.  Is  this  a  picture 
created  by  a  hag-riddeu  fancy,  or  is  it  a 
fact  ?  Have  you  not  seen  him,  after  his 
resurrection  from  that  tomb,  make  his  ap- 
pearance upon  your  table,  the  image  of  life 
and  death,  and  supreme  arbiter  of  both  ? 
Have  you  not  marked,  when  he  entered, 
how  the  stormy  wave  of  the  multitude  re- 
tired at  his  approach  ?  Have  you  not  seen 
how  the  human  heart,  bowed  to  the  awful 
supremacy  of  his  power  in  the  uudissemhled 
homage  of  deferential  horror  ?  How  his 
glance,  like  the  lightning  of  heaven,  seemed 
to  rive  the  body  of  the  accused,  and  mark  it 
for  the  grave,  while  his  voice  warned  the 
devoted  wretch  of  woe  and  death — a  death 


282 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


which  uo  iunoceiice  can  escape,  uo  art  elude, 
no  force  resist,  uo  autidote  prevent  1  There 
was  an  antidote — a  juror's  oath  ;  but  even 
that  adamantine  chain,  which  bound  the  in- 
tegrity of  man  to  tlie  throne  of  eternal  jus- 
tice, is  solved  and  molten  in  the  breath 
which  issues  from  the  mouth  of  the  informer. 
Conscience  swings  from  her  moorings  ;  the 
appalled  and  atfrighted  juror  speaks  what 
his  soul  abhors,  and  consults  his  own  safety 
in  the  surrender  of  the  victim — 

Et  quae  sibi  quisque  tiraebat, 

Unius  in  miseri  exitium  conveisa  tulere. 

Informers  are  worshipped  in  the  temple  of 
justice,  even  as  the  Devil  has  beeu  wor- 
shipped by  pagans  and  savages — even  so  in 
this  wicked  country  is  the  informer  an  ob- 
ject of  judicial  idolatry — even  so  is  he 
soothed  by  the  music  of  human  groans — even 
so  is  he  placated  and  incensed  by  the  fumes 
and  by  the  blood  of  human  sacrifices." 

This  extraordinary  speech  of  Mr.  Curran 
is  not  given  here  as  an  example  of  rhetoric. 
In  fact,  there  is  no  rhetoric  in  it  ;  his  de- 
8cription  is  but  a  faint  and  pale  image  of 
the  horrible  truth;  and  the  informer,  O'Brien, 
was  only  one  of  that  immense  "  battalion  of 
testimony,"  which  was  now  regularly  drilled 
and  instructed  at  the  Castle  of  Dublin. 
Through  these  foul  means  the  administra- 
tion was  kept  fully  informed  of  the  designs, 
the  force  and  the  personnel  of  the  United 
Irishmen  ;  it  was  also  enabled,  by  the  same 
means,  to  make  considerable  progress  in  the 
grand  English  policy 'of  sowing  dissensions 
and  bad  feeling  between  Catholics  and  Dis- 
senters. On  one  side  were  the  honest,  tole- 
rant and  self-sacrificing  leaders  of  the  United 
Irish  Society  endeavoring  to  heal  the  ani- 
mosities of  ages,  to  make  the  people  know 
and  trust  one  another  in  order  to  unite  for 
the  common  good  of  their  unhappy  country. 
On  the  other  was  Mr.  Pitt,  ably  seconded 
by  Lord  Clare  and  by  Castlereagh,  and 
their  dreadful  army  of  spies  and  secret  emis- 
saries, carrying  all  over  the  country  and 
scattering  broadcast  mysterious  rumors  of 
intended  massacres  and  assassinations — in- 
dustriously renewing  all  the  old  stories  of 
the  "  horrors  of  the  Inquisition,"  (which,  in- 
deed, were  never  so  horrible  as  the  horrors 
of  the  penal  laws.)     A  paper  was  even  care- 


fully circulated  purporting  to  contain  a 
printed  list  of  persons  marked  out  for  assas- 
sination. Lord  Moira,  in  his  place  in  the 
English  House  of  Lords,  produced  this  docu- 
ment in  debate,  describing  thus  :  "He  held 
now  in  his  hand  a  paper  printed,  the  con- 
tents of  which  were  too  shocking  to  read  ; 
its  avowed  object  was  to  point  out  innocent 
men,  by  name,  to  the  poniard  of  assassins. 
It  loaded  His  Majesty  with  the  most  op- 
probrious epithets,  and  reviled  the  Englisli 
nation  with  every  term  of  contumely,  affirm- 
ing it  to  be  the  duty  of  every  Irishman  to 
wrest  from  the  hands  of  English  ruffians  the 
property  which  these  English  ruffians  had 
wrested  from  their  ancestors." 

That  this  pretended  list  was  the  production 
of  some  of  the  Castle  emissaries,  there  can 
be  no  doubt.  The  Lord  Chancellor  of  Eng- 
land declared  that  he  believed  the  list  to  be 
a  genuine  programme  of  the  "  horrid  con- 
spiracy "  then  hatching  in  Ireland.  Lord 
Moira  said,  in  reply  :  "As  to  the  paper  to 
which  the  noble  and  learned  lord,  and  the 
noble  Secretary  had  alluded,  concerning  the 
names  of  persons  who  were  marked  out  for 
future  assassination,  he  confessed,  he  suspect- 
ed it  to  he  an  invention  to  justify  or  to  sxop- 
port  the  measures  which  had  been  adopted  in 
Ireland,  and  of  which  he  had  already  com- 
plained. He  suspected  this  the  more,  be- 
cause no  printer  of  a  newspaper  could  have 
had  it  from  any  authentic  source,  for  no  man 
concerned  in  a  conspiracy  for  assassination 
would  communicate  the  intention  of  himself 
and  colleagues.  He  wished  to  speak  of  as- 
sassins as  he  felt,  with  the  greatest  indigna- 
tion and  abhorrence  ;  but  he  must  also  add, 
that  he  believed  that  they  originated  in 
Ireland  from  private  malice  and  revenge, 
and  would  do  so  from  any  party  that  hap- 
pened to  be  predominant,  while  the  present 
dreadful  system  continued.  It  was  not  by 
a  general  system  of  terror  that  it  was  to  be 
prevented." 

It  is  easy  to  conceive,  however,  what 
fearful  use  could  be  made  of  all  these  bold 
forgeries  and  wild  rumors  in  the  hands  of 
the  Castle  agents,  to  exasperate  the  Protes- 
tants, create  "  alarm,"  and  stop  the  good 
work  of  Union.  From  one  cause  or  another, 
it  is  evident,  that  towards  the  close  of  the 
year  1197,  the  Union  rather  abated  than 


CATHOLIC   BISHOPS    "LOYAL. 


283 


increased.  One  unequivocal  symptom  of 
its  decline  was  the  renovation  of  dissension 
between  the  Dissenters  and  tlie  Catholics  in 
the  North.  Sir  Richard  Musgrave,  from 
an  anonymous  acquaintance,  reports,  that 
most  of  the  Presljyteriaus  .separated  from 
the  Papists  in  the  year  1797  ;  some  from 
"  principle,  some  because  they  doubted  the 
sincerity  of  persons  in  that  order  ;  and 
others,  foreseeing  that  the  plot  must  fail 
and  end  in  their  destruction,  took  advantage 
of  the  proclumation  of  the  Hth  of  May,  and 
renounced  their  associates.  Numbers  with- 
drew because  they  doubted  of  success  with- 
out foreign  assistance.  The  Presbyterians 
of  the  Counties  of  Down  and  Antrim,  where 
they  are  very  numerous,  and  where  they  are 
warmly  attached  to  the  Union  from  pure 
republican  principles,  thought  they  could 
succeed  without  the  Papists." 

Mr.  Plowden  bears  nearly  the  same  testi- 
mony :  "  Certain  it  is,"  says  he  "  that  the 
Northern  Unionists  generally  held  back  from 
this  time  ;  the  Protestants  of  Ulster  were 
originally  Scotch,  and  still  retain  much  of 
that  guarded  policy,  which  so  peculiarly 
characterizes  the  inhabitants  of  North 
Britain.  Some  barbarous  murdei's  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  kingdom  were  committed  ; 
but  they  do  not  appear  to  have  been  perpe- 
trated by  members  of  the  Union,  or  persons 
in  any  manner  connected  with  them.  By 
the  report  of  the  Secret  Committee,  it  ap- 
pears, that  from  the  summer  of  1191  the 
disaffected  entertained  no  serious  intention 
of  hazarding  an  effort  independent  of  foreign 
assistance,  until  the  middle  of  March.  Their 
policy  was  to  risk  nothing  so  long  as  their 
party  was  gaining  strength.  Whatever 
were  the  immediate  cause  of  the  Union's 
falling  off,  we  find  that  from  the  autumn  of 
l'I97  the  Roman  Catholics,  first  in  the 
North,  and  afterwards  successively  through- 
out the  kingdom,  published  addresses  and 
resolutions  expressive  of  their  horror  of  the 
principles  of  the  United  Irishmen,  and 
pledging  themselves  to  be  loyal  and  zealous 
in  the  defence  and  support  of  the  King  and 
Constitution.  The  northern  addresses  ad- 
mitted the  fact,  and  lamented  that  many  of 
the  Catholic  body  had  been  seduced  into  the 
Union,  and  they  deprecated  the  attempts 
which    were    made    to    create     dissension 


amongst  persons  of  different  religions.  This 
example  was  followed  by  the  generality  of 
the  Dissenters.  If  addresses  were  tests  of 
loyalty,  His  Majesty  had  not  more  loyal 
subjects  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the 
British  Empire,  than  the  Irish  in  the  be- 
ginning of  1798.  Scarcely  a  parish  through- 
out the  kingdom,  scarcely  a  dissenting 
meeting-house,  from  which  an  addres.s  of 
loyalty  was  not  issued,  signed  by  the  priest 
or  minister  of  the  flock." 

The  Catholic  addresses,  of  which  Mr. 
Plowden  speaks,  were  chiefly  procured  by 
the  influence  of  the  bishops  and  higher  cler- 
gy, who  were  much  relied  upon  at  this  time, 
as  well  as  frequently  since,  to  keep  the  high- 
er classes  of  Catholics  "loyal"  to  the  Eng- 
lish Government.  The  Catholic  College  of 
Maynoolh  had  been  incorporated  by  law  in 
June,  1795,  and  had  been  opened  in  the  fol- 
lowing October  for  students.  Thus  for  the 
first  time  Catholic  young  men  could  be  edu- 
cated for  the  priesthood  in  their  own  coun- 
try without  incurring  the  penalty  of  death 
or  transportation.  The  Parliamentary 
grant,  which  had  amounted  to  £'6,000,  was 
increased  to  £10,000  in  February,  1798,  on 
motion  of  Mr.  Secretary  Pelham,  who  under- 
took, in  this  debate,  to  reply  to  the  furious 
and  foaming  declamation  of  Dr  Duigenan. 
This  was  a  great  step  in  the  way  of  concili- 
ation ;  and  it  is  further  certain  that  mem- 
bers of  the  Government  deceived  the  Catho- 
lic bishops  by  implied  promises  to  com[)lete 
the  emancipation  at  an  early  day.  Indeed, 
Dr.  Hussey,  Bishop  of  Waterford,  in  a  pas- 
toral of  his  this  year,  assures  his  flock  very 
positively  :  "  The  Popery  laws  are  upou  the 
eve  of  being  extinguished  forever  ;  and  may 
no  wicked  hand  ever  again  attempt  to  divide 
this  land,  by  making  religious  distinctions  a 
mask  to  divide,  to  disturb,  to  oppress  it." 
Thus  the  bishops  and  most  of  the  clergy 
were  secured  to  the  English  party  in  the 
approaching  struggle — and  by  the  same 
treacherous  artifice  by  which  they  were 
made  generally  fuvorable  to  the  Lejiislative 
"Union"  two  years  later  ;  namely,  by  hold- 
ing out  the  hope  of  speedy  emancipation. 
These  hopes  were  disappointed  ;  the  pro- 
mises were  broken,  and  the  Catholics  suffered 
under  all  their  disabilities  for  thirty  years 
longer. 


284 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


Tlie  streiij^th  of  the  United  Irish  Society 
then,  as  we  have  seen,  was  in  the  North  in 
a  great  measure  broken  up.  In  the  other 
provinces  it  was,  however,  growing  and 
strcngtliening  ;  but  without  occasioning 
eitiier  disorder  or  crime ;  rather,  indeed, 
preventing  all  evil  of  that  description.  This 
state  of  things  began  to  surprise  and  alarm 
Mr.  Pitt,  who  found  the  "conspiracy"  be- 
coming rather  too  extensive  and  dangerous 
for  his  purposes  ;  for  a  moment  he  felt  he 
might  possibly  get  beyond  his  depth,  and  he 
conceived  the  necessity  of  forcing  a  prema- 
ture explosion,  by  which  he  might  excite 
sufficient  horror  throughout  the  country  to 
serve  his  purpose,  and  be  able  to  suppress 
the  conspiracy  in  the  bud,  which  might  be 
beyond  his  power  should  it  arrive  at  its  ma- 
turity. 

Individually,  Lord  Camden  was  an  excel- 
lent man,  and,  "in  ordinary  times,  would 
have  been  an  acquisition  to  the  country,  but 
he  was  made  a  cruel  instrument  in  the  hands 
of  Mr.  Pitt,  and  seemed  to  have  no  will  of 
his  own  ;  so  that,  although  we  are  assured 
by  Sir  Jonah  Barrington  that  he  was  per- 
goualiy  and  privately  a  most  amiable  person, 
his  name  will  always  be  pronounced  with 
horror  and  execration  by  Irishmen,  as  the 
official  head  of  the  Irish  Government  in 
these  dreadful  years  of  the  reign  of  terror. 

On  a  review  of  the  state  of  Ireland  at 
that  period,  it  must  be  obvious  that  the  de- 
sign of  Mr.  Pitt  to  effect  some  mysterious 
measure  in  Ireland  was  now,  through  the 
unaccountable  conduct  of  the  Irish  Govern- 
ment, beginning  to  develope  itself.  The 
seeds  of  insurrection,  which  had  manifested 
themselves  in  Scotland  and  in  England, 
were,  by  the  vigor  and  promptitude  of  the 
British  Government,  rapidly  crnslied  ;  and, 
by  the  reports  of  Parliament,  Lord  Melville 
had  obtained  and  published  prints  of  the 
different  pikes  manufactured  in  Scotland, 
long  before  that  weapon  had  been  manufac- 
tured by  the  Irish  peasantry.  But  in  Ire- 
land, thougii  it  appeared,  from  public  docu- 
ments, that  Government  had  full  and  accu- 
rate information  of  the  Irish  United  Socie- 
ties, and  that  their  leaders  and  chiefs  were 
well  known  to  the  British  Ministry,  at  the 
same  period,  and  by  the  same  means  that 
England  and  Scotland  were  kept  tranquil, 
so  miuht  have  been  Ireland. 


Mr.  Pitt,  however,  found  he  had  tempo- 
rized to  the  extremity  of  prudence  ;  the  dis- 
affected had  not  yet  appeared  as  a  collected 
army,  but,  in  his  opinion  nevertheless, 
prompt  and  decisive  measures  became  abso- 
lutely indispensable.  The  Earl  of  Carhamp- 
ton,  Commander-in-Chief  in  Ireland,  first 
expressed  his  dissatisfaction  at  Mr.  Pitt's 
inexplicable  proceedings.  His  Lordship  had 
but  little  military  experience,  but  he  was  a 
man  of  courage  and  decision,  ardent  and 
obstinate  ;  he  determined,  right  or  wrong, 
to  annihilate  the  conspiracy.  Without  the 
consent  of  the  Irish  Government  he  had 
commanded  the  troops  that,  on  all  symptoms 
of  insurrectionary  movements,  they  should 
act  without  waiting  for  the  presence  of  any 
civil  power.  Martial  law  had  not  then  been 
proclaimed.  He  went,  therefore,  a  length 
which  could  not  possibly  be  supported  ;  his 
orders  were  countermanded  by  the  Lord 
Lieutenant ;  but  he  refused  to  obey  the 
Viceroy,  under  color  that  he  had  no  rank  in 
the  army. 

Lord  Carhampton  found  that  the  troops  in 
the  garrison  of  Dublin  were  indoctrinated  by 
the  United  Irishmen;  he,  therefore,  withdrew 
them,  and  formed  two  distinct  camps  on  the 
south  and  north,  some  miles  from  the  capital, 
and  thereby,  as  he  conceived,  prevented  all 
intercourse  of  the  army  with  the  disaffected 
of  the  metropolis.  Both  measures  were  dis- 
approved of  by  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  whom 
Lord  Carhampton  again  refused  to  obey. 

The  King's  sign  manual  was  at  length 
procured,  ordering  him  to  break  up  his 
camps  and  bring  back  the  garrison  ;  ihis  he 
obeyed,  and  marched  the  troops  into  Dublin 
barracks.  "  He  then  resigned  his  command, 
and  publicly  declared  that  some  deep  and 
insidious  scheme  of  the  Minister  was  in  agi- 
tation ;  for,  instead  of  suppressing,  the  Irish 
Government  was  obviously  di.'^posed  to  ex- 
cite an  insurrection. 

"  Mr.  Pitt  counted  on  the  expertness  of 
the  Irish  Government  to  effect  a  premature 
explosion.  Free  quarters  were  now  ordered, 
to  irritate  the  Irish  population  ;  slaw  toriures 
were  inflicted  under  the  pretence  of  forcing 
confessions  ;  the  people  were  goaded  and 
driven  to  madness."  * 

General  Abererombie,  who  succeeded  as 

*  Sir  Jonah  Barrington.  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Irish 
Nation. 


OUTBAGES    ON   THE   PEOPLE   TO   FORCE   INSURRECTION. 


281 


Commander-in-Chief,  was  not  permitted  to 
abate  these  enormities,  and  therefore  re- 
signed with  disgust ;  but  not  before  delib- 
erately stating,  iu  general  orders,  that  the 
army  placed  under  his  command,  from  their 
state  of  disorganization,  would  soon  be  ranch 
more  formidable  to  their  friends  than  to  their 
enemies  ;  and  that  he  would  not  countenance 
or  admit  free  quarters. 

About  this  time  occurred  an  episode  in 
the  history  of  the  United  Irishmen — the  ar- 
rest and  trial  of  Arthur  O'Connor,  Coigley, 
and  others,  in  England. 

From  the  time  O'Connor  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Leinster  Directory  of  the  society 
of  the  United  Irishmen,  he  was  the  foremost 
leader  in  their  affairs.  When  the  United 
Irishmen  solicited  the  intervention  of  France 
in  1796,  O'Connor  negotiated  the  treaty 
with  the  agent  of  the  French  Directory. 
He  and  Lord  Edward  had  an  interview  sub- 
sequently with  Hoche,  and  arranged  the 
place  of  landing,  and  consequent  military 
operations. 

In  the  early  part  of  IT 91  O'Connor  had 
been  arrested  and  committed  to  the  Tower, 
"  vehemently  suspected  of  sundry  treasons," 
rather  than  charged  with  any  specific  crime 
against  the  state.  After  an  imprisonment 
of  six  months 'he  was  hberated.  In  Febru- 
ary, 1798,  he  came  to  England,  with  an  in- 
tention, as  it  afterwards  appeared,  of  pro- 
ceeding to  France,  in  conjunction  with  John 
Binns,  member  of  the  London  Correspond- 
ing Society,  James  Coigley,  an  Irish  priest, 
and  a  person  of  the  name  of  Allen.  In  the 
latter  end  of  February  they  went  to  Mar- 
gate, intending  to  hire  a  small  vessel  to  con- 
vey them  to  France.  Some  circumstances 
in  their  conduct,  however,  exciting  suspicion, 
they  were  all  apprehended,  and  first  com- 
mitted prisoners  to  the  Tower,  and  after- 
wards to  Maidstone  jail.  At  Maidstone 
they  were  tried  by  a  special  commission  on 
the  21st  and  22d  of  May,  and  all  of  them 
acquitted,  except  Coigley,  on  whom  had 
been  found  a  paper,  purporting  to  be  an 
address  from  "  the  Secret  Committee  of  Eng- 
land to  the  Executive  Directory  of  France." 
Coigley  was  condemned  and  executed  ;  and 
Mr.  O'Connor  and  Binns,  a*'ter  their  ac- 
quittal, were  detained  on  another  charge  of 
treason    preferred    against   them.      In    the 


meantime,  and  in  consequence  of  the  motion 
of  Mr.  O'Donnel,  an  act  had  passed  the 
Irish  Parliament,  authorizing  grand  juries 
to  present  any  newspaper  containing  sedi- 
tious or  libellous  matter  as  a  nuisance  ;  and 
also  authorizing  the  magistrates,  on  such 
presentation,  to  suppress  the  paper,  and 
seize  and  destroy  the  printing  materials,  &c. 
The  paper  called  T/ie  Press  was,  therefore, 
suppressed,  and  some  of  its  principal  sup- 
porters taken  into  custody  ;  but  no  discovery 
of  importance  resulted  from  this  transac- 
tion. 

During  the  first  three  months  of  1798  the 
outrages  committed  by  the  magistrates,  with 
the  aid  of  the  troops  and  yeomanry,  upon 
the  simple  and  defenceless  people  of  Leins- 
ter, became  fearful  and  notorious.  But, 
painful  as  must  be  the  details  of  a  slow  and 
uniform  agony  of  a  whole  people,  there  caa 
be  no  history  of  Ireland  in  wiiich  such  de- 
tails do  not  hold  a  conspicuous  place.  As 
a  perfectly  authentic  historical  document, 
the  speech  of  the  Earl  of  Moira,  iu  the  Brit- 
ish House  of  Peers,  (not  one  statement  of 
which  has  ever  been  contradicted,)  may  be 
taken  as  a  sufficient  picture  of  the  state  of 
the  country,  even  as  early  as  the  November 
of  1797.  Here  follows  an  extract:  "My 
lords,  I  have  seen  in  Ireland  the  most  ab- 
surd, as  well  as  the  most  disgusting  tyranny, 
that  any  nation  ever  groaned  under.  I  have 
been  myself  a  vritness  of  it  iu  many  instances  ; 
I  have  seen  it  practiced  and  uuchecked  ;  and 
the  effects  that  have  resulted  from  it  have 
been  such,  as  I  have  stated  to  your  lord- 
ships. I  have  said  that,  if  such  a  tyranny 
be  persevered  in,  the  consequence  must  inevi- 
tably be  the  deepest  and  most  universal  dis- 
content, and  even  hatred  to  the  English 
name.  I  have  seeu  in  that  country  a  marked 
distinction  made  between  the  English  and 
Irish.  I  have  seen  troops  that  have  beea 
sent  full  of  this  prejudice — that  every  inhab- 
itant iu  that  kingdom  is  a  rebel  to  the  Brit- 
ish Government.  I  have  seen  the  most 
wanton  insults  practiced  upon  men  of  all 
ranks  and  conditions.  I  have  seen  the  most 
grievous  oppressions  exercised,  iu  conse- 
quence of  a  presumption  that  the  person 
who  was  the  unfortunate  object  of  such  op- 
pression Was  in  hostility  to  tlie  Government ; 
and  yet  that  has  been  done  in  a  part  of  the 


286 


HISTOKT   OF   lEELAND. 


country  as  quiet  and  as  free  from  disturb- 
ance as  tlie  city  of  London.  "Who  states 
these  things,  my  lords,  should,  I  know,  be 
prepared  with  proofs.  I  am  prepared  with 
them.  Many  of  the  circumstances  I  know 
of  my  own  knowledge  ;  others  I  have  re- 
ceived from  such  channels  as  will  not  permit 
me  to  hesitate  one  moment  in  giving  credit 
to  them. 

"  His  lordship  then  observed  that,  from 
education  and  early  habits,  the  curfew  was 
ever  considered  by  Britons  as  a  badge  of 
slavery  and  oppression.  It  then  was  prac- 
ticed in  Ireland  with  brutal  rigor.  He  had 
known  an  instance  where  a  master  of  a 
house  had  in  vain  pleaded  to  be  allowed  the 
use  of  a  caudle  to  enable  the  mother  to  ad- 
minister relief  to  her  daugliter  struggling  in 
convulsive  fits.  In  former  times,  it  had  been 
the  custom  for  Englishmen  to  hold  the  infa- 
mous proceedings  of  the  inquisition  in  detes- 
tation. One  of  the  greatest  horrors  with 
which  it  was  attended  was  that  the  person, 
'ignorant  of  the  crime  laid  to  his  charge,  or 
of  his  accuser,  was  torn  from  his  family,  im- 
mured in  a  prison,  and  in  the  most  cruel  un- 
certainty as  to  the  period  of  his  confinement, 
or  the  fate  which  awaited  him.  To  this  in- 
justice, abhorred  by  Protestants  in  the 
practice  of  the  inquisiton,  were  the  people 
of  Ireland  exposed.  All  confidence,  all  se- 
curity were  taken  away.  In  alluding  to  the 
inquisitiou  he  had  omitted  to  mention  one 
of  its  characteristic  features.  If  the  sup- 
posed culprit  refused  to  acknowledge  the 
crime  with  which  he  was  charged  he  was 
put  to  the  rack,  to  extort  confession  of 
whatever  crime  was  alleged  against  him  by 
the  pressure  of  torture.  The  same  proceed- 
ings had  been  introduced  in  Ireland.  When 
a  man  was  taken  up  on  suspicion  he  was  put 
to  the  torture  ;  nay,  if  he  were  merely  ac- 
cused of  concealing  the  guilt  of  another. 
The  rack,  indeed,  was  not  at  hand  ;  but  the 
punishment  of  picqueting  was  in  practice, 
which  had  been  for  some  years  abolished,  as 
too  inhuman  even  in  the  dragoon  service. 
He  had  known  a  man,  in  order  to  extort 
confession  of  a  supposed  crime,  or  of  that  of 
some  of  his  neighbors,  picqueted  till  he  actu- 
ally fainted — picqueted  a  second  tinie  till  he 
fainted  again,  and,  as  soon  as  he  came  to 
himself,  picqueted  a  third  time  till  he  once 


more  fainted  ;  and  all  upon  mere  suspicion  1 
Nor  was  this  the  only  species  of  torture. 
Men  had  been  taken  and  hung  up  till  they 
were  half  dead,  and  then  threatened  with  a 
repetition  of  the  cruel  treatment  unless  they 
made  confession  of  the  imputed  guilt.  These 
were  not  particular  acts  of  cruelty,  exercised 
by  men  abusing  the  power  committed  to 
them,  but  they  formed  a  part  of  our  system. 
They  were  notorious,  and  no  person  could 
say  who  would  be  the  next  victim  of  this 
oppression  and  cruelty,  which  he  saw  others 
endure.  This,  however,  was  not  all  ;  their 
lordships,  no  doubt,  would  recollect  the  fa- 
mous proclamation  issued  by  a  military  com- 
mander in  Ireland,  requiring  the  people  to 
give  up  their  arms.  It  never  was  denied 
that  this  proclamation  was  illegal,  though 
defended  on  some  supposed  necessity  ;  but 
it  was  not  surprising  that  some  reluctance 
had  been  shown  to  comply  with  it  by  men 
who  conceived  the  Constitution  gave  them 
a  right  to  keep  arms  in  their  houses  for  their 
own  defence  ;  and  they  could  not  but  feel 
indignation  in  being  called  upon  to  give  up 
their  right.  In  the  execution  of  the  order 
the  greatest  cruelties  had  been  committed. 
If  any  one  was  suspected  to  have  concealed 
weapons  of  defence  his  house,  his  furniture, 
and  all  his  property  was  burnt ;  but  this 
was  not  all.  If  it  were  supposed  that  any 
district  had  not  surrendered  all  the  arms 
which  it  contained,  a  party  was  sent  out  to 
collect  the  number  at  which  it  was  rated ; 
and,  in  tlie  execution  of  this  order,  thirty 
houses  were  sometimes  burnt  down  in  a  sin- 
gle night.  Officers  took  upon  themselves  to 
decide  discretionally  the  quantity  of  arms ; 
and  upon  their  opinions  these  fatal  conse- 
quences followed.  Many  such  cases  might 
be  enumerated  ;  but,  from  prudential  mo- 
tives, he  wished  to  draw  a  veil  over  more 
a""gravated  facts  which  he  could  have  stated, 
aud  which  he  was  willing  to  attest  before 
the  Privy  Council,  or  at  their  lordships'  bar. 
These  facts  were  well  known  in  Ireland,  but 
they  could  not  be  made  public  through  the 
channel  of  the  newspapers,  for  fear  of  that 
summary  mode  of  punishment  which  had 
be'.'u  practiced  towards  the  Northern  Stay, 
when  a  party  of  troops  in  open  day,  and  in 
a  town  where  the  General's  headquarters 
were,  went  and  destroyed  all  the  offices  and 


INQUIRY   DEMANDED   IN   PARLIAMENT. 


287 


property  belonging  to  that  paper.  It  was 
thus  authenticated  accounts  were  sup- 
pi'cssed." 

The  same  system  of  horrors  had  proceed- 
ed, with  aggravations  of  brutality,  from  No- 
vember, 1797  ;  and  it  was  in  vain  that  any 
patriotic  Irishman,  who  still  attended  Par- 
liament, attempted,  from  time  to  time,  to 
procure  some  kind  of  inquiry  into  the  neces- 
sity for  all  this.  Both  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment were  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Cas- 
tle ;  and  Clare  and  Castlereagh  bore  down 
all  such  efforts  by  the  most  insolent  audacity 
of  assertion. 

On  the  5th  of  March,  Sir  Lawrence  Par- 
sons, after  a  long  and  interesting  speech, 
made  a  motion  that  a  committee  should  be 
appointed  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  the 
country,  and  to  suggest  such  measures  as 
were  likely  to  conciliate  the  popular  mind. 
Lord  Caulfield,  in  a  maiden  speech  of  much 
ability,  seconded  the  motion.  Lord  Castle- 
reagh, with  whom  the  majority  of  the  House 
went,  vehemently  opposed  it.  He  entered 
into  a  history  of  the  country  for  some  years 
back,  and  concluded  from  the  events  that 
the  United  Irishmen  were  not  men  who 
would  be  contented  or  conciliated  by  any 
measures  of  concession  short  of  a  separation 
from  Englanil,  and  fraternity  with  the 
French  Republic ;  that  they  were  in  open 
rebellion,  and,  therefore,  only  to  be  met  by 
force.  He  reasoned  also  to  prove  that  the 
coercive  measures  of  the  Government  had 
been  the  consequences,  not  the  causes,  of  the. 
discontents ;  that  the  excesses  charged  on 
the  soldiery  were  naturally  to  be  expected 
from  the  state  of  things,  though  he  did  not 
cease  to  lament  them  ;  and  he  also  contend- 
ed that  where  excesses  had  taken  place  the 
laws  were  open,  and  able  to  punish  them. 

This  last  assertion  of  his  lordship,  about 
the  law,  was  well  known  by  every  man  who 
heard  him  to  be  simply  false  ;  but  not  more 
false  than  his  assertion  that  military  out- 
rages were  the  consequences,  not  the  cause, 
of  the  existing  troubles.  But  being  sure  of 
an  immense  majority  at  his  back,  he  could 
say  what  he  pleased.  The  resolution  offered 
by  Sir  Lawrence  Parsons  was  negatived  by 
an  immense  mnjority. 

It  was  the  same  case  in  the  House  of 
Lords.     Lord  Moira,  after  vainly  trying  to 


make  an  impression  on  the  peers  of  England, 
came  over  to  make  a  last  effort  with  those 
of  Ireland.  He  made  a  speech  very  similar 
to  that  which  he  had  made  at  Westminster, 
and  reciting  the  same  facts  ;  ending  with  a 
motion  for  an  address  to  the  Viceroy. 
Lord  Clare,  the  Chancellor,  replied  in  the 
same  tone  of  cool  and  dashing  insolence 
which  had  now  become  the  settled  and  pre- 
concerted style  of  debate  with  the  partisans 
of  the  Castle. 

The  Lord-Chancellor,  after  paying  a  juist 
compliment  to  the  character  of  the  noble 
earl,  attributed  to  his  residence  out  of  his 
own  country  his  ignorance  of  it.  "He  as- 
serted, that  the  system  of  Government  had 
been  a  system  of  conciliation  ;  that  in  no 
place  had  the  experiment  been  so  fairly  tried 
as  in  Ireland  ;  in  none  had  it  so  completely 
failed." 

Lord  Moira's  motion  was  also  negatived, 
of  course ;  and  it  was  evident  that,  so  far  as 
Parliament  was  concerned,  the  people  were 
to  be  delivered  over  without  reprieve  to  the 
picket ings  of  the  soldiery  and  the  knotted 
scourges  of  the  yeoman. 

Some  degree  of  color  began  at  last  to  be 
given  to  the  constant  statements  of  Lord 
Castlereagh — that  the  country  was  in  open 
rebellion  ;  for  in  the  months  of  February 
and  March,  there  were  several  tumul- 
tuous assemblages  at  night ;  their  object 
was  to  search  for  arms  ;  and  assuredly  no 
people  ever  stood  in  more  deadly  need  of 
arms  than  the  Irish  people  then  did.  On 
one  day  in  March,  a  party  of  mounted  men 
even  entered  the  little  town  of  Cahir, 
County  of  Tipperary,  in  the  open  day,  and 
took  away  all  the  arms  they  could  find 
there.  They  appear  to  have  gone  as  they 
came,  without  committing  any  violence  or 
outrage.*  Still  there  was  not  that  general 
insurrectionary  movement  for  which  Mr. 
Pitt  was  waiting;  and  it  was  now,  therefore, 
resolved  to  give  another  turn  to  the  screw 

*  Plowden  Hist.  Review.  This  writer,  indeed,  al- 
leges that  the  jjcasants  iu  those  two  mouths  "  com- 
mitted many  murders;"  but  tliough a  Catholic  writer, 
his  well-known  political  principles  make  him  always 
too  ready  to  charge  crimes,  on  very  doubtful  evi- 
dence, upon  all  Catholics  who  were  not  "loyal"  to 
the  King  of  England.  He  does  not  particularize  any 
of  these  "  many  murders ;"  and  it  may,  therefore,  be 
fairly  doubted  that  there  were  any  murders,  except, 
perliaps,  of  an  occasional  tithc-proctor. 


288 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


of  coercion.  It  was  in  the  mouth  of  April 
that  Sir  Kalph  Abcrcronibie,  after  two 
or  three  months'  experience  of  his  command, 
when  he  found  that  the  army  was  expected 
to  be  used  to  goad  the  people  to  despair, 
while  habits  of  marauding  and  "  free  quar- 
ters" were  fiist  destroying  the  discipline  of 
the  troops  themselves,  resigned  his  post  as 
Commander-in-Chief.  His  resignation  was 
iindoubiedly  caused,  as  Lord  Carhampton's 
had  been,  by  his  discovery  that  he  was  ex- 
pected to  act,  not  for  the  repression  of  re- 
bellion, but  in  order  to  excite  it.  Of  course, 
his  military  habits  and  principles  would  not 
permit  him  to  say  as  much,  nor  to  hint  at 
any  fault  on  the  part  of  the  Lord-Lieute- 
nant ;  yet  the  first  paragraph  of  his  famous 
"General  Order"  was  at  once  seen  to  be  so 
wholly  at  variance  with  the  plans  and 
policy  of  the  Government,  that  there  was 
nothing  left  for  Sir  Ralph  but  to  resign, 
and  seek  some  more  honorable  employment 
for  his  sword.  The  General  Order  is  as 
follows : — 

"  Adjutant-General's  Office,  Dublin,  ) 
February  26th,  1798.  ) 

["General  Orders.] 

"The  very  disgraceful  frequency  of 
courts  martial,  and  the  many  complaints  of 
the  conduct  of  the  troops  in  this  kingdom, 
having  too  unfortunately  proved  the  army 
to  be  in  a  state  of  licentiousness,  which  must 
render  it  formidable  to  every  one  but  the 
enemy  ;  the  Commander-in-Chief  thinks  it 
necessary  to  demand  from  all  generals  com- 
manding districts  and  brigades,  as  well  as 
commanding  officers  of  regiments,  that  they 
exert  themselves,  and  compel,  from  all  of- 
ficers under  their  command,  the  strictest  and 
most  unremitting  attention  to  the  discipline, 
good  order,  and  conduct  of  their  men  ;  such 
as  may  restore  the  high  and  distinguished 
reputation  the  British  troops  have  been  ac- 
customed to  enjoy  in  every  part  of  the  world. 
It  becomes  necessary  to  recur,  and  most 
pointedly  to  attend  to  the  standing  orders 
of  the  kingdom,  which  at  the  same  time 
that  they  direct  military  assistance  to  be 
given  at  the  requisition  of  the  civil  magis- 
trate, positively  forbid  the  troops  to  act 
(but  in  case  of  attack)  without  his  presence 
and  authority  ;  and  the  most  clear  and  pre- 


cise orders  are  to  be  given  to  the  officer 
commanding  the  party  for  this  purpose. 

"  TJie  utmost  prudence  and  precaution 
are  also  to  be  used  in  granting  parties  to 
revenue  officers,  with  respect  to  the  person 
requiring  such  assistance  and  those  employed 
on  the  duty  ;  whenever  a  guard  is  mounted, 
patrols  must  be  frequently  out  to  take  up 
any  soldier  who  may  be  found  out  of  his 
quarters  after  his  hours. 

"A  very  culpable  remissness  having  also 
appeared  on  the  part  of  officers  respecting 
the  necessary  inspection  of  barracks,  quar- 
ters, messes,  &c.,  as  well  as  attendance  at 
roll-calls,  and  other  hours;  commanding  of- 
ficers must  enforce  the  attention  of  those 
under  their  command  to  those  points,  and 
the  general  regulations  ;  for  all  which  the 
strictest  responsibility  will  be  expected  from 
them. 

"It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the 
discipline  of  the  dragoon  regiments  should 
be  minutely  attended  to,  for  the  facilitating 
of  which  the  Commander-in-Chief  has  dis- 
pensed with  the  attendance  of  orderly 
dragoons  on  himself,  and  desires  that  they 
may  not  be  employed  by  any  general  or 
commanding  officers  but  on  military  and 
indispensable  business. 

"G.  HEWIT, 
"Adjutant-General. 
"Lieut.-Gen.  Cratg, 

"Eastern  District  Barrads,  Ditblin." 

The  resignation  of  Sir  Ralph  Abercrom- 
bie  was  immediately  followed  by  the  de- 
parture of  Mr.  Secretary  Pelham  ;  who,  as 
Mr.  Plowden  alleges,  also  disapproved  of 
the  new  plan  of  "prematurely  exploding  the 
rebellion  "  by  the  simple  machinery  of  goad- 
ing the  people  to  despair.  It  is  notorious 
that  in  Ireland  the  active  Minister,  upon 
whom  the  odium  or  merit  of  the  Govern- 
ment measures  personally  fell,  was  the  first 
Secretary  of  the  Lord-Lieutenant.  Through 
his  mouth  did  His  Excellency  speak  to  the 
House  of  Commons  ;  from  him  did  the  na- 
tion expect  the  reason,  and  upon  him  chiefly 
rested  the  responsibility  of  the  Government 
measures  in  the  belief  of  the  public.  His 
sentiments  were,  of  course,  concluded  to  be 
in  perfect  unison  with  the  Lord-Lieutenant, 
as  his  voice  was  the  organ  of  His  Excellency. 
It  appears  that  Mr.  Pelham,  however  earn- 


THE   HESSIANS     FREE    QUARTEES. 


289 


est  and  firm  he  had  been  in  opposing  Catho- 
lic Emancipation  and  Parliamentary  Rofonn, 
wliich  two  qnestions  Earl  Camden  liad 
avowedly  been  sent  to  oppose,  was  very  far 
from  approving  the  harsh  and  sanguinary 
means  of  dragooning  the  people  which  had 
been  fur  some  time  practiced,  afid  were  in- 
tended to  be  persevered  in.*  lie  resolved, 
therefore,  to  retire  from  a  situation  in  which 
he  was  under  the  necessity  of  giving  official 
countenance  and  support  to  a  system,  which 
in  principle  he  abhorred,  and  which  he  knew 
to  have  been  extorted  from  the  Chief  Gov- 
ernor, whose  innnediate  and  responsible 
agent  he  was  before  the  public.  Tiie  last 
time  he  spoke  in  public  was  on  Sir  Law- 
rence Parsons'  motion,  which  he  opposed  in 
a  manner  that  evidently  betrayed  the  un- 
easiness of  his  own  situation.  Mr.  Pelham, 
liowever,  did  not  resign.  Indeed,  Sir  Jonah 
Barrington,  and  other  authorities,  affirm 
that  he  only  went  to  England  on  account  of 

*  We  do  not  desire  to  use  stronger  language  than 
tlie  facts  will  warrant,  nor  to  advance,  without  suf- 
ficient authority,  against  any  government  so  atro- 
cious a  charge  as  that  of  resolving  to  goad  a  people 
into  insurrection,  in  order  to  make  a  pretext  for 
Blaughtering  them  first,  and  depriving  their  country 
of  its  national  existence  afterwards.  This  system  at 
this  time,  viz.,  oth  April,  1798,  Mr.  Grattan  has  thus 
described  :  "  Here  we  perceive  and  lament  the  ef- 
fects of  inveteracy,  conceived  by  His  Majesty's  Min- 
isters against  the  Irish.  '  Irritable  and  quellable, 
devoted  to  superstition,  deaf  to  law,  and  hostile  to 
property ;'  such  was  the  picture,  which  at  different 
times  his  Ministers  in  Ireland  have  painted  of  his  peo- 
ple, with  a  latent  view  to  flatter  the  English  by  the 
degradation  of  the  Irish,  and  by  such  sycophantship 
and  malice,  they  have  persuaded  themselves  to  con- 
sider their  fellow  subjects  as  a  different  species  of 
human  creature,  fair  objects  of  religious  proscription 
and  political  incapacities,  but  not  of  moral  relation- 
ship, or  moral  obligation;  accordingly,  they  have 
afforded  indemnity  for  the  rich,  and  new  pains  and 
penalties  for  the  people  ;  they  have  given  felonious 
descriptions  of  His  Majesty's  subjects,  and  have 
easily  persuaded  themselves  to  exercise  felonious 
practices  against  their  lives  and  properties ;  they 
have  become  as  barbarous  as  their  system,  and 
as  savage  as  their  own  description  of  their  country- 
men and  their  equals ;  and  now  it  seems  they  have 
communicated  to  the  British  Minister,  at  once,  their 
deleterious  maxims  and  their  foul  expressions,  and 
he  too  indulges  and  wantons  in  villainous  discourses 
against  the  people  of  Ireland,  sounding  the  horrid 
trumpet  of  carnage  and  separation.  Thus  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Ministers  becomes  an  encouragement  to 
the  army  to  murder  the  Irish. 

*'  We  leave  these  scenes,  they  are  dreadful;  a  Min- 
istry in  league  with  the  abettors  of  the  Orange  Eoys 
and  at  war  with  the  people  ;  a  people  unable  to  pro- 
cure a  hearing  in  cither  country,  while  the  loquacity 
of  their  enemies  besieges  the  throne." 
S7 


ill-health.  At  any  rate,  his  successor  in 
active  duty  (but  only  at  fir.>t  as  locum  lenens) 
was  Lord  Castlereagh — afterwards  Lord 
Londonderry — perhaps  the  ablest,  and  cer 
taiidy  the  worst,  man  who  ever  "did  the 
King's  business"  in  Ireland.  He  was  not 
gazetted  as  Secretary  till  the  next  year. 

General  Lake  was  placed  provisionally  iu 
command  of  the  forces  ;  and  the  way  waa 
now  open  for  the  full  development  of  the 
bloody  conspiracy  of  the  Government 
against  the  people.  Tliere  was  now  concen- 
trated in  Ireland  a  force  of  at  least  1:)0,000 
men,  including  regular  troops,  English  and 
Scottish  fencible  regiments  and  Irish  militia. 
But  even  this  was  not  enough.  On  the 
23d  of  April,  the  new  Secretary  announced 
to  the  House  of  Commons  that  two  regi- 
ments of  "foreign  troops"  had  been  ordered 
to  Ireland.  These  were  the  Hessians,  Ger- 
man mercenaries  from  Hesse  Darmstadt  and 
Hesse  Cassel,  who  had  been  for  some  time 
favorite  instruments  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment for  dragooning  any  refractory  popula- 
tion. 

On  the  30  th  of  March,  the  whole  country 
was  placed  under  martial  law  by  proclama- 
tion. It  was  the  first  time  that  the  County 
of  Wexford  had  been  proclaimed  under  the 
"  Insurrection  act  ;"  and  "  from  that  mo- 
ment," says  Miles  Byrne,  "  every  one  con- 
sidered himself  walking  on  a  mine,  ready  to 
be  blown  up  ;  and  all  sighed  for  orders  to 
begin."  Orders  were  at  once  issued  from 
the  Castle  that  the  military  should  proceed 
at  their  own  absolute  discretion  in  all  meas- 
ures which  any  officer  should  judge  needful 
for  suppressing  that  rebellion  which  did  not 
yet  exist,  but  which  it  was  fully  determined 
should  immediately  break  out.  A  favorite 
measure  of  Lord  Castlereagh  was  the  sys- 
tem of  "  free  quarters."  His  lordship  knew 
thoroughly  the  people  of  his  country  ;  and 
was  aware  that  nothing  could  so  certainly 
and  promptly  goad  them  into  desperate  re- 
.sistance  as  the  quartering  of  an  insolent  and 
licentious  soldiery  iu  their  houses  and 
amongst  their  lamilies.  "  Free  quarters," 
therefore,  were  at  onee  ordei'ed  ;  the  magis- 
trates of  the  "Ascendancy "  were  at  the 
same  time  assured  that  wiiatever  they  should 
think  fit  to  do  against  the  people  should  be 
considered   well    duue.     Tuey  had  already 


290 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


(by  the  "Indemnity  act")  carte  blanche,  at 
any  rate  ;  and  now,  under  the  new  impul- 
sion given  by  the  new  Secretary,  they  vied 
with  one  another  in  atrocity.  In  the  Coun- 
ties of  Kildare,  Meath,  Dublin,  Carlow, 
Wicklow,  and  Wexford,  the  horrors  of  th'S 
oppression  were  especially  grievous.  The 
good  Miles  Byrne,  every  word  of  whose  nar- 
ration is  thoroughly  worthy  of  implicit  trust, 
siiys  :  "The  military  placed  on  free  quar- 
ters with  tlie  inhabitants  were  mo-tly  fur- 
nished by  the  Ancient  Britons  ;  a  cruel 
regiment,  which  became  obnoxious  from  the 
many  outrages  they  committed,  wherever 
they  were  stationed ;  being  quartered  in 
houses  where  the  meu  had  to  absent  them- 
selves, the  unfortunate  females  who  re- 
mained had  to  suffer  all  sorts  of  brutality 
from  these  ferocious  monsters.  What  hard- 
ships, what  calamities  and  miseries  had  not 
the  wretched  people  to  suffer,  on  whom 
were  let  loose  such  a  body  of  soldiery  as 
were  then  in  Ireland  1 " 

This  gallant  old  Miles  Byrne,  writing  from 
hie  notes  sixty  years  afterwards,  (he  was  but 
eighteen  years  old  in  1798,)  thus  details 
some  few  of  the  scenes  which  passed  in  his 
county,  and  within  his  own  knowledge  : — 

"  Many  of  the  low-bred  magistrates 
availed  them.selves  of  the  martial  law,  to 
prove  their  vast  devotion  to  Government, 
by  persecuting,  and  often  torturing,  the  in- 
offensive country-people,  Archibald  Ham- 
ilton Jacob  and  the  Enniscorthy  yeomen 
cavalry  never  marched  out  of  the  town  with- 
out being  accompanied  by  a  regular  execu- 
tioner, with  his  ropes,  cat  o'  nine  tails,  &c. 

"  Hawtry  White,  Solomon  Richards,  and  a 
Protestant  minister  of  the  name  of  Owens, 
were  all  notorious  for  their  cruelty  and  perse- 
cuting spirit  ;  the  latter  particularly  so,  put- 
ting on  pitch  caps,  and  exercising  other  tor- 
ments. To  the  credit  of  some  of  his  victims, 
when  the  vile  fellow  himself  was  in  their 
power,  and  was  brought  a  prisoner  to  the  in- 
fcurgent  camp  at  Gorey,  they  sought  no  other 
revenge  than  that  of  putting  a  pitch  cap  on 
him.  I  had  often  difficulty  in  preventing  the 
others,  who  bad  suffered  so  much  at  his 
liands,  from  tearing  him  to  pieces.  He,  in 
tlie  end,  escaped,  with  many  other  prisoners, 
being  escorted  and  guarded  by  men  who  did 
not  consider  that  z'evenge,  or  retaliation  of 


any  kind,  would  forward  the  sacred  cause 
they  were  embarked  in  ;  particularly,  as 
they  were  desirous  it  should  not  be  thought 
that  it  was  a  religious  war  they  were  en- 
gaged in.  Although  several  of  the  principal 
chiefs  of  the  United  Irishmen  were  Protes- 
tants, the  Orange  magistrates  did  all  they 
could  to  spread  the  belief,  that  the  Catholics 
had  no  other  object  in  view  but  to  kill  their 
Protestant  fellow-subjects,  and  to  give  weight 
to  this  opinion,  they  did  what  they  could  to 
provoke  the  unfortunate  people  to  commit 
outrages  and  reprisals,  by  killing  some  and 
burning  their  houses. 

"  In  short,  the  state  of  the  country  pre- 
vious to  the  insurrection,  is  not  to  be 
imagined  ;  except  by  those  who  witnessed 
the  atrocities  of  every  description  committed 
by  the  military  and  the  Orangemen,  who 
were  let  loose  on  the  unfortunate,  defence- 
less population. 

"The  infamous  Hunter  Gowan*  now 
sighed  for  an  opportunity  to  vent  his  fero- 
cious propensity  of  murdering  his  Catholic 
neighbors  in  cold  blood.  When  the  yeo- 
manry corps  was  first  formed,  he  was  not 
considered  sufficiently  respectable  to  be 
charged  with  the  command  of  one  ;  but  in 
consequence  of  the  proclamation  of  martial 
law,  he  soon  obtained  a  commission  of  the 
peace  and  was  created  a  captain,  and 
was  commissioned  to  raise  a  cavalry  corps  ; 
in  a  short  time  he  succeeded  in  getting  about 
thirty  or  forty  low  Orangemen,  badly 
mounted  ;  but  they  soon  procured  better 
horses,  at  the  expense  of  the  unfortunate 
farmers,  who  were  plundered  without  redress. 
This  corps  went  by  the  name  of  the  black 
mob  ;  their  first  campaign  was,  to  arrest  all 
the  Catholic  blacksmiths,  and  to  burn  their 
houses.  Poor  William  Butter,  James  Hay- 
don,  and  Dalton,  smiths  whom  we  employed 
to  shoe  our  horses  and  do  other  work,  for 
many  years  before,  were  condemned  to  be 
transported,  according  to  the  recent  law 
enacted,  that  magistrates  upon  their  own 
authority  could  sentence  to  transportation. 


*  This  Hunter  Gowan  had  been  horsewhipped  by 
one  of  the  Byrnes,  old  Garrett  Byrne,  of  Ballymanus. 
Miles  Byrne  says,  "  Gowan  took  the  law  of  Garrett 
Byrne,  and  ran  him  into  great  expense."  He  soon, 
however,  found  out  even  a  more  etlectual  metljod  of 
having  his  revenge  upon  the  Byrnes. 


HORKIBLE   ATROCITIES    IS    WEXFORD. 


291 


But  the  monster  Hunter  Govvan,  thiiikinj; 
this  kind  of  punishment  too  slight,  wished  to 
give  his  young  men  an  opportunity  to  prove 
they  were  staunch  blood-hounds.  Poor 
Garrett  FenneH,  who  had  just  landed  from 
ICngland,  and  was  on  his  way  to  see  his 
father  and  family,  was  met  by  this  corps,  and 
tied  by  his  two  hands  up  to  a  tree  ;  they 
then  stood  at  a  certain  distance  and  each 
man  lodged  the  contents  of  his  carabine  in 
the  body  of  poor  Fennell,  at  their  captain's 
command. 

"They  then  went  to  a  house  close  by,  where 
they  shor.  James  Daroy,  a  poor  inoffensive 
man,  the  father  of  five  children.  The 
bodies  of  these  two  murdered  victims  were 
waked  that  night  in  the  chapel  of  Monaseed, 
where  tlie  unhappy  women  and  children  as- 
sembled to  lament  their  slaughtered  rela- 
tives. This  chapel  was  afterwards  burned. 
Poor  Fennell  left  a  young  widow  and  two 
children.  This  cruel  deed  took  place  on  the 
road  between  our  house  and  the  chapel. 
The  day  after,  the  25th  of  May,  1798,  dis- 
tant about  three  miles  from  our  place,  one 
of  the  most  bloody  deeds  took  place  that 
was  ever  recorded  in  Irish  history  since  the 
days  of  Cromwell.  Twenty-eight  fathers  of 
families,  prisoners,  were  shot  and  massacred 
in  the  Ball  Alley  of  Carnew,  without  trial. 
Mr.  Cope,  the  Protestant  minister,  was  one 
of  the  principal  magistrates  who  presided  at 
this  execution.  I  knew  several  of  the  mur- 
dered men  ;  particularly,  Pat  Murphy,  of 
Knockbrandon,  at  whose  wedding  I  was  two 
j'ears  before ;  he  was  a  brave  and  most 
worthy  man,  and  much  esteemed.  Wil- 
liam Young,  a  Protestant,  was  amongst  the 
elanghtered. 

"At  Dunlavin,  County  of  Wicklow,  pre- 
vious to  the  rising,  thirty-four  men  were 
shot  without  any  trial  ;  officers,  to  their 
disgrace,  presiding  and  sanctioning  these 
proceedings.  But  it  is  useless  to  enumerate 
or  ('ontiime  the  list  of  cruelties  perpetrated  ; 
it  will  suffice  to  say,  that  where  the  military 
wei"e  placed  on  free  quarters,  and  where  all 
kinds  of  crime  were  committed,  the  people 
were  not  worse  off  than  those  living  where 
no  soldiers  were  quartered  ;  for  in  the  latter 
instance,  the  inhabitants  were  generally 
called  to  their  doors,  and  shot  without  cere- 
numy  ;  their  houses  being  immediately 
burned  or  plundered. 


"This  was  the  miserable  state  our  part 
of  the  country  was  in  at  the  beginning  of 
May,  1798.  All  were  obliged  to  quit  their 
houses  and  hide  themselves  the  best  way 
they  could.  Ned  Fennell,  Nicholas  Murphy 
and  I,  agreed,  the  last  time  we  met,  previous 
to  the  insurrection,  that  through  the  means 
of  our  female  friends,  we  should  do  every- 
thing in  our  power  to  keep  the  people  from 
desponding,  for  we  had  every  reason  to  hope, 
that  ere  long,  there  would  be  orders  received 
for  a  general  rising  from  the  Directory. 
We  also  promised  to  endeavor  to  get  news 
from  Dublin,  if  possible,  and  at  lea^t  from 
Arklow,  through  Phil  Neill  and  young  Gar- 
rett Graham,  of  that  town  ;  both  of  them 
very  active  and  well-known  to  the  principal 
men  in  Dublin,  and  through  them  and 
Anthony  Perry,  we  expected  shortly  to  re- 
ceive instructions  for  what  was  best  to  be 
done,  under  the  critical  circumstances  in 
which  we  were  placed.  I  was  daily  in  hopes 
of  getting  some  information  from  my  step- 
brother Kennedy  (at  Dublin),  and  on  this 
account  I  remained  as  long  as  I  could  in  the 
neighborhood  of  our  place,  keeping  away, 
however,  from  ray  mother's  house  ;  sleeping 
at  night  in  the  fields,  watching  in  the  day- 
time from  the  hills  and  high  grounds,  to 
see  if  the  military  or  yeomen  were  ap- 
proaching." 

It  was  a  needful  part  of  the  general  plan 
of  Government  to  extend  and  encourage  the 
Orange  societies,  and  to  exasperate  them 
against  their  Catholic  neighbors.  Of  the 
precise  connection  between  the  Castle  and 
the  Orange  lodges,  it  is  not,  of  course,  easy 
to  ascertain  the  precise  terms  and  extent.  It 
is,  however,  notorious,  that  while  the  Irish 
and  English  Government  has  always  pro- 
fessed to  disapprove  the  sanguinary  princi- 
ples of  the  Orangemen,  they  have  always  re- 
lied upon  that  body  in  seasons  of  threatened 
revolt,  as  a  willing  force  to  crush  the  ma.ss 
of  the  people  ;  and  that  even  so  late  as 
184  8,  arms  were  secretly  issued  to  the 
lodges  from  Dublin  Castle.  We  have  al- 
ready seen  Mr.  Grattan's  distinct  that  "  the 
Ministry  was  in  league  with  the  abettors  of 
the  Orange  Boys,  and  at  war  with  the  peo- 
ple." In  the  examination  of  Mr.  Arthur 
O'Connor  before  the  Secret  Committee,  we 
find  O'Connor  describing  the  proceedings  of 
the  Government  in  thise  terms  : — 


292 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


"  Finding  bow  necessary  it  was  to  have 
some  part  of  the  population  on  their  side, 
Ihey  had  recourse  to  the  old  religious  feuds, 
and  set  an  organization  of  Protestants, 
whose  fiinaticism  would  not  permit  them  to 
see  they  were  enlisted  under  the  banners  of 
religion,  to  fight  for  a  political  usurpation 
they  abhorred.  No-<3oubt,  by  these  means 
you  have  gained  a  temporary  aid,  but  by 
destroying  the  organization  of  the  Union, 
and  exasperating  the  great  body  of  the  peo- 
ple, you  will  one  day  pay  dearly  for  the  aid 
you  have  derived  from  this  temporary  shift. 

"  Committee. — Government  had  nothing  to 
do  with  the  Orange  system,  nor  their  extermi- 
nation. 

'  O'Cowior. — You,  my  lord,  (Castle- 
reagh)  from  the  station  you  fill,  must  be 
sensible  that  the  executive  of  any  country 
has  in  its  power  to  collect  a  vast  mass  of  in- 
formation, and  you  must  know  from  the 
secret  nature,  and  the  zeal  of  the  Union, 
that  its  executive  must  have  the  most  minute 
information  of  every  act  of  the  Irish  Gov- 
ernment. As  one  of  the  executive  it  came 
to  my  knowledge,  that  considerable  sums 
of  money  were  expended  throughout  the  na- 
tion in  endeavoring  to  extend  the  Orange 
system,  and  that  the  oath  of  extermuiation 
was  administered.  When  these  facts  are 
coupled,  not  only  with  general  impunity, 
which  has  been  uniformly  extended  towards 
the  acts  of  this  infernal  association,  but  the 
marked  encouragement  its  members  have  re- 
ceived from  Government,  I  find  it  impossible 
to  exculpate  the  Government  from  being  the 
parent  and  protector  of  these  sworn  extir- 
pators." 

In  common  fairness,  we  must  give  the 
Orange  body  the  benefit  of  whatever  credit 
can  possibly  be  accorded  to  their  own  denial 
of  their  alleged  oath  of  extermination.  Early 
in  this  year,  while  the  Government  was 
scourging  the  people  into  revolt,  certain 
Grand  Masters  of  the  Orangemen  met  in 
Dublin,  and  published  the  following  docu- 
ment : — 
"  To  the  Loyal  Subjects  of  Ireland  : 

"  From  the  various  attempts  that  have 
been  made  to  poison  the  public  mind,  and 
slander  those  who  have  had  the  spirit  to 
adhere  to  their  King  and  Constitution,  and 
to  maintain  the  laws, 


"  We,  the  Protestants  of  Dublin,  assuming 
the  name  of  Orangemen,  feel  ourselves  called 
upon,"  not  to  vindicate  our  principles,  for  we 
know  that  our  honor  and  loyalty  bid  de- 
fiance to  the  shafts  of  malevolence  and  dis- 
affection, but  openly  to  disavow  these  prin- 
ciples and  declare  to  the  world  the  objects 
of  our  institution. 

"  We  have  long  observed  with  indigna- 
tion, the  efforts  that  have  been  made  to 
foment  rebellion  in  this  kingdom,  by  the 
seditious,  who  have  formed  themselves  into 
societies  under  the  specious  name  of  United 
Irishmen. 

"  We  have  seen  with  pain  the  lower  or- 
ders of  our  fellow-subjects  forced  or  seduced 
from  their  allegiance,  by  the  threats  and 
machinations  of  traitors. 

"And  we  have  viewed  with  horror  the 
successful  exertions  of  miscreants  to  en- 
courage a  foreign  enemy  to  invade  this 
happy  land,  in  hopes  of  rising  into  conse- 
quence, on  the  downfall  of  their  country. 

"  We,  therefore,  thought  it  high  time  to 
rally  round  the  Constitution,  and  pledge 
ourselves  to  each  other  to  maintain  the  laws 
and  support  our  good  King  against  all  his 
enemies,  whether  rebels  to  their  God  or  to 
their  country,  and  by  so  doing,  show  to  the 
world  that  there  is  a  body  of  men  in  this 
island  who  are  ready  in  the  hour  of  danger 
to  stand  forward  in  the  defence  of  that  grand 
palladium  of  our  liberty,  the  Constitution  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  obtained  and 
established  by  the  courage  and  loyalty  of 
our  ancestors,  under  the  great  King  William. 

"  Fellow-subjects,  we  are  accused  of  being 
an  institution  founded  on  principles  too 
shocking  to  repeat,  and  bound  together  by 
oaths  at  which  human  nature  would  shudder  ; 
but  we  caution  you  not  to  be  led  away  by 
such  malevolent  falsehoods,  for  we  solemnly 
assure  you,  in  the  presence  of  tiie  Almighty 
God,  that  the  idea  of  injuring  any  one  on 
account  of  his  religious  ojpinions  never  en- 
tered into  onr  hearts!  We  regard  every  loyal 
subject  as  our  friend,  be  his  religion  what  it 
may,  we  have  no  enmity  but  to  the  enemies 
of  our  country. 

"  We  further  declare,  that  we  are  ready 
at  all  times  to  submit  ourselves  to  the  or- 
ders of  those  in  authority  under  His  Majesty, 
and  that  we  will  cheerfully  undertake  any 


ARRESTS   OF    U.    1.    CHIEFS   IN    DUBLIN. 


293 


duty  which  they  should  think  proper  to 
poiut  out  for  us,  in  case  either  a  foreign 
enemy  shall  dare  to  invade  our  coasts,  or 
that  a  domestic  foe  should  presume  to  raise 
the  standard  of  rebellion  in  the  land  ;  to 
these  principles  we  are  pledged,  and  in  sup- 
port of  them  we  are  ready  to  shed  the  last 
drop  of  our  blood. 

"  Sig-ned  by  order  of  the  several  lodges  in 
Dublin,  for  selves  and  other  Masters. 

"  Thomas  Yerner, 

"  Edward  Ball, 

"John  Claudius  Beresford, 

"  WiLUAM  James, 

"  Isaac  Dejoncourt. 
The  credit  which  can  be  given  to  this 
profession  of  principlts  is  much  diminished, 
or  reduced  to  nothing,  by  the  fact  already 
recorded,  that  immediately  on  the  establish- 
ment of  the  first  Orange  Lodges  in  Armagh 
County,  (the  first  of  the  above  addressers 
being  the  founder  and  first  Grand  Master) 
the  members  of  those  lodges  did  forthwith 
si't  themselves  to  tlie  task  of  extirpating  all 
their  Catholic  neighbors  ;  solely  because 
they  were  Catholics  ;  and  that  in  one  year 
they  had  slain,  or  driven  from  their  homes, 
fourteen  hundred  families,  or  seven  thousand 
individuals. 

It  is  further  notorious  that  the  Orange 
yeomanry  serving  in  Leinster,  were  amongst 
the  most  furious  and  savage  torturers  of  the 
people. 


CHAPTER    XXXIII. 

1798. 
Reynolds,  the  Informer — Arrests  of  U.  I.  Chiefs  in 
iJublin — The  Brothers  Sheares — Their  Efforts  to 
Delay  Explosion — Clare  and  Custlereagh  Resolve 
to  Hurry  it — Advance  of  the  Military — Half-Hang- 
ing— Pitch  Caps — Scourging — Judkin  Fitzgerald — 
Sir  John  Moore's  Testimony — His  Disgust  at  the 
Atrocities — General  Napier's  Testimony — Catholic 
Bishops  and  Peers  Profess  their  "  Loyalty  " — Arni- 
Btrong,  Informer — Arrest  of  the  Sheares — Arrest 
and  Death  of  Lord  Edward — Mr.  Emmet's  Evidence 
before  Secret  Committee  —  Insurrection  Breaks 
Out — Tlie  '23d  of  May— Naas— Prosperous — Kilcul- 
len — Proclamation  of  Lake— Of  the  Lord  Mayor  of 
Dublin — Skirmishes  at  Carlow — Hacketstown,  &c. 
— Insurgents  have  the  Advantage  at  Dunboyne— 
Attack  on  Carlow— Executions — Sir  E.  Crosbie — 
Massacre  at  Gibbet  Rath  of  Kildare — Slaughter  on 
Tara  Hill — Suppression  of  Insurrection  in  Kildare, 
Dublin .  and  Meath. 

The  Government  was  now  preparing  its 
master-stroke,  which  was  both  to  cause  a 


premature  explosion  of  the  insurrection,  and 
to  deprive  the  people   at  one   blow  of  their 
leaders,  both  civil  and  military.     There  ex- 
isted,   unfortunately,    at    that    period,    one 
Thomas  Reynolds,  a  silk  mercer  of  Dublin, 
who  had  purchased  an  estate  in  the  County 
of  Kildare,  called  Kilkea  Castle,  and  from 
the   fortune  he    had   acquired,  commanded 
considerable    influence    with    his    Catholic 
brethren.     Lord    Edward   Fitzgerald    and 
Oliver  Bond,  two  leaders  in  the  conspiracy, 
having,  for  these  reasons,  considered  him  a 
proper  person  to  assist  in  forwarding  their 
revolutionary  designs,  easily  attached  him  to 
their   cause  ;    and     having    succeeded,    he 
was    soon    after  sworn    an    United    Irish- 
man,   at    the    house    of    Oliver    Bond,    in 
Dublin  ;    in   the   year    1797,    he   accepted 
the     commission     of    colonel,    the    offices 
of  treasurer  and  representative  of  the  Coun- 
ty of  Kildare,  and  at  last  that  of  delegate 
for  the  province  of  Leinster.     He  had  mon- 
ey dealings  about  a  mortgage  "of  some  lands 
at  Castle  Jordan  with  a  Mr.  Cope,  a  Dublin 
merchant,  who  having  lamented  to  him,  in 
the  course  of  conversation,  the  undoubted 
symptoms  of  an  approaching  rebellion,  Mr. 
R.eynolds  said  that  he  knew  a  person  con- 
nected with  the  United  Irishmen,  who,  he 
believed,  would  defeat  their  nefarious  pro- 
jects, by  communicating  them  to  Govern- 
ment, in  order  to  make  an  atonement  for 
the  crime  he  had  committed  in  joining  them. 
Mr.  Cope  assured  him  that  such  a  person 
would  obtain  the  highest  honors  and  pecu- 
niary  rewards    that    administration    could 
confer.     In  short,  after  making  his  condi- 
tions, and  receiving  in  hand  five  hundred 
guineas  as  a  first  payment  on  account,  he 
told  Mr.  Cope  that  the   Leinster  delegates 
were  to  meet  at  Oliver  Bond's  on  the  12lh 
of  March,  to  concert  measures  for  an  insur- 
rection which  was  shortly   to  take  place, 
but  did  not  at  that  time  acknowledge  that 
the  information  came  directly  from  iiim,  but 
insinuated  that  it  was  imparted  by  a  third 
person. 

In  consequence  of  this,  Justice  Swan,  at- 
tended by  twelve  sergeants  in  colored 
clothes,  arrested  the  Leinster  delegates, 
thirteen  in  number,  while  sitting  in  council 
in  the  house  of  Oliver  Bond,  in  Bridge 
street,  on  the    12th  of  March,   1798,  and 


294 


histohy  or  ikei-and. 


seized  several  of  tbeir  papers,  which  led  to 
the  discovery  of  all  their  plans  ;  and  on  the 
same  day  Messrs.  Emmet,  M'Neven,  Bond, 
Sweetraaii,  Henry  Jackson,  and  Hugh  Jack- 
son were  arrested  and  taken  into  custody  ; 
and  warrants  were  granted  against  Lord 
Edward  Fitzgerald  and  Messrs.  M'Cormick 
and  Sampson,  who,  having  notice  thereof, 
made  their  escape.* 

Tiie  leaders  did  not  intend  to  make  an 
insurrection  till  the  French  came  to  their 
assistance  ;  and  they  meant  in  the  mean- 
time to  continue  to  increase  their  numbers, 
and  to  add  to  their  stock  of  arms. 

On  the  removal  of  so  many  valuable  lead- 
ers everything  was  done  that  could  be  done 
to  repair  the  loss,  and  to  keep  the  United 
Irishmen  quiet  ;  for  it  was  now  very  well 
understood  that  the  design  of  the  Govern- 
ment was  to  provoke  a  premature  explosion. 
The  two  brothers  Sheares,  Henry  and  John, 
both  barristers,  and  gentlemen  of  high 
character  and  excellent  education,  took 
charge  of  the  government  of  the  Leinster 
Societies.  A  handbill  was  immediately 
circulated,  to  keep  up  the  spirits  of  the 
people,  cautioning  them  against  being  either 
"  goaded  into  untimely  violence  or  sunk  into 
pusillanimous  despondency."  The  hand- 
bill concluded  thus  :  "  Be  firm.  Irishmen  ; 
but  be  cool  and  cautious.  Be  patient  yet 
awhile.  Trust  to  no  unauthorized  commu- 
nication; and  above  all,  we  warn  you — again 
and  again  we  warn  you — against  doing  the 
work  of  your  tyrants  by  premature,  by  par- 
tial or  divided  exertion.  If  Ireland  shall  be 
forced  to  throw  away  the  scabbard,  let  it  be 
at  her  own  time,  not  theirs." 

But  Lords  Camden,  Clare,  and  Castle- 
reagh  were  determined  that  it  should  be  at 
their  time.  Universal  military  executions 
and  "free  quarters"  were  at  once  pro- 
claimed all  over  the  country. 

It  is  difficult  to  detail  with  due  historic 
coolness  the  horrors  which  followed  the 
proclamation  of  the  30th  of  March;  nor  can 
we  wonder  that  Dr.  Madden  expresses  him- 

*  A  few  days  after  these  arrests  there  was  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Provincial  Committee  at  the  "  Brazen  Head 
Hotel."  It  was  there  proposed,  by  a  man  named 
Reynolds,  a  distant  relative  of  the  traitor,  that  Thom- 
as Reynolds  should  be  put  out  of  the  way — that  is, 
a.ssassinated.  The  proposal  was  rejected  unani- 
mously.   Madden,  1st  Series. 


self  thus  upon  the  occasion  :  "  Tiie  rebel- 
lion did  not  break  out  till  May,  1798,  and, 
to  use  the  memorable  words  of  Lord  Castle- 
reagh,  even  then  '  measures  were  taken  by 
Government  to  cause  its  premature  exph> 
sion  ; '  words  which  include  the  craft,  cru- 
elty, and  cold-blooded,  deliberate  wicked- 
ness of  the  politics  of  a  Machiavelli,  the 
principles  of  a  Thug,  and  the  perverted 
tastes  and  feelings  of  a  eunuch  in  the  exer- 
cise of  power  and  authority,  displayed  in 
acts  of  sly  malignity  and  stealthy,  vindictive 
turpitude,  perpetrated  on  pretence  of  serving 
purposes  of  state." 

Besides,  Lord  Castlereagh,  if  he  was  really 
the  chief  adviser  of  those  measures  to  cause 
a  premature  explosion,  was  not  the  only  per- 
son who  approved  of  them.  The  same  Se- 
cret Committee  whose  report  is  so  often 
cited,  states,  "  that  it  appears,  from  a  va- 
riety of  evidence  laid  before  your  committee, 
that  the  rebellion  would  not  have  broken 
out  as  soon  as  it  did  had  it  not  been  for  the 
wdl-timed  measures  adopted  by  Government 
subsequent  to  the  proclamation  of  the  Lord- 
Lieutenant  and  Council,  bearing  date  30th 
of  March,  1798."  It  is  necessary  to  ascer- 
tain what  these  well-timed  measures  were. 
On  the  examination  of  the  state  prisoners 
before  this  committee  in  August,  1798,  the 
Lord-Chancellor  put  the  following  question 
to  Mr.  Emmet :  "  Pray,  Mr.  Emmet,  what 
caused  the  late  insurrection?"  To  which 
Mr.  Emmet  replied  :  "  The  free  quarters, 
house-burnings,  tortures,  and  the  military 
executions  in  the  counties  of  Kildare,  Car- 
low,  and  Wicklow!"  Messrs.  M'Xeven 
and  O'Connor  gave  similar  replies  to  the 
same  query. 

However  that  may  be,  it  remains  now  to 
give  something  like  a  connected  narrative  of 
what  was  actually  done,  and  how  the  pre- 
mature explosion  did  burst  out.* 

The  proclamation,  which  was  published 
on  the  30th  of  March,  declared  that  a  trai- 
torous conspiracy,  existing  'within  the  king- 
dom for  the  destruction  of  tlie  established 
government,  had  been  considerably  extend- 

*  The  authorities  for  this  period  are  numerous — 
Sir  Richard  Musgrave,  Hay,  Gordon,  Miles  Byrne, 
&c., — for  County  Wexford.  In  the  text,  we  adopt  in 
the  main  the  narrative  of  Plowden,  checking  it  where 
needful  by  the  documents  assembled  together  by 
Madden,  Lord  Camden's  dispatches,  <fcc. 


HALF-HANGING PITCH    CAPS. 


295 


ed,  iiiid  had  manifested  itself  in  acts  of  open 
violence  and  rebellion  ;  and  that,  iu  conse- 
queuce  thereof,  the  most  direct  and  positive 
orders  had  been  issued  to  the  officers  com- 
mandinir  his  Majesty's  forces  to  employ  them 
with  the  utmost  vig-or  and  decision  for  the 
immediate  suppression  of  that  conspiracy, 
and  for  the  disarming  of  the  rebels  and  all 
disaffected  persons,  by  the  most  summary 
and  effectual  measures.  To  Sir  Ralph 
Abercrombie,  then  chief  commander  of  the 
forces,  orders  were  issued  from  the  Lord-Lieu- 
tenant to  proceed  with  his  army  into  the 
disturbed  counties,  vested  with  full  powers 
to  act  according  to  his  discretion  for  the  at- 
tainment of  the  proposed  object.  A  mani- 
festo, dated  from  his  headquarters  at  Kil- 
dare,  the  3d  of  April,  was  addressed  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  county  by  the  General, 
requiring  them  to  surrender  their  arms  iu 
the  space  of  ten  days  from  the  date  of  the 
notice,  threatening,  in  case  of  non-compli- 
ance, to  distribute  large  bodies  of  troops 
among  them  to  live  at  free  quarters — pro- 
mising rewards  to  such  as  would  give  infor- 
mation of  concealed  arms  or  ammunition — 
and  announcing  his  resolution  of  recurring 
to  other  severities  if  the  county  should  still 
continue  in  a  disturbed  state. 

On  the  advance  of  the  military  into  each 
county,  the  same  notice  was  given  to  its  in- 
habitants, and  at  the  expiration  of  the  term 
prescribed  the  troops  were  quartered  on  the 
liouses  of  the  disaffected  or  suspected,  in  num- 
bers proportionecj  to  the  supposed  guilt  and 
ability  of  the  owners,  whose  pecuniary  cir- 
cumstances were  often  deeply  injured  by  the 
maintenance  of  the  soldiery,  and  the  waste 
which  was  otherwise  made  of  their  effects. 
Numbers  of  houses,  with  their  furniture, 
were  burned,  in  which  concealed  arms  had 
been  found,  in  which  meetings  of  the  Union 
bad  ])een  holden,  or  whose  occupants  had 
been  guilty  of  the  fabrication  of  pikes,  or 
had  been  suspected  of  other  practices  for  the 
promotion  of  the  conspiracy.  Numbers 
were  daily  scourged,  picqueted,  or  other- 
wise put  to  pain,  to  force  confessions  of  con- 
cealed arms  or  plots.  Outrageous  acts  of 
severity  were  ofteu  committed  by  persons 
not  in  the  regular  troops — some  from  an  un- 
feigned and  others  from  an  affected  zeal  for 
the  service  of  the  Crown.     These  various 


vexations  amounted  on  the  whole  to  such  a 
mass  of  disquietude  and  distress  that  the 
exhortations  of  the  chiefs  to  bear  their  evil.s 
with  steady  patience,  until  an  opportunity 
of  successful  insurrection  should  occur, 
proved  vain  with  the  lower  classes. 

To  authorize  the  burning  of  houses  and 
furniture,  the  wisdom  of  administration  may 
have  seen  as  good  reason  as  for  other  acts 
of  severity,  though  to  many  that  reason  was 
not  clear.  These  burnings,  doubtless,  caused 
no  small  terror  and  consternation  to  the  dis- 
affected ;  but  they  caused  also  a  loss  to  the 
community  at  large,  rendered  many  quite 
desperate  who  were  deprived  of  their  all, 
augmented  the  violence  of  hatred  in  those 
among  whom  those  houseless  people  took 
refuge.  Men  imprisoned  on  suspicion,  or  pri- 
vate information,  were  sometimes  half 
hanged,  or  strangled  almost  to  death,  be- 
fore their  guilt  or  iimocence  could  be  ascer- 
tained by  trial.  Reflecting  loyalists  were 
much  concerned  at  the  permission  or  impu- 
nity of  such  acts,  which  tended  strongly  to 
confirm  the  p:  ^judices  already  so  laboriously 
excited  by  the  emissaries  of  revolution. 

Among  the  causes  which,  in  the  troubled 
interval  of  time  previous  to  the  grand  insur- 
rection, contributed  to  the  general  uneasi- 
ness, were  the  insults  practised  by  pretended 
zealots,  to  the  annoyance  of  the  truest  loy- 
alists as  well  as  malcontents,  on  persons  who 
wore  their  hair  short,  or  happened  to  have 
any  part  of  their  apparel  of  a  green  color, 
both  of  which  were  considered  as  emblems 
of  republican  or  of  a  revolutionary  spirit. 
The  term  crojpTpy  was  adopted  to  signify  a 
revolutionist,  or  an  enemy  to  the  established 
government.  Persons  of  malevolent  minds 
took  advantage  of  these  circumstances  to 
indulge  their  general  malignity  or  private 
malice,  when  they  could  with  impunity.  Ou 
the  heads  of  many,  who  were  selected  as  ob- 
jects of  outrage,  were  fixed  by  these  pre^ 
tended  loyalists  caps  of  coarse  linen  or  strong 
brown  paper,  smeared  with  pitch  on  the  in- 
side, which  in  some  instances  adhered  so 
firmly  as  not  to  be  disengaged  without  a 
laceration  of  the  hair,  and  even  skin.  On  the 
other  side,  several  of  the  united  party  made 
it  a  practice  to  seize  violently  such  as  they 
thought  proper  or  were  able,  and  cropped 
or  cut  their  hair  short,  which  rendered  them 


296 


mSTOEY   OF   IBELAND. 


liable  to  the  outrage  of  the  pitched  cap  of 
those  pretended  strenuous  partisans  of  the 
Constitution.  Handkerchiefs,  ribbons,  even 
a  sprig  of  myrtle  and  other  parts  of  dress 
marked  with  tlie  obnoxious  color,  were  torn 
or  cut  away  from  females  unconscious  of 
disloyalty,  and  undesignedly  bearing  the 
imaginary  badge.  Various  other  violent 
acts  were  committed,  so  far  as  to  cut  away 
pieces  of  men's  ears,  even  sometimes  the 
whole  ear,  or  a  part  of  the  nose  ;  nor  could 
the  staunchest  loyalist  be  certain  always  of 
exemption  from  insult  by  being  clear  of  all 
imagituiry  marks  of  disloyalty  ;  for  on  the 
arrival  of  a  detachment  of  the  army  in  any 
part  of  the  country  where  the  inhabitants 
were  known  to  the  officers  and  soldiers, 
which  was  almost  always  the  case,  private 
malice  was  aj)t  to  convey  in  whispers  false 
intelligence,  marking  individuals,  perhaps 
the  bt'St  m(!mbers  of  society,  as  proper  ob- 
jects of  military  outrage,  and  they  suffered 
accordingly. 

By  the  system  of  secret  accusation  and 
espionage,  thus  universally  adopted,  with 
other  extraordinary  measures,  iu  this  dan- 
gerous crisis.  Government  made  ample  room 
for  the  exertions  of  private  malice.  Magis- 
trates and  military  officers  were  empowered 
to  receive  informations,  to  keep  the  names 
of  the  informers  profoundly  secret,  and  pro- 
ceed against  the  accused  according  to  dis- 
cretion. 

One  case  deserves  particular  mention, 
not  because  of  its  peculiar  atrocity — for 
there  were  very  many  such, — but  on  ac- 
count of  the  very  singular  fact  that  the  per- 
petrator was  afterwards  punished  by  law. 
It  is  thus  recorded  by  Mr.  Gordon,  a  Pro- 
testant clergyman,  iu  his  History  of  the 
Rebellion  : — 

"Thomas  Fitzgerald,  High  Sheriff  of 
Tipperary,  seized  at  Clonmel  a  gentleman 
of  the  name  of  Wright,  against  whom  no 
grounds  of  suspicion  could  be  conjectured 
by  liis  neighbors,  caused  five  hundred  lashes 
to  be  inflicted  on  him  in  the  severest  mau- 
iier,  and  confined  him  several  days  without 
permitting  his  wounds  to  be  dressed,  so  that 
bis  recovery  from  such  a  state  of  torture  and 
laceration  could  hardly  be  expected.  In  a 
trial  at  law,  after  the  rebellion,  on  an  action 
of  damages  brought  by  Wright  against  this 


magistrate,  the  innocence  of  the  plaintiff  ap- 
peared so  manifest,  even  at  a  time  when 
prejudices  ran  amazingly  high  against  per- 
sons accused  of  disloyalty,  that  the  defend- 
ant was  condemned  to  pay  five  hundred 
pounds  to  his  prosecutor.  Many  other  ac- 
tions of  damages  on  similar  grounds  would 
have  been  commenced  if  the  Parliament  had 
not  put  a  stop  to  such  proceedings  by  an 
act  of  indemnity  for  all  errors  committed  by 
magistrates  from  supposed  zeal  for  the  pub- 
lic service.  A  ktter  written  in  the.  French 
language,  found  in  the  pocket  of  Wright, 
was  hastily  considered  a  proof  of  guilt, 
though  the  letter  was  of  a  perfectly  inno- 
cent nature." 

This  was  the  same  Fitzgerald  whom  the 
good  and  gallant  Sir  John  Moore  saw  once 
in  the  village  of  Clogheen  engaged  in  his 
favorite  pursuit.  Sir  John  Moore  had  the 
misfortune,  like  Abercroml)ie,  to  hold  a 
command  in  that  army  of  military  execu- 
tion ;  and  on  his  march  from  Fermoy,  en- 
tering the  town  of  Clogheen,  he  saw  a  man 
tied  up  and  under  the  lash,  while  the  street 
itself  was  lined  with  counti-y  people  on  their 
kaees,  with  their  hats  off ;  nor  was  his  dis- 
gust repressed  when  he  was  informed  that 
the  High  Sheriff,  Mr.  Fitzgerxld,  was  mak- 
ing great  discoveries,  and  that  he  had  al- 
ready flogged  the  truth  out  of  many  re- 
spectable persons.  His  rule  was  "  to  flog 
each  person  till  he  told  the  truth." 

The  brave  Sir  John  Moore  has  borne 
ample  testimony  to  the  barbarity  of  the 
policy  he  had  witnessed  in  Ireland  pursued 
by  the  authorities,  and  the  revenge  the 
Orange  gentry  and  yeomen  indulged  iu  upon 
the  poor.  In  speaking  of  Wicklow,  where 
Sir  John  had  been  chiefly  employed,  he 
states  his  opinion,  "  that  moderate  treat- 
ment by  the  generals,  and  the  preventing  of 
the  troops  from  pillaging  and  molesting  the 
people  would  soon  restore  tranquillity,  and 
the  latter  would  certainly  be  quiet  if  the 
gentry  and  yeomen  would  only  behave  with 
tolerable  decency,  and  not  seek  to  gratify 
their  ill-humor  and  revenge  upon  the 
poor."  * 

Major-General  William  Napier,  comment- 
ing in  the  Edinburgh  Review  on  the  life  of 

*  Review  in  the  Edinburgh  of  Life  of  Sir  J.  Moore. 
The  reviewer  was  General  Wm.  Napier. 


ARMSTRONG,    INFORMER ARREST    OF   THE    SHEARES. 


297 


Sir  John  Moore,  and  the  inciiujuiition  he  hnd 
always  expressed  at  such  atrocious  cruelty 
to  the  poor  people,  takes  occasion  to  give 
his  own  recollections  of  the  period.  lie 
exclaims  :  "  What  manner  of  soldiers  were 
thus  let  loose  upon  the  wretched  districts 
which  the  Ascendency-men  were  pleased  to 
call  disnjfeded  ?  They  were  men,  to  use  the 
venerable  Abercromhie's  words,  who  were 
'formidable  to  everybody  but  the  enemy.' 
We  ourselves  were  younj;:  at  the  time  ;  yet, 
being  coimected  with  the  army,  we  were 
continually  amongst  the  soldiers,  listening 
with  boyish  eagerness  to  their  conversation, 
and  we  well  remember — and  with  horror 
to  this  day — the  tales  of  lust,  and  blood, 
and  pillage — the  record  of  their  own  actions 
against  the  miserable  peasantry — which  they 
used  to  relate."  And  it  is  important  to  re- 
member that  all  this  while  there  was  no  in- 
surrection. True,  insurrection  was  intended 
and  longed  for  ;  but  the  people  were  then 
neither  ready  nor  inclined  to  turn  out  and 
fight  the  King's  troops.  They  knew  well 
that  they  needed  a  small  organized  force  of 
regular  troops  to  form  a  nucleus  of  an  army, 
and  were  still  waiting  and  looking  out  for 
the  French. 

In  the  very  midst  of  the  horrible  scourg- 
ing oppression  which  was  thus  driving  the 
people  to  madness,  one  can  derive  no  pleas- 
ure from  the  fact  that  Catholic  bishops  and 
peers  took  that  very  time  to  testify  their 
loyalty,  their  attachment  to  the  English 
Throne,  and  their  detestation  of  rebellion. 
On  the  6th  of  May,  the  Lords  Fingal,  Gor- 
manstown,  Southwell,  Kenmare,  Sir  Edward 
Bellew,  and  fortj'-one  other  noblemen,  gen- 
tlemen, and  professors  of  divinity,  including 
Bishop  Hnssey,  President  of  Maynooth, 
published  a  declaration  under  their  signa- 
tures, "  with  a  view,"  says  Mr.  Plowden,  "  of 
rescuing  their  body  from  the  imputation  of 
abetting  and  favoring  rebellion  and  treason." 
The  document  was  thus  addressed :  "  To 
such  of  the  deluded  peo])le  now  in  rebellion 
against  His  Majesty's  Government  in  this 
kingdom  as  profess  the  Roman  Catholic  re- 
ligion." Those  doctors  of  divinity  could 
vilify  rebels  very  much  at  their  ease  ;  but 
if  one  of  them  had  found  himself  in  the  po- 
sition of  Father  John  Mnrphy,  when,  on  a 
certain  day  in  this  same  mouth  of  May,  re- 


tui'uin^  to  his  home,  he  found  his  house  and 
his  hunibl(>  chapel  of  Boolavogue  smoking 
in  ruins,  and  his  poor  parishioners  crowding 
round  him  in  wild  affright,  not  daring  to  go 
even  to  the  neighborhood  of  their  ruined 
homes,  "for  fear  of  being  whipped,  burned, 
or  exterminated  by  the  Orangemen,  hearing 
of  the  number  of  people  that  were  put  to 
death  uiuu-med  and  unoffending  through  the 
country  " — one  would  be  curious  to  know 
what  that  doctor  of  divinity  would  have 
done  upon  such  an  emergency.  Probably 
very  much  as  Father  John  did. 

A  certain  Captain  Armstrong,  an  officer 
of  the  Kildare  militia,  a  man  of  some  landed 
property  and  decent  position  in  society,  was 
the  person  who  now  undertook  to  act  the 
part  of  Reynolds,  and  serve  as  a  spy  upon 
the  brothers  John  and  Henry  Sheaves. 
Armstrong  gained  access  to  the  confidence, 
and  even  intimacy,  of  the  Sheares,  not  only 
by  his  agreeuljle  social  qualities,  but  by  his 
pretended  zeal  in  the  cause  to  which  they 
were  devoted.  He  dined  with  the  two 
brothers,  at  their  house  in  Baggot  street,  on 
the  20th  of  May :  the  next  morning  they 
were  both  arrested.  Doctor  Madden  says 
of  this  transaction:  "Captain  Armstrong, 
in  his  evidence  on  the  trial  of  the  Sheares, 
did  not  thitdv  it  necessary  to  state  that  at 
his  Sunday's  interview  (May  20th,  1798,) 
he  shared  the  hospitality  of  his  victims  ; 
that  he  dined  with  them,  sat  in  the  company 
of  their  aged  mother  and  affectionate  sister, 
enjoyed  the  society  of  the  accomplished 
wife  of  one  of  them,  caressed  his  infant  chil- 
dren, and  on  another  occasion — referred  to 
by  Mi.ss  Steele — was  entertained  with  music 
— the  wife  of  the  unfortunate  man,  whose 
children  he  was  to  leave  in  a  few  days  fath- 
erless, playing  on  the  harp  for  his  entertain- 
ment !  These  things  are  almost  too  horri- 
ble to  think  on. 

"  Armstrong,  after  dining  with  his  victims 
on  Sunday,  returned  to  their  house  no  more. 
This  was  the  last  time  the  cloven  foot  of 
treacheiy  passed  the  threshold  of  the 
Sheares.  On  the  following  morning  they 
were  arrested  and  committed  to  Kilmaiu- 
ham  jail.  The  terrible  iniquity  of  Arm- 
strong's conduct  on  that  Sunday — when  he 
dined  with  his  victims,  sat  in  social  inter- 
course with  their  families  a  few  hours  only 


298 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


before  he  was  aware  his  treachery  would 
have  brought  ruiu  on  that  household, — is 
unparalleled." 

We  may  mention  liere,  parenthetically, 
that  Captain  Armstrong,  after  having 
hanged  his  hospitable  eiitertainers  of  Bag- 
got  street,  lived  himself  to  a  good  old  age 
(he  died  in  1858)  ;,  but  in  his  interview 
with  Dr.  Madden,  touching  some  alleged 
inaccuracies  in  the  work  of  the  latter,  he 
denied  having  caressed  any  children  at 
Sheares'.  He  said  "  lie  never  recollected 
having  seen  the  children  at  all  ;  but  there 
was  a  young  lady  of  about  fifteen  there, 
whom  he  met  at  dinner.  The  day  he  dined 
there  (and  he  dined  there  only  once)  he  was 
urged  by  Lord  Castlereagh  to  do  so.  It 
was  wrong  to  do  so,  and  he  (Captain  Arm- 
strong) was  sorry  for  it ;  but  he  was  per- 
suaded by  Lord  Castlereagh  to  go  there  to 
dine,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  further  in- 
formation." 

Perhaps  the  history  of  no  other  country 
can  show  us  an  example  of  the  first  minister 
of  state  personally  exhorting  his  spies  to  go 
to  a  gentleman's  house  and  mingle  with  his 
family  in  social  intercourse,  in  order  to  pro- 
cure eviden(!e  to  hang  him.  However,  his 
lordship  did  procure  the  information  he 
wanted.  He  found  that  the  leaders  of  tlie 
United  Irishmen,  being  at  length  convinced 
of  the  impossibility  of  restraining  the  people 
and  keeping  them  quiet  under  such  intolera- 
ble tyranny,  had  decided  on  a  general  rising 
for  the  23d  of  May. 

The  whole  of  the  United  Irishmen 
throughout  the  kingdom,  or  at  least 
throughont  the  province  of  Leinster,  were 
to  act  at  once  in  concert ;  and  it  was  their 
intention  to  seize  the  camp  of  Loughlins- 
tovvn,  the  artillery  of  Chapel-izod,  and  the 
CasUe  of  Dublin,  in  one  night — the  23d  of 
May.  One  hour  was  to  be  allowed  between 
seizing  the  camp  of  Loughlinstown  and  the 
artillery  at  Chapel  izud  ;  and  one  hour  and 
a  half  between  seizing  the  artillery  and  sur- 
prising the  Castle  ;  and  the  parties  who  ex- 
ecuted both  of  the  external  plans  were  to 
enter  the  city  of  Dublin  at  the  same  mo- 
ment. The  stopping  of  the  mail  coaches  was 
to  be  the  signal  for  the  insurgents  every- 
where to  cwmuunce  their  operations.  It 
was  also  planned  that  a  great  insurrection 


should  take  place  at  Cork  at  the  same  time. 
The  united  men  were,  however,  at  that  pe- 
riod, not  exactly  agreed  as  to  the  nature  of 
the  insurrection  Mr.  Samuel  Neilson,  with 
some  other  of  the  leaders,  were  bent  upon 
attacking  first  the  county  jail  of  Kilnininhara 
and  the  jail  of  Newgate,  in  order  to  set  their 
comrades  at  liberty  ;  and  the  project  for 
attacking  the  latter  was  also  fixed  for  the 
23d  of  May,  the  night  of  the  general  insur- 
rection. The  Sheares,  however,  and  others 
were  of  a  contrary  opinion,  and  they  wished 
to  defer  the  attack  on  the  jails  till  after  the 
general  iusurrection  had  taken  place. 

Although  the  Government  had  been  long 
in  possession,  through  the  communications 
of  Reynolds,  Armstrong,  and  other  inform- 
ers, of  all  the  particulars  of  the  conspiracy, 
they  had  hitherto  permitted  or  encouraged 
its  progress,  in  order,  as  it  has  been  alleged, 
that  the  suppression  of  it  might  be  effected 
with  more  eclat  and  terror.  As  the  ex- 
pected explosion,  however,  now  drew  so 
near,  it  was  found  to  be  necessary  to  arrest 
several  of  the  principal  leaders,  who  might 
give  direction,  energy,  and  effect  to  the  in- 
surrection. Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  had 
concealed  himself  since  the  12th  of  March  ; 
and,  on  the  18th  of  May,  Major  Sirr  having 
received  information  that  he  would  pass 
through  Watling  street  that  night,  and  be 
preceded  by  a  chosen  band  of  traitors  as  au 
advanced  guard,  and  that  he  would  be  ac- 
companied by  another,  repaired  thither,  at- 
tended by  Captain  Ryan,  Mr.  Emerson,  of 
the  attorneys'  corps,  and  a  few  soldiers  in 
colored  clothes.  They  met  the  party  which 
preceded  him,  and  had  a  skirmish  with  them 
on  the  quay  at  the  end  of  Watling  street, 
in  which  some  shots  were  exchanged  ;  and 
they  took  one  of  them  prisoner,  who  called 
himself  at  one  time  Jameson,  at  another 
time  Brand. 

The  arrest  of  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald 
was  effected  next  day,  the  19th  of  May. 

Government  having  received  information 
that  he  had  arrived  in  Dublin,  and  was 
lodged  in  the  house  of  one  Murphy,  a  feath- 
erman  in  Thomas  street,  sent  Major  Sirr  to 
arrest  him.  He,  attended  by  Captain  Swan, 
of  the  revenue  corps,  and  Cuptain  Ryan,  of 
the  Sepulchre's,  and  eiglit  soldiers  disguised, 
about  five  o'clock  in  the  evening  repaired  in 


ARREST  AND  DEATH  OF  LORD  EDWARD. 


209 


coaches  to  Murphy's  house.  While  they 
were  posting  the  soldiers  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  au  escape, 
Captain  Swan  perceiving  a  woman  running 
hastily  up  stairs,  for  the  purpose,  as  he  sup- 
posed, of  alarming  I;ord  Edward,  followed 
ber  with  the  utmost  speed  ;  and,  on  enter- 
ing an  apartment,  found  Lord  Edward  lying 
on  a  bed,  in  his  dressing  jacket.  He  ap- 
proached the  bed  and  informed  his  lordship 
that  he  had  a  warrant  against  him,  and  that 
resistance  would  be  vain  ;  assuring  him  at 
the  same  time  that  he  would  treat  him  with 
the  utmost  respect. 

Lord  Edward  sprang  from  the  bed  and 
snapped  a  pistol,  which  missed  fire,  at  Cap- 
tain Swan  ;  he  then  closed  with  him,  drew 
a  dagger,  gave  him  a  wound  in  the  hand, 
and  ditferent  wounds  in  his  body  ;  one  of 
them,  under  the  ribs,  was  deep  and  danger- 
ous, and  bled  most  copiously. 

At  that  moment,  Captain  Ryan  entered, 
and  missed  fire  at  Lord  Edward  with  a 
pocket  pistol  ;  on  which  he  made  a  lunge  at 
him  with  a  sword  cane,  which  bent  on  his 
ribs,  but  affected  him  so  much  that  he  threw 
himself  on  the  bed  ;  and.  Captain  Ryan 
having  thrown  himself  on  him,  a  violent 
scuffle  ensued,  during  which  Lord  Edward 
drew  a  dagger  and  plunged  it  into  his  side. 
They  then  fell  on  the  ground,  where  Cap- 
tain Ryan  received  many  desperate  wounds  ; 
one  of  which,  in  the  lower  part  of  his  belly, 
was  so  large  that  his  bowels  fell  out  on  the 
floor.  Major  Sirr,  having  entered  the 
room,  saw  Captain  Swan  bleeding,  and 
Lord  Edward  advancing  towards  the  door, 
while  Captain  Ryan,  weltering  in  blood  on 
the  floor,  was  holding  him  by  one  leg  and 
Swan  by  the  other.  He,  therefore,  fired 
his  pistol  at  Lord  Edward,  wounding  him  in 
the  shoulder.  His  lordsliip  then,  quite 
overpowered,  surrendered  himself.  He  was 
conveyed  at  once  to  the  Castle.  This  was 
two  days  before  the  arrest  of  the  Sheares. 
In  their  house  in  Baggot  street  was  found  a 
rough  draft  of  a  proclamation,  which  seems 
to  have  been  intended  for  publication  on  the 
morning  after  taking  possession  of  Dublin. 
It  is  violent  and  vindictive,  though  not 
approaching  in  atrocity  to  the  actual  scenes 
which  were  then  daily  enacted  under  the 
auspices  uf  Goverumeat.     Still,  having  been 


published  by  the  Government,  and  being 
authentic,  (at  least  as  a  rough  draft,)  it 
forms  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  times. 
It  is  in  these  words  : — 

"  Irishmen,  your  country  is  free,  and  you 
are  about  to  be  avenged.  That  vile  Gov- 
ernment, which  has  so  long  and  so  cruelly 
oppressed  you,  is  no  more.  Some  of  its 
most  atrocious  monsters  have  already  paid 
the  forfeit  of  their  lives,  and  the  rest  are  in 
our  hands.  The  national  flag — the  sacred 
green — is  at  this  moment  flying  over  the 
ruins  of  despotism  ;  and  that  capital,  which 
a  few  hours  past  had  witnessed  the  de- 
bauchery, the  plots,  and  the  crimes  of  your 
tyrants,  is  now  the  citadel  of  triumphant 
patriotism  and  virtue.  Arise  then,  united 
sons  of  Ireland — arise  iike  a  great  and  pow- 
erful people,  to  live  free,  or  die.  Arm  your- 
selves by  every  means  in  your  power,  and 
rush  like  lions  on  your  foes.  Consider,  that 
for  every  enemy  you  disarm  you  arm  a 
friend,  and  thus  become  doubly  powerful. 
In  the  cause  of  liberty,  inaction  is  coward- 
ice, and  the  coward  shall  forfeit  the  property 
he  has  not  the  courage  to  protect.  Let  his 
arms  be  secured  and  transferred  to  those 
gallant  spirits  who  want  and  will  use  them. 
Yes,  Irishmen,  we  swear  by  that  eternal 
justice,  in  whose  cause  you  tight,  that  the 
brave  patriot  who  survives  the  present  glo- 
rious struggle,  and  the  family  of  him  who 
has  fallen,  or  hereafter  shall  fall  in  it,  shall 
receive  from  the  hands  of  the  grateful  nation 
an  ample  recompense  out  of  that  property 
which  the  crimes  of  our  enemies  have  for- 
feited into  its  hands  ;  and  his  name  shall  be 
inscribed  on  the  great  national  record  of 
Irish  revolution,  as  a  glorious  example  to  all 
posterity  ;  but  we  likewise  swear  to  punish 
robbery  with  death  and  infamy.  We  also 
swear  that  we  will  never  sheath  the  sword 
till  every  being  in  the  country  is  restored  to 
those  equal  rights  which  the  God  of  nature 
has  given  to  all  men  ;  until  an  order  of 
things  shall  be  established  in  which  no  supe- 
riority shall  be  acknowledged  among  the 
citizens  of  Erin  but  that  of  virtue  and  tal- 
ents. As  for  those  degenerate  wretches 
who  turn  their  swords  against  their  native 
country,  the  national  vengeance  awaits  them. 
Let  them  find  no  quarter,  unless  they  shall 
prove  their  repentance  by  speedily  exchaug- 


300 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


iiig  the  standa''d  of  slavery  for  that  of  free 
flora,  under  which  their  former  errors  may 
be  buried,  and  they  may  sliare  the  glory 
and  advantages  tliat  are  due  to  the  patriot 
bands  of  Ireland.  Many  of  the  military  feel 
the  love  of  liberty  glow  within  their  breasts, 
and  have  joined  the  national  standard.  Re- 
ceive with  open  arras^^such  as  shall  follow  so 
glorious  an  example.  They  can  render  sig- 
nal service  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  and 
shall  be  rewarded  according  to  their  deserts. 
But,  for  the  wretch  who  turns  his  sword 
against  his  native  country,  let  the  national 
vengeance  be  visited  on  him  ;  let  him  find 
110    quarter.      Two   other   crimes    demand 

Rouse   all  energies  of  your 

souls  ;  call  forth  all  the  merits  and  abilities 
which  a  vicious  government  consigned  to 
obscurity  ;  and,  under  the  conduct  of  your 
chosen  leaders,  march  with  a  steady  step  to 
victory.  Heed  not  the  glare  of  hired  sol- 
diery, or  aristocratic  yeomanry  ;  they  can- 
not stand  the  vigorous  shock  of  freedom. 
Their  trappings  and  their  arras  will  soon  be 
yours  ;  and  the  detested  Government  of 
England,  to  which  we  vow  eternal  hatred, 
shall  learn  that  the  treasures  it  exhausts  on 
its  accoutred  slaves,  for  the  purpose  of 
butchering  Irishmen,  shall  but  further  ena- 
ble us  to  turn  their  swords  on  its  devoted 
head.  Attack  them  in  every  direction,  by 
day  and  by  night.  Avail  yourselves  of  the 
natural  advantages  of  your  country,  which  are 
innumerable,  and  with  which  you  are  better 
acquainted  than  they.  Where  you  caimot 
oppose  them  in  full  force,  constantly  harass 
their  rear  and  their  flanlvs.  Cut  off  their 
provisions  and  magazines,  and  prevent  them 
as  much  as  possible  from  uniting  their  forces. 
Let  whatever  moments  you  cannot  devote 
to  fighting  for  your  country  be  passed  in 
learning  how  to  fight  for  it,  or  preparing 
the  means  of  war  ;  for  war,  war  alone  must 
occupy  every  mind  and  every  hand  in  Ire- 
land, until  its  long-oppressed  soil  be  purged 
of  all  its  enemies.  Vengeance,  Irishmen  ! 
Vengeance  on  your  oppressors  !  Remember 
what  thousands  of  your  dearest  friends  have 
perished  by  their  merciless  orders.  Remera- 
ber  their  burnings,  their  rackings,  their  tor- 
turings,  their  military  massacres,  and  their 
legal  murders.     Remember  Orr!" 

In   this   proclamation— if  it   really   was 


intended  to  be  issued  as  it  was  drawn  up — 
we  have  at  least  the  evidence  that  the 
United  Irishmen  were  banded  together  to 
procure  "  equal  rights  for  all,"  and  contem- 
plated no  oppression  of  any  sect  or  class  of 
their  countrymen.  However,  such  as  it  was, 
it  must  be  considered  to  have  been  dis- 
avowed by  other  leaders  of  the  United  Irish- 
men, thcu  in  prison.  In  the  examiiuition 
before  the  Secret  Committee  of  the  Lords, 
as  we  learn  by  the  memoir  of  Emmet,  Mac- 
Neven,  and  O'Connor,  the  following  examin- 
ation is  found  : — 

"Lord  Kilwarden — You  seem  averse  to 
insurrection  ;  I  suppose  it  was  because  yea 
thought  it  impolitic. 

"  Emmet — Unquestionably  ;  for  if  I  im- 
agined an  insurrection  could  have  succeeded, 
without  a  great  waste  of  blood  and  time,  I 
should  have  preferred  it  to  invasion,  as  it 
would  not  have  exposed  us  to  the  chance  of 
contributions  being  required  by  a  foreign 
force  ;  but  as  I  did  not  think  so,  and  as  I 
was  certain  an  invasion  would  succeed 
speedily,  and  without  much  struggle,  I  pre- 
ferred it  even  at  the  hazard  of  that  incon- 
venience, which  we  took  every  means  to 
prevent. 

"  Lord  Dillon — Mr.  Emmet,  you  have 
stated  the  views  of  the  executive  to  be  very 
liberal  and  very  enlightened,  and  I  believe 
yours  were  so  ;  but  let  me  ask  you  whether 
it  was  not  intended  to  cut  off  (in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  contest)  the  leaders  of  the  oppo- 
sition party,  by  a  summary  mode,  such  as 
assassination.  My  reason  for  asking  you  is, 
John  Sheares'  proclamation,  the  most  terri- 
ble paper  that  ever  appeared  in  any  country. 
It  says  that  '  many  of  your  tyrants  have 
bled,  and  others  must  bleed,'  &c. 

"  Emmet — My  lords,  as  to  Mr.  Sheares' 
proclamation,  he  was  not  of  the  executive 
when  1  was. 

"  Lord  Chancellor — He  was  of  the  new 
executive. 

"  Emmet— I  do  not  know  he  was  of  any 
executive,  except  from  what  your  lordsliip 
says  ;  but  I  bflieve  he  was  joined  with  some 
others  in  framing  a  particular  plan  of  insur- 
rection for  Dublin  and  its  neighborhood  ; 
neither  do  I  know  what  value  he  annexed  to 
those  words  in  his  proclamation  ;  but  I  can 
answer  that,  while  I  was  of  the  executive, 


INSURRECTION    BREAKS    OUT. 


301 


tliere  was  no  such  design,  but  the  contrary  ; 
for  we  conceived  when  one  of  you  lost  your 
lives  we  lost  an  hostage.  Our  intention 
was  to  seize  you  all,  and  keep  you  as  hos- 
tages for  the  conduct  of  England  ;  and, 
after  the  revolution  w^as  over,  if  you  could 
not  live  under  the  new  government,  to  send 
you  out  of  the  country.  1  will  add  one  thing 
more,  which,  though  it  is  not  an  answer  to 
your  question,  you  may  have  a  curiosity  to 
hear.  In  such  a  struggle  it  was  natural  to 
expect  confiscations.  Our  intention  was, 
that  every  wife  who  had  not  instigated  her 
husband  to  resistance  should  be  provided 
for  out  of  the  property,  notwithstanding 
confiscations  ;  and  every  child  who  was  too 
young  to  be  his  own  master,  or  form  his  own 
opinion,  was  to  have  a  child's  portion.  Your 
lordships  will  now  judge  how  far  we  intend- 
ed to  be  cruel. 

''Lord  Chancellor— Vvay,  Mr.  Emmet, 
what  caused  the  late  insurrection  ? 

''Emmet — The  free  quarters,  the  house- 
burnings,  the  tortures,  and  the  military  exe- 
cutions in  the  Counties  of  Kildare,  Carlow, 
and  Wicklow. 

"Lord  Chancellor — Don't  you  think  the 
arrests  of  the  12th  of  March  caused  it  ? 

"Emmet — No  ;  but  I  believe  if  it  had 
not  been  for  those  arrests  it  would  not  have 
taken  place  ;  for  the  people,  irritated  by 
what  they  suffered,  had  been  long  pressing 
the  executive  to  consent  to  an  insurrection  ; 
but  they  had  resisted  or  eluded  it,  and  even 
determined  to  persevere  in  the  same  line. 
After  these  arrests,  however,  other  persons 
came  forward,  who  were  irritated,  and 
thought  differently,  who  consented  to  let 
that  partial  insurrection  take  place." 

On  the  21st  of  May,  Lord  Castlereagh, 
by  direction  of  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  wrote 
to  the  Lord-Mayor  of  Dublin,  to  inform  him 
that  there  was  a  plan  f(jr  seizing  the  city, 
and  recommending  precautions.  The  next 
day,  his  lordship  presented  a  message  to  the 
Uouse  of  Commons  to  the  same  effect,  and 
a  loyal  address  was  presented  in  reply. 
Great  preparations  for  defence  were  now 
made  in  Dublin.  Various  civic  bodies 
armed  themselves  in  haste,  and  placed  them- 
selves at  the  service  of  the  authorities. 
Among  these  was  the  lawyers'  corps,  which 
showed   great   zeal  on  the  occasion  :    and 


amongst  the  members  of  that  body  we  find 
the  name  of  a  young  lawyer  who  had  very 
lately  been  called  to  the  bar — Daniel 
O'Connell. 

It  was  now  impossible  to  prevent  the 
rising.  The  United  Irishmen  of  Leinstcr, 
though  thus  left  without  leaders,  had  got 
their  instructions  for  action  on  tiie  23d  of 
May  ;  and,  besides,  they  felt  that  no  re- 
verse of  fortune  in  the  open  field  could  hn 
worse  than  what  they  were  already  suffer- 
ing. 

It  appears  that  the  plan  of  attack  formed 
by  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  had  been  com- 
municated to  most  of  the  insurgents  ;  for 
their  first  open  acts  of  hostility,  though  ap- 
parently fortuitous,  irregular,  and  confused, 
bore  evident  marks  of  a  deep-laid  scheme 
for  surprising  the  military  by  separate, 
though  simultaneous  attacks,  to  surround  in 
a  cordon  the  city  of  Dublin,  and  cut  off  all 
succors  and  resources  from  without.  On 
that  day,  (May  2od,)  Mr.  Neilson *  and 
some  others  of  the  leaders  were  arrested  ; 
and  the  City  and  County  of  Dublin  were 
proclaimed  by  the  Lord-Lieutenant  and 
Council  in  a  state  of  insurrection  ;  the 
guards  at  the  Castle  and  all  the  great  ob- 
jects of  attack  were  trebled  ;  and,  in  fact, 
the  whole  city  was  converted  into  a  be- 
sieged garrison.  Thus  the  insurgents  were 
unable  to  effect  .anything  by  surprise. 
Without  leaders,  and  almost  without  arms 
or  ammunition,  they  ventured  on  the  bloody- 
contest.  Notwithstanding  the  ap[)arent 
forwardness  of  the  North,  the  first  conuno- 
tions  appeared  in  different  parts  of  Leinster. 
The  Northern  and  Coimaught  mail  coaches 
were  stopped  by  parties  of  the  insurgents 
on  the  night  of  the  23d  of  May  ;  and,  at 
about  twelve  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the 
24th,  a  large  body  of  insurgents  attacked 
the  town  and  jail  of  Naas,  about  fourteen 
miles  from  Dublin,  where  Lord  Gosford 
commanded.     As  the  y-uard  had  been  sea- 


*  Mr.  Neilson  was  seized  between  nine  and  ten  in 
the  evening,  by  Gregg,  the  keeper  of  Newgate,  as  he 
was  reconnoitering  the  prison.  A  scuffle  ensued,  and 
Neilson  sna[)ped  a  pistol  at  him ;  by  the  interven- 
tion of  two  yeomen  he  was  secured  and  comwitted. 
It  is  reported,  and  appears  probable,  that  a  large 
number  of  the  conspirators  who  were  awaiting  hia 
orders,  having  lost  their  leader,  dispersed  for  that 
night. 


802 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


Boiiiibly  iiicrciised,  in  expectation  of  such  an 
attack,  the  assaihints  were  repulsed  and 
driven  into  a  narrow  avenue,  where,  with- 
out order  or  disciphne,  tliey  sustained  for 
Rome  time  the  attack  of  the  Armagh  militia, 
and  of  the  fencible  corps,  raised  by  Sir  Wat- 
kin  William  Wynne,  and  known  by  the 
name  of  the  Ancient  Britons.  The  King's 
troops  lost  two  officers  and  about  thirty 
men  ;  and  the  insurgents,  as  was  reported, 
lost  HO  in  the  contest  and  their  flight. 
They  were  completely  dispersed,  and  several 
of  them  taken  prisoners.  On  the  same  day, 
a  small  divison  of  His  Majesty's  forces  were 
surprised  at  the  town  of  Prosperous  ;  and 
a  detachment  at  the  village  of  Clane  cut 
their  way  through  to  Naas,  with  considera- 
ble loss.  About  the  same  time,  General 
Dnndas  encountered  a  large  body  of  insur- 
gents on  the  hills  near  Kilcullen,  and  130  of 
them  were  left  dead  upon  the  field. 

On  the  following  day,  a  body  of  about 
400  insurgents,  under  the  'Command  of  two 
gentlemen  of  the  names  of  Ledwich  and 
Keougli,  marched  from  Rathfarnham,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Dublin,  along  the  foot  of 
the  mountain  towards  Belgatt  and  Clondal- 
kin.  In  their  progress,  they  were  met  by  a 
party  of  thirty-five  dragoons,  under  the 
command  of  Lord  Roden.  After  some  re- 
sistance, the  insurgents  were  defeated,  great 
numbers  were  killed  .and  wounded,  and 
their  leaders — Ledwich  and  Keough — were 
taken.  They  were  immediately  tried  by  a 
court-martial,  and  executed. 

Although  the  first  effort  of  the  insurgents 
had  been  thus  defeated,  still  they  entertained 
tiie  most  sanguine  hopes  of  succeeding  in 
another  attempt.  General  Lake,  who,  upon 
the  resignation  of  Sir  Ralph  Abercrorabie, 
had  been  appointed  Commander-in-Chief, 
published  the  following  notice  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  24th  of  May  : — 

"Lieutenant-General  Lake,  commandinor 
Ilis  Majesty's  forces  in  this  kingdom,  having 
received  from  His  Excellency  the  Lord- 
Lieutenant,  full  powers  to  put  down  the 
rebellion,  and  to  punish  rebels  in  the  most 
summary  manner  by  martial  law,"  &c. 

On  the  same  morning,  the  Lord-Mayor 
of  Dublin  issued  a  proclamation  to  this 
effect  :— 

"  Whereas,    the    circumstances     of    the 


present  crisis  demand  every  possiI)le  pre- 
caution, these  are,  therefore,  to  desire  all 
persons  who  have  registered  arms,  forthwith 
to  give  in  (in  writing)  an  exact  list  or  inven- 
tory of  such  arms  at  the  Town  Clerk's  office, 
who  will  file  and  enter  the  same  in  a  book 
to  be  kept  for  that  purpose  ;  and  all  per- 
sons who  have  not  registered  their  arms  are 
hereby  required  forthwith  to  deliver  up  to 
me,  or  some  other  of  the  magistrates  of 
this  city,  all  arms  and  ammunition  of  every 
kind  in  their  possession  ;  and  if,  after  this 
proclamation,  any  person  having  registered 
their  arras  shall  be  found  not  to  have  given 
in  a  true  list  or  inventory  of  such  arms  ; 
or  if  any  person  who  has  not  registered 
shall  be  found  to  have  in  their  power  or 
possession  any  arms  or  ammunition  what- 
ever, such  person  or  persons  will,  on  such 
arms  being  discovered,  be  fortliwith  sent  on 
board  His  Majesty's  navy,  as  by  law  di- 
rected. 

"And  I  do  hereby  desire  that  all  house- 
keepers do  place  upon  the  outside  of  their 
doors  a  list  of  all  persons  in  their  respective 
houses,  distinguishing  such  as  are  strangers 
from  those  who  actually  make  part  of  their 
family  ;  but  as  there  may  happen  to  be 
persons  who,  from  pecuniary  embarrass- 
ments, are  obliged  to  conceal  themselves,  I 
do  not  require  such  names  to  be  placed  on 
the  outside  of  the  door,  provided  their  names 
are  sent  to  me.  And  I  hereby  call  upon 
all  His  Majesty's  suly'ects  within  the  County 
of  the  City  of  Dublin  immediately  to  com- 
ply with  this  regulation,  as  calculated  for 
the  public  security  ;  as  those  persons  who 
shall  willfully  neglect  a  regulation  so  easy 
and  salutary,  as  well  as  persons  giving  false 
statements  of  the  inmates  of  their  houses, 
must,  in  the  present  crisis,  abide  the  conse- 
quences of  such  neglect." 

Parliament,  being  then  in  session,  met  as 
usual,  and  Lord  Castlereagh  presented  to 
the  House  of  Commons  a  message  from  the 
Lord-Lieutenant,  that  he  thought  it  his  in- 
dispensable duty,  with  the  advice  of  the 
Privy  Council,  under  the  present  cir- 
cimistances  of  the  kingdom,  to  issue  a 
proclamation,  which  lie  had  ordered  to  be 
laid  before  the  House  of  Commons,  to  whom 
he  remarked,  the  time  for  speaking  was  now 
gone  by,  and  that  period  at  last  come  when 


INSUBRECTION    BREAKS   OUT. 


303 


deeds  and  not  words  were  to  show  the  dis- 
positions of  members  of  that  House,  and  of 
every  man  who  truly  vahied  tlie  Constitution 
of  the  hind,  or  wished  to  maintain  the  Uiws, 
and  protect  the  lives  and  properties  of  His 
Majesty's  subjects.  Everything  which  cour- 
age, honor,  fortune,  could  offer  in  the  com- 
mon cause  was  now  called  for.  The  rebels 
liad  openly  tlu-owu  off  the  mask,  &c.,  &c. 

Open  war  having  now  been  fairly  com- 
nlenced,  the  Government  proceeded  to  the 
strongest  measures  of  coercion.  Although 
by  no  public  official  act  were  the  picquet- 
ings,  stranglings,  floggings,  and  torturings, 
to  extort  confessions,  justified  or  sanctioned, 
yet  it  is  universally  known,  that  under  the 
very  eye  of  Government,  and  with  more  than 
their  tacit  permission,  were  these  outrages 
practiced.  In  mentioning  the  Irish  Gov- 
ernment, it  is  not  meant  that  this  system 
proceeded  from  its  Chief  Governor  ;  it  was 
boasted  to  have  been  extorted  from  him. 
And  to  this  hour  it  is  not  only  defended  and 
justified,  but  panegyrized  by  the  advocates 
and  creatures  of  tiie  furious  drivers  of  that 
.system  of  terrorism. 

So  far  from  there  being  any  doubt  of  the 
existence  of  any  such  practices  a  short  time 
previous  to  and  during  the  rebellion,  Sir 
Richard  Musgrave  has,  in  an  additional 
appendix  to  his  memoirs  of  the  different  re- 
bellions in  Ireland,  given  to  the  public  his 
observations  upon  whipping  and  free  quar- 
ters. He  admits,  indeed,  that  whosoever 
considers  it  abstractedly,  must,  of  course,  con- 
demn it  as  obviously  repugnant  to  the  letter 
of  the  law,  the  benign  principles  of  our  Con- 
stitution, and  those  of  justice  and  humanity; 
but  he  was  convinced,  that  such  persons  as 
dispassionately  considered  the  existing  cir- 
cumstances, and  the  pressure  of  the  occasion 
under  which  it  was  adopted,  would  readily 
admit  them  to  be,  if  not  an  excuse,  at  least 
an  ample  extenuation  of  that  practice. 
"  Suppose,"  says  he,  "  the  fullest  information 
could  have  been  obtained  of  the  guilt  of 
every  individual,  it  would  have  been  imprac- 
ticable to  arrest  and  commit  the  niuliitude. 
Some  men  of  discernment  and  fortitude  per- 
ceived that  some  new  expedient  must  be 
adopted  to  prevent  the  subversion  of  Gov- 
ernment, and  the  destruction  of  society  ; 
and  whipping  was  resorted  to. 


"As  to  the  violation  of  the  forms  of  the 
law  by  this  practice,  it  should  be  recollected 
the  law  of  nature,  which  suggested  the  ne-  i 
cessity  of  it,  supersedes  all  positive  institu-  \ 
tions,  as  it  is  imprinted  on  the  hea^t  of  man 
for  the  preservation  of  his  creatures,  as  it 
speaks  strongly  and  instinctively,  and  as  its 
end  will  be  baffled  by  the  slowness  of  de- 
liberation. 

"When  the  sword  of  civil  war  is  drawn, 
the  laws  are  silent.  As  to  the  violation  of 
humanity,  it  should  be  recollected,  that 
nothing  could  exceed  the  cruelty  of  this 
banditti  ;  that  their  oV)ject  was  the  extirpa- 
tion of  the  loyalists  ;  that  of  the  whippers, 
the  preservation  of  the  community  at  large. 

"  This  practice  was  never  sanctioned  by 
Government,  as  they,  on  the  contrary,  used 
their  utmost  exertions  to  prevent  it  ;  an(i 
the  evidence  extorted  from  the  person 
whipped  never  was  used  to  convict  any  per- 
son, and  was  employed  for  no  other  reason 
but  to  discover  concealed  arms,  and  to  de- 
feat the  deleterious  schemes  of  the  traitors. 
Free  quarters  were  confined  merely  to  the 
province  of  Leinster. 

"  When  Government  was  possessed  of 
the  evidence  that  the  inhabitants  of  a  village 
or  a  town,  who  had  taken  the  usual  oaths 
to  lull  and  deceive  the  magistrates,  were 
possessed  of  concealed  arms,  and  meditated 
an  insurrection  and  massacre,  they  sent 
amongst  them  a  certain  number  of  troops, 
whom  they  were  obliged  to  maintain  by 
contributions  levied  on  themselves.  This 
took  place  a  few  days  before  the  rebellion 
broke  out. 

"  It  has  been  universally  allowed,  that 
the  military  severities  practiced  in  the 
County  of  Kildare  occasioned  a  premature 
explosion  of  the  plot,  which  the  Directory 
intended  to  have  deferred  till  the  French 
effected  a  landing  ;  and  one  of  them,  Mr 
Emmet,  declared  in  his  evidence,  upon  oath, 
before  the  Secret  Committee  of  the  Lords, 
that,  but  for  the  salutary  effects  of  those 
military  severities,  there  would  have  been  a 
very  general  and  formidable  insurrection  in 
every  part  of  the  country." 

Tills  warm  advo.-ate  for  the  torture  has 
not  with  his  usual  minuteness  favored  his 
reader  with  any  instances  of  iiniocent  per- 
sons havins:  undergone  this  severe  trial  from 


304 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


wanton  suspicion,  personal  revenge,  or  male- 
volent crnelty.  Yet  many  such  there  were  ; 
as  must  necessarily  be  the  case,  where  the 
very  cast  of  a  countenance  that  displeased  a 
corporal  or  common  yeoman  sufficed  to  sub- 
ject the  unfortunate  passenger  to  this  mili- 
tary ordeal.  No  man  can  give  credit  to  the 
assertion,  that  Government  used  their  utm-ost 
exertions  to  prevent  it,  who  knows  anything 
of  the  state  of  Ireland  at  that  disastrous  pe- 
riod. In  Bercsford's  Riding  House,  Sandys' 
Prevot,  the  Old  Custom  House,  the  Royal 
f]xchange,  some  of  the  barracks,  and  other 
places  in  Dublin,  there  were  daily,  hourly 
notorious  exhibitions  of  these  torturings,  as 
there  also  were  in  almost  every  town,  village, 
or  hamlet  throughout  the  kingdom,  in  which 
troops  were  quartered.* 

Many  attacks  were  made  by  the  rebels  on 
the  second  day  of  the  rebellion,  (the  24th 
of  May,)  generally  with  ill-success;  the 
chief  of  which  were  those  of  Carlow,  Hack- 
etstown,  and  Monastereven.  There  were 
also  several  skirmishes  near  Rathfarnham, 
Tallagh,  Lucan,  Luske,  Duuboyne,  Barrets- 
town,  Collon,  and  Baltinglass.  At  Duu- 
boyne and  Barretstowfi  the  insurgents  are 
allowed  to  have  had  the  advantage.  But 
in  all  the  other  encounters,  though  greatly 
superior  in  numbers,  they  were  defeated, 
with  incredible  loss  of  their  men. 

The  non-arrival  of  the  mail-coach  at  the 
usual  hour  of  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning 
at  Carlow,  was  to  be  the  signal  for  rising- 
there  and  its  vicinity.  This  town  lies  about 
forty  miles  southwest  of  Dublin.  Of  the  in- 
tended attack  the  garrison  was  apprised  by 
an  intercepted  letter,  and  from  Lieutenant 
Roe,  of  the  North  Cork  militia,  who  had 
observed  the  peasants  assembling  in  the 
vicinity  late  in  the  evening  of  the  24th  of 
May.  The  garrison  consisted  in  the  whole 
of  about  four  hundred  and  fifty  men,  com- 
manded by  Colonel  Mahon,  of  the  Ninth 
Dragoons,  and  they  were  very  judiciously 
posted  for  the  reception  of  the  assailants. 

*  It  is  too  large  a  credit  to  be  allowed  to  this 
author's  assertion,  that  the  evidence  extorted  from 
the  person,  whipped  never  was  used  to  convict  any 
person.  If  the  security  of  the  monarch  be  to  be 
found  in  the  affectionate  hearts  of  his  people,  it  is 
matter  of  important  consideration  how  far  these  prac- 
tices tended  more  to  unite  or  separate  the  two 
kingdoms. 


A  body,  perhaps  amounting  to  a  thousand 
or  fifteen  hundred,  having  assembled  before 
the  house  of  Sir  Edward  Crosbie,  a  mile  and 
a  half  distant  from  Carlow,  marched  into 
the  town  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  on 
the  25th  of  May,  in  a  very  unguarded  and 
tumultuary  manner,  shouting  as  they  rushed 
into  TuUow  street,  with  vain  confidence, 
that  the  town  was  their  own  :  they  received 
so  destructive  a  fire  from  the  garrison,  that 
they  recoiled  and  endeavored  to  retreat  ; 
but  finding  their  flight  intercepted,  numbers 
took  refuge  in  the  houses,  which  were  imme- 
diately fired  by  the  soldiery.  About  eighty 
houses,  with  some  hundred  men,  were  con- 
sumed in  this  conflagration.  As  about  half 
this  column  of  assailants  had  arrived  witiiin 
the  town,  and  few  escaped  from  that  situa- 
tion, their  loss  can  hardly  be  estimated  at 
less  than  four  hundred  ;  while  not  a  man 
was  even  wounded  on  the  side  of  the  King's 
troops. 

After  the  defeat,  executions  commenced 
here,  as  they  did  elsewhere  in  this  calami- 
tous period,  and  about  two  hundred,  in  a 
short  time,  were  hanged  or  shot,  according 
to  martial  law.  Among  the  earliest  vic- 
tims was  Sir  Edward  Crosbie,  before  whose 
house  the  rebel  column  had  assembled,  but 
who  certainly  had  not  accompanied  tliera  in 
their  march  ;  he  was  condemned  and  sliot 
as  an  United  Irishman.  Sir  Edward  Cros- 
bie had  no  further  connection  with  the 
rebels  than  that  they  exercised  on  a  lawn 
before  the  house,  which  of  course  Sir  Ed- 
ward could  not  prevent. 

In  the  attack  upon  Slane,  a  mere  hand- 
ful of  troops,  about  seventeen  yeomen  and 
forty  of  the  Armagh  militia,  although  sur- 
prised in  the  houses  on  which  they  were  bil- 
letted,  fought  their  way  separately  to  their 
rallying  post,  and  then  made  a  vigorous  a 
stand,  that  some  hundreds  of  the  people  were 
with  considerable  slaughter  repulsed.  Sev- 
eral of  the  assailants  of  this  small  town 
appeared  dressed  in  the  uniforms  of  the  Cork 
militia  and  Ancient  Britons  ;  which  appear- 
ance, in  this  and  several  other  instances, 
proved  a  fatal  deceit  to  the  King's  troops. 
They  were  the  spoils  taken  at  Prosperous  ; 
at  which  place  the  success  of  the  insurgents, 
amongst  other  causes,  was  owing  to  their 
having  been  headed  or  led  on  to  the  attack 


MASSACRE   AT   GIBBET   RATH    OF    KILDARE. 


3D5 


by  an  officer  ;  as  their  defeats  in  most  other 
places,  with  immense  superiority  of  nmnbers, 
were  to  be  attributed  to  the  want  of  some 
intellig'ent  person  to  control  and  direct  them. 
Their  discomfitures  in  general  were  not  the 
effect  of  fear  or  cowardice,  but  of  want  of 
discipline  and  organization. 

Kildare  County  w%as  not  favorable  to  the 
insurgents,  because  it  is  generally  a  flat, 
grassy  plain,  where  regular  cavalry  can  act 
with  terrible  effect.  Two  weeks  were  suf- 
ficient to  crush  all  insurrectionary  move- 
ments in  that  county,  and  in  Meatli  and 
Cariow.  Yet  in  that  short  campaign  splen- 
did feats  of  gallantry  were  achieved  by  the 
half-armed  peasantry.  At  Monastereven, 
the  insurgents  were  repulsed  with  some  loss, 
the  defenders  of  the  phice  being  in  part 
"loyal"  Catholics,  commanded  by  one  Cus- 
sidy.  At  Old  Kilcullen  the  insurgents  de- 
feated and  drove  back  the  advance-guard 
of  General  Dundas,  with  the  loss  of  twenty- 
two  regular  soldiers,  including  a  Captain 
Erskine.  Bnt  after  the  first  few  days,  there 
was  in  reality  no  insurrection  at  all  in  Kil- 
dare County  ;  and  the  operations  of  the 
troops  there,  though  called  sometimes 
"battles,"  were  nothing  but  onslaughts  on 
disarmed  fugitives — in  other  words,  mas- 
sacres. These  proceedings  w^ere  hailed  with 
triumph  in  Dublin,  as  great  military  achieve- 
ments. For  example,  tlie  slaughter  of  the 
unresisting,  capitulated  people  at  the  Gibbet 
Pvath  of  Kildare,  was  regarded  as  a  vigor- 
ous measure  which  the  emergencies  of  the 
time  retjuired.  The  rebels,  according  to  Sir 
R.  Musgrave,  amounted  to  about  3,000  in 
number  ;  they  had  entered  into  terms  with 
General  Dundas,  and  were  assembled  at  a 
place  that  had  been  a  Danish  fort,  called 
the  Gil)bet  Rath.  Having  offered  terms 
of  submission  to  General  Dundas  on  the  26th 
of  May,  that  General  dispatched  General 
AVelford  to  receive  their  arms  and  grant 
them  protection.  Before  the  arrival  of  the 
latter,  however,  on  the  3d  of  June,  the  mul- 
titude of  unresisting  people  were  suddenly 
attacked  by  Sir  James  Duff,  who,  having 
galloped  into  the  plain,  disposed  his  army  in 
order  of  battle,  and  with  the  assistance  of 
Lord  Rodeu's  Fencible  Cavalry,  fell  upon 
the  astonished  multitude,  as  Sir  Richard 
Musgrave  states,  "  pell  mell."     Three  hun- 


dred and  fifty  men,  under  terms  of  capitula- 
tion, admitted  into  the  King's  petice  am. 
promised  his  protection,  were  mowed  down 
in  cold  blood,  at  a  place  known  to  every 
peasant  in  Kildare  as  "  the  Place  of  Slaugh- 
ter." as  well  remembered  as  Mullaghmast 
itself,  the  Gibbet  Rath  of  the  Curragh  of 
Kildare. 

The  massacre  took  place  on  the  3d  of 
June  ;  the  terms  of  surrender  were  made  by 
one  Perkins,  a  rebel  leader,  on  the  part  of 
the  insurgents,  and  General  Dundas,  on  the 
part  of  the  Govermnent,  and  with  its  ex- 
press sanction  and  permission  for  them,  on 
delivering  up  their  arras,  to  return  to  their 
homes.  Their  leader  and  his  brother  were 
to  be  likewise  pardoned  and  set  at  liberty. 

It  was  when  the  people  were  assembled 
at  the  appointed  place,  to  comply  with 
these  conditions,  that  Sir  James  Duff,  at  the 
head  of  600  men,  then  on  his  march  from 
Limerick,  proceeded  to  the  place  to  procure 
the  surrendered  weapons.  One  of  the  in- 
surgents, before  giving  up  his  musket,  dis- 
charged it  in  the  air,  barrel  upwards  ;  this 
simple  act  was  immediately  construed  into  a 
hostile  proceeding,  and  the  troops  fell  on  the 
astonished  multitutie,  and  the  latter  fled 
with  the  utmost  precipitation,  and  were 
pursued  and  slaughtered  without  mercy  by  a 
party  of  Fencible  Cavalry,  called  "  Lord 
Jocelyn's  Foxhunters."  According  to  the 
Rev.  James  Gordon,  upwards  of  200  fell  ou 
this  occasion  ;  Sir  R.  Musgrave  states  350. 

"  No  part  of  the  infamy  of  this  proceed- 
ing," says  Dr.  Madden,  "  attaches  to  Gen- 
eral Dundas.  The  massacre  took  place 
without  his  knowledge  or  his  sanction.  His 
conduct  throughout  the  rebellion  was  that 
of  a  humane  and  brave  man." 

The  brutal  massacre  on  the  Curragh  is 
thus  described  by  Lord  Camden,  the  Lord- 
Lieutenant,  in  his  dispatch  to  the  Duke  of 
Portland  : — 

"  Dublin  Castle,  May  29ih. 

"  My  Lord  : — I  have  only  time  to  inform 
your  grace,  that  1  learn  from  General  Dun- 
das tliat  the  rebels  in  the  Curragh  of 
Kildare  have  laid  down  their  arms,  and 
delivered  up  a  number  of  their  leaders. 

"  By  a  dispatch  I  have  this  instant  re- 
ceived, I  have  the  further  pleasure  of  ac- 
quainting your  grace  that  Sir  James  Duff, 


806 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


will),  with  infinite  ahicrity  and  address, 
lijis  opened  the  cumnmnication  with  Lim- 
erick, (that  with  Cork  beinu;  ah'eady  open,) 
had  arrived  at  Kildare  whilst  the  rebels 
had  possession  of  it,  completely  routed  them 
and  taken  the  place. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  &c., 

".Camden." 

The  same  transaction  is  thus  described  by 
the  chief  actor  : — 
Extract  of  a  letler  from  Mnjor-General  Sir 

James  Duff  to  LietUenant- General  Lake, 

dated  Monastereven. 

"  I  marched  from  Limerick  on  Snnday 
mnrnino:  with  sixty  dragoons,  Dublin  militia, 
three  field  pieces,  and  two  curricle  guns,  to 
open  the  communication  with  Dublin,  wliich 
I  judged  of  tlie  utmost  importance  to  Gov- 
ernment. By  means  of  cars  for  the  in- 
fantry, I  reached  this  place  in  forty-eight 
hours.  I  am  now,  at  seven  o'clock  this 
morning,  (Tuesday, ;  marching  to  surround 
the  town  of  Kildare,  the  headquarters  of 
the  rebels,  with  seven  pieces  of  artillery, 
150  dragoons,  and  350  infantry,  determined 
to  make  a  dreadful  example  of  the  rebels.  I 
have  left  the  whole  country  behind  me  per- 
fectly quiet,  and  well  protected  by  means 
of  tlie  troops  and  yeomanry  corps. 

"  I  hope  to  be  able  to  forward  this  to  you 
by  the  mail  coach,  which  I  will  escort  to 
Naas.  I  am  sufficiently  strong.  You  may 
depend  on  my  prudence  and  success.  My 
guiis  are  well  manned,  and  all  the  troops  in 
high  spirits.  The  cruelties  the  rebels  have 
couutiitted  on  some  of  the  officers  and  men- 
have  exasperated  them  to  a  great  degree. 
Of  uiy  future  operations  I  will  endeavor  to 
inform  you. 

''  P.  S — Kildare,  two  o'clock,  p.  m. — We 
found  the  rebels  retiring  from  the  town  on 
our  arrival,  armed  ;  we  followed  them  with 
the  dragoons.  I  sent  on  some  of  the  yeo- 
men to  tell  them,  on  laying  down  their  arms, 
they  should  not  be  liurt.  Unfortunately, 
eoine  of  them  fired  on  the  troops  ;  *  from 
that  moment  they  were  attacked  on  all 
sides — nothing  could  stop  the  rage  of  the 
troops.     I  believe  from  two  to  three  hun- 

*  Plowden  describes  the  afl'air  thus :  As  the  troops 
advanced  near  the  insurgents  to  receive  their  surren- 
dered weapons,  one  of  tlie  latter,  foolishly  swearing 
that  he  would  not  deliver  his  gun  otherwise  than 
empty,  discharged  it  with  the  muzzle  upwards. 


dred  of  the  rebels  were  killed.  We  have 
three  men  killed  and  several  wounded.  I  am 
too-much  fatigued  to  enlarge." 

There  is  no  need  to  recount  in  detail  the 
various  slaughters  done  by  the  troops,  some- 
times upon  armed  insurgents,  vSometimes 
upon  mere  masses  of  unarmed  people.  These 
were  all  commemorated  indifferently  by  Lord 
Camden  in  his  dispatches  as  "battles," 
"  defeats  of  the  rebels,"  and  the  like.  One 
of  his  dispatches  describes  the  most  serious 
part  of  the  rising  in  Wicklow  County  : — 
'*  Dublin  Casti.e,  May  26th,  10  a.  m. 

"  My  Lord : — I  have  detained  a  packet, 
in  order  to  transmit  to  your  grace  the  in- 
formation received  this  morning. 

"  I  have  stated  in  a  private  letter  to  your 
grace,  that  a  party  of  the  rebels,  to  the 
amount  of  several  hundreds,  were  attacked 
by  a  detachment  of  the  A.ntrim  militia,  a 
small  party  of  cavalry,  and  Captain  Strat- 
ford's yeomanry;  and  lliat,  being  driven  into 
the  town  of  Baltinglass,  they  lost  about 
150  men. 

"  This  morning  an  account  has  been  re- 
ceived from  Major  Hardy,,  that  yesterday  a 
body  of  between  3,000  and  4,000  had  col- 
lected near  Dunlavin,  when  they  were  en- 
tirely defeated,  with  the  loss  of  300»men,  by 
Lieutenant  Gardner,  at  the  head  of  a  de- 
tachment of  Antrim  militia,  and  Captain 
Hardy's  and  Captain  Hume's  yeomanry. 

"  The  troops  and  yeomanry  behaved  with 
the  utmost  gallantry  in  both  actions." 

On  the  same  26th  of  May  another  slaugh- 
ter took  place  on  Tara  Hill,  in  Meath. 
Some  chiefs  of  the  Leinster  insurgents  had 
assembled  at  that  point,  where  they  expect- 
ed to  be  joined  by  a  force  coming  from  the 
North.  They  were  here  attacked,  and  after 
an  obstinate  defence,  killing  thirty-two  of 
the  soldiers  and  yeomanry,  they  were  again 
overpowered,  by  discipline  and  superior 
arms.  The  issue  is  told  in  this  dispatch  : — 
Extract  of  a  letter  from  Captain  Sc^bie,  of 

ike  Reay  Fencibles,  to  Lieutenant- General 

Lake,  dated  Dimshaughlin,  Sunday  morn- 
ing, May  21th,  1798. 

"  The  division,  consisting  of  five  com- 
panies of  His  Majesty's  Reay  Regiment  of 
Fencible  Lifantry,  which  I  have  the  honor 
to  command,  arrived  here  yesterday  morn- 
ing   according    to    route,    accompanied    by 


•WEXFORD   A   PEACEABLE   COUNTY. 


307 


Lord  Fingal's  troop  of  yeomen  cavalry, 
Captain  Preston's  and  Lower  Kclls'  trooj) 
of  cavalry,  and  Captain  MoUoy's  company 
of  yeomen  infantry. 

"  At  half-past  three,  p  m.,  I  was  informed 
that  a  considerable  force  of  the  rebel  insur- 
gents had  taken  station  on  Tara  Hill.  1 
instantly  detached  three  companies  of  our 
division,  with  one  field-piece,  and  the  above 
corps  of  yeomanry,  to  the  spot,  under  the 
command  of  Captain  M'Lean,  of  the  Reay's, 
the  issue  of  whicli  has  answered  my  most 
sanguine  expectation. 

"  The  rebels  fled  in  all  directions  ;  350 
were  found  dead  on  the  field  this  morning, 
among  whom  is  their  commander,  in  full  uni- 
form ;  many  more  were  killed  and  wounded. 

"  Our  loss  is  inconsiderable,  being  nine 
rank  and  file  killed,  sixteen  rank  and  file 
•wounded." 

On  the  whole,  it  mnst  be  admitted  that 
the  troops  found  but  little  difficulty  in  crush- 
ing the  insurgent  peasants  of  Kildare,  Dub- 
lin, and  Meath.  The  slaughter  of  the  people 
was  out  of  all  proportion  with  the  resistance. 
The  number  of  deaths  arising  from  torture 
or  massacre,  where  no  resistance  was  offered, 
during  the  year  179"^,  forms  the  far  greater 
portion  of  the  total  number  slain  in  this  con- 
test. The  words  of  Mr.  Gordon  are:  "I 
have  reason  to  think,  more  men  than  fell  in 
battle  were  slain  in  cold  blood.  No  quarter 
■was  given  to  persons  taken  prisoners  as 
rebels,  with  or  uilhout  arms."  * 

hi  the  meantime,  events  still  more  serious 
were  taking  phice  iu  Wexford  County. 


CHAPTER    XXXIY. 

]7!I8. 
Wexford  a  Peaceable  County — Lord  Castlereagh's 
Judicious  Measures— Catliolics  Driven  out  of  Yeo- 
manry Corps  —  Treatment  of  Mr.  Fitzgerald — 
United  Irish  in  Wexford — The  Priests  Oppose  that 
Society — How  they  were  Requited — Miles  Byrne. — 
Torture  in  We.xlord— Uraiigenieu  in  Wexford — 
North  Cork  Militia — Hay's  Account  of  the  Ferocity 
of  the  Magistrates — Massacre  of  Carnew — Father 
John  Murphy  —  Burning  of  his  Chapel  —  Miles 
Ej'rae's  Account  of  First  Rising  — Oulard — Storm  of 
Enniscorthy — Wexford  Evacuated  by  the  King's 
Troops — Occupied  by  Insurgents — All  the  Count}' 
now  in  Insurrection — Estimated  Numbers  of  Insur- 
gents— Population  of  the  County. 

Wf.xford  was  one  of  the  most  peaceable 
counties  in  Ir;'land.     Protestants  and  Catli- 

*  Gordon's  HLstory  of  the  Rebellion. 


olics  lived  there  in  greater  harniouy  than 
elsewhere  ;  and  had  united  in  forming  yeo- 
manry corps  for  defence  of  the  country  afivr 
the  attempted  invasion  under  Hoche.  The 
United  L'ish  organization  extended  to  that 
county  as  we  know  from  Miles  Byrne  ;  but 
not  with  such  power  as  in  Meath  and  Kil- 
dare, for  the  very  reason  that  the  people 
were  not,  up  to  that  time,  subjected  to  such 
intolerable  oppression.  In  the  first  months 
of  1798,  however,  everj^hing  was  changed. 
Orders  were  given  from  the  Caslle  to  purify 
the  yeomanry  corps,  by  expelling  those  who 
should  not  take  an  oath  that  they  w 're  nt  t 
United  Irishmen.  The  oath  was  to  the  ef- 
fect that  they  were  neither  United  Irishmen 
nor  Orangemen  ;  but  practically,  the  meas- 
ure was  so  executed  as  to  disarm  none  but 
Catholics,  or  such  Protestants  as  were 
known  to  be  liberal  iu  their  opinions,  like 
Antony  Perry,  of  Inch.  Miles  Byrne  (the 
personal  memoir  of  this  gallant  officer  was 
published  only  in  1SG3)  gives  several  ex- 
amples : — 

"  White,  of  Bally-Ellis,  raised  a  foot 
corps,  and  got  great  praise  from  the  Gov- 
ernment, as  he  had  it  equipped  and  armed 
when  Hoche's  expedition  came  to  Bantry 
Bay  in  1796. 

"  If  this  corps  was  one  of  the  first  that 
was  ready  to  march,  it  was  also  one  of  the 
first  to  be  disbanded  .  and  disarmed,  for  it 
was  composed  princii)ally  of  Catholics, 
though  the  officers  were  Protestants. 

"The  corps  of  yeonuinry  cavalry,  com- 
manded by  Beaumont,  of  Hyde  P.vrk,  in 
which  Antony  Perry,  of  Incn,  or  I'erry 
Mount,  and  Ford,  of  Ballyfad,  were  officers, 
refused  to  take  any  oath  respecting  their 
being  Orangemen,  or  United  Irishmen  ;  at 
the  same  time  they  resolved  not  to  resign, 
but  to  continue  th^ir  service  as  usual.  Soon 
after,  the  corps  was  ordeied  to  as.-emble, 
when  a  regiment  uf  miiilia  was  iii  wai  iujr, 
and  the  suspected  members  were  surn»i.u  ii  d 
and  disarmed  ;  that  is  to  say,  all  the  Calh- 
oiics,  which  were  about  one-half  of  the 
corps,  with  Perry  and  one  or  two  dther 
Protestants,  being  considered  too  libeial  to 
make  part  ot  a  corps  that  was  henceforv\ard 
to  be  upon  the  true  Protestant,  ur  Orange 
.system." 

Edward  Fitzgerald,  of  New   Park,  gives 


308 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


a  sample  of  the  proceedings  which  were 
carried  on  througliout  the  county  from  the 
moment  of  the  formidable  proclamation  of 
martial  law.     He  writes  -.—{See Madden.) 

"Upon  the  28th  of  April,  1798,  my 
house,  offices,  and  grounds,  which  are  very 
(•onsidcrable,  were  taken  possession  of  by 
120  cavalry  and  infantry,  and  12  officers, 
who  possessed  themselves  of  all  kinds  of 
property  within  and  without,  and  what  they 
could  not  consuiitc  sent  to  Atliy  barracks. 
They  continued  in  possession  about  thirty 
(lays,  until  the  press  of  the  times  obliged 
them  to  change  their  position.  Upon  the 
approach  of  the  military,  my  wife  and  fami- 
ly, of  course,  were  obliged  to  fly  my  habita- 
tion, without  the  shortest  previous  intimation, 
uud  I  was  sent,  under  a  military  escort,  to 
Dublin,  where,  after  an  arrest  of  ninety-one 
days,  I  was  liberated,  without  the  slightest 
specific  charge  of  any  kind.  At  the  time 
of  my  arrest,  I  commanded  as  respectable  a 
corps  of  cavalry  as  any  in  the  kingdom,  con- 
taining fifty-six  in  number,  and  not  the 
slightest  impropriety  was  ever  attached  to 
any  of  its  members.  From  the  time  the 
military  possessed  themselves  of  my  resi- 
dence, the  most  iniquitous  enormities  were 
everywhere  practiced  upon  the  people  of  the 
country  ;  their  houses  plundered,  their  stock 
of  all  kinds  seized,  driven  to  the  barracks, 
and  sold  by  auction  ;  their  persons  arrested, 
and  sentenced  to  be  flogged,  at  the  arbitrary 
will  of  the  most  despicable  wretches  of  the 
community.  A  man  of  the  name  of  Thomas 
James  Rawson,  of  the  lowest  order,  the  of- 
fal of  a  dunghill,  had  every  person  tortured 
and  stripped,  as  his  cannibal  will  directed. 
He  would  seh,t  himself  in  a  chair  in  the  cen- 
tre of  a  ring  formed  around  the  triangles, 
tJie  miserable  v'ldims  kneeling  under  the  tri- 
angle until  they  would  he  spotted  over  with  the 
blood  of  the  others.  People  of  the  name  of 
Croniu  were  thus  treated.  He  made  the 
father  kneel  under  the  son  while  flogging, 
the  son  under  the  father,  &c." 

Why  such  a  demoniac  system  was  intro- 
duced amongst  a  peaceful  people — save  to 
goad  them  into  revolt — it  is  quite  impos- 
Bible  to  comprehend.  Thousands  of  men 
who  had  avoided  the  United  Irish  Society 
before,  now  began  to  join  it.  The  priests 
were  still  counselling  patience  and  submis- 


sion, and  doing  all  in  their  power  to  make 
the  people  deliver  up  their  pikes  and  otlier 
weapons.  Miles  Byrne  says  :  "The  priests 
did  everything  in  their  power  to  stop  the 
progress  of  the  association  of  United  Irish- 
men ;  particularly  poor  Father  John  Red- 
nioud,  who  refused  to  hear  the  confession 
of  any  of  the  United  Irish,  and  turned  them 
away  from  his  knees.  He  was  ill-requited 
afterwards  for  his  great  zeal  and  devotion 
to  the  enemies  of  his  country  ;  for  after  tlie 
insurrection  was  all  over,  Earl  Mountnorris 
brought  him  in  a  prisoner  to  the  British 
camp  at  Gorey,  with  a  rope  about  his  neck, 
hung  him  up  to  a  tree,  and  fired  a  brace  of 
bullets  through  his  body.  Lord  Mountnor- 
ris availed  himself  of  this  opportunity  to 
show  his  '  loyalty,*  for  he  was  rather  sus- 
pected on  account  of  not  being  at  the  head 
of  his  corps  when  the  insurrection  broke 
out  in  his  neighborhood.  Both  Redmond 
and  the  parish  priest.  Father  Frank  Cava- 
nagh,  were  on  the  best  terms  with  Eari 
Mountnorris,  dining  frequently  with  him  at 
his  seat,  Camolen  Park;  which  place  Father 
Redmond  prevented  being  plundered  during 
the  insurrection.  This  was  the  only  part  he 
had  taken  in  the  struggle." 

Various  kinds  of  torture  were  now  habit- 
ually applied  by  the  magistrates  to  extort 
confession  of  the  two  great  crimes — having 
arms,  or  being  United  Irish  ;  and  the 
merest  suspicion,  or  pretence  of  suspicion, 
was  quite  enough  to  cause  a  man  to  be  half- 
hanged,  flogged  almost  to  death,  or  fitted 
with  a  pitch  cap.  Edward  Hay  gives  a 
good  general  account  of  the  methods  by 
which  the  Wexford  people  were  at  last 
maddened  to  I'evolt : — 

"  The  Orange  system  made  no  public 
appearance  in  the  County  of  Wexford  uutil 
the  beginning  of  April,  on  the  arrival  there 
of  the  North  Cork  militia,  commanded  by 
Lord  Kingsborough.  In  this  regiment 
there  were  a  great  number  of  Orangemen, 
who  were  zealous  in  making  proselytes  and 
displaying  their  devices — having  medals  and 
Orange  ribbons  triumphantly  pendant  from 
their  bosoms.  It  is  believed  that  previous 
to  this  period  there  were  but  few  actual 
Orangemen  in  the  county  ;  but  soon  after, 
those  whose  principles  inclined  that  way, 
finding   themselves  supported  by  the  mill' 


TORTURE   IK    WEXFORD. 


509 


tiiry,  joined  the  association,  and  publicly 
avowed  themselves  by  assuming  the  devices 
of  the  fraternity. 

"  It  is  said  that  the  North  Cork  regiment 
were  ahso  the  inventors  (but  they  certainly 
were  the  introducers)  of  pitch-cap  torture 
into  the  County  of  Wexford.  Any  person 
having  his  hair  cut  short,  (and,  therefore, 
called  a  croppy,  by  which  appellation  the 
RoUliery  designated  an  United  Irishman,) 
on  being  {)ointed  out  by  some  loyal  neigh- 
bor, was  immediately  seized  and  brought 
into  a  guard-house,  where  caps,  either  of 
coarse  linen  or  strong  brown  paper,  be- 
smeared inside  with  pitch,  were  always  kept 
ready  for  service.  The  unforttuiate  victim 
had  one  of  these,  well  heated,  compressed 
on  his  head,  and  when  judged  of  a  proper 
degree  of  coolness,  so  that  it  could  not  be 
easily  pulled  off,  the  sufferer  was  turned  out 
amidst  the  horrid  acclamations  of  the  merci- 
less torturers  ;  and  to  the  view  of  vast  num- 
bers of  people,  who  generally  crowded 
about  the  guard-house  door,  attracted  by 
the  cries  of  the  tormented.  Many  of  those 
j)ersecutcd  in  this  manner  experienced  addi- 
tional anguish  from  the  melted  pitch  trick- 
ling into  their  eyes.  This  afforded  a  rare 
addition  of  enjoyment  to  these  keen  sports- 
men, who  reiterate'd  their  horrid  yells  of  ex- 
ultation on  the  repetition  of  tlie  several  acci- 
dents to  which  their  game  was  liable  from 
being  turned  out ;  for,  in  the  confusion  and 
hurry  of  escaping  from  the  ferocious  hands 
of  these  more  than  savage  barbarians,  the 
blinded  victims  frequently  fell,  or  inadver- 
tently dashed  their  heads  against  the  walls 
in  their  way.  The  pain  of  disengaging  this 
pitched  cap  from  the  head  must  be  next  to 
intolerable.  The  hair  was  often  torn  out  by 
the  roots,  and  not  unfrequently  parts  of  the 
skin  were  so  scalded  or  blistered  as  to  ad- 
here and  come  off  along  with  it.  The  terror 
and  dismay  that  these  outrages  occasioned 
are  inconceivable.  A  sergeant  of  the  Korlh 
Cork,  nicknamed  Tom  the.  Devil,  was  most 
ingenious  in  devising  new  methods  of  tor- 
ture. Moistened  gunpowder  was  frequently 
rubbed  iuto  the  hair  cut  close,  and  tiieu  set 
on  fire.  Some,  while  shearing  for  this  pur- 
pose, had  the  tips  of  their  ears  snipped  off. 
Sometimes  an  entire  ear,  and  often  both 
ears  were  completely  cut  off ;  and  many  lost 


part  of  their  noses  during  the  like  prepara- 
tion. But,  strange  to  tell,  these  atrocities 
were  publicly  practiced  without  the  least 
reserve,  in  open  day  ;  and  no  magistrate  or 
officer  ever  interfered,  but  shamefully  con- 
nived at  this  extraordinary  mode  of  quieting 
the  people  1  Some  of  the  miserable  suffer- 
ers on  these  shocking  occasions,  or  some  of 
their  relations  or  friends,  actuated  by  a  prin- 
ciple of  retaliation,  if  not  of  revenge,  cut 
sliort  the  hair  of  several  persons,  whom  they 
either  considered  as  enemies,  or  suspected 
of  having  pointed  them  out  as  objects  for 
such  desperate  treatment. 

"This  was  done  with  a  view  that  those 
active  citizens  should  fall  in  for  a  little  ex- 
perience of  the  like  disci[)liue,  or  to  make 
the  fashion  of  short  hair  so  general  that  it 
might  no  longer  be  a  mark  of  party  distinc- 
tion. Females  were  also  exposed  to  the 
grossest  insults  from  these  military  ruffians. 
Many  women  had  their  petticoats,  handker- 
chiefs, caps,  ribbons,  and  all  parts  of  their 
dress  that  exhibited  a  shade  of  green,  (con- 
sidered the  national  color  of  Ireland,)  torn 
off,  and  their  ears  assailed  by  the  most  vile 
and  indecent  ribaldry.  This  was  a  circum- 
stance so  unforeseen,  ayd,  of  course,  so  little 
provided  against,  that  many  women  of  en- 
thusiastic  loyalty   suffered    outrage  in  this 


manner 

(I  r 


'The  proclamation  of  the  County  of 
Wexford  having  given  greater  scope  to  the 
ingenuity  of  magistrates  to  devise  means  of 
quelling  all  symptoms  of  rebelbon,  as  well  as 
of  using  every  exertion  to  procure  discov- 
eries, they  soon  fell  to  the  burning  of  houses 
wherein  pikes,  or  other  offensive  weapons, 
were  discovered,  no  matter  how  brought 
there  ;  but  they  did  not  stop  here,  for  the 
dwellings  of  suspected  persons,  and  those 
from  which  any  of  the  inhabitants  were 
found  to  be  absent  at  night,  were  also  con- 
sumed. The  circumstance  of  absence  from 
the  houses  very  generally  prevailed  through- 
out the  country,  although  there  were  the 
strictest  orders  forbidding  it.  This  was 
occasioned  at  first,  as  was  before  observed, 
from  apprehension  of  the  Orangemen,  but 
afterwards  proceeded  from  the  actual  expe- 
rience of  torture  by  the  people  from  the 
yeomen  and  magistrates.  Some,  too,  aban- 
doned their  houses  for  fear  of  being  wliipped, 


310 


HISTORT   OF   IRELAND. 


if,  Oil  being  apprehended,  confession  satisfac- 
tory to  the  magistrates  could  neither  be 
given  or  extorted  ;  and  tliis  infliction  many 
persons  seemed  to  fear  more  than  death 
itself.  Maiiy  unfortunate  men,  who  were 
taken  in  their  houses,  were  strung  up,  as  it 
were  to  be  hanged,  but  were  let  down  now 
and  then  to  try  if  strangulation  would  oblige 
them  to  become  informers.  After  these  and 
the  like  experiments,  several  persons  lan- 
guished for  some  time,  and  at  length  per- 
ished in  consequence  of  them.  Smiths  and 
carpenters,  whose  assistance  was  considered 
indispensable  in  the  fabrication  of  pikes, 
were  pointed  out  on  evidence  of  their  trades 
as  the  first  and  fittest  objects  of  torture. 
But  the  sagacity  of  some  magistrates  be- 
came at  length  so  acute,  from  iiabit  and  ex- 
ercise, that  they  discerned  an  United  Irish- 
man even  at  the  first  glance  1  And  their 
zeal  never  suffered  any  person  whom  they 
designed  to  honor  with  such  distinction  to 
pass  off  without  convincing  proof  of  their 
attention 

"  Mr.  Hunter  Gowan  had  for  many  years 
distinguished  himself  by  his  activity  in  ap- 
prehending robbers,  for  which  he  was  re- 
warded with  a  pension  of  £100  per  annum. 
Now  exalted  to  the  rank  of  a  magistrate, 
and  promoted  to  be  captain  of  a  corps  of 
yeomanry,  he  was  zealous  in  his  exertions  to 
inspire  the  people  about  Gorey  with  dutiful 
submission  to  the  magistracy  and  a  respect- 
ful awe  of  the  yeomanry.  On  a  public  day 
in  the  week  preceding  the  insurrection,  the 
town  of  Gorey  beheld  the  triumphal  entry 
of  Mr.  Gowan,  at  the  head  of  his  corps, 
with  his  sword  drawn  and  a  human  finger 
stuck  on  the  point  of  it. 

"  With  this  trophy  he  marched  into  the 
town,  parading  up  and  down  the  streets 
several  limes,  so  that  there  was  not  a  per- 
son in  Gorey  who  did  not  witness  this  exhi- 
bition ;  while  in  the  meantime  the  triumph- 
ant corps  displayed  all  the  devices  of  Orange- 
men. After  the  labor  and  fatigue  of  the 
day,  Mr.  Gowan  and  his  men  retired  to  a 
public  house  to  refresh  themselves,  and.  like 
true  blades  of  game,  their  punch  was  stirred 
about  with  the  finger  that  had  graced  their 
ovation,  in  imitation  of  keen  fjx  hunters, 
who  wkisk  a  bowi  of  punch  with  the  brush 
of  a  fox  before  their  boozing  comuieiices. 


This  captain  and  magistrate  afterwards 
went  to  the  bouse  of  Mr.  Jones,  where  his 
daughters  were,  and  while  taking  a  snack 
that  was  set  before  him,  he  bragged  of  hav- 
ing blooded  his  corps  that  day,  and  that 
they  were  as  staunch  blood-hounds  as  any 
in  the  world.  The  daughters  begged  of 
their  father  to  show  them  the  croppy  finger, 
which  he  deliberately  took  from  his  pocket 
and  handed  to  them.  Misses  dandled  it 
about  with  senseless  exultation,  at  which  a 
young  lady  in  the  room  was  so  shocked  that 
she  turned  about  to  a  window,  holding  her 
hand  to  her  face  to  avoid  the  horrid  sight. 
Mr.  Gowan,  perceiving  this,  took  the  finger 
from  his  daughters,  and  archly  dropped 
it  into  the  disgusted  lady's  bosom.  She 
instantly    fainted,    and     thus     the     scene 

ended  11! 

"  Having  spent  Friday,  the  25th  of  May, 
with  Mr.  Turner,  a  magistrate  of  the  coun- 
ty, at  New  fort,  he  requested  me  to  attend 
him  next  day  at  Newpark,  the  seat  of  Mr. 
Fitzgerald,  where,  as  the  most  central  place, 
he  had  appointed  to  meet  the  people  of  the 
neighborhood.  I  accordingly  met  him  there 
on  Saturday,  the  26th,  where  he  continued 
the  whole  day  administering  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  vast  numbers  of  people.  A 
certificate  was  given  to  every  person  who 
took  the  oath  and  surrendered  any  offensive 
weapon.  Many  attended  who  offered  to 
take  the  oath,  and  also  to  depose  that  they 
were  not  United  Irishmen,  and  that  they 
possessed  no  arms  of  any  kind  whatever,  aud 
earnestly  asked  for  certificates.  But  so 
great  was  the  concourse  of  these,  that,  con- 
sidering the  trouble  of  writing  them  out,  it 
was  found  impossible  to  supply  them  all  with 
such  testimonials  at  that  time.  Mr.  Turner, 
therefore,  continued  to  receive  surrendered 
arms,  desiring  such  as  had  none  to  await  a 
more  convenient  opportunity.  Numbers, 
however,  still  conceiving  that  they  would 
not  be  secure  without  a  written  protection, 
offered  ten  times  their  intrinsic  value  to  such 
as  had  brought  pike  blades  to  surrender  ; 
but  these  being  unwilling  to  forego  tlie 
benefit  of  a  written  protection  for  the  mo- 
ment, refused  to  part  with  their  weapons  ou 
any  other  condition.  Among  the  great 
numbers  assembled  on  this  occasion  were 
some  men  from  the  village  of  Ballaglikeeu, 


FATHER   JOHN   MTJRPHY. 


311 


who  liad  the  appearance  of  being  more  dead 
thtfti  alive,  from  the  apprehensions  they 
were  under  of  having  t'^  'r  hou-ses  burned 
or  themselves  whipped  should  they  return 
Lome.  These  apprehensions  luid  been  ex- 
cited to  this  degree  because  tliat,  on  the 
night  of  Timrsday,  the  24th,  tlie  Enniscor- 
thy  cavalry,  conducted  by  Mr.  Arcliibald 
Hamilton  Jacob,  had  come  to  Ballaghkeen; 
but,  on  hearing  the  iipproaching  noise,  the 
inhabitants  ran  out  of  tlieir  bouses,  and  fled 
into  large  brakes  of  furze  on  a  hill  imme- 
diately above  the  village,  from  whence  they 
could  hear  the  cries  of  oue  of  their  neigh- 
bors, who  was  dragged  out  of  his  house, 
tied  up  to  a  thorn  tree,  and  while  one 
yeomau  continued  flogging  him,  another 
was  throwing  water  on  his  back.  The 
groans  of  the  unfortuuate  sufferer,  from  the 
stillness  of  the  night,  reverberated  widely 
through  the  appalled  neigiiborhood ;  and 
the  spot  of  execution  these  men  represented 
to  have  appeared  next  morning  'as  if  a  j?i^- 
had  beeu  killed.'"* 

On  the  25th  of  May  was  perpetrated  the 
massacre  of  Carnew.  A  large  number  of 
prisoners  had  beeu  shut  up  in  the  jail  of  that 
place,  on  suspicion  of  being  guilty  of  pos- 
sessing arms,  or  of  knowing  some  oue  who 
possessed  arms.  '  These  prisoners  were  all 
taken  out  of  the  jail  and  deliberately  shot 
in  the  ball  alley,  by  tlie  yeomen  aud  a  party 
of  the  Antrim  militia,  in  presence  of  their 
officer  s.f 

Father  John  Murphy  was  curate  of 
Monageer  aud  Boolevogue,  He  was  a  gen- 
tleman of  leirning  and  accomplishments, 
liaving  studied  in  the  University  of  Seville. 
He  had  now  been  resident  several  years, 
quietly  doing  the  sacred  duties  of  his  calling, 
enjoying  the  esteem  of  all  his  neighbors, 
and  little  dreaming  that  it  was  to  fall  to  his 
lot  to  head  an  insurrection.  Miles  Byrne, 
who  knew  him  well,  narrates  with  much 
simplicity  the  story  of  the  good  priest's  first 
act  (if  war  : — 

" 'lliH  Reverend  John  Murphy,  of  the 
parish  of  Monageer  and  Boolevogue,  was  a 
wuriiiy,  simple,  pious  man,  and  one  of  those 
Roman  Caiiiolic  priests  who  used  the  great- 
est t-xerlions  and  exhortations  to  obhge  the 
people  to  surreiuler  tlieir  |'ik<  s  ami  lirL-arnis 
*  Edward  Haj.  t  Huy,  Madden. 


of  every  description.  As  soon  as  the  cow- 
ardly yeomanry  thought  that  all  the  arms 
were  given  up,  and  that  there  was  no  tui"' 
ther  risk,  they  took  courage,  and  set  out, 
on  Whit  Saturday,  the  26th  of  May,  1798, 
burning  and  destroying  all  before  thein. 
Poor  Father  John,  seeing  his  chapel  and  his 
house,  and  many  others  of  the  parish,  all  on 
fire,  and  in  several  of  them  the  inhabitants 
consumed  in  the  flames,  and  that  no  man 
seen  in  colored  clothes  could  escape  the  fury 
of  the  yeomanry,  betook  himself  to  the  next 
wood,  where  he  was  soon  surrounded  by  the 
unfortuuate  people  who  had  escaped  ;  all 
came  beseeching  his  reverence  to  tell  tin  m 
what  was  to  become  of  them  and  their  poor 
families.  He  answered  them  abruptly,  that 
they  had  better  die  courageously  in  the  field 
than  be  butchered  in  tlieir  houses  ;  that,  ior 
his  own  part,  if  he  had  any  brave  men  to 
join  him,  he  was  resolved  to  sell  his  life 
dearly,  and  prove  to  those  cruel  monsters 
that  they  should  not  continue  their  murdera 
and  devastations  with  impunity.  All  an- 
swered and  cried  out  that  they  were  deter- 
mined to  follow  his  advice,  and  to  do  what- 
ever he  ordered.  '  Well,  then,'  he  replied, 
'  we  must,  when  night  comes,  get  armed 
the  best  way  we  can,  with  pitch-forks  and 
other  weapons,  and  attack  the  Camoleu  yeo- 
mau cavalry  on  their  way  back  to  Earl 
Mountnorris,  where  they  will  return  to  pass 
the  night,  after  satisfying  their  savage  rage 
on  the  defenceless  country  people.' 

"  Father  Johu's  plan  was  soon  put  in  ex- 
ecution. He  went  to  the  high  road  by 
which  the  corps  was  to  return,  left  a  few 
men  near  a  house,  with  instructions  to  place 
tW'O  cars  across  the  road  the  moment  the 
last  of  the  cavalry  had  passed,  and  at  a 
short  distance  from  thence,  half  a  quarter 
of  a  mile,  he  made  a  complete  barricade 
across  the  highway,  and  then  placed  all  those 
i)rave  fellows  who  followed  him  behind  a 
hedge  along  the  road-side;  and  in  thisposition 
he  waited  to  receive  this  famous  yeomanry 
cavalry,  returning  from  being  glutted  with 
all  manner  of  crimes  during  tiiis  memorable 
day,  the  26th  of  May,  nilS. 

"About  nine  o'clock  at  night,  this  corps, 
riding  in  great  sjieed,  encounieivu  tlie  al>ove- 
nunlioned  o'o^t.icle  on  the  road,  and  were  at 
llie    same  moment   attacked   lioai   iVont  to 


812 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAKD. 


rear  by  Father  John  and  Itis  brave  men, 
with  their  pitcli-forks.  The  cavahy,  after 
dischargino-  their  pistols,  got  no  time  to  re- 
load them,  or  to  nialie  much  use  of  tlieir 
8abres.  In  short,  they  were  Hierally  lifted 
out  of  tlieir  saddles,  and  fell  dead  under 
their  horses'  feet.  Lieutenant  Booky,  who 
had  the  command  iji  the  absence  of  Earl 
Monntnorris,  was  one  of  the  first  killed  ;  he 
was  a  sanguinary  villain,  and  it  seemed  a 
just  jiulgmont  that  befell  tliera  all.  But,  be 
that  as  it  may,  Fattier  John  and  his  men 
were  much  elated  with  their  victory,  and 
gett'ng  arms,  ammunition,  and  horses  by  it, 
considered  themselves  formidable,  and  able 
at  least  to  beat  the  cruel  yeomanry  in  every 
encounter.  They  marched  at  onne  to  Ca- 
raoleu  Park,  the  residence  of  Lord  Mount 
Dorris,  where  they  got  a  great  quantity  of 
arms  of  every  description,  and  which  had 
been  taken  from  the  country  people  for 
months  before  ;  and  even  the  carabines  be- 
longing to  the  corps,  and  which  had  not 
been  distributed,  waiting  the  arrival  of  the 
Earl  from  Dublin. 

"Dm-ing  the  night,  and  the  next  day, 
Whit  Sunday,  the  27th  of  May,  the  people 
flocked  in  to  join  Father  John's  standard, 
on  hearing  of  his  success  ;  and  as  soon  as 
the  news  was  known  in  Gorey,  the  troops 
took  flight  and  abandoned  the  town,  letting 
the  prisoners  go  where  they  pleased  ;  but 
finding  that  Father  John  had  marched  in 
another  direction,  they  returned  and  re- 
sumed their  persecutions  as  befure  ;  they 
again  arrested  great  numljers  and  had  them 
placed  in  the  market-house  loft,  ready  to  be 
butchered  the  moment  the  insurgents  made 
their  appearance  before  the  town.  Poor 
Perry  was  amongst  the  prisoners,  and  in  a 
dreadful  slate,  having  the  skin  as  well  as 
the  hair  burned  off  his  head.  Esmond  Cane 
was  arrested  that  day  and  made  a  pris- 
oner." 

Father  John  might  now  have  marched 
-.Into  Wicklow  County  without  much  opposi- 
tion, "  but,"  continues  Miles  Byrne,  "  he 
thought  it  would  be  more  advisable  to  raise 
the  whole  County  of  Wexford  first,  and  get 
possession  of  the  principal  towns.  In  conse- 
queivce  of  this  decision,  on  Whit  Sunday, 
the  21  th  of  May,  he  marched  with  all  hisj 
fOi'Ccs,  then  amounting  to  four  or  five  thou- 1 


sand  men,  to  Onlard  Hill,  a  distance  of  ten 
miles  from  Wexford,  and  five  from  Einfis- 
corthy.  He  encamped  on  this  hill  for  the 
purpose  of  giving  an  opportunity  to  the  un- 
fortunate people  who  were  hiding  to  come 
and  join  him.  He  soon  perceived  several 
corps  of  yeomanry  cavaliy  in  si-^ht,  but  all 
keeping  at  a  certain  distance  from  the  hill, 
waiting  until  the  infantry  from  Wexford 
arrived  to  make  the  first  attack. 

"  Shortly  after,  he  saw  a  large  force  on 
the  march,  flanked  by  some  cavalry,  and  aa 
soon  as  they  began  to  mount  the  hill.  Father 
John  assembled  his  men  and  showed  them 
the  different  corps  of  cavalry  that  were 
waiting,  he  said,  '  to  see  us  dispersed  by  the 
foot  troops,  to  fall  on  us  and  to  cut  us  in 
pieces  ;  but  let  us  remain  firm  together  and 
we  shall  surely  defeat  the  infantry,  and  then 
we  shall  have  nothing  to  dread  from  the 
cavalry,  as  they  are  too  great  cowards  to 
venture  into  the  action.'  AH  promised  to 
conform  to  his  instructions.  'Well,  then/ 
he  rejoined,  '  we  must  march  against  the 
troops  that  are  mounting  the  hill,  and  wheu 
they  are  deployed  and  ready  to  begin  the 
attack,  we  must  retreat  precipitately  back 
to  where  we  are,  and  then  throw  ourselves 
down  behhid  this  old  ditch,'  pointing  to  a 
boundary  on  the  top  of  the  hill.  All  his 
instructions  were  executed  as  he  had  or- 
dered. 

"The  King's  troops  were  commanded  by 
Colonel  Foote  and  Miijor  liombard,  and  as 
soon  as  they  came  within  about  two  musket- 
shots  of  the  insurgents,  they  deployed  and 
prepared  for  action,  but  became  enraged 
when  they  saw  the  insurgents  retreating 
back  to  the  top  of  the  hill ;  however,  they 
followed  quickly,  knowing  that  the  hill 
was  completely  surrounded  by  the  several 
corps  of  yeomanry  cavalry,  and  that  it  was 
impossible  for  the  insurgents  to  escape  be- 
fore they  came  in  with  them. 

"Father  John  allowed  the  infantry  to 
come  within  half  musket-shot  of  the  ditch, 
and  then  a  few  men  on  each  flank  and  in  the 
centre  stood  up,  at  the  sight  of  which  the 
whole  line  of  infantry  fired  a  volley,  In- 
stanth'^,  Father  John  and  all  his  men  sallied 
out  and  attacked  the  soldiers,  who  were 
in  the  act  of  re-charging  their  arms;  and 
although  they   made   the   best   fight   they 


OCLARD  —STORM  OF  ENNISCOETHY. 


313 


could  with  tlieir  nmskets  and  bayonets,  tliey 
•were  soon  overpowered  and  completely  de- 
feated by  tlie  pikerneu,  or  rather  by  the  men 
with  pitch-forks  and  other  weapons  ;  for 
very  few  had  pikes  at  this  battle,  on  ac- 
coniit  of  naviiig  <i:iven  them  up  by  the  ex- 
hortations and  advice  of  the  priests. 

"Of  this  formidable  expedition,  which 
was  sent  from  Wexford  on  the  2Vth  of  May 
to  exterminate  tlie  insnrj^ents,  very  few  re- 
turned to  bring"  the  woeful  tidings  of  their 
defeat,  and  the  glorious  victory  obtained  by 
the  people  over  their  cruel  tyrants.  Of  the 
North  Cork  party,  that  had  been  tlie 
scourge  of  the  country  for  several  months 
previous,  and  so  distinguished  for  making 
Orangemen,  hanging,  picketing,  putting  on 
pitch-caps,  &c.,  Major  Lombard,  the  Hon- 
orable Captain  De  Courcy,  Lieutenants  Wil- 
liams, Ware,  Barry,  and  Ensign  Keogh, 
with  all  the  privates  but  two,  were  left  dead 
on  the  field  of  battle.  In  short,  none 
escaped  except  Colonel  Foote,  a  sergeant, 
a  drummer,  and  the  two  privates  mentioned 
above.  The  insurgents  had  but  three  killed 
and  five  or  six  wounded.  The  Shilmalier 
Cavalry,  commanded  by  Colonel  Lehnnt,  as 
well  as  the  different  corps  of  cavalry  that 
surrounded  the  liill  during  the  battle,  and 
which  did  not'  take  any  part  in  the  action, 
la  their  precipitate  retreat  to  Wexford,  En- 
niscorthy,  and  Gorey,  shot  every  man  they 
met  on  the  road  ;  went  to  the  iiouses,  called 
the  people  to  their  doors  and  put  them  to 
death  ;  many  who  were  asleep  shared  the 
same  fate,  their  houses  being  mostly  burned. 

"Solomon  Richards,  connnander  of  the 
Enniseorthy  Cavalry,  and  Ilavvtry  White, 
who  commanded  all  the  troops  of  cavalry 
sent  from  Gorey  to  exterminate  the  people, 
surpassed  description.  They  little  thought, 
however,  that  for  every  one  they  put  to 
death  in  cold  blood,  they  were  sending 
thousands  to  join  the  insurg'ent  camp. 

"Father  John  and  his  little  army  now 

became  quite  flushed  with  their  last  victory. 

Seeing  the  King's  troops  flying  and  escaping 

in  every  direction,  they  were   at  a  loss  to 

knoT/   which    division  they   should   pursue ; 

they,  however,  (having  as  yet  no  cavalry,) 

marclied   from   Oulard   Hill   and  encamped 

for   the    night    on    Carrigrew    Hill.     Next 

morning,  tiie  28lh  of  May,  at  seven  o'clock, 
40 


they  marched  to  Camolen,  and  from  thence 
to  Ferns.  Not  meeting  with  any  of  the 
King's  troops  in  this  town  to  oppose  them, 
and  having  learned  that  they  had  retreated 
to  Gorey  and  to  Etmiscorthy,  Father  John 
resolved  at  once  to  attack  this  last  town,  in 
order  to  afford  a  better  opportunity  to  the 
brave  and  unfortunate  country  people  to 
escape  from  their  hiding  places  and  come  to 
join  his  standard,  he  and  his  little  army 
crossed  the  Slaney  by  the  bridge  at  Seara- 
walsh  ;  and  certaiidy  this  skillfid  manoeuvre 
or  countermarch  had  the  happiest  result ; 
for,  immediately  on  crossing  the  river,  he 
was  joined  by  crowds." 

On  their  arrival  before  Enniscortliy,  the 
insurgents  amounted  to  the  number  of  7,000 
men,  800  of  wliom  were  armed  with  guns, 
which  they  had  seized  at  Camoleu  almost 
immediately  after  they  had  been  sent  to 
that  place  by  the  Earl  of  Mountnorris. 
About  one  o'clock  on  the  28th  of  May, 
Enniseorthy  was  attacked  by  this  vast  mul- 
titude, and  after  a  vigorous  defence  by  the 
comparatively  small  garrison,  was  left  in 
possession  of  the  insurgents.  The  garrison 
retreated  and  fell  back  on  Wexford  ;  they 
lost  above  ninety  of  their  men,  and  the  town 
was  on  fire  in  several  places.  They  were 
attended  by  a  confused  number  of  unfor- 
tunate loyal  inhabitants,  but  were  not  pur- 
sued by  the  insurgents,  who  might  have 
easily  cut  off  their  retreat. 

To  disperse  the  insurgents,  if  possible, 
without  battle  or  concession,  or  perhaps  to 
divert  their  attention  and  retard  their  pro- 
gress, an  expedient  was  essayed  Iiy  Capiaiu 
Boyd,  of  the  Wexford  Cava'lry.  Tins  offi- 
cer had,  in  consequence  of  a  requisition  to 
that  purpose  of  the  sheriff  and  other  gentle- 
men, on  the  25th  and  27th,  from  informa- 
tion or  suspicion  of  treasonable  designs,  ar- 
rested Beauchamp  B;igenal  Harvey,  of 
Bargy  Castle,  John  Henry  Coleluugh,  of 
Ballyteigue,  and  Edward  Fitzgerald,  of 
New  Park,  all  three  respectable  .uentleraen 
of  the  County  of  Wexford.  Yi.-iiing  tiiem 
ill  prison  on  the  29th,  Captain  Boyd  agreed 
with  these  gentlemen,  that  one  of  them 
should  go  to  the  rebels  at  Enniscortliy,  and 
endeavor  to  persuade  them  to  disperse  and' 
return  to  their  homes  ;  but  would  not  give 
authority  to  promise  any  terms  to  the  ia« 


314 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


sur^ents  in  case  of  submission.  Colclou,<i;li, 
at  the  request  of  Mr.  Harvey,  agreed  to  go, 
on  condition  of  his  being  accompanied  by 
Mr.  Fitzgerald.  On  tlie  arrival  of  these 
two  gentlemen  at  Eiuiiscorthy,  about  four 
in  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day,  they  found 
the  insurgents  in  a  state  of  confusion,  distract- 
ed in  their  councils,  and^uudetermined  in  any 
plan  of  operation  ;  some  proposing  to  at- 
tack Newtownbarry,  others  Ross,  others 
Wexford,  others  to  remain  in  their  present 
posts  ;  the  greater  number  to  march  home 
for  the  defence  of  their  houses  against 
Orangemen. 

It  was  but  the  resolution  of  a  moment  to 
march  in  a  body  to  attack  Wexford.  Mr. 
Fitzgerald  they  detained  in  the  camp,  and 
Mr.  Colclough  they  sent  back  to  announce 
their  hostile  intentions. 

Mr.  Colclough  arrived  in  Wexford  early 
in  the  evening,  and  waited  in  the  Bull  Ring 
(a  small  square  in  the  town  so  denominated) 
until  the  ofificers  and  other  gentlemen  in  the 
place  had  there  assembled,  when  he  in- 
formed them,  in  a  very  audible  voice,  from 
on  horseback,  that  having  gone  out,  accord- 
ing to  their  directions,  to  the  insurgents  on 
Vinegar  Hill,  he  found,  as  he  had  already 
suggested  before  his  departure,  that  he  pos- 
sessed no  influence  with  tlie  people,  who  had 
ordered  him  to  return  and  announce  their 
determination  of  marching  to  the  attack  of 
Wexford  ;  adding  that  they  had  detained 
Mr.  Fitzgerald.  Mr.  Colclough  then  re- 
quested to  be  informed,  if  it  were  intended 
to  make  further  trial  of  his  services,  or  to 
require  his  longer  attendance,  as  otherwise 
they  must  be  sensible  how  eager  he  must 
be  to  relieve  the  anxiety  of  his  family  by 
his  presence.  He  was  then  entreated  to 
endeavor  to  maintain  tranquillity  in  his  own 
neighborhood,  which  having  promised  to 
do,  as  much  as  in  his  power,  he  called  at  the 
jail  to  visit  Mr,  Harvey,  with  whom  he 
agreed  (according  to  the  compact  with 
Captain  Boyd)  to  return  next  day  and  take 
his  place  in  the  jail,  and  then  set  oflf  through 
the  barony  of  Forth,  for  his  own  dwelling 
at  Biillyteigue,  distant  about  ten  miles  from 
Wexford. 

^  Early  in  the  morning  of  the  29lh,  Colonel 
Maxwell,  of  the  Donegal  militia,  with  two 
hundred   men   of   his   regiment   and  a  si.v 


pouuder,  arrived  iu  Wexford  from  Duncan- 
non  Fort,  dispatched  by  General  Fawuett, 
who  had  been  apprised  of  the  insurrection 
on  the  STth,  by  Captain  Knox,  an  oflScer 
sent  to  escort  Sergeant  Stanley,  a  judge  of 
assize,  on  his  way  to  Munster.  This  rein- 
forcement being  insufficient,  an  express  was 
sent  from  the  Mayor  of  Wexford  to  the 
General,  requesting  an  additional  force  ;  he 
expeditiously  returned  with  an  exhilarating 
answer,  that  the  General  himself  would  com- 
mence his  march  for  Wexford  on  the  same 
evening,  from  Duncannon,  with  the  Thir- 
teenth Regiment,  four  companies  of  the 
Meath  militia,  and  a  party  of  artillery  with 
two  howitzers.  On  the  receipt  of  this  in- 
teUigence,  Colonel  Maxwell,  leaving  the 
five  passes  into  the  town  guarded  by  the 
yeomen  and  North  Cork  militia,  touk  post 
with  his  men  on  the  Windmill  Hill,  above 
the  town,  at  day-break  on  the  following 
morning,  the  30th,  with  the  resolution  to 
march  against  the  enemy  on  the  arrival  of 
General  Fawcett's  army. 

That  General  had  marched  according  to 
his  promise,  on  the  evening  of  the  29lIi  ;  l)ut 
halting  at  Taghmon,  seven  miles  from  Wex- 
ford, he  had  sent  forward  a  detachment  of 
eighty-eight  men,  including  eighteen  of  the 
artillery,  with  the  howitzers,  und^r  the  com- 
mand of  Captain  Adams,  of  the  Meath 
militia.  This  detachment  was  intercepted 
early  in  the  morning  of  the  30th,  by  the  in- 
surgents, under  the  Three  Fvocks,  which 
they  had  occupied  as  a  military  station,  be- 
ing about  three  miles  from  Wexford  ;  the 
howitzers  were  taken  and  almost  the  whole 
party  slain  * 

Colonel  Maxwell,  informed  of  the  de- 
struction of  Captain  Adams'  detachment, 
l)y  two  officers  who  had  escaped  the  slaugh- 
ter, advanced  immediately  with  what  forces 
he  could  collect,  with  design  to  retake  the 
howitzers,  and  cooperate  with  General  Faw- 
cett,  of  whose  retreat  he  had  no  suspicion, 

*  The  following  official  account  was  given  of  this 
affair : — 

"Dublin  Castle,  June  2cl,  1798. 

"Accounts  have  been  received  from  Major-Gen- 
eral  Eustace,  at  New  Ross,  stating  that  Major-Gen- 
eral  Fawcett  having  marched  witli  a  company  of  the 
Meath  regiment  from  Duncannon  Fort,  this  small 
force  was  surrouiiJed  Ijy  a  very  large  body  between 
Taglimon  and  Wexford,  and  defeated.  General 
Fawcett  effected  his  retreat  to  Duacannon  Port." 


"WEXFORD    EVACUATED    BY   THE   KINg's    TROOPS. 


315 


but  observiug  his  left  flank  exposed  by  tlie 
retreat  of  some  of  the  Tnfrhmon  cavalry, 
and  the  enemy  making  a  motion  to  surround 
him,  he  retired  to  \Yexford,  witli  the  loss  of 
Lieuteuaut-Colonel  Watsou  killed,  and  two 
privates  wounded. 

Everything  now  wore  the  aspect  of  a 
gloomy,  desperate  consternation.  Some 
yeomen  and  supplementaries,  posted  nearly 
opposite  the  jail,  were  heard  continually  to 
threaten  to  put  all  the  prisoners  to  death, 
whicli  so  roused  the  attention  of  the  jailer 
to  protect  his  charge,  that  he  barricaded 
the  door,  and  delivered  up  the  key  to  Mr. 
Harvey.  Some  magistrates  were  admitted 
to  see  Mr.  Harvey  in  the  jail,  and,  at  their 
most  urgent  entreaties,  he  wrote  the  follow- 
ing notice  to  the  insurgents  : — 

"  I  have  been  treated  in  prison  with  all 
possible  liumauity,  and  am  now  at  liberty. 
I  have  procured  the  liberty  of  all  the  pris- 
oners. If  you  pretend  to  Cliristian  charity, 
do  not  commit  massacre,  or  burn  the  pro- 
perty of  the  inhabitants,  and  spare  your 
prisoners'  lives.  "  B.  B.  Harvey. 

''Wednesday,  May  dOt/i,  1798." 

Counselor  Richards,  with  his  brother, 
then  undertook  to  announce  the  surrender 
of  the  town  to  the  insurgents,  whose  camp 
they  reached  in  safety,  tliough  clad  in  full 
uniform.  Scarcely  had  tliese  deputies  set 
out  upon  their  mission,  when  all  the  military 
corps,  a  part  of  tiie  Wexford  infantry  under 
Ca[)tain  Hughes  oidy  excepted,  made  tlie 
best  of  their  way  out  of  town  in  whatever 
direction  tliey  imagined  they  could  find 
safety,  without  acquainting  their  neighbors 
on  duty  of  tiieir  intentions.  The  principal 
inhabitants,  whose  services  had  been  ac- 
cepted of  for  the  defence  of  the  town,  were 
mostly  Catholics,  and,  according  to  the 
prevalent  system,  were  subject  to  the  great- 
est insults  and  taunts.  Tiiey  were  al- 
ways placed  in  front  of  the  posts,  and  cau- 
tioned to  behave  well,  or  that  death  should 
be  the  consequence.  Accordingly,  persons 
were  i)laced  behind  to  i<eep  them  to  their 
duty,  and  these  were  so  watchl'nl  of  their 
charge,  that  they  would  not  even  permit 
them  l^o  turn  about  their  iieads.  Tuns  were 
the  anu' d  iiiiiabitants  It'it  ;il  tiicir  post, 
abantiuued   by   iheir    otiicers,  and    actually 


ignorant  of  the  flight  of  the  soldiery,  until 
all  possible  means  of  retreating  were  cut  off. 
Upon  the  approach  of  the  insurgents,  the 
confusion  and  dismay  were  excessive,  the 
few  remaining  officers  and  privates  I'an  con- 
fusedly through  the  town,  threw  off  their 
uniforms,  and  hid  themselves  wherever  their 
fears  suggested.  Some  ran  for  boats  to 
convey  them  off,  and  threw  their  arms  and 
ammunition  into  the  water.  Some,  from  au 
insufficiency  of  men's  clothes,  assumed  fe- 
male attire  for  the  purpose  of  disguise. 
Extreme  confusion,  tunmlt,  and  panic  were  . 
everywhere  exhibited.  The  North  Cork 
regiment,  on  quitting  the  barracks,  had  set 
them  on  fire,  but  the  fire  was  soon  after  put 
out. 

In  the  meantime,  Mr.  Richards  having 
arrived  at  the  Tliree  Rocks,  made  it  known 
to  the  insurgent  chiefs,  that  they  were  de- 
puted to  inform  the  people  tiiat  the  town 
would  be  surrendered  to  them,  on  condition 
of  sparing  lives  and  properties  ;  these  terms, 
they  were  informed,  would  not  be  complied 
with,  unless  the  arms  and  ammunition  of  tlie 
garrison  were  also  surrendered.  Mr.  Loftus 
Richards  was,  therefore,  detained  as  a  hos- 
tage, and  Counselor  Richards  and  Mr. 
Fitzgerald  were  sent  back  to  the  town,  to 
settle  and  arrange  the  articles  of  capitula- 
tion. These  gentlemen,  on  their  arrival,  to 
their  astonishment,  found  the  place  aban- 
doned by  tiie  military.  A  multitude  of 
insurgents  was  just  ready  to  pour  in  and 
take  unconditional  possession  of  the  town. 
It  was  therefore  thought  necessary  to  irtat 
witli  them,  in  order  to  prevent  the  conse- 
quences apprehended  from  such  a  tumul- 
tuary influx  of  people.  Dr.  Jacob,  then 
Mayor  of  the  town  and  Captain  of  tlie 
Wexford  infantry,  entreated  Mr.  Fitzgerald 
to  announce  to  the  people  rushing  in,  that 
the  town  was  actually  surrendered  ;  and  to 
use  every  argument  that  his  prudence  might 
suggest  to  make  ttieir  entry  as  peaceable  as 
po.^sible.  Mr.  Fitzgerald  complied,  and  in- 
stantly after  this  communication,  thou.sands 
of  people  poured  into  the  town,  over  the 
W(jo(ien  briuge,  >houLing  and  exhibiiing  all 
the  marks  of  extravagant  and  victorious 
exultation.  They  first  proceeded  to  the 
jad,  iviea.scd  ad  ine  [jristJiu-rs,  and  insisted 
tiiai  Mr.  liarvey  saouia   Ltccome   tueir  com- 


316 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


mander.  All  the  houses  in  town,  not  aban- 
doned by  the  inhabitants,  now  became 
decorated  witli  green  bonghs,  and  other  em- 
blematic symbols.  The  doors  were  univer- 
sally thrown  open,  and  the  most  liberal 
offers  made  of  spirits  and  drink,  which,  how- 
ever, were  not  as  freely  accepted,  until  the 
persons  offering  them  had  first  drank  them- 
selves, as  a  proof  that  the  liquor  was  not 
poisoned — a  report  having  prevailed  to  that 
effect. 

The  insurgents  being  in  possession  of  the 
.town,  several  of  the  yeomen,  having  thrown 
off  their  uniforms,  affected,  with  all  the 
signs  and  emblems  of  the  United  Irishmen, 
to  convince  them  of  their  unfeigned  cordial- 
ity and  friendship  ;  those  who  did  not  throw 
open  their  doors  with  offers  of  refreshment 
and  accommodation  to  the  insurgents,  suf- 
fered by  plunder,  their  substance  being  con- 
sidered as  enemy's  property.  The  house  of 
Captain  Boyd  was  a  singular  exception.  It 
was,  though  not  deserted,  pillaged. 

Tlio.-e  troops  who  had  fled  from  Wexford 
signalized  themselves  in  their  retreat  by 
plundering  and  devastating  the  country  ;  by 
burning  the  cabins  and  sliooting  the  peas- 
ants in  their  progress  ;  and  thus  they  aug- 
mented the  number  and  rage  of  the  insur- 
gents. These  excesses  were  seen  from  the 
insurgents'  station  at  the  Tliree  Rocks,  and 
it  was  with  extreme  diflicnlty  that  the  en- 
raged multitude  were  hindered  by  their 
chiel's  from  rushing  down  upon  Wexford, 
and  taking  sunnnary  vengeance  of  the  town 
and  its  inhabitants. 

Tiie  wliole  County  of  Wexford  was  now 
in  open  insurrection.  Perhap.s,  it  would  be 
more  correct  to  say  that  the  people  had 
taken  to  the  field  because  their  houses  were 
mostly  burned  down,  and  had  collected 
themselves  into  masses,  with  such  poor 
arms  as  they  had  for  their  common  protec- 
tion. The  aggregate  numbers  of  persons, 
whether  insurgents  or  fugitives,  with  their 
crowds  of  women  and  children,  far  exceeded 
the  numbers  of  fighting  men  that  the  county 
could  furnish.  The  population  of  Wexford 
at  that  time  did  not  much,  if  at  all,  exceed 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand    persons.* 

*  In  1841,  it  was  202,033.   In  1851,  it  was  180,159.— 
If  horn's  Almanac. 


The  men  who  were  properly  of  fighting  age, 
tlierefore,  were  not  more  than  thirty  thou- 
sand. Sir  Jonah  Barrington  has  estimated 
the  whole  number  of  those  who  rose  in  this 
county  at  thirty-five  thousand  ;  but  even 
to  attain  this  amount,  there  must  have  been 
counted  many  thousands  of  old  men,  women, 
and  children,  besides  many  thousands  more 
who  were  unarmed,  or  only  half-armed. 
These  straggling  multitudes,  then,  without 
camp  equipage,  or  accoutrements,  or  artil- 
lery, (except  a  few  ship-guns,  not  mounted, 
and  some  captured  field-pieces,)  were  now 
committed  to  a  desperate  struggle  as:ainst 
the  force  of  a  powerful  empire,  well  supplied 
with  everything,  and  led  by  veteran  gen- 
erals. The  only  wonder,  to  those  who  read 
this  narration,  will  be,  not  that  tliey  were 
finally  overpowered,  but  that  they  achieved 
such  successes,  as  for  a  time  they  certainly 
did.  If  the  other  thirty-one  counties  had 
■Jouc  as  well  as  Wexford,  there  would  have 
ijcen  that  year  an  end  to  British  douiiuion. 


CHAPTER    XXXV. 

1798. 

Camp  on  Vinegar  Hill — Actions  at  Ballycannoo — At 
Newtownbarry— Tubberneering— Fall  of  Walpole 
— Two  Columns — Bagenal  Harvey  Commands  Insur- 
gents—Summons New  Ross  to  Surrender— Battle 
of  New  Ross— Slaughter  of  Prisoners— Retaliation 
— Scullabogue— Bagenal  Harvey  Shocked  by  Affair 
of  Scullabogue — Resigns  Command— Father  Philip 
Roche  General— Fight  at  Arklow— Claimed  as  a 
Victory  by  King's  Troops — Account  of  it  by  Milea 
Byrne — The  Insurgents  Execute  some  Loyalists  in 
Wexford  Town — Dixon — Retaliation — Proclamation 
by  "People  of  Wexford" — Lord  Kingsborough  a 
Prisoner — Troops  Concentrated  round  Vinegar  Hill 
— Battle  of  Vinegar  Hill — Enniscorthy  and  Wexford 
Recovered— Military  Executions — Ravage  of  the 
Country — Chiefs  Executed  in  Wexford— Treatment 
of  Women — Outrages  in  the  North  of  the  County — 
Fate  of  Father  John  Murphy's  Column— Of  Antony 
Perry's — Combat  at  Ballyollis — Miles  Byrne's  Ac- 
count of  it — Extermination  of  Ancient  Britons — 
Character  of  Wexford  Insurrection — Got  up  by  the 
Government. 

While  the  insurgents  were  hohling  the 
town  of  Wexford,  two  large  "encampments" 
of  them  were  f<M-med,  one  at  Ciirrigrew  Hill, 
the  other  at  Carrickbyrne,  within  six  miles 
of  the  town  of  New  Ro.ss,  situated  on  the 
largo  river  Nore,  and  commamling  the 
main  passage  into  the  County  of  Kilkenny. 
Their   principal   headquarters  was   still   at 


ACTIONS   AT    BALLTCANNOO. 


317 


Yinegar  Hill,  close  by  Enuiscorthy,  situated 
bu  the  SUiney.  They  made  some  rough  en- 
trenchments round  this  hill,  and  placed  a 
few  guns  in  position  there.  They  then  sta- 
tioned a  large  garrison  in  tlio  town,  which 
was  relieved  every  day  by  a  frosh  party 
from  the  camp.  Such  great  numbers  of  the 
exasperated  of  the  people  from  the  adjacent 
country  flocked  to  their  camp  that  it  soon 
consisted  of  at  least  ten  thousand  men,  wo- 
men, and  children.  They  posted  strong 
picket-guards,  sentinels,  and  videttes  in  all 
the  avenues  leading  to  the  town,  and  for 
some  miles  round  it.  They  then  proceeded 
to  destroy  the  interior  of  the  church  of  En- 
niscorthy.* 

A  body  of  more  than  one  thousand  insur- 
gents, in  advancing  towards  Gorey,  on  the 
1st  of  June,  had  taken  possession  of  a  small 
village  called  Ballycannoo,  four  miles  to  the 
south  of  Gorey,  and  were  proceeding  to  take 
possession  of  an  advantageous  post  called 
Ballymanaau  Hill,  midway  between  the  vil- 
lage and  the  town,  when  they  were  met  by 
the  whole  of  the  small  garrison  of  Gorey, 
and  by  a  steady  and  well-directed  fire  the 
people  were  soon  completely  routed.  This 
victorious  baud,  on  their  return  to  Gorey, 
fired  most  of  the  houses  at  Ballycannoo,  and 
entered  the  town  in  triumph,  with  one  hun- 
dred horses  and  other  spoil  which  they  had 
taken.  In  this,  as  in  every  other  engage- 
ment at  the  beginning  of  the  rebellion,  the 
insurgents  elevated  their  guns  too  much  for 
execution,  which  accounts  for  the  paucity  of 
the  slain  on  the  part  of  the  King's  troops. 
On  this  occasion  three  only  were  wounded, 
and  none  killed.  The  insurgents  are  said 
to  have  lost  above  three  score.f 

This  success,  coupled  with  that  at  New- 
townbarry,  gave  a  momentary  check  to  the 
ardor  of  the  people.  A  party  from  Vinegar 
Hill  surrounded  this  latter  town  in  sucli  a 

*  This  was  done  strictly  in  retaliation  for  the  burn- 
ing and  wrecking  of  Catliolic  chapels.  There  were, 
on  the  whole,  si.vt3'-nine  Catholic  chapels  destroyed 
during  the  insurrection  ;  more  than  thirty  in  Wexford 
alone.     Ploicden. 

t  The  Rev.  Mr.  Gordon  recounts  [page  136]  an 
occurrence  after  the  battle,  of  which  his  son  was  a 
witness,  which  greatly  illustrates  the  state  of  the 
country  at  that  time:  "Two  yeomen,  coming  to  a 
brake  or  clump  of  bushes,  and  observing  a  small  mo- 
tion, as  if  some  persons  were  hiding  there,  one  of 
Uiem  fired  into  it,  and  the  shot  was  answered  by  a 
most  piteous  and  loud  shriek  of  a  child.    The  other 


manner  that  Colonel  L'Estrange  at  first 
abandoned  it.  After  a  retreat  of  about  a 
mile,  he  yielded  to  the  solicitations  of  Lit*u- 
tenant-Colouel  Westenra,  and  sufft-red  the 
troops  to  be  led  back  to  the  succor  of  a  few 
determined  loyalists,  who  had  remained  ia 
the  town,  and  continued  a  fire  from  some 
houses.  This  accidental  manojnvre  had  all 
the  advantages  of  a  preconcerted  stratagem. 
The  insurgents,  who  had  rushed  into  the 
street  in  a  confused  multitude,  totally  unap- 
prehensive of  the  return  of  the  troops,  were 
unprepared,  and  driven  out  of  the  town  with 
the  loss  of  about  two  hundred  men. J 

On  advice  received  at  Newtownbarry  of 
the  attack  intended  by  the  insurgents,  an 
express  had  been  sent  to  Clonegall,  two 
miles  and  a  half  distant,  ordering  the  troops 
posted  there  to  march  immediately  to  New- 
townbarry. The  comander  of  these  troops, 
Lieutenant  Young,  of  the  Donegal  militia, 
instead  of  marching  immediately,  spent  two 
hours  in  hanging  four  prisoners,  in  spite  of 
the  urgent  remonstrance  of  an  officer  of  the 
North  Cork,  who  considered  these  men  as 
not  deserving  death — some  of  them  having 
actually  declined  to  join  the  insurgents  when 
it  was  fully  in  their  power.  By  this  delay, 
and  an  unaccountably  circuitous  march — 
three  miles  longer  than  the  direct  road, — 
the  troops  did  not  arrive  at  Newtownbarry 
till  after  the  action  was  entirely  over.  Mr. 
Young,  on  his  arrival  at  Clonegall,  had 
commanded  the  inhabitants  to  furnish  every 
individual  of  his  soldiers  with  a  feather  bed,, 
and  had,  without  the  least  necessity,  turned 
Mr.  Derenzy,  a  brave  and  loyal  gentleman, 
and  his  children,  out  of  their  beds.  When 
remonstrances  were  made  to  this  officer  for 
the  incessant  depredations  of  his  men,  his 
answer  was  :  "1  am  the  commanding  officer, 
and  damn  the  croppies."  § 

Tlie  insurgents  had  taken  post  on  Corri- 

yeoman  was  then  urged  by  his  companion  to  fire; 
but  he,  being  a  gentleman,  and  less  ferocious,  in- 
stead of  firing  commanded  the  concealed  persons  to 
appear,  when  a  poor  woman  and  eight  children,  al- 
most naked,  one  of  whom  was  severely  wounded, 
came  trembling  from  the  brake,  where  ihey  had  se- 
creted themselves  for  safety." 

X  The  light  in  which  this  conduct  of  the  command- 
ing officer  at  Newtownbarry  was  set  forth  in  the  ofS- 
cial  bulletin,  was,  that  lie  at  first  retreated  in  order 
to  collect  his  forces. 

§  Gord.  2  edit.,  p.  151. 


818 


HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 


gTiia  Hill  in  great  force,  where  they  rested 
OH  their  arms  till  the  4tli  of  June.  Mean- 
time, the  long  and  anxiously  expected  array 
under  General  Loftus  arrived  at  Gorey. 
The  sight  of  fifteen  hundred  fine  troops,  with 
five  pieces  of  artillery,  filled  the  loyalists 
with  confidence.  The  plan  was  to  march 
the  army  in  two  divisions,  by  different  roads 
on  Corrigrua,  and  attack  the  enemy  in  con- 
junction with  other  troops.  The  insurgents 
were  in  the  meantime  preparing  to  quit 
Corrigrua,  and  to  march  to  Gorey.  In- 
formation had  been  received  by  the  insur- 
gent chiefs  of  the  intended  motions  of  the 
army,  and  they  acted  upon  it.  Both  armies 
marched  about  the  same  time  ;  that  of  the 
insurgents  surprised  a  division  under  Colonel 
Walpole,  at  a  place  called  Tubberneering. 
The  insurgents  instantly  poured  a  tremendous 
fire  from  the  fields  on  both  sides  of  the  road, 
and  Walpole  received  a  bullet  through  the 
head  early  in  the  action.  Ilis  troops  fled  in 
the  utmost  disorder,  leaving  their  cannon, 
consisting  of  two  six-pounders  and  a  smaller 
piece,  in  the  hands  of  the  people.  They 
were  pursued  as  far  as  Gorey,  in  their  flight 
through  which  they  were  galled  by  the  fire 
of  some  of  the  insurgents,  who  had  taken 
station  in  the  houses.  The  loyalists  of  Go- 
rey once  more  fled  to  Arklow  with  the 
routed  army,  leaving  all  their  effects  be- 
hind. 

Miles  Byrne,  who  was  in  this  bloody 
action  of- Tubberneering,  (or  Clough,)  gene- 
rously pays  a  tribute  to  the  gallantry  of  the 
unfortunate  Walpole.     He  says  : — 

"  It  is  only  justice  to  the  memory  of  this 
unfortunate  man  to  say  that  he  displayed 
the  bravery  of  a  soldier,  and  fonght  with 
the  greatest  perseverance  in  his  critical  situ- 
ation ;  but  he  was  soon  overpowered  by  our 
men,  now  so  flushed  with  victory  that  noth- 
ing could  retard  their  march  onward.  Wal- 
pole was  nearly  surrounded  by  our  forces, 
thar  outflanked  iiiui  before  he  fell.  We  saw 
him  lying  dead  on  the  road,  and  he  had  the 
appearance  of  having  received  several  gun- 
shot wounds.  His  horse  lay  dead  beside 
bim,  with  a  number  of  private  soldiers 
dead  and  wounded.  His  troops  now  flt-d  in 
great  disorder,  and  could  liot  be  rallied  : 
they  were  taken  by  dozens  in  the  fields  and 
on    the   road   to   Gorey.     After   they  had 


thrown  away  their  arms,  accoutrement.s,  and 
everything  to  lighten  them,  they  were  yet 
overtaken  by  our  pikemen.  It  was  curious 
to  see  many  of  them  with  their  coats  turned 
inside  out.  They  thought,  no  doubt,  by  this 
sign  of  disaffection  to  the  English  that,  when 
made  prisoners,  they  would  not  be  injured. 
But  this  manoeuvre  was  unnecessary,  for  I 
never  heard  of  a  single  instance  of  a  prison- 
er being  ill-treated  during  those  days  of 
fighting.  Our  men  were  in  too  good-humor 
to  be  cruel  after  the  victory  they  had  ob- 
tained." 

While  Walpole's  division  was  attacked 
by  the  enemy,  General  Loftus,  being  within 
hearing  of  the  musketry,  detached  seventy 
men  — the  grenadier  company  of  the  Antrim 
militia — across  the  fields  to  its  assistahce  ; 
but  they  were  intercepted,  and  almost  all 
killed  or  taken.  Tiie  General,  still  ignorant 
of  the  fate  of  Colonel  Walpole's  division,  and 
unable  to  bring  his  artillery  across  the  fields, 
continued  his  march  along  the  highway,  by 
a  long  circuit,  to  the  field  of  battle,  where 
he  was  first  acquainted  with  the  event.  For 
some  way  he  followed  the  insurgents  towards 
Gorey,  but  finding  them,  posted  on  Gorey 
Hill,  from  which  they  fired  upon  him  the 
cannon  taken  from  Colonel  Walpole,  he  re- 
treated to  Carnew  ;  and  still,  contrary  to 
the  opinion  of  most  of  his  oSicers,  thinking 
Carnew  an  unsafe  post,  though  at  the  head 
of  twelve  hundred  effective  men,  he  aban- 
doned that  part  of  the  county  to  the  insar- 
gents,  and  retreated  nine  miles  further,  to 
the  town  of  TuUow,  in  the  County  of  Car- 
low. 

Whilst  one  formidable  body  of  the  Wex- 
ford insurgents  was  advancing  towards  the 
north,  another  still  more  formidable  was 
preparing  to  penetrate  to  the  southwest. 
The  conquest  of  New  Ross,  which  is  situated 
on  the  river  formed  by  the  united  streams 
of  the  Nore  and  the  Barrow,  would  have 
laid  open  a  communication  with  the  Coun- 
ties of  Waterford  and  Kilkenny,  in  which 
many  thousands  were  supposed  ready  to  rise 
in  arms  at  the  appearance  of  their  successful 
confederates.  The  po.ssession  of  that  im- 
portant post,  when  it  might  have  been 
effected  without  opposition  immediately 
upon  their  succes.s  at  Enniscorthy,  had, 
fortunately  for  the  royal  cause,  been  aban- 


BAGENAL   HARVEY    COMMANDS   IKSUEGENTS. 


319 


doiied,  oil  account  of  a  personal  difference 
amoiiffst  their  ciiiefs.  The  insurj^eiit  army 
of  Wexford  chose  Beauchamp  Bagenal 
Harvey,*  as  soon  as  he  was  liberated  from 
prison,  for  their  generahssimo,  and  they 
divided  into  two  main  bodies — one  of  which 
directed  its  course  northward  to  Gorey;  the 
other,  which  was  headed  by  Harvey  in  per- 
son, took  post  on  Carrickbnrn  mountain, 
within  six  miles  of  Ross,  wliere  it  was  re- 
viewed and  organized  till  the  4th  of  June, 
when  it  marched  to  Corbet  Hill,  within  a 
mile  of  that  town,  which  it  was  intended  to 
attack  the  next  morning.  Harvey,  though 
neither  destitute  of  personal  courage,  nor  of 
a  good  understanding,  possessed  no  military 
experience,  much  less  those  rare  talents  by 
which  an  undisciplined  multitude  may  be 
directed  and  controlled.  He  formed  the 
plan  of  an  attack  on  three  different  parts 
of  the  town  at  once,  which  would  probably 
have  succeeded  had  it  been  put  in  execution. 
Having  sent  a  summons  to  General  John- 
son, the  commander  of  the  King's  troops, 
with  a  flag  of  truce,  to  surrender  the  town, 
the  bearer  of  it,  one  Furlong,  was  shot  by  a 
sentinel  of  an  outpost.f  Whilst  Harvey 
was  arranging  his  forces  for  the  assault, 
they  were  galled  by  the  fire  of  some  out- 
posts. He- ordered  a  brave  young  man,  of 
the  name  of  Kelly,  to  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  five  hundred  men,  and  drive  in  the 
outposts.  Kelly  was  followed  confusedly 
by  a  much  greater  number  than  he  wished. 
He  executed  his  commission,  but  could  not 
bring  back  the  mec,  as  ordered.  They 
rushed  impetuously  into  the  town,  drove 
back  the  cavalry  with  slaughter  on  the  in- 

*  The  following  was  the  form  of  their  appointment : 

"  At  a  meetiug  of  the  commanders  of  the  United 
Army,  held  at  Carricl^burn  camp,  on  the  1st  of  June, 
1798,  it  was  unanimously  agreed  that  Beauchamp 
Bagenal  Harvey  should  be  appointed  and  elected 
conmiander-in-chief  of  the  United  Army  of  the  County 
of  Wexford,  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  June,  1798. 
"Signed,  by  order  of  the  difterent  commanding 
officers  of  the  camp, 

"  Nicholas  Gray,  Secretary." 

"It  was  likewise  agreed,  that  Edward  Roche 
should,  from  and  after  the  1st  day  of  June  instant, 
be  elected,  and  is  hereby  elected,  a  general  officer 
of  the  United  Army  of  the  County  of  Wexford. 

"  Signed  by  the  above  authority, 

"  Nicholas  Gray." 

t  To  shoot  all  persons  carrying  flags  of  truce  from 
the  insurgents,  appears  to  have  been  a  maxim  with 
Ilis  Majesty's  forces.   In  Furlong's  pocket  was  found 


fantry,  seized  the  cannon,  and  being  followed 
in  their  successful  career  by  crowds  from 
the  hills,  seemed  some  time  nearly  masters 
of  the  town.  From  a  full  persuasion  of  a 
decided  victory  in  favor  of  the  insurgent 
army,  some  officers  of  the  garrison  fled  to 
Waterford,  twelve  miles  distant,  with  the 
alarming  intelligence. 

The  original  plan  of  attack  was  thus  de- 
feated by  this  premature,  thougli  successful 
onset,  in  one  quarter.  The  Dublin  and 
Donegal  milifcia  maintained  their  posts  at 
the  market-house,  and  at  a  station  called 
Fairgate,  and  prevented  the  insurgents  from 
penetrating  into,  the  centre  of  the  town; 
while  Mnjor-General  Johnson,  aided  by  the 
extraordinary  exertions  of  an  inhabitant  of 
Ross,  named  M'Cormick,  who  had  served  in 
the  army,  though  not  then  in  commission, 
brought  back  to  the  charge  the  troops  that 
had  fled  across  the  river  to  the  Kilkenny 
side.  They  presently  recovered  their  post, 
and  drove  the  insurgents  from  the  town,  the 
outskirts  of  which  were  now  in  flames,  fired 
by  the  assailants  or  disaffected  inhabitants, 
as  Euniscorthy  had  been.  The  insurgents, 
in  their  turn,  rallied  by  their  chiefs,  returned 
with  fury  to  the  assault,  and  regained  some 
ground.  Again  dislodged  by  the  same  ex- 
ertions as  before,  and  a  third  time  rallied, 
they  were  at  last  finally  repulsed,  after  an 
engagement  of  above  ten  hours,  ending 
about  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

The  offiifial  bulletin,  published  at  Dublin 
on  the  8th  of  June,  stated  that,  on  the  5th, 
about  six  in  the  morning,  the  insurgents 
attacked  the  position  of  General  Johnson, 
at  New  Ross,  with  a  very  large  force  and 

the  following  letter  of  summons  to  General  John- 
son : — 

"  Sir — As  a  friend  to  humanity,  I  request  you  will 
surrender  the  town  of  Ross  to  the  Wexford  forces, 
now  assembled  against  that  town.  Your  resistance 
will  but  provftke  rapine  and  plunder,  to  the  ruin  of 
the  most  innocent.  Flushed  with  victory,  the  Wex- 
ford forces,  now  innumerable  and  irresistible,  will 
not  be  controlled  if  they  meet  with  resistance.  To 
prevent,  therefore,  the  total  ruin  of  all  property  in 
the  town,  I  urge  you  to  a  speed}-  surrender,  which 
you  will  be  fm-ced  to  in  a  few  hours,  v.-ith  lo-;s  and 
bloodshed,  as  you  are  surrounded  on  all  sides.  Your 
answer  is  required  in  four  hours.  Mr.  Furlong  car- 
ries this  letter,  and  will  bring  the  answer. 

"  I  am.  Sir,  B.  B.  Harvky, 

"General  commanding,  &c.,  Ac,  Ac, 
"  Camp  at  Corbet  Hill,  h«lf-pa.st  three  o'clock  in  the 

morning,  June  5,  1798.'' 


320 


HISTOKY   OF   lEELAND. 


great  impetuosity  ;  but  that,  after  a  contest 
of  several  hours,  they  were  completely  re- 
pulsed. The  loss  of  the  insurgents  was  very 
great,  the  streets  being  literally  strewed 
with  their  carcasses  Au  iron  gun  upon  a 
ship  carriage  had  been  taken  ;  and  late  in 
the  evening  they  retreated  entirely  to  Car- 
rickburn,  leaving  several  iron  ship  guns  not 
DQiinnted. 

General  Johnson,  in  his  dispatch,  greatly 
regretted  the  loss  of  that  brave  officer,  Lord 
Mountjoy,  who  fell  early  in  the  contest.  A 
return  of  the  killed  and  wounded  of  His 
Miijesty's  forces  had  not  then  been  received, 
but  it  appeared  not  to  have  been  considera- 
ble. It  was  supposed  to  have  been  about 
three  hundred,  though  the  official  detail 
afterwards  made  reduced  it  to  about  half 
that  number,* 

Sir  Jonah  Barrington,  on  the  authority 
of  a  Protestant  gentleman,  who  was  an  eye- 
witness, gives  in  these  words  the  horrible 
sequel  of  the  affair  of  Kew  Ross  : — 

"  The  firing,  however,  continued  till 
towards  night,  when  the  insurgents  who 
had  not  entered  the  houses,  having  no  offi- 
cers to  command  them,  retreated  through 
the  gate  by  which  they  had  entered,  half  a 
mile  to  Corbet  Hill,  leaving  some  thousands 
of  their  comrades  asleep  in  different  houses, 
or  in  the  streets  to  which  the  flames  had 
not  communicated.  Of  these,  the  garrison 
put  hundreds  to  the  sword,  without  any 
resistance  ;  and  more  than  five  thousand 
were  either  killed  or  consumed  by  the  con- 
flagration." 

We  now  come  to  a  scene  of  savage  ven- 
geance, which,  however  provoked,  it  will  be 
always  painful  for  an  Irishman  to  read  of. 
The  same  night  of  the  defeat  and  carnage 


*  The  impetuosity  aud  ardor  with  which  the  insur- 
gents assailed  the  town  of  Ross,  and  the  prodigality 
with  which  they  threw  away  their  lives,  surpassed 
belief.  The  troops  did  not  stand  it ;  and  the  difficulty 
with  which  General  Johnson  rallied  them  proves  the 
terror  which  this  charge  of  the  insurgents  had  creat- 
ed. The  first  assailants  had  no  sooner  dislodged  the 
troops,  than,  instead  of  pursuing  them  on  their  re- 
treat, they  fell  to  plunder,  and  became  quickly  dis- 
abled to  act  from  intoxication,  whereby  they  were 
BO  easily  repulsed  on  the  return  of  the  fugitive  troops. 
Sir  Richard  Musgrave  says,  [p.  410,]  "  that  such  was 
their  enthusiasm  that,  though  whole  ranks  of  them 
were  seen  to  fall,  they  were  succeeded  by  others, 
who  seemed  to  court  the  fate  of  their  companions, 
by  rushing  ou  our  troops  with  renovated  ardor." 


in  New  Ross,  the  barn  of  Scullabogue  at 
the  foot  of  Carrickburn  Hill,  containing 
about  .one  hundred  loyalist  prisoners,  and 
guarded  by  a  small  party  of  insurgents, 
under  John  Murpliy,  of  Lougligur,  was  de- 
liberately fired,  and  all  its  inmates  burned 
to  death.  The  occasion  of  this  proceeding 
was  as  follows  :  Some  of  the  people,  retreat- 
ing from  New  Ross,  arrived  in  violent  ex- 
citement, and  announced  that  the  troops 
and  yeomanry  were  slaughtering  the  unre- 
sisting prisoners  after  the  fighting  was  all 
over — whicli  was  true.  Moreover,  cases 
were  notorious,  as  at  Dunlavin  and  Carnew, 
where  prisoners  had  heen  put  to  death  with 
the  most  wanton  cruelty,  contrary  to  all  the 
laws  of  civilized  war  ;  and  men  maddened 
by  defeat  are  not  likely  to  form  a  cool  judg- 
ment as  to  the  proper  application  and  ex- 
tent of  the  doctrine  of  retaliation  in  war. 
Yet  there  is,  unhappily,  no  other  way  of 
enforcing  upon  an  enemy  due  observance  of 
the  laws  of  war  than  tlie  sternest  rctiiliatiou 
for  every  outrage  done  by  that  enemy 
against  those  laws.  All  the  historians  of 
the  insurrection*  represent  that  the  people 
who  burned  the  barn  did  it  by  way  of  re- 
taliation.    Sir  Jonah  Barrington  says  : — • 

"It  is  asserted  that  eighty-seven  wounded 
peasants,  whom  the  King's  army  had  found, 
on  taking  the  town,  in  the  market-house, 
used  as  an  hospital,  had  been  burned  alive  ; 
and  that,  in  retaliation,  the  insurgents 
burned  above  "a  hundred  royalists  in  a  barn 
at  Scullabogue." 

Mr.  Plowden,  although,  as  a  "loyal" 
Catholic,  he  thinks  it  his  duty  to  give  hard 
measure  to  the  "  rebels,"  yet  has  conscien- 
tiously placed  this  affair  of  Scullabogue  in 
its  true  light.     He  says  : — 

"There  is  no  question  but  that  the  insur- 
gents were  universally  and  unexeeptionably 
determined  upon  the  principle  of  retaliation 
and  retribution.  They  considered  every 
man  that  lost  his  life  under  military  execu- 
tion, without  trial,  as  a  murdei-ed  victim, 
whose  blood  was  to  be  revenged — so  san- 
guinary and  vindictive  had  tliis  warfare 
fatally  become.  Besides  numerous  in- 
stances of  such  military  executions,  wher- 
ever  the  army  had  gained  an  advantage, 

*  Except  Sir  Richard   Musgrave,  whose  authority 
is  not  to  be  taken  mto  cousideratioa  at  all. 


BAGENAL   HABVET    SHOCKED    BY    AFFAIR    OF    SCULLABOGIJE. 


321 


they  bore  deeply  in  their  minds  the  deliber- 
ate and  brutal  murder  of  thirty-eight  pris- 
oners, most  of  whom  had  not  (at  least  who 
were  said  and  believed  not  to  have)  commit- 
ted any  act  of  treason,  at  Dunlaviu  on  the 
24th  of  May  ;  and  the  like  wanton  and 
atrocious  murder  of  thirty-nine  prisoners  of 
the  like  description  at  Carnew,  on  the  moru- 
iiig  of  Whitsun  Monday,  merely  because 
the  party  which  had  them  iu  custody  had 
orders  to  march  ;  and  they  were  unwilling 
to  discharge  them,  but  wanted  time  to  ex- 
amine, much  more  to  try  them.  A  gentle- 
man of  pmictilious  veracity  and  retentive 
memory  has  assured  me  that  he  was  present 
in  the  House  of  Commons  at  the  examina- 
tion of  a  Mr.  Frizell,  a  person  of  respecta- 
bility, at  the  bar  of  that  House,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1198,  who  was  a  prisoner  in  the 
house  of  Scnllabogue  on  the  4th  of  June. 
He  was  asked  every  question  that  could  be 
suggested  relative  to  the  massacre  ;  to 
which  his  answers  were  substantially  as  fol- 
lows :  That,  having  been  taken  prisoner  by 
a  party  of  the  rebels,  he  was  confined  to  a 
room  on  the  ground  floor  in  Sc^illabogue 
house,  with  twenty  or  thirty  other  persons  ; 
that  a  rebel  guard  with  a  pike  stood  near 
the  window,  witli  whom  he  conversed  ;  that 
persons  were  frequently  called  out  of  the 
room,  in  which  he  was,  by  name,  and  he  be- 
lieves were  soon  after  shot,  as  he  heard  the 
report  of  muskets  shortly  after  they  had 
been  so  called  out  ;  that  he  understood  that 
many  were  burned  in  the  barn,  the  smoke 
of  which  he  could  discover  from  the  win- 
dow ;  that  the  sentinel  pikeraan  assured 
him  that  they  would  not  hurt  a  hair  of  his 
head,  as  he  was  always  known  to  have  be- 
haved well  to  the  poor  ;  that  he  did  not 
know  of  his  own  knowledge,  but  only  from 
the  reports  current  amongst  the  prisoners, 
what  the  particular  cause  was  for  which  the 
rebels  had  set  fire  to  the  barn.  Upon  which, 
Mr.  Ogle  rose  with  precipitancy  from  his 
seat  and  put  this  question  to  him  with  great 
eagerness  :  '  Sir,  tell  us  what  the  cause  was  ?' 
It  having  1)ecn  suggested  that  the  question 
w'ould  be  more  regularly  put  from  the  chair, 
it  \fi\s,  repeated  to  him  in  form  ;  and  Mr. 
Frizell  answered  that  the  only  cause  that 
he  or,  he  believed,  the  other  prisoners  ever 
understood  induced  the  rebels  to  this  action, 
41 


was,  that  they  had  received  intelligence  that 
the  military  were  again  putting  all  the  rebel 
prisoners  to  death  in  the  town  of  Koss,  as 
they  had  done  at  Dunlavin  and  Carnew. 
Mr.  Ogle  asked  no  more  questions  of  Mr. 
Frizell,  and  he  was  soon  after  dismissed 
from  the  bar.  To  those  gentlemen  who 
were  present  at  this  exauiination,  the  truth 
of  tliis  statement  is  submitted." 

As  to  the  number  of  victims,  Dr.  Madden, 
who  has  examined  the  subject  carefully, 
sets  it  down  at  "  about  one  hundred." 

General  Bagenal  Harvey  was  inexpressi- 
bly shocked  by  the  aifair  of  ScuIIubogue, 
especially  when  he  learned  that  it  was  done 
ujwn  a  pretended  order  from  himself. 

When  Cloney  saw  Harvey,  after  the 
flight  from  New  Ross,  he  found  the  latter 
and  several  of  the  leaders  "  lamenting  over 
the  smoking  ruins  of  the  barn  and  the  ashes 
of  the  hapless  victims  of  that  barbarous 
atrocity." 

j\Ir.  George  Taylor,  whose  views  are 
those  of  the  Ascendency  party,  states  that 
Bagenal  Harvey,  the  next  morning,  w-as  ia 
the  greatest  anguish  of  mind  when  he  be- 
held Scullabogne  barn  :  "  He  turned  from 
the  scene  with  horror,  and  wrung  his  hands, 
and  said  to  those  about  him:  'Innocent 
people  were  burned  there  as  ever  were  born. 
Your  conquests  for  liberty  are  at  an  end.' 
He  said  to  a  friend  he  fell  in  with,  with  re- 
spect to  his  own  situation  :  '  I  see  now  the 
folly  of  embarking  in  this  business  with 
these  people.  If  they  succeed,  I  shall  be 
murdered  by  them  ;  if  they  are  defeated,  I 
shall  be  hanged.'"  They  were  defeated, 
and  he  was  hung. 

The  next  day  after  the  defeat,  the  insur- 
gents resumed  their  position  on  Carrickburn 
Hill.  There  were  loud  murmurs  against 
their  unfortunate  Commander-in-Chief ;  who, 
on  his  side,  was  not  too  well  pleased  with 
the  conduct  of  his  men.  He,  tlierefore,  re- 
signed, and  retired  to  "Wexford  :  but  not 
before  issuing  "General  Orders" — and  it 
was  his  last  act  of  military  command — de- 
nouncing the  penalty  of  deatii  against  "  any 
person  or  persons  who  should  take  it  upon 
himself  or  themselves  to  kill  or  murder  any 
prisoner,  burn  any  house,  or  commit  any 
plunder,  without  special  written  orders  from 
the  Commander-in-Chief." 


822 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


By  election  Father  Philip  Roche  was  now 
made  Conimanderia-Cliief.  The  insurgents 
next  attacked  some  gunboats  in  the  river, 
but  witliout  success.  Father  Roche  then 
led  them  to  the  hill  of  Lacken,  within  two 
miles  of  Ross,  the  scene  of  their  late  discom- 
fiture. !■  the  meantime,  some  important 
movements  took  place  on  the  northern  bor- 
der of  the  county.  Perhaps,  the  most  crit- 
ical occasion  during  the  whole  insurrection 
was  the  advance  of  the  insurgents  upon 
Arklow,  in  Wicklow  County,  on  the  9th  of 
June,  and  the  battle  at  that  phice.  The 
commanders  on  this  occasion  were  the  two 
Fathers  Murphy,  John  and  Michael,  and 
the  force  was  the  same  which  had  so 
thoroughly  defeated  the  King's  troops  at 
Tubberneering. 

After  the  defeat  of  Walpole's  army  on 
the  4th  of  June,  the  insurgents  had  wasted 
much  time  in  Carnew.  At  length,  however, 
they  collected  their  force  at  Gorey,  and  ad- 
vanced to  attack  Arklow  on  the  9th,  the 
first  day  in  which  that  post  had  been  pre- 
pared for  defence.  Their  number  exceeded 
twenty  thousand,  of  whom  near  five  thou- 
sand were  armed  with  guns,  the  rest  with 
pikes,  and  they  were  furnished  with  three 
serviceable  pieces  of  artillery.  The  garrison 
consisted  of  sixteen  hundred  men,  including 
yeomen,  supplementary  men,  and  those  of 
the  artillery.  The  insurgents  attacked  the 
town  on  all  sides,  except  that  which  is 
washed  by  the  river.  The  approach  of  that 
column,  which  advanced  by  the  sea-shore, 
was  rapid  and  impetuous  ;  the  picket-guard 
of  yeoman  cavalry,  stationed  in  that  quar- 
ter, instantly  galloped  off  in  such  terror  that 
most  of  them  stopped  not  their  flight  till  they 
had  crossed  the  river,  which  was  very  broad, 
swimming  their  horses,  in  great  peril  of 
drowning.  The  further  progress  of  the  as- 
sailants was  prevented  by  the  charge  of  the 
regular  cavalry,  supported  by  the  fire  of  the 
infantry,  who  had  been  formed  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  town,  in  a  line  composed  of 
three  regiments,  with  their  battalion  artil- 
lery, those  of  the  Armagh  and  Cavan  militia, 
and  the  Durham  Fencibles.  The  main  ef- 
fort of  tlbe  insurgents,  who  commenced  the 
attack. near  four  o'clock  in  the  evening,  was 
directed  against  the  station  of  the  Durhain, 
whose  line  extended  through  the    field   iu 


front  of  the  town  to  the  road  leading  from 
Gorey. 

As  the  insurgents  poured  their  fire  from 
the  shelter  of  ditches,  so  that  the  opposite 
fire  of  the  soldiery  had  no  efiect,  Colonel 
Skerret,  the  second  in  command,  ordered 
his  men  to  stand  with  ordered  arms,  their 
left  wing  covered  by  a  breastwork,  and  the 
right  by  a  natural  rising  of  the  ground,  un- 
til the  enemy,  leaving  their  -cover,  should 
advance  to  an  open  attack.  This  open  at- 
tack was  made  three  times  in  most  formid- 
able force,  the  assailants  rushing  within  a 
few  yards  of  the  cannons'  mouths  ;  I)ut  they 
were  received  with  so  close  and  effective  a 
fire,  that  they  were  repulsed  with  loss  in 
every  attempt.  The  Durhams  were  not 
only  exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  enemy's  small 
arms,  but  were  also  galled  by  their  cannon. 
General  Needham,  fearing  to  be  overpow- 
ered by  numbers,  began  to  talk  of  a  retreat ; 
to  which  Colonel  Skerret  spiritedly  replied 
to  the  General,  that  they  could  not  hope  for 
victory  otherwise  than  by  preserving  their 
ranks  ;  if  they  broke,  all  was  lost.  By  this 
answer,  ^le  General  was  diverted  some  time 
from  his  scheme  of  a  retreat,  and  in  that 
time  the  business  was  decided  by  the  retreat 
of  the  insurgents,  who  retired,  when  frus- 
trated in  their  most  furious  assault,  and 
dispirited  by  the  death  of  Father  Michael 
Murphy,  who  was  killed  by  a  cannon  shot, 
within  thirty  yards  of  the  Durham  line, 
while  he  was  leading  his  people  to  the  at- 
tack. 

Such  is  the  generally-received  account  of 
the  fight  at  Arklow.  The  loyalists  have 
always  claimed  victory.  Indeed,  the  official 
bulletin  runs  thus  : — 

"DuBiy*;,  June  10th,  1798. 

"  Accounts  were  received  early  this  morn- 
ing by  Lieutenant-General  Lake,  from 
Major-General  Needham,  at  Arklow,  stating 
that  the  rebels  had,  in  great  force,  attacked 
his  position  in  Arklow  at  six  o'clock  yester- 
day evening.  They  advanced  in  an  irregu- 
lar manner,  and  extended  themselves  for  the 
purpose  of  turning  his  left  flank,  his  rear 
and  right  flanks  being  stronj^'  defended  by 
the  town  and  barrack  of  Arklow.  Upon 
their  endeavoring  to  enter  the  lower  end  of 
the  town,  they  were  charged  by  the  Foriieih 
Dragoon  Guards,  Fifth  Dragoons,  and  An- 


LOYALISTS   EXECUTED   IN   WEXFORD. 


323 


cieut  Britons,  and  comjiletely  routed.  All 
round  the  other  points  of  the  position  they 
were  defeated  with  much  slaugliter.  The 
loss  of  His  Majesty's  troops  was  trifling,  and 
their  behavior  highly  gallant." 

One  part  of  this  dispatch  is  certainly 
false.  The  nisurgents  were  not  "  routed." 
but  after  remaining  for  some  time  in  posses- 
sion of  the  field  of  battle,  they  retired  at 
their  leisure,  carrying  off  all  their  wounded. 
Sir  Jonah  Barrington  calls  it  "  a  drawn  bat- 
tle ;"  and  Miles  Byrne,  who  fought  in  it, 
was  under  the  impression  that  his  party  had 
gained  a  victory,  though  he  admits  they 
did  not  follow  it  up  as  they  ought  to  have 
done.  This  fine  old  soldier,  writing  of  it 
sixty  years  afterwards,  in  Paris,  exclaims 
with  bitter  regret  : — 

"  How  melancholy  to  think  a  victory,  so 
clearly  bought,  should  have  been  abandoned, 
and  for  which  no  good  or  plausible  motive 
could  ever  be  assigned.  No  doubt  we  had 
expended  nearly  all  our  ammunition,  but 
that  should  have  served  as  a  sufficient  rea- 
son to  have  brought  all  our  pikeraen  in- 
stantly to  pursue  the  enemy  whilst  in  a 
state  of  disorder,  and  panic-struck,  as  it 
really  was  that  day  at  Arklow. 

"  My  firm  belief  is,  to-day,  as  it  was  that 
day,  that  if  we  had  had  no  artillery,  the 
battle  would  have  been  won  in  half  the  time  ; 
for  we  should  have  attacked  the  position  of 
the  Durham  Feucibles  at  the  very  onset, 
with  some  thousand  determined  pikemen,  in 
place  of  leaving  those  valiant  fellows  inac- 
tive to  admire  the  effect  of  each  cannon- 
shot.  No  doubt  our  little  artillery  was 
admirably  directed,  and  did  wonders,  until 
Esmond  Kyan's  wound  deprived  the  Irish 
army  of  this  gallant  man's  services  ;  he  was 
in  every  sense  of  the  word  a  real  soldier  and 
true  patriot. 

"  Never  before  had  the  English  Govern- 
ment in  Ireland  been  so  near  its  total  de- 
struction. When  Hoche's  expedition  ap- 
peared on  the  coast  in  1796,  the  Irish 
nation  Avas  ready  to  avail  itself  of  it,  to 
throw  off  the  English  yoke  ;  but  now  the 
people  found  they  were  adequate  to  accom- 
plish this  greiit  act  themselves  without  for- 
eign aid.  What  a  pity  that  there  was  not 
some  enterprising  chief  at  their  head  at 
Arklow,  to  have  followed  up  our  victory  to 


the  city  of  I)al)lin,  where  we  should  have 
mustered  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  in 
a  few  days  ;  consequently,  the  capital  would 
have  been  occupied  without  delay  by  our 
forces  ;  when  a  provisional  government 
would  have  been  organized,  and  the  whole 
Irisli  nation  called  on  to  proclaim  its  inde- 
pendence. Then  would  every  emblem  of  the 
cruel  English  Government  have  disappeared 
from  the  soil  of  our  beloved  country,  which 
would  once  more  take  its  rank  amongst  the 
other  independent  staHjfe  t)f  the  earth." 

The  town  of  Wexford  was  still  in  the 
hands  of  the  insurgents.  They  had  ap- 
pointed a  certain  General  Keogh  Governor 
and  Commandant  of  the  town.  Thin  ex- 
traordinary man,  having  been  a  private  in 
His  Majesty's  service,  had  risen  to  the  rank 
of  Lieutenant  in  the  Sixth  Regiment,  ii; 
which  he  served  in  America.  He  was  a 
man  of  engaging  address,  and  of  that  com- 
petency of  fortune  which  enabled  him  to 
live  comfortably  in  Wexford.  Proud  and 
ambitious,  he  appreciated  his  own  abilities 
highly  ;  in  clubs  and  coffee-houses,  he  had 
long  been  in  the  habit  of  censuring  the  cor- 
ruptions of  Govermneut,  and  was  so  violent 
an  advocate  for  reform,  tliat  the  Lord-Chan- 
cellor had  deprived  him  of  the  Commission 
of  the  Peace,  in  the  year  1196  In  order 
to  introduce  some  order  into  the  town,  the 
insurgents  chose  certain  persons  to  distribute 
provisions,  and  for  that  purpose  to  give 
tickets  to  the  inhabitants  to  entitle  them  to 
a  ratable  portion  of  them,  according  to  the 
number  of  inhabitants  in  each  house.  Many 
habitations  of  the  Protestants  who  had 
made  their  escape  were  plundered,  some  of 
them  were  demolished. 

Several  of  the  Protestant  inhabitants  of 
the  town  were  imprisoned  at  Ihis  time,  but 
only  those  who  were  considered  the  most 
obnoxious,  or  were  known  as  Orangemen, 
and,  therefore,  bound  by  oath  to  exterminate 
their  Catholic  neighbors.  It  nnist  be  ad- 
mitted, that  during  the  three  weeks  while 
the  insurgents  occupied  Wexford,  many  nnli- 
tary  executions  took  place  ;  but  always  on 
the  plea  of  retaliation.  F(jr  example,  on  t!ie 
6th  day  of  June,  und  r  an  onkr  from  Eiio^s- 
corthy,  ten  prisoners  at  Wexford  were 
selected  for  execution,  and  suffered  accord- 
ingly.     Conjectures    have    been    hazarded 


324 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


wliy  sncli  orders  emanated  from  Euniseortliy 
rather  than  from  Wexford.  The  uatural  in- 
ference from  the  liinitatioa  of  the  victims  to 
half  a  score,  is  that  the  insurgents,  who 
j)rofessed  to  act  upon  the  principles  of  retaha- 
lion,  had  received  information  that  a  similar 
number  of  their  people  had  suffered  in  like 
manner  on  the  preceding  day. 

Mr.  Plowden  remarks,  very  reasonably  : 
"  Bloody  as  the  rebels  are  represented  to 
have  been,  there  could  have  been  no  other 
reason  for  their  limiting  their  lust  for  mur- 
der to  the  particular  number  of  ten." 

Most  of  tlie  sanguinary  executions  per- 
petrated at  Wexford  during  this  time  are 
attributed  to  the  violence  of  a  man  named 
Dixon,  a  ship-captain  belonging  to  the  port. 
His  atrocity  is  ascribed  to  private  vengeance. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Dixon,  his  relative,  a 
Roman  Catholic  clergyman,  having  been 
sentenced  to  transportation,  had  been  sent 
off  to  Duncannon  Fort  the  day  preceding 
the  insurrection  ;  he  was  found  guilty  on 
the  testimony  of  one  Francis  Murphy,  whose 
evidence  was  positively  contradicted  by 
three  other  witnesses.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, Dixon  took  a  summary  method  of 
avenging  himself ;  and  was  always  ready 
to  undertake  the  charge  of  doing  military 
execution  upon  those  who  were  abandoned 
to  his  ministrations.  An  author  of  candor 
and  credit,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gordon,  has  stated 
that  he  could  not  ascertain  with  accuracy  the 
number  of  persons  put  to  death  without  law 
in  Wexford  during  the  whole  time  of  its  oc- 
cupation by  the  insurgents  ;  but  believed  it 
to  have  amounted  to  one  hundred  and  one. 
Probably  ten  times  that  number  of  innocent 
country  people  had  been,  during  the  same 
three  weeks,  murdered  in  cold  blood  by  the 
yeomanry.  It  is  sad  to  be  obliged  to  go 
into  such  a  dismal  account ;  but  as  the 
"rebels"  have  been  always  very  freely  vili- 
fied for  their  cruelties,  and  have  had  but 
few  friends  to  plead  for  them,  it  is  right,  at 
least,  to  establish  the  truth,  so  far  as  that 
can  now  be  discovered.  Most  of  the  san- 
guinary deeds  were  done  without,  or  against, 
tlie  orders  of  the  leaders,  who  could  not  al- 
ways restrain  their  exasperated  followers  ; 
and  the  following  proclamation,  issued  in 
"Wexibrd,  seems  to  show  that  there  was  no 
wish  to  spill  the  blood  of  any  who  had  not 


been    guilty   of    some    peculiar    atrocities 
towards  the  people  : — 

'^Frodaniaiion  of  the  People  of  the  Coimty 
of  Wexford. 

"  Whereas,  it  stands  manifestly  notorious, 
that  James  Boyd,  Hawtry  White,  Hunter 
Gowan,  and  Archibald  Hamilton  Jacob, 
late  magistrates  of  this  county,  have  com- 
mitted the  most  horrid  acts  of  cruelty,  vio- 
lence, and  oppression,  against  our  peaceable 
and  well-affected  countrymen.  Now,  we, 
the  people,  associated  and  united  for  the 
purpose  of  procuring  our  just  rights,  and 
being  determined  to  protect  the  persons  and 
properties  of  those  of  all  religious  persua- 
sions who  have  not  oppressed  us,  and  are 
willing  with  heart  and  hand  to  join  our 
glorious  cause,  as  well  as  to  show  our 
marked  disapprobation  and  horror  of  the 
crimes  of  the  above  delinquents,  do  call  on 
our  countrymen  at  large  to  use  every  exer- 
tion in  their  power  to  apprehend  the  bodies 
of  the  aforesaid  James  Boyd,  &c.,  &c.,  &c., 
and  to  secure  and  convey  them  to  the  jail 
of  WexfofS,  to  be  brought  before  the  tri- 
bunal of  the  people. 
"  Done    at    Wexford,    this     9th    day   of 

June,  1798. 

"  God  save  the  People." 

On  the  2d  of  June,  a  small  vessel  was 
taken  on  the  coast  and  brought  into  Wex- 
ford ;  and  on  board  this  vessel  Lord  Kings- 
borough  and  three  officers  of  the  North 
Cork  militia  were  captured.  During  his 
lordship's  detention  he  was  lodged  in  the 
house  of  Captain  Keogh,  and  to  his  humane, 
spirited,  and  indefatigable  exertions,  and 
those  of  Mr.  Harvey,  his  lordship  acknowl- 
edged that  his  life  was  due,  on  the  many  oc- 
casions that  the  fury  of  the  multitude  broke 
out  against  him.  There  were  few  men  in 
Ireland  at  this  period  more  unpopular  than 
his  lordship — his  exploits  in  the  way  of  ex- 
torting confessions  by  scourgiugs,  and  other 
tortures,  had  rendered  his  name  a  terror  to 
the  people.  The  difficulty  of  preserving  his 
life  from  the  vengeance  of  a  lawless  multi- 
tude must  have  been  great. 

A  considerable  concentration  of  regular 
troops  was  now  rapidly  being  formed  in  the 
county,  with  a  view  to  crush  the  insurrec- 
tion at  once. 


TROOPS   CONCENTRATED    ROUND    VINEGAR   HILL. 


325 


Ou  the  19th  of  June,  General  Edward 
Roche,  and  such  of  the  insurjj^ents  of  his 
neighborhood  as  were  at  Vinegar  Hill,  were 
sent  home  to  collect  the  whole  mass  of  the 
people  for  general  defence.  By  the  march 
of  the  royal  army  in  all  directions,  towards 
Vinegar  Hill  and  Wexford,  a  general  flight 
of  such  of  the  inhabitants  as  could  get  off 
took  place. 

The  alarm  was  now  general  throughout 
the  country  ;  all  men  were  called  to  attend 
the  camps  ;  and  Wexford  became  the  uni- 
versal rendezvous  of  the  fugitives,  who  re- 
ported, with  various  circumstances  of  hor- 
ror, the  progress  of  the  different  armies 
approaching  in  every  direction,  marking 
their  movements  with  terrible  devastation. 
Ships  of  war  were  also  seen  off  the  coast ; 
gunboats  blocked  up  the  entrance  of  the 
harbor  ;  and  from  the  commanding  situation 
of  the  camp  at  the  Tiiree  Rocks,  on  the 
mountain  of  Forth,  the  general  conflagra- 
tion, which  was  as  progressive  as  the  march 
of  the  troops,  was  clearly  visible.  On 
the  approach  of  the  army,  great  numbers 
of  countrymen,  with  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren, and  any  little  baggage  they  could 
hastily  pack  up,  fled  towards  Wexford  as  to 
an  asylum,  and  described  the  plunder  and 
destruction  of  houses,  the  murders  and  out- 
rages of  the  soldiery  let  loose  and  encour- 
aged to  range  over  and  devastate  the 
country.  General  Moore,  who  advanced 
with  a  part  of  the  army,  did  all  in  his  power 
to  prevent  these  atrocities,  and  had  some  of 
the  murderers  immediately  put  to  death  ; 
but  his  humane  and  benevolent  intentions 
were  greatly  bafiled  by  the  indomitable 
ferocity  and  revenge  of  the  refugees  re- 
turning home. 

These  cruelties,  being  reported  in  the 
town  of  Wexford,  provoked  additional 
cruelties  there  also  ;  and  it  was  in  this 
moment  of  alarm,  when  peremptory  orders 
came  for  all  the  fighting  men  to  repair  to 
Vinegar  Hill,  that  the  savage  Bixon,  with 
the  assistance  of  seventy  or  eighty  men, 
whom  he  had  made  drunk  for  the  purpose, 
perpetrated  upon  the  Protestant  prisoners 
the  slaughter  called  "  Massacre  of  the 
Bridge  of  Wexford,"  in  revenge  for  the 
slaughters  which  the  Orangemen  were  com- 


mitting upon  unarmed  people  in  the  country 
around.  When  about  thirty-five  imfortuuate 
men  had  been  murdered,  the  butchery  was 
stopped,  at  seven  in  the  evening,  by  the  in- 
terference of  Father  Corrin,  and  by  the 
alarming  intelligence  that  the  post  of  Vin- 
egar Hill  was  already  almost  beset  by  the 
King's  troops. 

After  the  indecisive  affair  at  Arklovv,  the 
royal  army,  under  General  Needhara,  re- 
mained for  some  days  close  within  its  quar- 
ters;  then  proceeded  to  Gorey  on  the  19tli 
of  June,  and  thence  towards  Enniscorthy  on 
the  20th,  according  to  a  concerted  plan, 
conducted  by  Lieutenant-General  Lake, 
that  the  great  station  of  the  insurgents  at 
Vinegar  Hill  should  be  surrounded  l)y  His 
Majesty's  forces,  and  attacked  in  all  points 
at  once.  For  this  purpose,  different  armies 
moved  at  the  same  time  from  different  quar- 
ters ;  one  under  Lieutenant  General  Dun- 
das  ;  another  under  Major-Generals  Sir 
James  Duff  and  Loftus  ;  that  already  men- 
tioned from  Arklow ;  and  a  fourth  from 
Ross,  under  Major-Generals  Johnson  and 
Eustace,  who  were  to  make  tlie  attack  on 
the  town  of  Enniscorthy.  The  march  of  the 
army  from  Ross  was  a  kind  of  surprise  to 
the  bands  of  Piiilip  Roche,  on  Lackeu  Hill, 
who  retired  after  a  sharp  fight,  leaving  their 
tents  and  a  great  quantity  of  plunder  be- 
hind ;  separating  into  two  bodies,  one  of 
which  took  its  way  to  Wexford,  the  other 
to  Vinegar  Hill,  where  the  Wexford  insur- 
gents where  concentrating  their  forces  This 
eminence,  with  the  town  of  Enniscorthy  at 
its  foot,  and  the  country  for  many  miles 
round,  had  been  in  possession  of  the  insur- 
gents from  the  28th  of  May,  during  which 
time  the  face  of  affairs  had  been  growing 
more  and  more  gloomy  for  the  cause  of  the 
people.  With  the  despondency,  there  also 
came  upon  the  insurgents  a  feeling  of  more 
vindictive  rage.  They  saw  the  people  could 
expect  no  mercy  ;  and  as  the  advancing 
columns  spread  devastation  and  slaughter, 
and  the  people  on  the  hill  could  see  the 
smoke  of  burning  villages,  and  almost 
hear  the  shrieks  of  tortured  and  mangled 
women  and  children,  they  again  applied 
their  system  of  retaliation.  The  prisoners 
who   had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  iu- 


326 


HISTOEY   OF   lEELAND. 


surgeiits,  after  a  sham  trial,  or  no  trial  at 
all,  were  shot  or  piked.  About  eighty- 
four  suffered  death  here  in  this  manner.* 

It  was  at  Yinegar  Hill  tliat  the  last  en- 
gagement of  any  importance  took  place  be- 
tween the  troops  and  the  people.  It  was  on 
the  21st  of  June,  and  little  more  than  three 
weeks  after  Father  John   Murphy's  rising. 

Vinegar  Hill  is  a  gentle  eminence  on  the 
banks  of  the  river  Slaney  ;  at  its  foot  lies 
the  considerable  town  of  Euniscorthy.  At 
one  point  tlie  ascent  is  rather  steep,  on  the 
others,  gradual  ;  the  top  is  crowned  by  a 
dilapitlated  stone  building.  Tiie  hill  is  ex- 
ten.>ive,  and  completely  commands  the  town 
and  most  of  the  approaches  to  it ;  the 
country  around  it  is  rich,  and  sufBcientiy 
wooded,  and  studded  with  country-seats 
and  lodges.  Few  spots  in  Ireland,  under 
all  its  circumstances,  can  be  more  inter- 
esting to  a  traveler.  On  the  summit  of 
the  hill  the  insurgents  had  collected  the. 
remains  of  their  Wexford  army  ;  its  num- 
ber may  be  conjectured  from  General 
Lake  deciding  that  twenty  thousand  reg- 
ular troops  were  necessary  for  the  at- 
tack ;  but,  in  fact,  the  effective  of  his 
army  amounted,  on  the  day  of  battle,  to 
little  more  than  thirteen  thousand.  Tlie 
peasantry  had  dug  a  slight  ditch  around 
a  large  extent  of  the  base  ;  they  had  a  very 
few  pieces  of  small  half-disabled  cannon, 
some  swivels,  and  not  above  two  thousand 
fire-arms  of  all  descriptions.  But  their  sit- 
uation was  desperate  ;  and  General  liake 
considered  that  two  thousand  fire-arms,  in 
the  bauds  of  infuriated  and  courageous  men, 
supported  by  multitudes  of  pikemeu,  luight 
be  equal  to  ten  times  the  number  under 
other  circumstances,  A  great  many  women 
mingled  with  their  relatives,  and  fought 
with  fury  ;  several  were  found  dead  amongst 
the  men,  who  had  fallen  in  crowds  by  the 
bursting  of  the  shells. 

General  Lake,  at  the  break  of  day,  dis- 
posed his  attack  in  four  cohuuns,  whilst  his 
cavalry  were  prepared  to  do  execution  on 
the  fugitives.  One  of  the  columns  (whether 
by  accident  or  design  is  strongly  debated) 
did  not  arrive  in  time  at  its  station,  by 
.which  the   insurgents   were   enabled   to  re- 

*  Hay's  History.  Plowden  says  that  report  car- 
ried llic  uuuiber  of  victims  as  liigli  as  four  liuudred. 


treat  to  Wexford,  through  a  country  where 
they  could  not  be  pursued  by  cavalry  or 
cannon.  It  was  astonishing  with  what 
fortitude  the  peasantry,  uncovered,  stood 
the  tremendous  fire  opened  upon  the  four 
sides  of  their  position;  a  stream  of  shells  and 
grape  was  poured  on  the  multitude  ;  the 
leaders  encouraged  them  by  exhortations, 
the  women  by  their  cries,  and  every  shell 
that  broke  amongst  them  was  followed  by 
shouts  of  defiance.  General  Lake's  horse 
was  shot,  many  officers  wounded,  some  killed, 
and  a  few  gentlemen  became  invisible  during 
the  heat  of  the  battle.  The  troops  advanced 
gradually,  but  steadily,  up  the  hill  ;  the 
peasantry  kept  up  their  fire,  and  maintained 
their  ground  ;  their  cannon  was  nearly  use- 
less, their  powder  deficient,  but  they  died 
fighting  at  their  post.  At  length,  enveloped 
in  a  torrent  of  fire,  they  broke,  and  sought 
their  safety  through  the  space  that  General 
Needham  had  left  by  the  non-arrival  of  his 
column.  They  were  partially  charged  by 
some  cavalry,  but  with  httle  execution  ; 
they  retreated  to  Wexford,  and  that  night 
occupied  the  town. 

The  insurgents  left  behind  them  a  great 
quantity  of  plunder,  together  with  all  their 
cannon,  amounting  to  thirteen  in  number, 
of  which  three  were  six-pounders.  The  loss 
on  the  side  of  the  King's  forces  was  very  in- 
considerable, though  one  officer.  Lieutenant 
Sandys,  of  the  Longford  militia,  was  killed, 
and  four  others  slightly  wounded — Colonel 
King,  of  the  Sligo  regiment;  Colonel  Vesey, 
of  the  County  of  Duljlin  regiment ;  Lord 
Blauey,  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Cole. 

Euniscorthy  being  thus  recovered  after 
having  been  above  three  weeks  in  the  hands 
of  the  insurgents,  excesses,  as  must  be 
expected  in  such  a  state  of  affairs,  were  com- 
mitted by  the  soldiery,  particularly  by  the 
Hessian  troops,  who  made  no  distinction  be- 
tween loyalist;  and  insurgent.  The  most 
diabolical  act  of  this  kind  was  the  firing 
of  a  house,  which  had  been  used  as  a  hospital 
by  the  insurgents,  in  which  numbers  of  sick 
and  wounded,  who  were  unable  to  escape 
from  the  flames,  were  burned  to  ashes  f 

f  The  Rev.  Mr.  Gordon  says,  he  was  informed  by  a 
surgeon,  that  the  burning  was  accidental,  the  bed- 
clothes having  been  set  on  tire  by  the  wadding  of  the 
soldiers'  guns,  who  were  shooting  the  patients  in 
theix'  beds. 


CHIEFS  EXECUTED  IN  WEXFORD. 


327 


The  town  of  Wexford  was  relieved  on  the 
same  day  with  Enniscorthy,  Brii,^adier-Gen- 
e»al  Moore,  according  to  the  ph^n  formed 
by  General  Lake,  having  made  a  movement 
towards  that  quarter  from  the  side  of  Ross, 
on  the  19th,  with  a  body  of  twelve  hundred 
troops,  furnished  with  artillery  ;  and  having 
directed  his  march  to  Taghmon,  in  his  in- 
tended way  to  Enniscorthy,  on  the  20th, 
was,  on  his  way  thither,  between  one  and 
two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  attacked  by  a 
large  force  of  the  people  from  Wexford, 
jK'riiaps  five  or  six  thousand,  near  a  place 
called  Guff's  Bridge,  not  far  from  Hore 
Town.  After  an  action,  which  continued 
till  near  eight,  the  insurgents  were  repulsed 
with  some  loss  ;  yet  the  fate  of  the  day  was 
long  doubtful,  and  many  of  the  King's 
troops  were  killed. 

Wexford,  which  bad  been  taken  by  the 
insurgents  on  the  30th  of  May,  was  surren- 
dered to  the  King's  troops  on  the  23d  of 
June. 

"  Relying  on  the  faith  of  Lord  Kings- 
borough's  promises  of  complete  protection 
of  persons  and  properties,"  we  are  told  by 
Hay,  "several  remained  in  the  town  of 
Wexford,  unconscious  of  any  reason  to  ap- 
prehend danger  ;  but  they  were  soon  taken 
up  and  commit'ted  to  jail.  The  Rev.  Philip 
Roach  had  such  confidence  in  these  assur- 
ances, and  was  so  certain  of  obtaining  simi- 
lar terms  for  those  under  his  conmiand,  that 
lie  left  his  force  at  Sledagh,  in  full  hopes  of 
being  permitted  t3  return  in  peace  to  their 
homes,  and  was  on  his  way  to  Wexford 
unarmed,  coming,  as  he  thought,  to  receive 
a  confirmation  of  the  conditions,  and  so  lit- 
tle apprehensive  of  danger  that  he  advanced 
within  the  lines  before  he  was  recognized, 
when  all  possibility  of  escape  was  at  an  end. 
He  was  instantly  dragged  from  his  horse, 
and  in  the  most  ignominious  manner  taken 
up  to  the  camp  on  the  Windmill  Hills, 
pulled  by  the  hair,  kicked,  buffeted,  and  at 
length  hauled  down  to  the  jail  in  such  a 
condition  as  scarcely  to  be  known.  The 
people  whom  he  left  in  expectation  of  being 
permitted  to  return  quietly  home,  waited 
his  arrival  ;  but  af  last  being  informed  of 
his  fate,  they  abandoned  all  idea  of  peace, 
and  set  off,  under  the  command  of  the  Rev. 
John  Murphy,  to  Fook's  Mill,  and  so  ou 


through    Scollaghgap   into   the   County   of 
Carlow 

"  From  the  encampment  at  Ballenkeele, 
commanded  by  General  Needham,  detach- 
ments were  sent  out  to  scour  the  country. 
They  burned  the  Catholic  chapel  of  Belle- 
murriu,  situate  on  the  demesne  of  Ballen- 
keele, on  which  they  were  encamped,  besides 
several  houses  in  tlie  neighboi-hood." 

It  is  not  clear  that  Lord  Kingsborough, 
who  was  in  Wexford  as  a  prisoner,  had 
power  to  "  promise  protection  of  person  and 
property,"  in  case  of  surrender.  At  all 
events,  no  attention  was  paid  to  those  nego- 
tiations. Two  of  the  insurgent  chiefs,  Clo- 
ney  and  O'Hea,  repaired  to  Eimiscortliy,  to 
make  proposals  for  capitulation 

"  Lieutenant-General  Lake  cannot  attend 
to  any  terms  by  rebels  in  arras  against  their 
sovereign.  While  they  continue  so,  he  must 
use  the  force  entrusted  to  him  with  tiie  ut- 
most energy  for  their  destruction.  To  the 
deluded  multitude  he  promises  pardon  on 
their  delivering  into  his  hands  their  leaders, 
surrendering  their  arms,  and  returning  with 
sincerity  to  their  allegiance. 

"(Signed)  G,  Lake. 

"EXNISCORTHY,  Juiic  22,  1798." 

Lord  Lake  established  his  headquarters 
in  the  house  of  Captain  Keogh,  the  late 
commandajnt  of  the  post — Keogh  being 
now  lodged  in  jail.  Cornelius  Grogan  sur- 
rendered, relying  ou  the  protection.  Messrs. 
Colclough  and  Harvey  attempted  to  escape, 
and  concealed  themselves  in  a  cave  upon  the 
Great  Saltee  Island,  off  the  coas't.  Here 
they  were  discovered  ;  were  brought  to 
Wexford  ;  and,  a  [q\v  days  after,  all  these 
gentlemen,  with  many  others,  were  tried  by 
martial  law  and  executed.  Their  heads 
were  cut  off  and  spiked  iu  a  row  in  frout  of 
the  court-house.*  * 

*  Bagenal  Harvey  was  proved,  on  the  trial,  to  have 
constantly  opposed  deeds  of  blood,  and  endeavored 
to  prevent  the  wanton  destruction  of  loyalist  prop- 
erty. It  was  so  much  the  worse  for  him.  The  Rev. 
Mr.  Gordon  tells  us  a  remarkable  trait  of  the  times : 
"  The  display  of  humanity  by  a  rebel  was,  in  general, 
in  the  trials  by  court-martial,  by  no  means  regarded 
as  a  circumstance  in  favor  of  the  accused.  Strange 
as  it  may  seem,  in  times  of  cool  reflection,  it  was 
very  frequently  urged  as  a  proof  of  guilt.  Whoever 
could  be  proved  to  have  saved  a  loyalist  from  assas- 
sination, his  house  from  burning,  or  his  property 
from  plunder,  was  cont^idcred  as  Imving  influence 
among  the  rebels— cousciiuoutly  a  commander.   Tiiij 


328 


HISTORY    OF   IBELAND. 


As  for  the  unfortunate  country  people, 
now  left  to  the  mercy  of  a  savage  soldiery, 
they  were  hunted  down  iu  all  directions  by 
the  yeomanry  cavalry.  A  detail  of  these 
horrors  would  be  revolting.  We  must  take 
a  summary  from  the  testimony  of  those  who 
saw  it. 

"la  short,"  says  Mr.  Edward  Hay, 
"  death  and  desolation  were  spread  through- 
out the  country,  which  was  searched  and 
hunted  so  severely  that  scarcely  a  man  es- 
caped. The  old  and  harmless  suffered, 
whilst  they  who  had  the  use  of  their  limbs, 
and  were  guilty,  had  previously  made  off 
with  the  main  body  of  the  people.  The 
dead  bodies  scattered  about,  with  their 
throats  cut  across,  and  mangled  in  the  most 
shocking  manner,  exhibited  scenes  exceeding 
the  usual  horrors  of  war.  The  soldiery  on 
this  occasion,  particularly  the  dragoons  of 
General  Ferdinand  Hompesch,  were  per- 
mitted to  indulge  iu  such  ferocity  and  brutal 
lust  to  the  sex  as  must  perpetuate  hatred 
and  horror  of  the  army  to  generations." 

The  treatment  of  women  by  these  Hes- 
sians and  the  yeomanry  cowards  was  truly 
horrible;  and  the  less  capable  of  any  excuse, 
as,  in  this  matter  at  least,  there  could  be  no 
pretence  for  retaliation. 

"  It  is  a  singular  fact,"  says  Sir  Jonah 
Barrington,  "  that  in  all  the  ferocity  of  the 
conflict,  the  storming  of  towns  and  of  vil- 
lages, uiome.li  were  uniformly  respected  by 
the  insurgents.  Though  numerous  ladies 
fell  occasionally  into  their  power,  they  never 
experienaed  any  incivility  or  misconduct. 
But  the  foreign  troops  in  our  service  (Hom- 
pesch's)  not  only  brutally  ill-treated,  but 
occasionally  shot  gentlewomen.  A  very  re- 
spectable married  woman  in  Euniscorthy 
(Mrs.  Stringer,  the  wife  of  an  attorney,) 
was  wantonly,  shot  at  her  own  window  by  a 
German,  in  cold  blood.  The  rebels  (though 
her  husband  was  a  royalist)  a  short  time 

seems  to  have  arisen  fi-om  a  rage  of  prosecution,  by 
which  the  crime  of  rebellion  was  regarded  as  too 
great  to  admit  any  circumstances  of  extenuation  in 
favor  of  the  person  guilty  of  it,  and  by  which  every 
mode  of  conviction  against  such  a  person  was  deemed 
justifiable." 

He  makes  mention  of  the  notoriety  of  this  practice 
having  drawn  the  following  extraordinary  exclama- 
tion from  a  Roman  Catholic  gentleman  who  had  been 
one  of  the  insurgents:  "  1  thank  my  God  that  no 
person  can  prove  me  guilty  of  saving  the  life  or 
property  of  any  one!" 


after  took  some  of  those  foreign  soldiers 
prisoners,  and  piked  them  all,  as  they  told 
i\\Gm-r-'  jihst  to  teach  them  how  to  shoot  ladies.^ 
Martial  law  always  affects  both  sides.  Re- 
taliation becomes  the  law  of  nature  wherever 
municipal  laws  are  not  in  operation.  It  is 
a  remedy  that  should  never  be  resorted  to 
but  in  extremist 

On  the  same  shocking  subject  Mr.  Plow- 
den  observes  : — 

"  As  to  this  species  of  outrage,  which 
rests  not  in  proof,  it  is  univers-illy  allowed 
to  have  been  on  the  side  of  the  military.  It 
produced  an  indignant  horror  in  the  country 
which  went  beyond,  but  prevented  retalia- 
tion. It  is  a  characteristic  mark  of  the 
Irish  nation  neither  to  forget  nor  forgive  an 
insult  or  injury  done  to  the  honor  of  their 
female  relatives.  It  has  been  boasted  of  by 
officers  of  rank  that,  within  certain  large 
districts,  a  woman  had  not  been  left  unde- 
filed;  and  upon  observation,  in  answer,  that 
the  sex  must  then  have  been  very  coraph''- 
ing,  the  reply  was,  that  the  bayonet  removed 
all  squeamishness.  A  lady  of  fashion,  hnv- 
ing  in  conversation  been  questioned  us  to 
this  difference  of  conduct  towards  the  sex  in 
the  military  and  the  rebels,  attributed  it, 
in  disgust,  to  a  want  of  gallantry  in  Iht  crop- 
pies. By  these  general  remarks  it  is  not 
meant  to  verify  or  justify  the  saying  of  a  fie'd- 
officer,  or  a  lady  of  quality,  both  of  whom 
could  be  named  ;  but  merely  to  show  the 
prevalence  of  the  general  feelings  and  pro- 
fessions at  that  time  upon  these  horrid  sub- 
jects ;  and,  consequently,  what  effects  must 
naturally  have  flowed  from  them.  In  all 
matters  of  irritation  and  revenge,  it  is  the 
conviction  that  the  injury  exists  which  pro- 
duces the  bad  effect.  Even  Sir  Richard 
Musgrave  admits  (p.  428)  that,  "on  most 
occasions,  they  did  not  offer  any  violence  to 
the  tender  sex." 

There  was  little  more  fighting  in  the 
county.  Separate  bands  of  the  insurgents 
were  making  their  way  either  into  Wicklow 
on  the  north,  a  country  of  mountains,  glens, 
and  lakes,  or  westward  into  Ciirlow  by  way 
of  ScoUaghgap,  between  Mount  Leinster 
and  Blackstairs  Mountain. 

The  northern  part  of  the  County  of  Wex- 
ford had  been  almost  totally  deserted  by  all 
the  male  inhabitants  on  the  19th,  at  the  ap- 


OTTTKAGES    IN   THE   NOKTH   OF   THE   COITNTT. 


329 


proach  of  tlie  army  uikUt  General  Need- 
ham.  Some  of  the  yeomanry,  wlio  Iiad  for- 
merly deserted  it,  returned  to.Gorey  on  the 
21st,  and,  on  finding  no  officer  of  the  army, 
as  was  expected,  to  command  there,  they, 
wilh  many  others,  who  returned  along  with 
them,  scoured  the  country  round,  and  killed 
great  numbers  in  their  houses,  besides  all 
the  stragglers  they  met,  most  of  whom  were 
making  the  best  of  their  way  home  unarmed 
from  the  insurgents,  who  were  tlien  believed 
to  be  totnlly  disconilited.  These  transac- 
tions being  made  known  to  a  body  of  tlie 
insurgents  encamped  at  Peppard's  Castle, 
on  the  22d,  they  resolved  to  retaliate,  and 
directly  marched  for  Gorey,  whither  they 
had  otherwise  no  intention  of  proceeding. 
The  yeomen  and  their  associates,  upon  the 
near  approach  of  the  insurgents,  fled  back 
with  precipitation  ;  and  thence,  accompa- 
nied by  matiy  otliers,  hastened  toward  Ark- 
low,  but  were  pursued  as  far  as  Coolgreney, 
with  the  loss  of  forty-seven  men.  The  day 
was  called  bloody  Friday.  The  insurgents 
had  been  exasperated  to  this  vengeance  by 
discovering  through  the  country  as  they 
came  along,  several  dead  men  with  their 
skulls  split  asunder,  their  bowels  ripped 
open,  and  their  throats  cut  across,  besides 
some  dead  woftien  and  children.  They  even 
saw  the  dead  bodies  of  two  women,  about 
which  their  surviving  children  were  creeping 
and  bewailing  tliera  !  These  sights  hastened 
the  insurgent  force  to  Gorey,  where  their 
exasperation  was  considerably  augmented 
by  discovering  the  pigs  in  the  streets  de- 
vouring the-  bodies  of  nine  men,  who  had 
been  hanged  the  day  before,  with  several 
others  recently  shot,  and  some  still  expiring. 
After  the  return  of  the  insurgents  from 
the  pursuit,  several  persons  were  found  lurk- 
ing in  the  town,  and  brought  before  Mr, 
Fitzgerald,  particularly  iNlr.  Peppard,  sov- 
ereign of  Gorey  ;  but,  from  this  gentleman's 
age  and  respectability,  he  was  considered 
incapable  of  being  accessory  to  the  perpe- 
tration of  the  horrid  cruelty  which  provoked 
and  prompted  this  sudden  revenge,  and  he 
and  ottiers  were  saved,  protected,  and  set  at 
liberty.  At  this  critical  time,  the  news  of 
the  burning  of  Mr.  Fitzgerald's  house,  still 
further  maddened  the  people  ;  but,  for- 
getful of  such  great  personal  injury,  he  ex- 
42 


erted  his  utmost  endeavors  to  restrain  th-e 
insurgents,  who  vociferated  hourly  for  ven- 
geance for  their  favorites,  and  succeeded  ia 
leading  them  off  from  Gorey;  when,  after  a 
slight  repast,  they  resumed  their  intended 
route,  rested  that  night  at  the  White 
Heaps,  on  Croghan  Mountain,  and  on  the 
2Bd  set  off  for  the  mountains  of  Wicklow. 

Such  Wexford  men  as  still  remained  in 
arms,  having  no  longer  any  homes,  and 
afraid  to  go  to  their  homes  if  they  had, 
were  endeavoring  to  join  the  insurgents  in 
other  counties.  One  of  these  bodies,  com* 
mauded  by  the  Rev.  John  Murphy,  (with 
whom  was  Miles  Byrne,)  proceeded  through 
the  County  of  Carlow  ;  and,  having  ai-rived 
before  the  little  town  of  Goresliridge,  in  the 
County  of  Kilkenny,  a  show  of  defence  was 
made  at  a  bridge  on  the  river  Barrow,  by  a 
party  of  Wexford  militia  ;  but  they  were 
quickly  repulsed,  driven  back  into  the  vil- 
lage, and  nearly  all  either  killed,  wounded, 
or  taken  prisoners.  The  prisoners  were 
conveyed  with  the  insurgents  until  they  ar- 
rived on  a  ridge  of  hills  which  divides  the 
Counties  of  Carlow  and  Kilkenny  from  the 
Queen's  County,  Here  they  put  some  of 
the  unfortunate  prisoners  to  death,  and 
buried  their  bodies  on  the  hill.  Others  es- 
caped and  joined  their  friends.  In  justice 
to  the  memory  of  the  Rev.  John  Murphy  it 
must  here  be  stated  that  these  murders 
were  done  contrary  to  his  solemn  injunc- 
tions, and  that  they  were  the  result  of  long- 
felt  and  deadly  hatred,  entertained  by  some 
of  the  insurgents  towards  the  militia-men. 
The  example  of  murdering  in  cold  blood 
was,  no  doubt,  constantly  set  them  by  their 
enemies.  If  a  war  of  partial  extermination 
had  not  been  proclaimed,  no  justification 
whatever  could  be  offered  for  this  atrocity  ; 
but  it  is  well  known  that,  although  the  prac- 
tice was  not  avowedly  sanctioned  by  the 
constituted  authorities,  it  was  in  almost  all 
cases  unblushingly  advised  by  the  under- 
lings of  power  in  Ireland. 

"  Having  rested  for  the  night  of  the  23d  of 
June  on  the  Ridge,  as  those  hills  are  called, 
they  proceeded  early  next  morning  to  Cas- 
tlecomer,  and  commenced  a  furious  attack 
on  the  town  at  ten  o'clock.  The  principal  re- 
sistance offered  to  their  progress  was  from 
a  party  stationed  in  a  house  at  the  foot  of 


330 


mSTOKY   OF   IRELAND. 


the  bridge,  which  was  ably  defended,  and 
opposite  to  which  raauy  brave  men  fell,  by 
rashly  exposing  themselves  in  front  of  so 
strong  a  position  ;  for  the  town  could  have 
been  attacked  and  carried  with  very  little 
loss,  from  another  quarter.  In  fact,  every 
other  position  was  speedily  abandoned  by 
the  military  and  yeomanry,  who  retreated 
and  took  up  a  position  on  a  hill  at  a  respect- 
ful distance  from  the  town.  Here,  as  well 
as  in  most  other  places  where  the  insurgents 
had  been  engaged,  skill  alone  was  wanting 
to  insure  success.  The  people  had  numbers 
and  courage  enough  to  overthrow  any  force 
whicli  had  been  sent  against  them,  if  they 
liad  been  skilfully  commanded.  The  attack 
on  the  well-defeuded  house  was  fruitlessly 
kept  up  for  four  hours,  from  which  they 
finally  retreated  with  severe  loss,  and 
marched  in  a  northwest  direction  about  five 
miles,  into  the  Queen's  County.*  Soon 
after,  finding  themselves  hard  pressed  by 
bodies  of  troops  on  three  sides,  they  were 
obliged  to  retreat  once  more  in  the  direction 
of  the  Carlow  mountains.  At  Kilcomney 
they  were  forced  to  fight,  but  without  any 
chance  of  success.  They  were  entirely  rout- 
ed. Father  Murphy  was  taken  three  days 
later,  brought  to  General  Duff's  headquar- 
ters at  TuUow,  tried  by  martial  law,  and, 
after  being  first  cruelly  scourged,  was  exe 
cuted.  His  head,  as  usual,  was  spiked  in 
the  market-place  of  the  town. 

Another  of  the  scattered  bands,  led  by 
•Antony  Perry,  of  Inch,  and  Father  Kearns, 
penetrated  into  Kildare,  and  joining  with 
the  Kildare  insurgents,  attempted  to  march 
upon  Athlone.  They  were  beaten,  however, 
at  Clonard  ;  Perry  and  Father  Kearns  were 
both  taken  prisoners,  and  met  the  usual 
doom.f 

Edward  Fitzgerald,  Miles  Byrne  and 
some  other  chiefs,  still  kept  a  considerable 
band  on  foot  in  the  mountains  on  the  bor- 
der of  Wicklow,  from  whence  they  occa- 
sionally made  descents,  and  attacked  some 
bodies  of  troops  with  success.  One  of  these 
affairs  was  the  assault  upon  the  barracks  at 
Hacketstown  ;  and  another  was  the  memo 
rable  extirpation  of  that  hated  regiment, 
the  "Ancient  Britons,"  at  Ballyellis.     Be- 


Cloney's  Memoir. 


t  Madden's  Lives. 


fore  Miles  Byrne  finally  retired  into  the 
fastnesses  of  Wicklow,  to  join  Holt,  he  had 
the  satisfaction  to  bear  a  hand  in  that 
bloody  piece  of  work.  We  let  Mm  tell  it 
in  his  own  words  : — 

"  Early  in  the  morning  of  the  29th  of 
June,  it  was  resolved  to  march  aud  attack 
the  town  of  Caruew.  The  column  was 
halted  at  Monaseed  to  repose  and  take  some 
kind  of  refreshments,  which  were  indeed  dif- 
ficult to  be  had,  as  every  house  had  been 
plundered  by  the  English  troops  on  their 
way  to  Vinegar  Hill  a  few  days  before. 

"  The  Irish  column  resumed  its  march  on 
the  high  road  to  Carnew,  and  in  less  than 
half  an  hour  after  its  departure,  a  large  div- 
ision of  English  cavalry,  sent  from  Gorey 
by  General  !Needham,  marched  into  Mona- 
seed. This  division  consisted  of  the  noto- 
I'ious  Ancient  Britons,  a  cavalry  regiment 
which  had  committed  all  sorts  of  crimes 
when  placed  on  free  quarters  with  the  un- 
fortunate inhabitants  previous  to  the  rising. 
This  infernal  regiment  was  accompanied  by 
all  the  yeomen  cavalry  corps  from  Arklow, 
Gorey,  Coolgreeny,  &c.,  and  the  chiefs  of 
those  corps,  such  as  Hunter  Gowan,  Beau- 
mont, of  Hyde  Park,  Earl  Mountnorris, 
Earl  Courtown,  Ram,  Hawtry  White,  &c., 
could  boast  as  well  as  the  Ancient  Britons 
of  having  committed  cold-blooded  murders 
on  an  unarmed  country  people.  But  they 
never  had  the  courage  to  meet  us  on  the 
field  of  battle,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  das- 
tardly way  they  abandoned  the  Ancient 
Britons  at  Ballyellis. 

"The  officers  of  the  Ancient  Britons,  as 
well  as  those  of  the  yeomen  corps,  learned 
that  the  Irish  forces  had  just  marched  off 
on  the  road  to  Carnew,  and  were  informed 
at  a  public  house,  that  the  insurgents  who 
had  been  there  were  complaining  how  they 
were  fatigued  to  death  by  the  continual 
marching  and  countermarching,  and  that 
although  they  had  fire-arms,  their  ammuni- 
tion was  completely  exhausted,  and  scarce  a 
ball-cartridge  remained  in  their  army.  The 
truth  of  this  information  could  not  be  doubt- 
ed. All  the  information  coming  through  so 
sure  a  cliannel,  encouraged  the  English 
troops  to  pursue  without  delay  the  insurgents, 
aud  to  cut  them  down  and  exterminate  them 
to  the  last  man,  for  they  could  not  resist 


EXTEKMINATION    OF   ANCIENT   BRITONS. 


331 


-f- 


withoiit  ammunition.  The  Ancient  Britons 
were  to  charge  on  the  road,  whilst  the  yeo- 
men cavah-y,  being  so  well-mounted,  were  to 
cover  the  flanks  and  to  march  through  the 
field  ;  and  those  fox-hunters  promised  that 
not  one  croppy  should  escape  their  ven- 
geance. 

"All  being  thus  settled  and  plenty  of 
whisky  distributed  to  the  English  soldiers, 
the  march  to  overtake  the  insurgents  com- 
menced, and  when  about  two  miles  from 
Monaseed,  at  Ballyellis,  one  mile  from  Car- 
uew,  the  Ancient  Britons  being  in  full  gal- 
lop, charging,  and  as  they  thought,  driving 
all  before  them,  to  their  great  surprise, 
were  suddenly  stopped  by  a  barricade  of 
cars  thrown  across  the  road,  and  at  the 
same  moment  that  the  head  of  the  column 
was  thus  stopped,  the  rear  was  attacked  by 
a  mass  of  pikenien,  who  sallied  out  from 
behind  a  wall,  and  completely  shut  up  the 
road,  as  soon  as  the  last  of  the  cavalry  had 
passed.  The  remains  or  ruins  of  an  old 
deer-park  wall,  on  the  right-hand  side  of 
the  road,  ran  along  for  about  half  a  mile ; 
in  many  parts  it  was  not  more  than  three 
or  four  feet  high.  All  along  the  inside  of 
this  our  guusmen  and  pikemen  were  placed. 
On  the  left-hand  side  of  the  road  there  was 
an  immense  ditch,  with  swampy  ground, 
which  few  horses  could  be  found  to  leap. 
In  this  advantageous  situation,  for  our  men, 
the  battle  began;  the  gunsmen,  half  covered, 
firing  from  behind  the  wall,  whilst  the  Eng- 
lish cavalry,  though  well  mounted,  could 
only  make  use  of  their  carabines  and  pistols, 
for  with  their  sabres  they  were  unable  to 
ward  off  the  thrusts  of  our  pikemen,  who 
sallied  out  on  them  in  the  most  determined 
manner. 

"Thus,  in  less  than  an  hour,  this  infamous 
regiment,  which  had  been  the  horror  of  the 
country,  was  slaiu  to  the  last  man,  as  well 
as  the  few  yeomen  cavalry  who  had  the 
courtige  to  take  part  iu  the  action.  For  all 
those  who  quit  their  horses  and  got  into  the 
fields  were  followed  and  piked  on  the  marshy 
ground.  The  greater  part  of  the  numerous 
cavalry  corps  which  accompanied  the  Ancient 
Britons  kept  on  a  rising  ground,  to  ihe  right 
side  of  the  road,  at  some  distance,  during 
the  battle,  and  as  soon  as  the  result  of  it 
was  known,  they  fled  iu  the  most  cowardly 


way  in  every  direction,  both  dismayed  and 
disappointed  that  they  had  no  0()portunity 
ou  this  memorable  day  of  murdering  the 
stragglers,  as  was  their  custom  on  such  oc- 
casions. I  say  '  memorable,'  for  during  the 
war,  no  action  occurred  which  made  so  great 
a  sensation  in  the  country  ;  as  it  proved  to 
the  enemy,  that  whenever  our  pikemen  weru 
well  commanded  and  kept  in  close  order, 
they  were  invulnerable.  And,  besides,  it 
served  to  elate  the  courage  and  desire  of 
our  men  to  be  led  forthwith  to  new  combats. 

"  The  English  troops  that  marched  out 
from  Carnew  retreated  back  on  the  town  in 
great  haste,  when  they  heard  of  the  defeat 
of  the  Ancient  Britons  at  Ballyellis.  The 
infantry,  fitiduig  that  they  were  closely  pur- 
sued by  our  men,  barricaded  themselves  iu 
a  large  malt  house  belonging  to  Bob  Blancy. 
This  malt  house  was  spared  at  the  time  of 
the  first  attack  on  Carnew,  when  the  great 
est  part  of  the  town  was  burned,  on  ac- 
count of  the  upright  and  humane  conduct 
of  the  owner,  Mr.  Blaney.  Kow  it  had  be- 
come a  formidable  and  well-fortified  barrack, 
capable  of  holding  out  a  long  time,  particu- 
larly as  our  army  had  no  cannon  to  bring 
to  bear  against  it.  However,  it  was  in- 
stantly attacked,  and  great  efforts  made  to 
dislodge  the  enemy,  who  kept  up  a  con- 
tinual fire  from  all  the  windows  ;  and,  as  at 
Hacketstown,  every  means  were  taken  to 
approach  the  doors  under  cover  of  beds, 
straw,  <fec.,  but  without  success,  as  the  men 
were  wounded  through  the  beds  and  straw, 
before  they  could  reach  the  doors.  So  it 
became  necessary  to  wait  till  night  came  on, 
when  the  garrison  which  occupied  this  malt 
house  would  have  no  other  alternative  left 
it  but  to  surrender  at  discretion,  or  be  cou- 
sumed  to  ashes. 

"  Edward  Fitzgerald  and  the  other  chiefs 
deemed  it  more  prudent,  however,  to  raise 
the  siege  and  to  take  a  military  position  on 
Killcavau  Hill  for  the  night,  rather  than  re- 
main before  the  barracks  or  malt  house  j 
knowing  well  that  General  Needham,  who 
commanded  the'  English  forces  at  Gorey,  as 
also  the  English  troops  at  Ferns  and  Xew- 
townbari-y,  would  make  a  forced  march  to 
relieve  Carnew,  and,  if  possible,  endeavor 
to  obtain  some  kind  of  revenge  for  the  de- 
struction of  their  favorite  Au;ieut  Britons  ; 


332 


mSTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


whom  they  so  cowardly  abandoned  at  Bal- 
lyellis  to  their  dismal  and  well-earucd 
doom." 

But  these  combats  were  now  little  more 
than  eflbrts  of  despair.  Fitzgerald,  who 
commanded  at  Ballyellis,  not  long  after  sm*- 
rendered,  along  with  Aylmer,  in  Kildare, 
was  detained  for  sonije  time,  then  permitted 
to  exile  himself,  and  was  known,  in  1803,  to 
be  residing  at  Hamburg.  Mr  Fitzgerald 
was  a  gojitleman  of  large  property  and  great 
personal  accomjJishmeuts,  and  had  been 
goaded  into  resistance  by  the  savage  tyran- 
ny which  he  saw  carried  on  around  him. 
Miles  Byrne,  after  these  terrible  scenes  in 
liis  native  land,  afterwards  served  in  the 
Fi'ench  army  for  thirty  years.  He  died  a 
Knight  of  St.  Louis  and  an  officer  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor,  with  the  grade  of  Che.f- 
de-Balaillon. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  of  this  insurrection 
in  Wexford,  that  scarcely  any  of  its  leaders- 
were  United  Irishmen.  Father  Murphy, 
who  began  it,  and  some  fifteen  other  clergy- 
men who  took  an  active  part  in  it,  not  only 
were  not  United  Irishmen,  but  had  done 
their  utmost  to  discourage  and  break  up 
that  society,  in  some  cases  even  refusing  the 
sacrament  to  those  who  were  members. 
Therefore,  that  insurrection  was  not  the  re- 
sult of  a  conspiracy  to  make  an  insurrec- 
tion, but  of  the  acts  of  the  Government  to 
provoke  one. 

Kext,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  this  was 
not  a  "Popish"  rebellion,  although  every 
effort  was  made  to  give  it  a  sectarian  charac- 
ter— first  by  disarming  and  disgracing  the 
Catholic  yeomanry,  next  by  burning  chapels 
and  maltreating  priests,  and  further  by  the 
direct  incitements  and  encouragement  given 
to  the  Orange  yeomanry,  (who  were  brought 
into  the  county  for  the  purpose,)  to  prac- 
tice their  favorite  plan  of  exterminating 
Catholics.  Yet  some  of  the  most  trusted 
leaders  of  the  people  were  Protestants  ;  as 
Harvey,  Grogan,  one  of  the  two  Colcloughs, 
Antony  Perry,  and  Keogh,  Commandant  of 
Wexford.  There  was,  it  is  true,  one  Pro- 
testant church  defaced,  as  we  have  seen  ; 
but  not  till  long  after  several  Catholic 
chapels  had  been  demolished.  It  may  be 
affirmed,  that  whatever  there  was  of  religious 
rancor  in  the  contest  was  the  work  of  the 


Government,  through  its  Orange  allies  ;  and 
with  the  express  purpose  of  preventing  an 
union  of  Irishmen  of  all  creeds — a  thing 
which  is  felt  to  be  incompatible  with  Biitish 
Government  in  Ireland. 


CHAPTER    XXXYI 

1798. 
Rising  in  Ulster— Antrim— Saintfield—BullinahiTich  — 
Insurgents  Defeated  —  McCracken  and  Monro 
Hanged — Skirmish  in  Cork  County— Courts-Martial 
— Many  Executions — Hanging  of  Father  Redniond— 
Surrender  of  Fitzgerald  and  Ayhner — Compact  be- 
tween Prisoners  and  Government — In  order  to  Save 
the  Lives  of  Byrne  and  Bond — ^Compact  Violated 
by  Government — Byrne  Hanged — Bond  Dies  Sud- 
denly in  Prison— Reign  of  Terror  in  Dublin — 
Brothers  Sheares  Tried — Hanged  — Other  State 
Trials— Curran  in  Court — "  The  Three  Majors  ' — 
Sirr,  Swan,  and  Sandys — The  "  Major's  People  " — 
John  Claudius  Beresford — Tortures  in  Dublin — 
Country  in  Wild  Alarm — Spiked  Heads — Fit  Time 
to  Propose  Legislative  Union— Marquis  Cornwallia 
comes  as  Viceroy — To  bring  about  the  Union— 
"  Lnpression  of  Horror  "^ — Apparent  Measures  to 
End  the  Devastations— Offers  of  "  Protection  " — 
Not  Efficacious — Testimony  of  Lord  Camden  him- 
self—True Account  of  the  "Compact" — United 
Irishmen  sent  to  Fort  George. 

The  rising  of  the  United  Irishmen  of  Ul- 
ster was  delayed  for  two  weeks  after  the  day 
agreed  upon  (May  2od)  by  the  arrest  of 
some  of  their  leaders.  On  the  7th  of  June, 
however,  a  meeting  of  magistrates  having 
been  appointed  in  the  town  of  Antrim,  for 
the  prevention  of  rebellion,  some  insurgents, 
with  design  of  seizing  their  persons,  attacked 
the  town  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
and  soon  overpowering  the  troops  within  it, 
very  nearly  gained  possession.  Major-Gen- 
eral Nugent,  who  commanded  in  that  dis- 
trict, having  received  intelligence  of  the  in- 
tended rising,  had  ordered  a  body  of  troopg 
to  march  to  Antrim,  who  arrived  after  the 
rebels  had  taken  possession  of  the  town. 
They  then  attacked  the  insurgents  in  the 
town,  but  their  vanguard,  consisting  of  cav- 
alry, being  repulsed  with  the  loss  of  twenty- 
three  men  killed  and  wounded,  of  which 
three  were  officers.  Colonel  Durham,  who 
commanded  the  troops,  brought  the  artillery 
to  batter  the  town,  which  obliged  the  in- 
surgents to  abandon  it,  together  with  a 
six-pounder  which  they  had  brought  with 
them,  and  two  curricle  guns  which  they  liad 
taken  from  the  King's  army.  They  were 
pursued  towards  Shane's  Castle  and  Kan- 


IKSTJIIGEXTS   DEFEATED. 


333 


dal's  Town,  with  considerable  slaugliter  ; 
on  this  day  Lord  O'Xeil  was  mortally 
wounded.  ♦  A  small  body  made  an 
unsuccessful  assault  on  the  town  of  Larne, 
and  some  feeble  attempts  were  also  made 
at  Ballymena  and  Ballycastle.  The  main 
body  of  tliese  northern  insurgents  retired 
to  Donegar  Hill,  where,  disgusted  with 
their  want  of  success  and  other  circum- 
stances, they  agreed  to  surrender  their  arms, 
and  almost  all  of  them  dispersed. 

On  the  8th  of  June  another  body  of  in- 
surgents in  the  County  Down,  near  Saint- 
field,  under  the  command  of  a  Dr.  Jackson, 
set  fire  to  the  house  of  a  man  named 
Mackee,  an  informer  against  the  United 
Irishmen.  They  placed  themselves  the  next 
day  iu  ambuscade,  and  nearly  surrounded  a 
body  of  troops  under  Colonel  Stapleton, 
consisting  of  York  Fencibles  and  yeoman 
cavalry,  of  whom  they  killed  about  sixty. 
The  infantry,  however,  ou  whom  the  cavalry 
had  been  driven  back  in  confusion,  rallying 
with  a  coolness  not  very  common  in  this 
war,  succeeded  in  repulsing  their  assailants, 
but  could  uot  pursue,  and  eventually  them- 
selves retreated  to  Belfast,  The  loss  of  the 
hisurgents  was  very  small.  Tlie  next  day, 
under  command  of  Henry  Monro,  a  shop- 
keeper iu  Lisb'uru,  they  took  possession  of 
a  strong  post  on  Windmill  Hill,  above  the 
little  town  of  Ballinahiuch,  near  the  centre 
of  the  County  Down,  and  at  the  house  and 
in  the  demesne  of  Lord  Moira.  On  the 
12ih,  General  Nugent,  marching  from  Bel- 
fast, and  Colonel  Stewart  from  Downpatrick, 
formed  with  fifteen  hundred  men  a  junction 
near  the  Windmill  Hill,  of  which  they  gained 
possession,  together  with  the  town,  which 
before  the  actiou  they  wantonly  set  on  fire. 
T!ie  action  was  maintained  about  three 
hours  with  artillery,  with  little  or  no  exe- 
cution. At  length,  the  Monaghan  x'egi- 
ment  of  militia,  posted  with  two  field-pieces 
at  Lord  Moira's  great  gate,  was  attacked 
with  such  determined  fury  by  the  pikemen 
of  the  insurgents  that  it  fell  back  in  disor- 
der.    The  want  of  discipline  iu  the  insur- 

♦  He  had  ridden  into  the  town  to  attend  the  meet- 
ing of  the  magistrates,  not  knowing  that  the  insur- 
gents were  in  possession  of  it.  He  shot  one  who  had 
seized  the  bridle  of  his  horse,  after  which  he  was 
dragged  from  his  saddle,  and  so  wounded  with  pikes 
that  he  died  in  a  few  daja. 


gents  lost  what  their  valor  had  gained.  The 
disordered  troops  found  means  to  rally, 
while  the  Argyleshire  Fencibles,  entering 
the  demesne,  were  making  their  attack  ou 
another  side.  The  insurgents,  confused  and 
distracted,  retreated  up  the  hill,  and  making 
a  stand  at  the  top,  at  a  kiud  of  fortification, 
defended  the  post  for  some  time  with  great 
courage,  but  at  length  gave  way  and  dis- 
persed in  all  directions.  Their  loss  exceed- 
ed a  hundred  ;  that  of  tlie  royal  army  not 
above  half  that  number.  The  main  body  of 
these  insurgents  retired  to  the  mountains  of 
Slieve  Croob,  where  they  soon  surrendered 
or  separated,  returning  to  their  several 
homes  ;  and  thus  terminated  tliis  short  and 
partial,  but  active  insurrection  in  the  north, 
iu  the  course  of  which  some  slighter  actions 
had  taken  place,  particularly  at  Portaferry, 
where  they  were  repulsed  by  the  yeomanry. 
They  also  set  fire  to  a  revenue  cruiser,  iu 
which  forty  men  perished. 

The  oflScial  bulletin  of  the  affair  of  Balli- 
nahiuch is  as  follows  : — 

"Dublin  Castle,  eleven  o'clock,  a.  m,  ) 
June  14,  1798.  ) 
"  Intelligence  is  just  arrived  from  Major- 
General  Nugent,  stating  that,  on  the  11th 
instant,  he  had  marched  against  a  large 
body  of  rebels  who  were  posted  at  Saint- 
field.  They  retired  on  his  approach  to  a 
strong  position  on  the  Saiutfield  side  of  Bal- 
linahiuch, and  there  made  a  show  of  resist- 
ance, and  endeavored  to  turn  his  left  flank  ; 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Stewart  arriving  from 
Down  with  a  pretty  considerable  force  of 
infantry,  cavalry,  and  yeomanry,  they  soon 
desisted,  and  retired  to  a  very  strong  posi- 
tion behind  Ballinahinch. 

"  General  Nugent  attacked  them  next 
morning  at  three  o'clock,  having  occupied 
two  hills  on  the  left  and  right  of  the  town, 
to  prevent  the  rebels  from  having  any  other 
choice  than  the  mountains  iu  their  I'ear  for 
their  retreat.  He  sent  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Stewart  to  post  himself,  with  part  of  the  Ar- 
gyle  Fencibles  and  some  yeomanry,  as  well  as 
a  detachment  of  the  Twenty-second  Light 
Dragoons,  in  a  situation  from  whence  he  could 
enfilade  the  rebel  line  ;  whilst  Colonel  Les- 
lie, with  part  of  the  Monaghan  militia,  some 
cavalry,  and  yeoman  infantry,  should  make 
an  attack  upon  their  front.     Having  two 


334 


HISTOEY   or   lEELAND. 


howitzers  and  six  six-pounders  with  the  two 
detachments,  tlie  Miijor-General  was  ena- 
bled to  annoy  them  very  much  from  differ- 
ent parts  of  his  position. 

"  The  rebels  attacked  impetuously  Colonel 
Leslie's  detachment,  and  even  jumped  into 
the  I'oad  from  the  Earl  of  Moira's  demesne 
to  endeavor  to  take-  one  of  his  guns  ;  but 
they  were  repulsed  with  slaughter.  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Stewart's  detachment  was 
attacked  by  them  with  the  same  activity, 
but  he  repulsed  them  also,  and  the  fire  from 
his  howitzer  and  six-pounder  soon  obliged 
them  to  fly  in  all  directions.  Their  force 
was,  on  the  evening  of  the  12th,  near  live 
thonsaud  ;  but,  as  many  persons  are  pressed 
into  their  service,  and  almost  entirely  un- 
armed, the  general  does  not  suppose  that, 
on  the  morning  of  the  engagement,  their 
numbers  were  so  many. 

"  About  four  hundred  rebels  were  killed 
in  the  attack  and  retreat,  and  the  remainder 
were  dispersed  all  over  the  country.  Parts 
of  the  towns  of  Saintfield  and  Ballinahinch 
were  burned.  .  .  .  Three  or  four  green 
colors  were  taken,  and  six  one-pounders, 
not  mounted,  but  which  the  rebels  fired 
very  often,  and  a  considerable  quantity  of 
ammunition." 

Of  course,  the  failure  in  Ulster  was  at- 
tended by  the  usual  penalty  of  failure.  The 
leader  of  the  Antrim  insurgents  was  Henry 
Joy  McCracken,  a  manufacturer  of  Belfast, 
a  brave,  well-educated,  and  highly-estimable 
man  in  the  prime  of  life.  He  and  some 
others  were  tried  and  executed  in  Belfast. 
Monro  was  carried  to  Lisburn  and  hung  at 
bis  own  door,  his  wife  and  family  being  in 
the  house. 

An  attempt  at  insurrection  was  next 
made  in  Cork  County.  The  principal  ac- 
tion, and  the  only  one,  which  Government 
has  thought  proper  to  communicate  to  the 
public,  took  place  near  the  village  of  Bally- 
nascarty,  where,  on  the  19lh  of  June,  two 
hundred  and  twenty  men  of  the  Westmeath 
regiment  of  militia,  with  two  six-pounders, 
under  the  command  of  their  Lieutenant- 
Colonel,  Sir  Hugh  O'Reilly,  were  atta(*ked 
on  their  maich  from  Cloguakelty  to  Band(m, 
by  a  body  of  between  three  and  four  hun- 
dred men,  mostly  armed  with  pikes.  The 
attack  was  made  from  a  height  ou  the  left 


of  the  column  so  rapidly  and  fiercely  that 
the  troops  had  scarcely  time  to  form.  It 
seems  plain,  from  Sir  Hugh  O'Reilly's  dis- 
patch, that  at  this  moment  there  was  immi- 
nent danger  of  his  detachment  being  cut  to 
pieces,  when,  fortunately  for  him,  a  hundred 
men  of  the  "  Caithness  Legion,"  under  Ma- 
jor Innes,  came  up  on  the  flank  of  the  in- 
surgents, and  assailed  them  with  so  sharp 
and  well-sustained  a  fire  of  musketry  that 
O'Reilly  had  time  to  rally  his  men  and  get 
his  guns  into  position.  At  last  the  people 
were  forced  to  retire,  but  were  not  pursued. 
Sir  Hugh  estimates  their  loss  at  one  hundred 
and  thirty.  He  does  not  tell  his  own.  This 
action  took  place  on  the  19th  of  June. 

There  remained  little  to  do  now  but  to 
try  and  execute  insurgent  leaders  by  mar- 
tial law.  Courts-martial  were  instituted 
everywhere  at  the  headquarters  of  com- 
manding officers.  These  terrible  tribunals 
were  in  full  action  throughout  Wexford 
County — in  New  Ross,  Enniscorthy,  Gorey, 
Newtownbarry,  and  AYexford  town — and 
multitudes  were  hung  or  trtflhsported. 
Amongst  the  executions  which  caused  the 
most  horror  was  that  of  Father  John  Red- 
mond, who  had  absolutely  done  nothing  to 
favor  the  insurrection.  "  His  body  after 
death  underwent  the  most  indecent  mutila- 
tions." * 

Those  "Wexford  insurgents  who  remained 
with  Mr.  Fitzgerald,  along  with  Mr.  Ayl- 
mer,  as  outstanding  chiefs,  negotiated  with 
General  Dundas,  to  whom  they  surrendered 
ou  the  12th  of  July,  on  condition  that  all 
the  other  leaders  who  had  adventured  with 
them  should  be  at  liberty  to  retire  whither 
they  pleased  out  of  the  British  dominions. 
The  same  terms  were  afterwards  secured  by 
General  Moore  to  Mr.  Garret  Byrne,  who 
was  sent  into  confinement  in  the  Castle  of 
Dublin,  together  with  Messrs.  Fitzgerald 
and  Aylmer,  by  which  they  fared  much  bet- 
ter than  those  who  laid  down  their  arms  in 
Wexford,  depending  on  the  faithful  fulfill- 
ment of  the  terms  entered  into  with  Lord 
Kingsborough. 

*  Gordon's  History.  Mr.  Gordon  knew  Mr.  Red- 
mond well,  and  declared  that  during  the  insurrec- 
tion he  was  mostly  hiding  in  Protestant  houses  to 
avoid  the  "  rebels,"  who  considered  him  an  enemy 
to  their  cause. 


REIGX   OF   TERROR   IN   DUBLIN. 


335 


Tlie  plan  of  proposing  terms  for  savuijo: 
the  lives  of  Mr  Oliver  Bond  and  Mr.  Byrne 
was  proposed  tlirough  Mr.  Dobbs,  a  mem- 
ber of  Parliament.  That  gentleman  went 
with  the  sheriff  to  the  prison  in  which  Mr. 
A.  O'Connor  was  confined,  on  the  24th  of 
July,  with  a  paper*  signfi^d  by  seventy 
state  prisoners,  pnrposing  to  give  snch  in- 
formation as  was  in  their  power  of  the  arras, 
ammimition,  schemes  of  warfare,  internal 
regnliitions  and  foreign  negotiations  of  the 
TJiiited  Irislunen,  provided  the  lives  of 
Messrs.  Bond  and  Byrne  should  be  spared. 

In  consequence  of  this  agreement,  some 
of  the  insurgent  chiefs,  who  were  still  in 
arms,  among  whom  was  Mr.  Aylmer,  of 
Kildare,  surrendered  themselves. f  Several 
principals  of  the  Union,  particularly  Arthur 
O'Connor,  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  Dr.  Mac- 

*  The  following  was  the  agreement  signed  by  sev- 
enty-three on  the  29th  of  July  : — 

"  That  the  undersigned  state  prisoners,  in  the  three 
prisons  of  Newgate,  Kilmainham,  and  Bridewell,  en- 
gage to  give  every  infoi-mation  in  their  power,  of  the 
whole  of  the  internal  transactions  of  the  United  Irish- 
men, and  that  each  of  the  prisoners  shall  give  de- 
tailed information  of  every  transaction  that  has  pass- 
ed between  the  United  Irishmen  and  foreign  states ; 
but  that  the  prisoners  are  not,  by  naming  or  describ- 
ing, to  implicate  anj'  person  whatever,  and  that  they 
are  ready  to  emigrate  to  such  country  as  shall  be 
agreed  on  between  them  and  Government,  and  give 
security  not  to  return  to  this  country  without  the 
permission  of  Government,  and  give  security  not  to 
pass  into  an  enemy's  country,  if  on  their  so  doing 
they  are  to  be  freed  from  prosecution,  and  also  Mr. 
Oliver  Bond  be  permitted  to  take  the  benefit  of  this 
proposal.  The  state  prisoners  also  hope,  that  the 
benefit  of  this  proposal  may  be  extended  to  such 
persons  in  custody,  or  not  in  custody,  as  may  choose 
to  benefit  by  it." 

Signed  by  seventy-three  persons. 

29th  of  July,  1798. 

f  In  a  pamphlet,  styled  a  Letter  from  Arthur 
O'Connor  to  Lord  Castlereagh,  dated  from  prison, 
January  the  4th,  1799,  that  Minister  is  directly 
charged  with  a  violation  of  the  contract,  and  a  mis- 
representation to  Parliament  of  the  transactions  be- 
tween him  and  the  prisoners  of  state.  Other  charges 
are  made,  one  of  which  is  that  the  information  given 
by  these  prisoners  to  Government  was  garbled,  to 
serve  the  purposes  of  the  ministry,  and  particularly 
that  of  a  hundred  pages,  delivered  by  O'Connor  him- 
self, only  one  had  been  published  in  the  reports  of 
the  secret  committees.  Since  to  this  pamphlet,  in 
which  his  lordship  is  peremptorily  challenged  to  dis- 
prove any  of  the  charges  therein  made,  no  reply  has 
appeared,  we  have  only  the  honor  of  his  lordship  for 
a  disproof  of  these  accusations,  which  may  he  a  vin- 
dication to  persons  unacquainted  with  his  lordship's 
character.  The  pamphlet  was*  said  to  have  been 
suppressed  by  Government,  at  least  was  not  other- 
Wise  than  clandestinely  sold  and  circulated. 


Neven,  and  Samuel  Neilson,  gave  details  on 
oath  in  their  examinations  before  the  secret 
committees  of  the  two  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment, in  whose  reports,  although  garbled 
and  falsified,  published  by  authority  of  Gov- 
ernment, is  contained  a  mass  of  information 
concerning  tlie  conspiracy.  Yet  certiiin  it 
is,  that  whatever  were  the  original  terms  of 
the  contract,  and  by  whatever  subsequent 
events  the  contractors  were  influenced  or 
affected,  the  principal  prisoners  (fifteen  in 
number)  were  not  liberated,  and  a  power 
was  reserved  or  assumed  by  ministers  to 
retain  them  in  custody,  at  least  during  the 
continuance  of  the  war  with  France.  Oliver 
Bond  died  in  the  meantime  in  prison,  "of 
apoplexy,"  as  was  given  out;  but  the  friends 
of  this  gentleman  believe  to  the  present 
hour  that  he  was  murdered  at  night  by  one 
of  the  jailers  or  turnkeys  of  N-ewgate  prison 
— for  what  cause  or  at  whose  instigation 
was  never  known.  The  other  prisoner, 
Byrne, — to  save  whose  life,  along  with  that 
of  Bond,  the  contract  was  expressly  made — 
was  hung. 

During  the  whole  time  of  the  insurrec- 
tion the  city  of  Dublin  was  held  under 
strict  military  law.  A  large  force,  consist- 
ing chiefly  of  yeomanry,  was  kept  constantly 
in  the  metropolis.  The  grand  and  royal 
canals,  which  were  fifty  feet  broad  and 
twelve  deep,  were  a  security  against  a  sur- 
prise ;  and  the  several  bridges  were  strongly 
palisaded,  and  guarded  both  by  night  and 
by  day.  The  trials  and  executions  of  some 
of  the  principal  leaders  in  the  rebellion  tend- 
ed to  keep  others  in  awe,  and  prevented 
any  further  attempts  of  individuals.  Among 
others,  an  insurgent  officer,  a  Protestant, 
named  Bacon,  having  been  apprehended  dis- 
guised in  female  apparel,  was  executed  on 
the  2d  of  June,  near  Carlisle  bridge.  On 
the  14th,  was  executed,  on  the  same  scaf- 
folding. Lieutenant  Esmond.  On  the  12th 
of  July,  Henry  and  John  Sheares  were 
brought  to  trial,  condemned,  and  soon  after 
put  to  death.  The  trial  of  John  M'Cann, 
who  had  been  Secretary  of  the  Provincial 
Committee  of  Leinster,  followed  on  the 
nth  ;  that  of  Michael  Williiim  Byrne,  dele- 
gate from  the  County  Conunittee  of  Wick-' 
low,  and  that  of  Oliver  Bond,  on  the  23d. 
Mr.  Curran  was  the  leading  counsel  on  all 


336 


mSTOP.Y   OF   IRELAND. 


these  trials  ;  and  it  was  a  service  of  danger. 
The  Court  was  usually  crowded  with  armed 
men  ;  and  as  the  undaunted  advocate  deliv- 
ered his  powerful  and  indignant  pleadings, 
often  at  midnight,  amidst  a  hostile  and 
menacing  audience,  the  lamplight  glittered 
upon  serried  bayonets,  and  he  was  some- 
times interrupted  by  a  clash  of  arms. 
"What  is  that?"  he  sternly  exclaimed,  on 
the  trial  of  Oliver  Bond.  "  The  question 
was  occasioned  by  a  clash  of  arms  among 
the  military  that  thronged  the  Court.  Some 
of  those  who  were  nearest  to  the  advocate 
appeared,  from  their  looks  and  gestures, 
about  to  offer  him  personal  violence  ;  upon 
which,  fixing  his  eye  sternly  upon  them,  he 
exclaimed  :  '  You  may  assassinate,  but  you 
shall  not  intimidate  me.'"* 

While  the  insurrection  was  raging  in 
Wexford,  and  capital  convictions  and  execu- 
tions were  very  frequent  all  over  the  coun- 
try, it  must  be  supposed  that  the  people  of 
Dublin  were  in  a  state  of  profound  alarm, 
sometimes  real  and  genuine  terror,  some- 
times a  factitious  alarm,  created  by  the 
agents  of  Government  to  furnish  excuse  for 
brutal  acts  of  severity.  Then  was  the 
reign  of  the  "  three  Majors,"  Sirr,  Swan, 
and  Sandys.  These  men  had  been  officers 
of  the  militia  ;  and  all  in  a  sufficiently -de- 
cent rank  of  life — the  last-named,  indeed, 
was  brother-in-law  to  Mr.  under-Secretary 
Cooke.  This  triumvirate  were  now  really 
the  rulers  of  Dublin  ;  and  the  most  indis- 
pensable of  all  the  agencies  of  the  Castle. 
Their  services  chiefly  consisted  in  organizing 
and  maintaining  a  baud  of  wretches,  who 
were  employed  at  the  assizes  throughout  the 
country,  but  especially  in  the  vicinity  of 
Dublin,  as  informers.  They  were  known  to 
the  people  by  the  name  of  the  "  Batallion 
of  Testimony." 

It  is  said,  on  high  authority,  that  the  em- 
ployment of  spies  and  informers  tends  rather 
to  the  increase  than  the  suppression  of 
crime,  and  that  a  good  government  has  no 
need  of  their  infamous  services.  One  thing 
is  certain,  that  their  services  were  thought 
useful  to  a  bad  government  ;  and  the  same 
circumstance  that  rendered  their  services 
necessary,  made  their  infamy  a  matter  of 
little  moment  to  their  employers.  From  the 
*  Life  of  Curran.    By  his  son. 


year  1796  to  1800,  a  set  of  miscreants, 
steeped  "in  crime,  sunk  in  debauchery,  prone 
to  violence,  and  reckless  of  character,  con- 
stituted what  was  called  the  "  Major's 
People."  A  number  of  these  people  were 
domiciled  within  the  gates  of  the  Castle, 
where  there  were  regular  places  of  enter- 
tainment allotted  for  them  contiguous  to  the 
Viceroy's  palace  ;  for  another  company  of 
them,  a  house  was  allotted  opposite  Kilmain- 
ham  jail,  familiarly  known  to  the  people  by 
the  name  of  the  "Stag  House;"  and  for 
one  batch  of  them,  who  could  not  be  trusted 
with  liberty,  there  was  one  of  the  yards  of 
that  prison,  with  the  surrounding  cells,  as- 
signed to  them,  which  is  still  called  the 
"  Stag  Yard."  These  persons  were  consid- 
ered under  the  immediate  protection  of 
Majors  Sirr,  Swan,  and  Sandys,  and  to  in- 
terfere with  them  in  the  course  of  their  du- 
ties as  spies  or  witnesses,  was  to  incur  the 
vengeance  of  their  redoubtable  patrons. 

Sandys  had  been  a  captain  in  the  Long- 
ford militia.  Shortly  after  his  marriage  with 
the  sister  of  the  under-Secretary's  wife,  he 
was  appointed  Brigade-Major  to  the  garri- 
son of  Dublin.  In  1197, '98,  and '99,  he 
presided  over  the  Prevot  Prison,  in  the 
Royal  Barracks,  a  filthy,  close,  dark,  and 
pestilential  place  of  confinement,  with  a 
small  court-yard,  and  some  ill-constructed 
sheds,  set  up  to  aliord  increased  accommoda- 
tion for  the  multitude  of  persons  daily  sent 
to  the  depot. 

Major  Sandys  carried  on  a  regular  trade 
in  the  official  advantages  of  his  functions  in 
the  Prevot.  He  sold  indulgences  to  the 
state  prisoners,  of  a  little  more  than  the  or- 
dinary scant  allowances  of  air,  light,  and 
food.  He  sold  exemption  from  the  taws 
and  triangles  for  money  and  for  goods,  for 
every  marketable  commodity. 

The  court-yard  of  that  miserable  den  was 
ringing  forever,  by  day  and  by  night,  with 
tlie  shrieks  of  wretches  scourged  at  the 
Major's  triangles,  to  extort  confessions,  or  to 
force  the  prisoners  to  make  statements  in- 
culpating others.  The  court  in  the  rear  of 
the  Royal  Exchange  was  another  place  of 
torture ;  but,  perhaps,  the  most  dreadful 
scene  of  continual  lacerations,  pitch-cap- 
pings,  and  picketings,  in  Dublin,  was  in  the 
Riding-School  in  Marlborough  street,  where 


THE    "three    majors    SIRR,    SWAN,    AND    SANDYS. 


337 


the  punishments  were  administered  under 
the  eye  and  by  the  direction  of  ^Mr.  John 
Claudius  Beresford,  a  scion  of  the  great 
house  of  Waterford.*  Yet,  in  a  debate  in 
the  English  House  of  Commons,  in  March, 
1801,  on  the  Irish  Martial  Law  bill,  in  re- 
ply to  an  observation  with  respect  to  the  use 
of  torture,  made  by  Mr.  Taylor,  Lord  Cas- 
tlereagh  had  certainly  the  boldness  to  afRrm, 
tliat  "  torture  never  was  inflicted  in  Ireland, 
with  the  knowledge,  authority,  or  approba- 
tion of  Government."  Mr.  John  Claudius 
Beresford,  wlio  was  the  most  competent  of 
all  men  to  speak  on  that  subject,  observed, 
that  "it  was  unmanly  to  deny  torture,  as  it 
was  notoriously  practiced  ; "  and  in  a  subse- 
quent debate  in  the  House  of  Lords,  on 
another  occasion,  in  the  Imperial  Parlia- 
ment, Lord  Clare  avowed  the  practice,  and 
defended  it  on  the  grounds  of  its  necessity. 

No  specific  orders,  undoubtedly,  emanated 
from  the  Government  to  Mr.  Beresford  to 
convert  the  Riding-School  into  a  scourging- 
hall — to  Mr.  Hepeustal  to  make  a  walkicg- 
gallows  of  his  person — to  Mr.  Love  for  the 
half-hanging  of  suspected  rebels  at  Kilkea 
Castle — to  Mr.  Hunter  Gowan  for  burning 
down  the  cabins  of  the  croppies — to  the 
High  Sheriff  of  Tipperary  for  the  laceration 
of  the  peasant's'  back,  of  which  Sir  John 
Moore  was  an  eye-witness — to  Captain 
Swaine  for  the  picketings  at  Prosperous,  or 
Sir  Richard  Mnsgrave  for  writing  a  treatise 
in  defeuce  of  torture  ;  or  to  all  the  other 
gentlemen  of  "discernment  and  fortitude" 
for  adopting  "  the  new  e.\pedient  "  for  dis- 
covery of  crime. 

"  But,"  observes  Dr.  Madden,  "  it  is  in 
vain,  utterly  futile  and  fruitless,  to  deny  the 
constant  use  of  torture  in  1797  and  1798, 
in  the  Riding-House,  Marlborough  street, 
under  the  direction  of  John  Claudius  Beres- 
ford, and  in  the  Prevot  Prison  in  the  Royal 
Barracks,  then  governed  by  Major  Sandys, 
brother-in-law  to  Mr.  under-Secretary  Cooke, 
(Lord  Castlereagh's  chief  official  in  the  Sec- 
retary's office  ;)  occasionally,  too,  in  the 
Royal  Exchange,  and  in  the  small  vacant 
space  adjoining  the  entrance  to  the  Upper 


*  Dr.  Madden  has  gone  to  the  trouble  of  collecting 
a  groat  manj'  of  ^e  authentic  cases  of  half-hangings, 
Bcourgiags,  and  fcther  tortures  inflicted  in  those  days. 
43 


Castle  Yard,  immediately  behind  the  offices 
of  Lord  Castlercagh,  and  having  on  the  op- 
posite side  the  back  part  of  the  Exchange, 
where,  under  the  very  ivindows  of  Lord  Cas- 
tlereagKs  office,  the  ti-iangles  were  set  up 
for  fastening  the  wretches  to,  who  were 
flogged — tortured  even  to  death." 

There  was  at  that  time  a  military  order 
enforced  in  Dubhn,  that  every  hou.^-eholder 
should  expose  a  list  on  his  front  door  of  all 
the  inmates  of  his  house  ;  but  this  observ- 
ance being  complied  with  by  no  means  in- 
sured families  against  domiciliary  visits 
from  the  military,  or  from  the  "  Major's 
People,"  whenever  there  was  any  suspiciou 
that  obnoxious  persons  or  papers  might  be 
secreted  there.  There  are  still  alive  many 
who  recollect  the  terror  and  agony  of  house- 
holds when  invaded  by  these  odious  wretches, 
who  did  not  generally  confine  themselves  to 
their  ostensible  errand,  but  insulted  women 
and  girls,  and  carried  off  valuable  plate. 
One  instance  of  this  is  moiitioned  iu  a  speech 
of  Curran,  where  a  silver  cup  was  taken 
possession  of  because  it  had  engraved  upon 
it  the  words  Erin  go  hragh !  The  accounts 
of  pay  and  weekly  "  subsistence  money," 
given  to  the  "  Major's  People,"  as  well  as 
to  other  common  swearers,  are  extant,  and 
may  be  read  in  the  collections  of  Dr.  Mad- 
den. When  it  is  remembered  that  scenes 
similar  to  these  were  passing  in  every  town, 
as  well  as  Dublin  ;  that  many  bridges  and 
"gallows-hills"  showed  their  blackening 
corpses  swinging  in  the  winds  ;  that  iu  front 
of  many  court-houses,  and  over  the  gate- 
ways of  many  jails,  ghastly  heads  were  grin- 
ning upon  spikes,*  while  every  hour  gave 
birth  to  some  new  and  fearful  rumor  of  hor- 
rors yet  unknown,  some  idea  may  be  formed 
of  the  Terror  in  Ireland. 

The  country  was  now,  therefore,  precisely 

♦  On  the  trial  of  John  Magee  fix  libel,  in  1813, 
O'Connell,  in  his  memorable  speech  on  that  occasion, 
thus  alludes  to  Toler,  (Lord  Norbnr)%)  when  em- 
ployed on  sijecial  commissions :  "  Why,  in  one  cir- 
cuit, during  the  administration  of  the  cold-hearted 
and  cruel  Camden,  there  were  one  hundred  individ- 
uals tried  before  one  judge  ;  of  these,  ninety-eight 
were  capitally  convicted,  and  idnety-seven  hanged  ! 
One  escaped,  but  he  was  a  soldier,  who  murdered  a 
peasant — a  thing  of  a  trivial  nature.  Ninety-seven 
victims  in  one  circuit  J  .' " 

Toler  was  Solicitor-(ieneral  in  1708,  but  was  some- 
times put  on  the  Commis-ion,  and  went  circuit. 


338 


HISTOKT   OF   IRELAND. 


in  the  frame  of  mind  which  Mr.  Pitt  con- 
sidered favorable  for  facilitating  his  favorite 
measure,  a  Legislative  Union.  Divided  in- 
to two  bitterly  hostile  parties,  vindictive 
rage  on  the  one  side,  affright  and  despond- 
ency on  the  other — the  United  Irish  Society 
ruined,  partly  by  the  savage  extirpation  of 
Catholic  insnrgents,  partly  by  the  defection 
of  the  Republican  Presl^yterians  of  the 
Xorth,  and  the  mutual  distrust  which  had 
been  carefully  sown  between  these  two  sec- 
tions of  that  organization — all  hope  of  either 
Catholic  Emancipation  or  Reform  (through 
an  Irish  Parliament)  being  now  apparently 
adjourned  to  an  indefinite  futurity,  it  was 
believed  that  the  parties  would,  at  last,  be 
led  to  throw  themselves  into  the  arms  of 
England,  who  would  know  how  to  take  care 
of  them  all.  Accordingly,  Lord  Camden, 
having  done  his  office  in  stirring  up  rebel- 
lion, was  recalled,  and  the  Marquis  Coru- 
wallis,  already  unfavorably  known  in  two 
worlds,  arrived  in  L-eland  on  the  20th  day 
of  June — the  very  day  before  the  battle  of 
Yinegar  Hill — to  assume  the  reins  of  gov- 
ernment, but  invested,  besides  the  vice-regal 
power,  with  the  additional  authority  of 
Commander  of  the  forces.  It  appeared  that 
the  instructions  of  this  nobleman  were  to 
moderate  by  degrees  the  horrible  rage  of 
extermination.  The  estimates  given  of  his 
character  and  conduct  by  contemporary 
Irish  writers  are  wonderfully  various.  Sir 
Jonah  Barrington  says  of  him  :  "  Lord 
Cornwallis  was  now  selected  to  complete 
the  project  of  a  Union,  and  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  was  continued  as  Chief  Secretary. 
His  system  was  of  all  others  the  most  artful 
and  insidious  ;  he  affected  impartiality  while 
he  was  deceiving  both  parties  ;  he  encour- 
aged the  United  Irishman,  and  he  roused 
the  royalist  ;  one  day  he  destroyed,  the 
next  day  he  was  merciful.  His  system, 
however,  had  not  exactly  the  anticipated 
effect.  Everything  gave  reason  to  expect  a 
restoration  of  ti'anquillity  ;  but  it  was 
through  the  impression  of  horror  alone  that 
a  union  could  be  effected  ;  and  he  had  no 
time  to  lose,  lest  the  country  might  recover 
its  reason." 

Mr.  Plowden,  on  the  other  hand,  who 
was  devoted  to  the  measure  of  a  union,  and 
was  himself  already  writing  pamphlets  in  its 


favor,  can  find  no  terms  strong  enougk  in 
lauding  Lord  Cornwallis.  He  says  :  "  This 
appointment,  in  this  critical  juncture,  ap- 
pears, under  Providence,  to  have  been  the 
immediate  salvation  of  Ireland,  not  only  by 
putting  an  immediate  check  upon  the  uncon- 
trolled ferociousness  of  the  soldiery,  by 
stopping  military  executions,  suspending  the 
sentences  of  courts-martial  till  he  had  him- 
self revised  the  minutes,  by  converting  the 
system  of  coercion  and  terrorism  into  that 
of  conciliation,  by  gaining  the  affections  of 
the  people,  by  drawing  upon  himself  the 
hatred  of  the  Orangemen,  hy  bringing  to  hear 
the  incorporate  union  with  Great  Britain, 
as  the  efficient  means  of  redressing  popular 
grievances,  and  crushing  the  seeds  of  per- 
petual feuds  and  acrimony  kept  up  chiefly 
by  the  subsistence  of  Orangeism." 

Lord  Cornwallis  certainly  did,  not  long 
after  his  arrival,  begin  to  interpose  a  check 
upon  the  bloody  work  then  going  on  in  Wex- 
ford. On  the  28th  of  June,  after  the  heads 
of  the  Wexford  leaders  had  been  duly  spiked 
in  front  of  the  jail,  and  the  yeomanry  cav- 
alry had  glutted  themselves  for  one  whole 
week  with  carnage  and  conflagration,  pick- 
etings,  and  scourgings.  Lord  Lake  was  re- 
moved from  command  in  that  quarter,  and 
it  was  given  to  General  Hunter,  with  direc- 
tions to  put  an  end  to  the  indiscriminate 
slaughter.  A  proclamation  was  issued  and 
printed  in  the  Dublin  Gazette,  but  not  till 
the  3d  of  July  (thus  giving  the  Orange-, 
men  one  other  week's  bloody  carnival) — 
authorizing  His  Majesty's  generals  to  give 
protections  on  certain  terms.  The  proclama- 
tion is  in  these  words  : — 

"  Whereas,  it  is  in  the  power  of  His  Ma- 
jesty's generals,  and  of  the  forces  under 
their  command,  entirely  to  destroy  all  those 
who  have  risen  in  rebellion,  against  their 
sovereign  and  his  laws  :  yet  it  is  neverthe- 
less the  wish  of  Government,  that  those  per- 
sons who,  by  traitorous  machinations,  have 
been  seduced,  or  by  acts  of  intimidation, 
have  been  forced  from  their  allegiance,  should 
be  received  into  His  JNlajesty's  peace  and 

pardon, commanding  in  the  county 

of specially  authorized  thereto,  does 

hereby  invite  all  persons  who  may  be  now 
assembled  in  any  part  of  the  said  county 
against  His  Majesty's  peace,  to   surrender 


IMPRESSION   OF   HORROR. 


339 


themselves  and  their  arms,  and  to  desert  tlie 
leaders  who  have  seduced  them  ;  and  for  th(! 
acceptance  of  such  surrender  and  submission 
the  space  of  fourteen  days  from  the  date 
hereof  is  allowed,  and  the  towns  of 


are  hereby  specified,  at  each  of  which  places 
one  of  His  Majesty's  officers  and  a  Justice 
of  the  Peace  will  attend  ;  and  upon  entering^ 
their  names,  acknowledging  their  guilt,  and 
promising  good  behavior  for  the  future, 
and  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  abjuring  all  other  engage- 
ments contrary  thereto,  they  will  I'eceive  a 
certificate,  which  will  entitle  them  to  protec- 
tion so  long  as  they  demean  themselves  as 
becomes  good  subjects. 

"  And,  in  order  to  render  such  acts  of 
submission  easy  and  secure,  it  is  the  general's 
pleasure  that  persons  who  are  now  with  any 
portion  of  the  rebels  in  arms,  and  willing  to 
surrender  themselves,  do  send  to  him,  or  to 

any  number    from    each   body  of 

rebels  not  exceeding  ten,  with  whom  the 

general,  or  will  settle  the  manner 

in  which  they  may  repair  to  the  above  towns, 
so  that  no  alarm  may  be  excited,  and  no  in- 
jury to  their  persons  be  offered. 

"June  29,  1798." 

Then  follows  the  form  of  certificate  of 
"protection."  Next,  on  the  llth  of  July, 
a  message  from  the  Viceroy  was  read  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  signifying  the  King's 
pleasure  that  an  "Amnesty  act"  should  be 
passed,  with  certain  conditions  and  large  ex- 
ceptions. Accordingly,  such  a  bill  was 
passed  in  favor  of  all  rebels  who  had  not 
been  leaders  ;  who  had  not  committed  man- 
slaughter, except  in  the  heat  of  battle,  and 
who  should  comply  with  the  conditions  men- 
tioned in  the  proclamation.  But,  practi- 
cally, there  was  uo  cessation,  at  least  in  the 
unhappy  County  of  Wexford,  of  the  horrors 
of  military  outrage,  even  after  the  procla- 
mation. General  Hunter,  indeed,  seems  to 
have  endeavored  to  appease  the  minds  of 
the  people,  and  restore  confidence  and  tran- 
quillity to  that  distracted  country. 

But  some  principal  gentlemen  of  the 
county,  and  others  besides,  attempted  to 
interpose  their  authority  to  supersede  the 
tenor  of  the  general  pardon  held  out  by 
proclamation,  pursuing  the  same  line  of  ar- 
bitrary conduct  which  they  Lad  practiced 


previous  to  the  insurrection.  They  even  pro- 
ceeded to  the  length  of  presuming  to  tear 
some  of  the  protections,  which  the  country 
people  had  obtained  ;  but  this  coming  to  the 
General's  knowledge,  he  quieted  them  by 
threatening  to  have  them  tied  to  a  cart's 
tail  and  whipped.  Others  had  been  rush 
enough  to  levy  arbitrary  contributions  for 
the  losses  they  had  sustained  during  the  in- 
surrection. A  curate  was  induced  to  wait 
on  the  Genera!  with  an  account  of  an  intend- 
ed "massacre"  of  the  Protestants,  which  he 
detailed  with  the  appearance  of  the  utmost 
alarm,  and  was  patiently  heard  out  by  the 
General,  who  then  addressed  him  with  this 
marked  appellation  and  strong  language  : — • 
"  Mr.  Massacre,  if  you  do  not  prove  to  me 
the  circumstances  you  have  related,  I  shall 
get  you  punished  in  the  most  exemplary 
manner,  for  raising  false  alarms,  which  have 
already  proved  so  destructive  to  this  unfor- 
tunate country."  The  curate's  alarm  in- 
stantly changed  its  direction  and  became 
personal  ;  and  on  allowing  that  his  fears 
had  been  excited  by  vague  report  to  make 
this  representation,  his  piteous  supplication, 
and  apparent  contrition,  procured  him  for- 
giveness. 

The  various  outrages  that  were  committed 
in  the  country,  prevented  numbers  from  com- 
ing into  the  quarters  of  the  several  com- 
manding officers  to  obtain  protections,  as 
many  of  the  yeomen  and  their  suppleraent- 
aries  continued  the  system  of  conflagration, 
and  shooting  such  of  the  peasantry  as  they 
met  ;  and  this  necessarily  deterred  many 
from  exposing  themselves  to  their  view,  and 
prevented,  of  course,  the  humane  and  mod- 
erate intentions  of  the  present  govern- 
ment from  having  their  due  effect.  The  mel- 
ancholy consequence  of  such  a  system  of 
terror,  persecution,  and  alarm,  had  very 
nearly  brought  on  the  extermination  of  an 
extensive  and  populous  tract  of  the  County 
of  Wicklow,  called  the  Macomores  ;  the 
perpetration  of  the  plan  was  providentially 
prevented  by  the  timely  and  happy  interven- 
tion of  Brigade-Major  Fitzgerald,  under  the 
directions  and  orders  of  General  Hunter. 
Incessant  applications  and  remonstrances  had 
been  made  by  dilferent  magistrates  in  Gorey 
and  its  vicinity  to  Government,  complaining 
that  this  range  of  countrv  was  infested  with 


340 


HISTOEY   OF   lEETiAtro. 


constant  meetings  of  rebels,  who  committed 
every  species  of  outrage,  and  these  reports 
were  confirmed  by  affidavits  ;  they  were 
credited  by  Government,  to  whom  they  were 
lianded  in  by  a  magistracy  presumed  to  be 
deliberate,  grave,  and  respectable  ;  the  Vice- 
roy was  rendered  indi^niant  at  these  reiter- 
ated complaints,  and  orders  were  sent  to  the 
different  generals  and  other  commanding 
officers,  contiguous  to  the  devoted  tract,  to 
form  a  line  along  its  extent  on  the  western 
border,  and  at  both  ends,  north  and  south, 
on  the  land  side,  so  as  to  leave  no  resource 
to  the  wretched  inhabitants,  who  were  to  be 
slaughtered  by  the  soldiery,  or  to  be  driven  into 
the  sea,  as  it  is  bounded  by  the  Channel  on 
the  eastward.  Even  loomm  and  children 
were  to  be  included  in  this  terrific  example. 
The  execution  of  this  severe  exemplary  mea- 
sure was  intrusted  to  the  discretion  of  Gen- 
eral Hunter,  who  fortunately  disco-vered  the. 
inhuman  misrepresentation  that  had  produced 
those  terrific  orders.  The  devoted  victims 
found  an  opportunity  to  implore  protection 
from  the  incursions  of  the  black  mob  (they 
thus  denominated  the  supplementaries  to  the 
different  corps  of  yeomanry)  who  wreaked 
their  vengeance  even  upon  those  who  had  re- 
ceived protection  from  General  Xeedham,  at 
Gorey,  as  different  parties  of  the  soldiery  and 
yeomanry  waited  their  return  in  ambush, 
and  slaughtered  every  one  they  could  over- 
take. 

This  prevented  many  from  coming  in  for 
protection.  Afterwards  these  sanguinai-y 
banditti  made  incursions  into  the  country, 
fired  into  the  houses,  thus  killing  and  wound- 
ing many  unoffending  peasants.  Several 
houses  after  being  plundered  were  burned, 
and  the  booty  was  brought  into  Gorey.  By 
the  frequency  of  these  horrible  excesses  and 
depredations,  such  houses  as  remained  un- 
burned  were  of  course  crowded  with  several 
families,  and  this  multiplied  the  number  of 
victims  at  each  succeeding  incursion.  At 
last,  most  of  the  inhabitants  took  refuge  on 
the  hills,  and  armed  themselves  with  every 
offensive  weapon  they  could  procure. 

The  false  alarmists  were  not  depressed  by 
several  discomfitures,  for  although  General 
Hunter  reported  the  country  to  be  in  a  per- 
fect state  of  tranquillity,  they  again  returned 
to  the  charge,  and  renewed  their  misrepre 


sentations.  Mr.  Hawtry  Wliite,  Captain 
of  the-  Ballaghkeen  Cavalry,  and  a  Justice 
of  the  Peace  for  the  county,  sent  several  in- 
formations to  Government  of  the  alarming 
state  of  the  country  ;  and  the  commanding 
officer  at  Gorey  was  so  far  persuaded  of  the 
intention  of  a  general  rising,  that  he  quitted 
the  town  and  encamped  on  a  hill  above  it. 
These  representations,  made  under  the  sem- 
blance of  loyalty,  had  not,  however,  the 
wished-for  weight  with  the  Government. 
General  Hunter  was  ordered  to  inquire  into 
the  information  of  Mr.  Hawtry  White. 
Major  Fitzgerald  was  again  sent  out,  and 
the  result  of  his  inquiry  was,  that  the  infor- 
mation was  unfounded.  Upon  this  the  Gen- 
eral ordered  Mr.  Hawtry  White  to  be 
brought  to  Wexford,  and  he  was  accordingly 
conducted  thither  and  put  under  arrest ;  and 
on  his  still  persisting  in  his  false  representa- 
tions, he  was  conducted  to  the  island,  where, 
he  asserted,  the  rebels  were  encamped,  and, 
lo  !  no  island  appeared  above  the  water. 
Mr.  Hawtry  White  was  conducted  back  to 
Wexford,  and  General  Hunter  determined 
to  bring  him  to  a  court-martial.  Many 
gentlemen  and  ladies,  however,  interfered  in 
the  most  earnest  manner  to  prevent  this  iu- 
vestigation,  representing  that  Mr.  White's 
great  age  might  have  subjected  him  to 
the  imposition  of  fabricated  information  ; 
and  the  firmness  of  the  General  relaxed  at 
the  instance  of  so  many  respectable  per- 
sons. 

To  show  how  very  far  the  people  of  the 
country  were  really  protected  by  the  pro- 
clamations and  protections,  announced  by 
Lord  Cornwallis,  it  will  be  needful  only  to 
give  one  or  two  extracts  from  the  "  Memoirs 
and  Correspondence  "  of  that  nobleman,  pub- 
lished many  years  later  : — 

\_Extract  of  a  letter  of  Lord  Cornwallis  to 
the  Duke  of  Portland,  dated  the  Sth  of 
July,  1798.] 

"The  Irish  militia  are  totally  without  dis- 
cipline, contemptible  before  the  enemy  when 
any  serious  resistance  is  made  to  them,  but 
ferocious  and  cruel  in  the  extreme  when  any 
poor  wretches,  either  with  or  without  arms, 
come  within  their  power — in  short,  murder 
appears  to  be  their  favorite  pastime." — ■ 
(Vol  ii.,  p.  351.) 


OFFERS    OF    "  PROTECTIONS  " NOT    EFFICACIOUS. 


341 


[Extract  of  a   letter  from   Marquis   Corn- 
waUis  to  Major-Genera  I  Koss.~\ 
•'Dublin  Castle,  July  24,  1798. 

"Except  in  the  instances  of  the  six  state 
trials  that  are  going  on  here,  there  is  no 
law  either  in  town  or  country  but  martial 
law,  and  you  know  enough  of  that  to  see 
all  the  horrors  of  it,  even  in  the  best  admin- 
istration of  it.  Judge,  then,  how  it  must 
be  conducted  by  Irislmien,  heated  with  pas- 
sion and  revenge.  But  all  this  is  trifling 
compared  to  the  numberless  murders  that 
are  hourly  committed  by  our  people  without 
any  process  or  examination  whatever.  The 
yeomanry  are  in  the  style  of  the  loyalists  in 
America,  only  much  more  numerous  and 
powerful,  and  a  thousand  times  more  fero- 
cious. These  men  have  saved  the  country, 
but  they  now  take  the  lead  in  rapine  and 
murder.  The  Irish  militia,  with  few  officers, 
and  those  chiefly  of  the  worst  kind,  follow 
closely  on  the  heels  of  the  yeomanry  in  mur- 
der and  every  kind  of  atrocity,  and  the  fen- 
cibles  take  a  share,  although  much  behind- 
hand with  the  others.  The  feeble  outrages, 
burnings,  and  murders,  which  are  still  com- 
mitted by  the  rebels,  serve  to  keep  up  the 
sanguinary  disposition  on  our  side  ;  and  as 
long  as  they  furnish  a  pretext  for  our  parties 
going  in  quest  of  them,  1  see  no  prospect  of 
amendment. 

"  The  conversation  of  the  principal  per- 
sons of  the  country  all  tends  to  encourage 
this  system  of  blood  ;  and  the  conversation 
even  at  my  table,  where  you  will  suppose  I  do 
all  I  can  to  prevent  it,  always  turns  on  hang- 
ing, shooting,  burning,  &c.  ;  and  if  a  priest 
lias  been  put  to  death,  the  greatest  joy  is 
expressed  by  the  whole  company.  So  much 
for  Ireland  and  my  wretched  situation." — 
(Vol.  ii.  p.  368). 

The  Marquis  Cornwallis  issued  the  fol- 
lowing "  General  Orders,"  with  the  view  of 
restraining  the  murderous  and  rapacious 
conduct  of  the  troops  in  Ireland,  dated 
August  31,  1798  :— 

"  It  is  with  great  concern  that  Lord  Corn- 
wallis finds  himself  obliged  to  call  on  the 
general  ofiicers  and  the  commanding  officers 
of  regiments  in  particular,  and  in  general  on 
officers  of  the  army,  to  assist  him  in  putting 
a  stop  to  the  licentious  conduct  of  the  troops, 
and  iu  saving  the  wretched  inhabitants  from 


being  robbed,  and  in  the  most  shocking  man- 
ner ill-treated,  by  those  to  whom  they  had  a 
right  to  look  for  safety  and  protection. 

"  Lord  Cornwallis  declares  that  if  he  finds 
that  the  soldiers  of  any  regiment  have  had 
opportunities  of  committing  those  excesses 
from  the  negligence  of  their  officers,  he  will 
make  tiiose  officers  answerable  for  their  con- 
duct ;  and  that  if  any  soldiers  are  caught 
either  in  the  act  of  robbery,  or  with  the 
articles  of  plunder  in  their  possession,  they 
shall  be  instantly  tried,  and  immediate  exe- 
cution shall  follow  their  conviction." 

The  editor  of  the  Cornwallis  memoirs  in- 
forms us  (p.  13,  vol.  iii,)  that  between  the 
lauding  of  the  French,  in  the  autumn  of 
1798,  and  the  month  of  February,  1799, 
(a  period  of  four  months,)  although  there 
were  three  hundred  and  eighty  persons  tried 
by  court-martial,  one  hundred  and  thirty-one 
capitally  convicted,  and  ninety  executed,  yet 
the  number  of  the  latter  fell  short  of  what 
"the  loyal  party  expected  and  desired" — • 
and  he  adds,  "  Many  persons  in  England,  as 
well  as  in  Ireland,  who  were  considered  mild 
and  temperate  in  their  views,  severely  cen- 
sured what  they  termed  a  ruinous  system  of 
lenity  ;  nor  was  the  Bi'itish  Government 
free  from  a  participation  in  such  feelings." 

At  p.  90,  vol.  iii.,  we  find  the  following 
observations  : — • 

"To  Dr.  Duigenan's  letter  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  replied  on  the  6th  of  March,  1799, 
that,  exclusive  of  all  persons  tried  at  the 
assizes.  Lord  Cornwallis  had  decided  per- 
sonally upon  four  hundred  cases  ;  that  out 
of  one  hundred  and  thirty-one  condemned  to 
death,  eighty-one  had  been  executed  ;  and 
that  four  hundred  and  eighteen  persons  had 
been  transported  or  banished,  in  pursuance 
of  the  sentences  of  courts-martial,  since  Lord 
Cornwallis  had  arrived  in  Ireland." 

[Extract  fro7n  a  letter  of  Marquis  Cornwal- 
lis to  Major-Gcneral  Koss,  April  15,  1799. 

"  You  write  as  if  you  really  believed  that 
there  was  any  foundation  for  all  the  lies  and 
nonsensical  clamor  about  my  lenity.  On  my 
arrival  iu  this  country  I  put  a  stop  to  the 
burning  of  house-s  and  murder  of  the  inhabi- 
tants by  the  yeomen,  or  any  other  persons 
who  delighted  iu  that  amusement  ;  to  the 
flogging  for  the  purpose  of  extorting  ecu- 


342 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


fession  ;  and  to  the  free-quarters,  whicli 
comprehend  universal  rape  and  robbery 
throughout  the  whole  country." — (Vol.  iii., 
p.  89.) 

We  have  seen  that  tlie  clamor  about 
Lord  Cornwallis'  clemency  was  in  reality 
"nonsensical,"  as  he  declares;  and  that  he 
is  not  even  to  be  credited  with  the  amount 
of  lenity  to  which  he  himself  lays  claim.  In 
fact,  it  is  altogether  impossible  to  believe 
that,  with  the  immense  military  force  then 
in  Ireland,  and  of  which  he  was  absolute 
Commander-in-Chief,  he  could,  not  (if  he 
would)  have  put  a  stop  to  the  murders  and 
depi'edations  upon  the  now  defenceless  peo- 
ple. Tiie  only  admissible  theory  of  his  con- 
duct is,  that  he  had  instructions  to  keep 
alive  what  Barrington  calls  the  "  impres- 
sion of  horror,"  until  the  Union  shonld  be 
effectuated. 

All  this  time  there  was  nothing  changed 
la  the  state  of  things  in  Dublin  itself.  The 
three  majors  and  their  "  people"  still  pre- 
dominated with  absolute  sway,  and  the 
state  trials  were  proceeding,  before  carefully 
packed  juries,  of  course.  It  was  under  this 
lenient  and  conciliatory  Cornwallis  that 
some  of  the  best  and  worthiest  gentlemen 
of  Ireland  were  hunted  to  death  by  the 
basest  of  mankind,  with  the  prostituted 
forms  of  law,  before  judges  predetermined 
to  convict,  and  juries  of  Orangemen  specially 
brought  together  by  perjured  sheriffs,  not 
to  try,  but  simply  to  hang.  The  two  broth- 
ers Sheares  were  hung  and  beheaded  in 
front  of  Newgate  prison  on  the  2 2d  of  July, 
(a  month  after  the  accession  of  Cornwallis 
to  the  viceroyalty.)  Byrne  and  Bond  were 
both  convicted  and  sentenced  to  death.  It 
was  at  this  moment  that  the  "compact" 
already  mentioned  was  entered  into  by  cer- 
tain of  the  state  prisoners  with  the  Govern- 
ment, with  a  view  of  stopping,  if  possible, 
the  further  effusion  of  blood,  and  specifically 
and  expressly  of  saving  the  lives  of  Byrne 
and  Oliver  Bond.  As  the  Government  not 
only  violated  that  compact,  but  made  it  the 
occasion  of  slandering  men  to  whom  all  was 
lost  except  their  honor,  it  is  necessary,  in 
justice  to  those  best  and  purest  of  Irish 
patriots,  to  record  the  actual  facts.  They 
are  to  be  found  in  the  collections  of  the 
laborious  Dr.  Madden. 


The  account  of  the  compact  of  the  state 
prisoners  with  the  Irish  Government,  taken 
from  the  original  draft  of  that  document  in 
the  handwriting  of  Thomas  Addis  Emmet, 
John  Sweetman,  and  William  James  Mac- 
Neven,  was  drawn  up  by  them  in  France, 
on  their  liberation  from  Fort  George,  and 
remained  in  the  possession  of  John  Sweet- 
man.  The  following  part  of  the  statement 
is  in  the  handwriting  of  Thomas  A.  Em- 
met : — 

"  We,  the  undersigned,  until  this  day 
state  prisoners  and  in  close  custody,  feel 
that  the  first  purpose  to  which  we  should 
apply  our  liberty  is  to  give  to  the  world  a 
short  account  of  a  transaction  which  has 
been  grossly  misrepresented  and  falsified, 
but  respecting  which  we  have  been  com- 
pelled to  silence  for  nearly  the  last  three 
years.  The  transaction  alluded  to  is  the 
agreement  entered  into  by  us  and  other 
state  prisoners  with  the  Irish  Government, 
at  the  close  of  the  month  of  July,  1798  ; 
and  we  take  this  step  without  hesitation, 
because  it  can  in  nowise  injure  any  of  our 
friends  and  former  fellow-prisoners,  we  being 
among  the  last  victims  of  perfidy  and  breach 
of  faith. 

"  From  the  event  of  the  battles  of  Antrim 
and  Ballinahiiich,  early  in  June,  it  was 
manifest  that  the  northern  insurrection  had 
failed  in  consolidating  itself.  The  severe 
battle  of  Vinegar  Hill,  on  the  21st  of  the 
same  month,  led  to  its  termination  in  Leins- 
ter  ;  and  the  capitulation  of  Ovidstown,  on 
the  12th  of  July,*  may  be  understood  as 
the  last  public  appearance  in  the  field  of 
any  body  capable  of  serving  as  a  rallying 
point.  In  short,  the  insurrection,  for  every 
useful  purpose  that  could  be  expected  from 
it,  was  at  an  end;  but  blood  still  continued 
to  flow — courts-martial,  special  commissions, 
and,  above  all,  sanguinary  Orangemen,  now 
rendered  doubly  malevolent  and  revengeful 
from  their  recent  terror,  desolated  the  coun- 
try, and  devoted  to  death  the  most  virtuous 
of  our  countrymen.     These  were  lost  to  lib- 

*  The  event  preceding  the  massacre  of  the  capitu- 
lated body  of  the  United  Irishmen,  on  the  Rath  of 
the  Curragh  of  Kildare,  by  the  command  of  Jlajor- 
General  Sir  James  Duif,  executed  chiefly  by  the 
yeomanry  cavalry  of  Captain  Bagot,  and  the 
Fox-hunters'  Corps,  commanded  by  Lord  Eo- 
dea. 


TRUE    ACCOUNT   OF   THE    "COMPACT. 


343 


Cftj,  while  she  was  gaining  nothing  by  the 
saci-ifice. 

"  Sucli  was  the  situation  of  affairs  wlicn 
the  idea  of  entering  into  a  compact  with 
Government  was  conceived  by  one  of  the 
undersigned,  and  communicated  to  the  rest 
of  us  conjointly  with  the  other  prisoners 
confined  in  the  Dublin  prisons,  by  the  terms 
of  Wliich  compact  it  was  intended  that  as 
nuich  miglit  be  saved  and  as  little  given  up 
as  possible.  It  was  the  more  urgently 
l)ressed  upon  our  minds,  and  the  more 
quickly  matured,  by  the  impending  fate  of 
two  worthy  men.  Accordingly,  on  the  24th 
of  July,  the  state  prisoners  began  a  negotia- 
tion with  Government,  and  an  agreement 
was  finally  concluded,  by  the  persons  named 
by  their  fellow-prisoners,  at  the  Castle  of 
Dublin,  and  was  finally  ratified  by  the  Lord 
Chancellor,  Lord  Castlereagh,  and  Mr. 
Cooke,  three  of  the  King's  ministers.  Li 
no  part  of  this  paper  were  details  or  perfect 
accuracy  deemed  necessary,  because  the 
ministers,  and  particularly  Lord  Castle- 
reagh, frequently  and  solemnly  declaimed 
that  it  should  in  every  part  be  construed 
by  Government  with  the  utmost  liberality 
and  good  faith  ;  and  particularly  the  last 
clause  was  worded  in  this  loose  manner  to 
comply  with  the  express  desire  of  the  minis- 
ters, who  insisted  upon  retaining  to  Govern- 
ment the  entire  popularity  of  the  measure  ; 
but  it  was  clearly  and  expressly  understood, 
and  positively  engaged,  that  every  leading 
man,  not  guilty  of  deliberate  murder,  should 
be  included  in  the  agreement  who  should 
choose  to  avail  himself  of  it,  in  as  full  and 
ample  a  manner  as  the  contracting  parties 
themselves,  and  that  there  should  be  a 
general  amnesty,  with  the  same  exceptions, 
for  the  body  of  the  people. 

"We  entered  into  this  agreement  the 
more  readily,  because  it  appeared  to  us  that 
by  it  the  public  cause  lost  nothing.  We 
knew,  from  the  different  examinations  of  the 
state  prisoners  before  the  Privy  Council, 
and  from  conversations  with  ministers,  that 
Government  was  already  in  possession  of  all 
the  important  knowledge  which  they  could 
obtain  from  us.  From  whence  they  derived 
their  information  was  not  entirely  known  to 
us,  but  it  is  now  manifest  that  Reynolds, 
M'Giun,  and  Hughes — not  to  speak  of  thej 


minor  informers — had  put  them  in  posses- 
sion  of  every  material  fact  respecting  the 
internal  state  of  the  Union  ;  and  it  was 
from  particular  circumstances  well  known 
to  one  of  us,  and  entirely  believed  by  the 
rest,  that  its  external  relations  had  been 
betrayed  to  the  English  Cabinet,  through 
the  agency  of  a  foreigner  with  whom  we 
negotiated. 

"  This  was  even  so  little  disguised  that, 
on  the  preceding  12th  of  March,  the  con- 
tents of  a  memoir  which  had  been  prepared 
by  one  of  the  undersigned  at  Hambui'g, 
and  transmitted  thence  to  Paris,  were 
minutely  detailed  to  him  by  Mr.  Cooke. 
Nevertheless,  those  with  whom  we  nego- 
tiated seemed  extremely  anxious  for  our 
communications.  Their  reasons  for  this 
anxiety  may  have  been  many,  but  two,  par- 
ticularly, suggested  themselves  to  our  minds. 
They  obviously  wished  to  give  proof  to  the 
enemies  of  an  Irish  republic  and  of  Irish  in- 
dependence of  the  facts  with  which  tl)ey 
were  themselves  well  acquainted  ;  while,  at 
the  same  time,  they  concealed  from  the 
world  their  real  sources  of  intelligence.  Nor 
do  we  believe  we  are  uncharitable  in  attrib- 
uting to  them  the  hope  and  wish  of  render- 
ing unpopular  and  suspected  men  in  whom 
the  United  Irishmen  had  been  accustomed 
to  place  an  almost  unbounded  confidence. 
The  injurious  consequences  of  Government 
succeeding  in  both  these  objects  were  merely 
personal;  and,  as  tliey  were  no  more,  though 
they  were  revolting  and  hateful  to  the  last 
degree,  we  did  not  hesitate  to  devote  our- 
selves that  we  might  make  terms  for  our 
country. 

"What  were  these  terms?  That  it 
should  be  rescued  from  civil  and  military 
execution  ;  that  a  truce  should  be  obtained 
for  liberty,  which  she  so  much  requiied. 
There  was  also  another  strongly-imprlling 
motive  for  entering  into  this  agreement.  I'i 
Government,  on  the  one  hand,  was  desirous 
of  rousing  its  dependents  by  a  display  of 
the  vigorous  and  well-concerted  measures 
that  were  taken  for  sul)veriing  its  authority 
and  shaking  off  the  English  yoke  ;  so  we, 
on  the  other  hand,  wire  not  less  solicitous 
for  the  vindicaLioii  of  our  cause  in  the  eyes 
of  the  lil)eral,  the  enlightened,  and  patriotic. 
We  perceived   that,  in  making  a   iuir  and 


344 


HISTORY    OF    lEELAND. 


candid  development  of  those  measures  we 
.sliould  be  enabled  boldly  to  avow  and  justify 
the  cause  of  Iri.sh  union,  as  being-  founded 
upon  the  purest  pfinciples  of  benevolence, 
and  as  aiming  only  at  the  liberation  of  Ire- 
land. We  felt  that  we  could  rescue  our 
brotherhood  fr>m  those  foul  imputations 
which  had  been  industriously  ascribed  to  it — 
the  pursuit  of  the  most  unjust  objects  by 
means  of  the  most  flagitious  crime. 

"If  our  couutry  has  not  actually  bene- 
fited to  the  extent  of  our  wishes  and  of  our 
stipulations,  let  it  be  remembered  that  this 
has  not  been  owing  to  the  compact,  but  to 
the  breach  of  the  compact — the  gross  and 
flagrant  breach  of  it,  both  as  to  the  letter 
and  spirit,  in  violation  of  every  principle  of 
plighted  faith  and  honor. 

"  Having  beeu  called  upon  to  fulfill  our 
part  of  the  compact,  a  stop  being  put  to  all 
further  trials  and  executions,  a  memoir  was 
drawn  up  and  signed  by  two  of  the  under- 
signed, together  with  another  of  the  body, 
(they  being  selected  by  Government  for 
that  purpose,)  and  was  presented  to  Mr. 
Cooke  ou  the  4th  of  Augusts  It  was  very 
hastily  prepared  in  a  prison,  and,  of  course, 
not  so  complete  and  accurate  as  it  might 
otherwise  have  been  ;  but  sufficiently  so  to 
draw  from  Mr.  Cooke  an  acknowledgment 
that  it  was  a  complete  fulfillment  of  the 
agreement ;  though  he  said  the  Lord-Lieu- 
tenajit  wished  to  have  it  so  altered  as  not  to 
be  a  justification  of  the  United  Irishmen, 
which,  he  said,  it  manifestly  was. 

"  Upon  the  refusal  to  alter  it.  Govern- 
ment thought  proper  to  suppress  it  altogeth- 
er, and  adopted  a  plan  which  they  had  al- 
ready found  convenient  for  promulgating,  not 
the  entire  truth,  but  so  much  of  the  truth  as 
accorded  with  their  views,  and  whatever 
else  they  wished  to  have  passed  upon  man- 
kind under  color  of  authority  for  tne  truth. 
This  was  no  other  tlian  examination  before 
the  secret  committees  of  Parliament.  I3y 
these  committees  several  of  us  were  exam- 
ined ;  and,  to  our  astonishment,  we  soon 
after  saw  in  the  newspapers,  and  have  since 
seen  in  printed  reports  of  these  committees, 
misrepresented  and  garbled,  and,  as  far  as 
relates  to  some  of  us,  very  untrue  au'l  falla- 
cious statements  of  our  testimony — even  in 
some  cases,  the  very  reverse  of  what  was 


given.  That  no  suspicion  may  attach  to 
this  assertion  from  its  vagueness,  sucli  of  us 
as  were  examined  will,  without  delay,  state 
the  precise  substance  of  our  evidence  on  that 
occasion. 

"  The  Irish  Parliament  thought  fit,  about 
the  month  of  September  in  the  same  year, 
to  pass  an  act  to  be  founded  expressly  ou 
this  agreement.  To  the  provisions  of  that 
law  we  do  not  think  it  worth  while  to  al- 
lude, because  their  severity  and  injustice  are 
lost  in  comparison  with  the  enormous  false- 
hood of  its  preamble.  In  answer  to  that 
we  most  distinctly  and  formally  deny  that 
any  of  us  did  ever  publicly  or  privately, 
directly  or  indirectly,  acknoivkdge  crn/ies, 
retract  opinions,  or  implore  pardon,  as  is 
therein  most  falsely  stated.  A  full  and  ex- 
plicit declaration  to  this  effect  would  have 
been  made  public  at  the  time,  had  it  not 
been  prevented  by  a  message  from  Lord 
Cornwallis,  delivered  to  one  of  the  subscrib- 
ers, ou  the  12th  of  that  month.  Notwith- 
standing we  bad  expressly  stipulated  at  the 
time  of  the  negotiation  for  the  entire  liberty 
of  publication,  in  case  we  should  find  our 
conduct  or  motives  misrepresented,  yet  this 
perfidious  and  inhuman  message  threatened 
that  such  declaration  would  be  considered 
as  a  breach  of  the  agreement  ou  our  part, 
and  in  that  case  the  executions  in  genial 
should  go  on  as  formerly. 

"Tims  was  the  truth  stifled  at  the  time  ; 
and  we  believe  firmly  that  to  prevent  its 
publication  has  been  one  of  the  principal 
reasons  why,  in  violation  of  the  most  sol- 
emn engagements,  we  were  kept  in  close 
custody  ever  since,  and  transported  from 
our  native  country  against  our  consent. 

"We  conceive  that  to  ourselves,  to  our 
cause,  and  to  our  country,  and  to  posterity, 
we  owe  this  brief  statement  of  facts,  iu 
which  we  have  suppressed  everything  that 
is  not  of  a  Tiature  strictly  vindicatory  ;  be- 
cause our  object  in  this  publication  is  not  to 
criminate,  but  to  defend.  As  to  their 
truth,  we  positively  aver  them,  each  for 
himself,  as  far  as  they  fall  within  his  knowl- 
edge, and  we  firmly  believe  the  otliers  to  be 
the  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth." 

The  following  part  of  the  statement  is  in 
the  handwriting  of  John  Sweetman  : — ■ 

"Ou  the  12ih  of  March,  1798,  the  depu- 


TKITE   ACCOUNT    OF    THE        COIIPACT. 


345 


I'es  from  several  coiitities  having  met  in 
Dublin,  to  deliberate  upon  some  general 
trseasiires  for  Union,  were  arrested  in  a  body 
ftt  Mr.  Bond's,  as  were  also  many  other  of 
its  principal  agents,  and  put  into  a  state  of 
eolitary  confinement.  Some  of  those  persons 
were  examined  by  the  Privy  Council  pre- 
vious to  their  committal  to  prison  ;  when  it 
appeared,  beyond  a  possibility  of  doubt, 
that  the  negotiations  of  the  United  Irish- 
men with  France  had  been  betrayed  to  the 
13riti,-li  Government.  On  the  oOtli,  the 
kingdom  was  ofScially  declared  in  a  state  of 
rebellion,  and  put  under  uuirtial  law.  A 
proclamation  from  the  Lord-Lieutenant  had 
directed  the  military  to  use  the  most  sum- 
Inary  methods  for  repressing  disturbances  ; 
and  it  was  publicly  notified  by  the  com- 
manders ill  some  counties  that,  unless  the 
l)eople  brought  in  their  arms  within  ten  days 
from  the  period  of  publication,  large  bodies 
of  troops  would  be  quartered  on  them,  who 
should  be  licensed  to  live  at  free-quarters, 
and  that  other  severities  would  be  exercised 
to  enforce  acquiescence.  In  the  latter  end 
of  May,  the  united  armed  men  of  the  Coun- 
ty Kildare  felt  themselves  obliged  to  take 
the  field,  and  hostilities  commenced  between 
them  and  the'  King's  forces  on  the  24th. 
About  this  time  the  Counties  of  Wexford 
and  Wicklow  were  generally  up,  and  those 
of  Down,  Derry,  Antrim,  Carlow,  and 
Meath  were  preparing  to  rise.  The  appeal 
to  arms  in  these  counties  was  attended  with 
various  success  on  both  sides,  and  the  mili- 
tary were  invested  with  fnrther  powers 
by  a  proclanuitiou,  issued  by  the  Lord- 
Lieutenant  and  Conncil,  directing  the 
generals  to  punish  all  attacks  upon  the 
■  King's  forces,  according  to  martial-law, 
either  by  death  or  otherwise,  as  to  them 
should  seem  expedient.  For  some  time  the 
people  had  the  advantage  in  the  field  ;  but 
the  defeat  at  New  E,oss  on  the  5th  of  June, 
at  Antrim  on  the  7th,  that  of  Arklow  on 
the  9th,  of  Ballinahinch  on  the  12th,  of 
Vinegar  Hill  on  the  21st,  and  Kilconnell 
on  the  26ih,  with  the  evacuation  of  Wex- 
ford, and  some  unsuccessful  skirmishes 
which  afterwards  took  place  in  the  Comity 
of  Wicklow,  removed  all  hope  of  maintain- 
ing the  contest  for  i/ie  present  with  any 
probability    of    success.       In    the    interim 


troops  Avere  arriving  fiom  England,  and 
several  regiments  of  English  militia  had 
volunteered  their  services  for  Ireland. 
About  the  end  of  June,  a  proclamation 
was  issued,  promising  pardon  and  protec- 
tion to  all  persons,  except  the  leaders,  who 
should  retnrn  to  their  allegiance  and  deliver 
up  their  arms,  which,  it  was  said,  had  a 
very  general  efiect.  A  large  body  of  the 
Kildare  men  had  already  surrendered  to 
General  Dundas,  and  on  the  21st  of  July 
another  party,  with  its  leaders,  capitulated 
to  General  Wilford.  The  King's  troops 
by  this  time  were  victorious  in  every  quar- 
ter ;  and  the  park  of  artillery  which  had 
been  employed  in  the  south  had  returned 
to  the  capital. 

"  It  was  now  upwards  of  two  months 
since  the  war  broke  out,  during  which  time 
no  attempt  had  been  made  by  the  French 
to  land  a  force  upon  the  coast,  nor  was  there 
any  satisfactory  account  then  received  that 
such  a  design  was  in  contemplation.  The 
expedition  of  Buonaparte  and  the  forces  un- 
der his  command  were  already  ascertained 
to  have  some  part  of  the  Mediterranean  for 
their  object.  No  other  diversion  was  made 
by  the  French  to  distract  the  British  power 
during  this  period.  Military  tribunals,  com- 
posed of  officers  who,  in  many  instances, 
as  it  was  publicly  admitted,  had  not  ex- 
ceeded the  inconsiderate  age  of  boyhood, 
were  everywhere  instituted,  and  a  vast  num- 
ber of  executions  had  been  the  consequence. 
The  yeomen  and  soldiery,  licensed  to  in- 
dulge their  rancor  and  revenge,  were  com- 
mitting those  atrocious  cruelties  which 
unfortunately  distinguish  the  character  of 
civil  warfare.  The  shooting  of  innocent 
peasants  at  their  work  was  occasionally  re- 
sorted to  by  them  as  a  sjiecies  of  recreation 
— a  practice  so  inhuman  that  unless  we  had 
incontestible  evidence  of  the  fact  we  never 
should  have  given  it  the  slightest  cre- 
dence. During  these  transactions,  a  special 
commission,  under  an  act  of  Parliament, 
passed  for  the  occasion,  was  sitting  in  the 
capital  ;  and  the  trials  having  commenced, 
it  was  declared  from  the  bench  that  to  be 
proved  an  United  Irishman  was  sufficient  to 
subject  the  party  to  the  penalty  of  death, 
and  that  any  memlier  of  a  baronial  or  other 
committee  was   accountable   for   every  act 


846 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


done  by  the  body  to  which  he  respectively 
belonged  in  its  collective  capacity,  whether 
it  was  done  withont  his  cognizance  in  his 
absence,  or  even  at  the  extremity  of  the 
land.  As  it  was  openly  avowed  that  con- 
victions would  be  sought  for  only  through 
the  medium  of  informers,  the  Government 
used  every  influence  to  dignify  the  charac- 
ter of  this  wretched  class  of  beings  in  the 
eyes  of  those  who  were  selected  to  decide 
on  the  lives  of  the  accused  ;  and  they  so  ef- 
fectually succeeded  as  to  secure  implicit  re- 
spect to  whatever  any  of  them  chose  to 
swear,  from  juries  so  appointed,  so  prepos- 
sessed. It  was  made  a  point  by  the  first  con- 
nections of  Government  to  flatter  those 
wretches,  and  some  peers  of  the  realm  were 
known  to  have  hailed  the  arch-apostate 
Reynolds  with  the  title  of  '  Saviour  of  his 
country.'" 

The  following  part  of  the  statement  is  in 
the  handwriting  of  William  James  Mac- 
Iseven  : — 

"In  the  case  of  Mr.  Bond,  the  jury, 
with  an  mdeceut  precipitation,  returned  a 
verdict  of  guilty,  on  the  23d  of  July,  and 
on  the  25th  he  was  sentenced  to  die.  -Byrne 
was  also  ordered  for  execution.  In  this  sit- 
uation of  our  affairs  a  negotiation  was 
opened  with  Government,  and  proceeded  in 
through  the  medium  of  Mr.  Dobbs.  An 
agreement  was  in  consequence  concluded 
and  signed,  which  among  other  things  stipu- 
lated for  the  lives  of  Byrne  and  Bond  ;  but 
Government  thought  fit  to  annul  this  by  the 
execution  of  Byrne.  As,  however,  the  main 
object,  the  putting  a  stop  to  the  useless  effusion 
of  blood,  was  still  attainable,  it  was  deemed 
right  to  open  a  second  negotiation.  In  its 
progress.  Government  having  insisted  on 
some  dishonorable  requisitions,  which  were 
rejected  with  indignation,  occasioned  the 
failure  of  this  also.  It  was,  however,  pro- 
posed by  them  to  renew  it  again,  and  depu- 
ties from  the  jails  were  appointed  to  confer 
with  the  official  servants  of  the  Crown.  A 
meeting,  accordingly,  took  place  at  the 
Castle  on  the  29th  of  July,  when  the  final 
agreement  was  concluded  and  exchanged. 

"  In  addition  to  the  fulJiUment  to  the  letter 
of  this  agreement,  the  official  servants  of  the 
Crown  pledged  the  faith  of  Government  for 
two  thhigs— one  that  the  result  and  end  of 


that  measure  should  be  the  putting  a  stop 
to  the  effusion  of  blood,  and  that  all  execu- 
tions should  cease,  except  in  cases  of  willful 
murder  ;  the  other  was,  that  the  conditions 
of  the  agreement  should  be  liberally  inter- 
preted. The  agreement  was,  in  the  course  of  a 
day  or  two,  generally  signed  by  the  prisoners. 
"  Having  thus  stated  the  facts,  we  pro- 
ceed to  declare  our  reasons  for  entering  into 
and  ratifying  this  agreement  :     First.  Be- 
cause  we  had  seen,  with  great   affliction, 
that  in  the  course  of  the  appeal  to  arms, 
while  four  or  five  counties  out  of  the  thirty- 
two  were  making  head  against  the  whole  of 
the  King's  forces,   no  effectual  disposition 
was  manifested  to  assist  them,  owing,  as  we 
believe,  to  the   extreme  difficulty  of  assem- 
bling, and   the  want   of  authentic  informa- 
tion as  to  the  real  state  of  affairs.     Second. 
Because  the  concurring  or  quiescent  spirit 
of  the  English  people  enabled  their  Govern- 
ment to  send  not  only  a  considerable  addi- 
tional regular  force,  but  also  many  regiments 
of  English  militia  into  Ireland.     Third.  Be- 
cause it  was  evident  that  in  many  instances 
the  want  of  military  knowledge  in  the  lend- 
ers had  rendered  the  signal  valor  of  the 
people     fruitless.      Fourth.    Because,    not- 
withstanding it  was  well   known  in  France 
that  the  revolution  had  commenced  in  Ire- 
land— an  event  that  they  were   previously 
taught  to  expect — no  attempt  whatever  was 
made  by  them  to  land  any  force  during  the 
two  months  which   the  contest  had  lasted, 
nor  was  ajiy  account  received   that  it  was 
their  intention  even  shortly  to  do  so.    Fifth. 
Becanse,  that  by  the  arrest  of  many  of  the 
deputies  and  chief  agents  of  the  Union,  and 
by  the  absence  of  others,  the  funds  necessary 
for  the  undertaking  were  obstructed  or  un- 
collected, and   hence   arose  insurmountable 
difficulties.     Sixth.  Because,  from  the  sev- 
eral defeats  at  New  Ross  and  We.xford,  no 
doubt  remained  on   our  minds  that  further 
resistance,    for   the   present,   was   not  only 
vain,  but  nearly  abandoned.     Seventh.  Be- 
cause we  were  well  assured  that  the  procla- 
mation of  amnesty  issued  on  the   29th  of 
June  had  caused  great  numbers  to  surrender 
their  arms,  and  take  the  oath  of  allegiance. 
Eighth.  Because  juries  were  so  packed,  jus- 
tice so  perverted,  and  the  testimony  of  the 
basest  informers  so  respected,  that  trial  was 


TRUE    ACCOUNT    OF    THE    "COMPACT." 


347 


but  a  mockery,  and  arraignment  b'.it  the 
tocsin  for  exccntion.  2sinlh.  Because  we 
were  con%-inced  by  tlie  official  servants  of 
the  Crown,  and  by  tiie  evidence  given  on  the 
trials,  that  Government  was  ah-eady  in  pos- 
session of  our  external  and  internal  transac- 
tions— the  former  they  obtained,  as  we  be- 
lieve, throngli  the  perlidy  of  some  agents  of 
the  French  Government  at  Hamburg  ;  the 
latter  through  informers  who  had  been  more 
or  less  confidential  in  all  our  affairs.  Tenth, 
and  final.  Every  day  accounts  of  the  mur- 
ders of  our  most  virtuous  and  energetic 
countrymen  assailed  our  ears  ;  many  were 
perishing  on  the  scaffold,  under  pretext  of 
martial  or  other  law,  but  many  more  the 
victims  of  individu.il  Orange  hatred  and  re- 
venge. To  stop  tliis  torrent  of  calamity,  to 
preserve  to  Ireland  her  best  blood  .  .  , 
we  determined  to  make  a  sacrifice  of  no 
trivial  value — we  agreed  to  abandon  our 
country,  our  families,  and  our  friends. 

"  And  now  we  feel  ourselves  further 
called  upon  to  declare  that  an  act,  passed 
in  Ireland  during  the  autumn  of  1198,  re- 
citing our  names,  and  asserting  that  we  had 
*  retracted  our  opinions,  acknowledged  our 
crimes,  and  implored  pardon,'  is  founded 
upon  a  gross  and  flagrant  calumu}' — neither 
we,  the  undersigned,  nor  any  of  our  fellow- 
prisoners,  so  far  as  we  know  or  believe,  hav- 
ing ever  done  either  the  one  or  the  other  ; 
and  we  solemnly  assert  that  we  never  were 
consulted  about  that  act,  its  provisions,  or 
prciinible,  and  that  no  copy  of  it  was  ever 
sent  tu  us  by  any  servant  of  the  Crown — 
though  repeatedly  promised  by  the  Under- 
Secretary — nor  by  any  other  person.  On  tlie 
the  contrary,  it  had,  unknown  to  us,  passed 
the  House  of  Commons,  when  one  of  us, 
(Samuel  Xeilson,)  having  seen  by  mere  ac- 
cident an  abstract  of  it  in  an  English  news- 
paper, remonstrated  with  the  servants  of 
the  Crown  on  the  falsity  of  the  preamble, 
and  was  silenced  only  by  a  message  from 
the  Lord-Lieutenant,  that  it  was  his  posi- 
tive determination  to  annul  the  agreement 
and  proceed  with  the  executions,  &c.,  if  any 
further  notice  whatever  was  taken  of  the 
preamble,  or  if  one  word  was  published  on 
the  subject.  We  did  not  conceive  ourselves 
warranted,  situated  as  things  tiien  vi^ere,  in 
being  iustruiLCutal  to  a  renewal  of  blood- 


shed. We  have  ever  since  been  constrained 
to  silence,  for,  in  violation  of  a  solemn 
agreement,  we  have  been  kept  close  prisoners, 
"To  our  country  and  to  our  posterity,  we 
felt  that  we  owed  this  declaration  ;  and  to 
their  judgment  u})on  our  conduct  and  mo- 
tives we  bow  with  respectful  submission." 

These  gentlemen  were  all  still  kept  close 
prisoners.  Three  of  them,  Thomas  Addia 
Emmet,  Arthur  O'Connor,  and  Dj".  Mac- 
Neven,  were  twice,  in  the  course  of  the  year 
1798,  brought  up  and  examined,  as  already 
described,  before  secret  committees  of  both 
Houses,  and  in  April,  1799,  were  sent  to 
Fort  George,  a  strong  place  near  Inverness, 
in  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  where  they 
were  kept  prisoners  until  the  peace  of 
Amiens.  The  names  of  the  Fort  George 
prisoners  were  : — 

Thomas  Addis  Emmet. 
Arthur  O'Coxxor, 
Roger  O'Conxor, 
William  James  MacXeven, 
johx  swektmax, 
Matthew  Dowling, 
John  Chambers, 
Edward  Hudsov, 
George  Cummixg, 
Samuel  Neilsox, 
Thomas  Russell, 
Robert  Simms, 
William  Tennent, 
Robert  Hunter, 
Hugh  Wilson, 
John  Sweeny, 
Joseph  Cuthbert, 
William  Steele  Dixon, 
Joseph  Cormick. 
"We    were   selected,"   says   Dr.    Steele 
Dixon,  in  his    narrative,    "  from  the   three 
provinces  of  Ulster,  Leinster,  and  Munster, 
but  principally  from  the  city  of  Dublin  and 
town  of  Belfast ;  we  comprehended  in  our 
body  three  magistrates,  three  barristers,  two 
physicians,   one   attorney,   one    apothecary,, 
one  printer  and  bookseller,  one  printer  and 
proprietor  of  a  newspaper,  one  dentist,  one 
military  captain,  one  runner  to  a  bank,  one 
merchant  tailor,  and  one  Presbyterian  min- 
ister, with  an  eminent  porter  brewer,  two 
wholesale  merchants,   one  broker,  and  two 
young  gentlemen  without  profession,  trade, 
or  calling.     ...     I  should  have   added, 


S48 


HISTOFvY   OF    IRELAND. 


a  clerjryniiin  of  the  Church  of  England,  as 
Artlnu'  O'Connor  was  ordained  as  such  pre- 
vious to  Iiis  being  called  to  the  bar  ;  and  as 
Episcopal  ordination  impresses  an  indelible 
character,  he  not  only  then  was,  and  now  is, 
but  ever  must  be,  a  clergyman.  Of  our  cir- 
cumstances, I  sh.ill  only  say,  that  we  had 
all  been  independent,  most  of  us  respectable, 
m  our  professions,  some  possessed  of  large 
capitals  in  trade,  and  others  of  considerable 
landed  property.  Perhaps  it  may  not  be 
amiss  to  mention  here  that,  as  we  were  se- 
lected from  the  three  principal  provinces  of 
Ireland,  we  were  respectively  members  of 
the  three  principal  Churches  in  the  kingdom, 
and  wliicli  alone  Government  has  yet  ac- 
knowledged an  Churches.  Nor  is  it  un- 
worthy of  notice  that  the  number  of  Catho- 
lics, Protestants,  and  Presbyterians  in  our 
little  colony,  was  in  an  inverse  ratio  of  the 
number  of  each  denomination  in  Ireland  at 
large.  Perhaps  the  proportion  may  be 
stated  as  follov>'s,  though  not  correctly  : — 

Catholics,  (two-tliirds  of  the  people,)  prisoners.  . .  4 
Presbyteriaus,  (more  than  one-tifth  of  the  people,) 

prisoners G 

Protestants,  (less  than  one-seventh  of  the  people,) 

prisoners 10 


CnAPTEIl    XXX YIL 

1798. 
Parliament— The  Acts  of  Attainder — French  Landing 
under  Humbert— Killala— Conduct  of  the  little 
Fi'euch  Army — Ballina— The  Races  of  Castlebar — 
Panic  and  Rout  of  the  British  Force — French  give 
a  Ball — Lord  Cornwallis  Collects  a  Great  Army — 
Marches  to  meet  the  Frcncli — Encounters  them  at 
Ballinamuck — Defeat  and  Capture  of  the  French — 
Recovery  of  Ballina — Slaughter — Courts-Martial, 
&c. — End  of  the  Insurrections  of  1798  —  New 
French  Expedition — Commodore  Bompart— T.  W. 
Tone — Encounter  British  Fleet  at  Mouth  of  Lough 
Swilly — Battle — the  Hoche  Captured — Tone  a  Pris- 
oner—Recognized by  Sir  George  Hill— Carried  to 
Dublin  in  Irons  —  Tried  by  Court-Martial — Con- 
demned to  be  Hanged — Ilis  Address  to  the  Court — 
Asks  as  a  Favor  to  he  Shot — Refused  by  Cornwal- 
lis — Suicide  in  Prison. 

Ix  the  midst  of  this  reign  of  terror  and  of 
vengeance,  Parliament  continued  to  sit  from 
time  to  time.  Lord  Castlereagh's  majority 
in  Parliament  had  its  functions  to  discharge, 
as  well  as  the  "  Major's  People,"  in  the  gen- 
eral s^'stem  of  operations  which  were  all  to 
lead  towards,  and  end  in,  the  one  grand 
point — a  Legislative   Union.     On  the  18th 


of  July,  Lord  Castlereagh,  after  a  long 
speech  on  the  rebellion  in  general,  and  its 
atrocities,  (which  were  all,  according  to 
him,  on  the  part  of  the  people,)  proposed 
that  a  measure  should  be  brought  in  to 
grant  compensation  to  such  of  His  Majesty's 
loyal  subjects  as  had  sustained  losses  in  their 
property  during  the  insurrection.  This  bill 
was  brought  in,  was  passed,  and  commis- 
sioners were  appointed  for  carrying  it  into 
effect.  On  the  27th,  the  Attorney-General 
brought  in  a  bill  for  the  attainder  of  Lord 
Edward  Fitzgerald,  Cornelius  Grogan,  and 
Beauchamp  Bagenal  Harvey,  in  order  that 
their  estates  might  be  forfeited.  All  efforts 
in  opposition  to  this  new  procedure  against 
men  who  were  all  dead  and  had  never  been 
convicted  of  any  crime,  proved  quite  fruit- 
less. It  was  the  informer  Reynolds,  who 
had  been  implicitly  trusted  by  the  unsus- 
pecting Lord  Edward,  that  proved  the  case 
against  him,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Com- 
mittee. Curran  was  heard  in  defence,  on 
the  part  of  Lady  Pamela  Fitzgerald  and 
her  children,  and  made  a  very  strong  argu- 
ment. On  the  unheard-of  nature  of  this 
species  of  proceeding,  he  said  :  "  Upon  the 
previous  and  important  question,  namely, 
the  guilt  of  Lord  Edward,  (without  the  full 
proof  of  which  no  punishment  can  be  just,) 
I  have  been  asked  by  the  Committee  if  I 
have  any  defence  to  go  into.  .  .  .  Sir, 
I  now  answer  the  question  :  I  have  no  de- 
fensive evidence — it  is  impossible  that  I 
should.  I  iiave  often  of  late  gone  to  the 
dungeon  of  tiie  captive,  but  never  have  I 
gone  to  the  grave  of  the  dead,  to  receive  in- 
structions for  his  defence — nor,  in  truth, 
have  I  ever  before  been  at  the  trial  of  a 
dead  man."  It  was  all  in  vain  ;  that  Par- 
liament was  quite  ready  to  make  a  new  pre- 
cedent, in  order  to  starve  the  widows  and 
children  of  dead  rebels.  The  bills  of  At- 
tainder passed.*  Besides  these,  the  Parlia- 
ment was  busy  with  its  "  Fugitive  bill,"'  and 
its  '"  Banishment  bill,"  excepting  from  all 

*  A  remnant  of  Lord  Edward's  property  was  saved 
for  his  widow  by  Mr.  Ogilvie,  Lord  Edward's  step- 
father, who  bought  it  when  sold  in  Chancery  to  sat- 
isfy a  mortgage.  But  what  was  saved  was  a  trifle ; 
and  Lady  Pamela  died  in  poverty.  As  to  Mr.  Grogan, 
wlio  possessed  a  large  estate,  Sir  Jonah  Barringtou 
says : — 

"  This  Attainder  bill  was  one  of  the  most  illegal 


FRENCH    LANDING   UNDER    HUMBERT. 


349 


amnesty  certain  United  Irishmen  not  then 
in  the  country,  and  certain  others  who  were 
to  be  allowed  to  exile  themselves.  These 
two  lists  comprehend  one  hundred  and  forty 
names,  including  Napper  Tandy,  Wolfe 
Tone,  Richard  MoCormick,  Dean  Swift, 
Lewins,  Emmet,  ]S^eilson,  O'Connor,  <&c.; 
and  all  the  names  may  be  found  in  one  of 
the  appendixes  of  Madden.  The  last-named 
gentlemen,  indeed,  before  their  banishment, 
had  some  years  to  pass  in  the  dreary  fort- 
ress of  Fort  George. 

The  whole  country  was  still  under  mar- 
tial-law ;  many  were  suffering  the  extreme 
penalty,  and  that  wholesome  feeling,  called 
by  Barrington  "  an  impression  of  horror," 
was  sufiBciently  prevalent  for  all  the  purposes 
of  Mr.  Pitt,  when  his  policy  was  materially 
served  by  a  new  and  most  pitiful  Trench  in- 
vasion, which  came  too  late  to  serve  Ireland, 
but  was  in  admirable  time  to  help  England. 

Fortunately  for  England,  and,  therefore, 
unhappily  for  Ireland,  the  French  Republic 
was,  during  the  year  1798,  in  its  most  help- 
less and  chaotic  condition.  Napoleon  was 
in  Egypt  ;  and  the  miserable  Directory, 
with  neither  money  nor  credit,  was  lamenta- 
bly unequal  to  the  exigencies  of  the  time. 
Wolfe  Tone  vi^is  still  in  France.  As  the 
news  of  each  arrest,  and  of  each  action, 
successively  reached  France,  he  urged  the 
generals  and  Government  to  assist  the  gal- 
lant and  desperate  struggle  of  his  country- 
men, and  pressed  on  tliem  the  necessity  of 
availing  themselves  of  the  favorable  oppor- 
tunity whicli  flew  so  rapidly  by.  They  be- 
gan their  preparations  without  delay  ;  but 
money,  arms,  ammunition,  and  ships,  all 
were  wanting.  By  the  close  of  June,  tlie 
insurrection  was  nearly  crushed,  and  it  was 
not  till  the  beginning  of  July  that  Tone  was 
called  up  to  Paris,  to  consult  with  the  Min- 
isters of  the  War  and  Navy  Departments 
on  the  organization  of  a  new  expedition. 
At  this  period  his  journal  closes,  and  the 
subsequent  events  are  elsewhere  recorded. 

The  plan  of  the  new  expedition  was  to 

and  unconstitutional  acts  ever  promoted  by  any  gov- 
ernment ;  but  after  much  more  than  £10,000  costs  to 
Crown  officers,  and  to  Lord  Norbury,  as  Attorney- 
Uenei'al,  had  been  extracted  from  the  property,  the 
estates  were  restored  to  the  surviving  brother." 

The  surviving  brother  had  fought  on  the  royalist 
biJe  during  the  inaurrectiuu. 


dispatch  small  detatchments  from  several 
ports,  in  the  hope  of  keeping  up  the  insur- 
rection, and  distracting  the  attention  of  the 
enemy,  until  some  favorable  opportunity 
should  occur  for  landing  the  main  body, 
under  General  Kilmaine.  General  Hum- 
bert, with  about  one  thousand  men,  was 
quartered  for  this  purpose  at  Roehelle ; 
General  Hardy,  with  three  thousand,  at 
Brest ;  and  Kilmaine,  with  nine  thousand, 
remained  in  reserve.  This  plan  was  judi- 
cious enough,  if  it  had  been  taken  up  in 
time.  But,  long  before  the  first  of  these 
expeditions  was  ready  to  sail,  the  insurrec- 
tion was  subdued  in  every  quarter. 

The  indignation  of  the  unfortunate  Irish 
was  just  and  extreme  against  that  French 
Government,  which  had  so  repeatedly 
promised  them  aid,  and  now  appeared  to 
desert  them  in  their  utmost  need. 

A  miserable  expedition,  at  the  instance  of 
Napper  Tandy,  was  at  length  fitted  out,  of 
which  Tone's  son  thus  speaks  : — 

"  The  final  ruin  of  the  expedition  was 
hurried  by  the  precipitancy  and  indis- 
cretion of  a  brave  but  ignorant  and  impru- 
dent officer.  This  anecdote,  which  is  not 
generally  known,  is  a  striking  instance  of 
the  disorder,  indiscipline,  and  disorganiza- 
tion which  began  to  prevail  in  the  French 
army.  Humbert,  a  gallant  soldier  of  for- 
tune, but  whose  heart  was  better  than  his 
head,  impatient  of  the  delays  of  his  Gov- 
ernment, and  fired  by  the  recitals  of  the 
Irish  refugees,  determined  to  begin  the  en- 
terprise on  his  own  responsibility,  and  thus 
oblige  the  Directory  to  second  or  to  abandon 
him." 

With  three  or  four  ships,  about  one  thou- 
sand men,  and  a  small  force  of  artillery — 
without  instructions,  and  without  any  as- 
surance of  being  supported,  he  compelled  the 
captains  to  select  for  the  most  desperate  at- 
tempt which  is,  perhaps,  recorded  in  history. 
Three  Irishmen  accompanied  him,  Mat- 
thew Tone,  Bartholomew  Teeling,  of  Lis- 
burn,  and  Sullivan,  nephew  to  Madgett, 
whose  name  is  often  mentioned  in  Tone's 
memoirs.  On  the  22(1  of  August  they  ujade 
the  coast  of  Counaught,  and  landing  in  the 
Bay  of  Killala,  immediately  stormed  and 
occupied  that  little  town. 

The  Protestant  Bishop  of  Killala  was 


350 


HISTOBY   OF  IRELAND. 


then  at  liis  house,  called  the  Castle,  and 
there  was  with  him  a  company  of  parsons, 
holdino-  a  visitation.  It  is  from  his  narra- 
tive that  we  learn  the  details  ;  and  he 
especially  bears  witness  to  tlie  excellent  con- 
duet  of  the  French,  both  officers  and  men  ; 
aithongh  his  testimony  to  this  effect  was 
"at  the  expense  of  his  own  translation"* 

The  French  entered  the  bay  under  Eng- 
lish colors ;  and  the  feint  succeeded  so  well 
that  two  of  the  bishop's  sons,  with  the  Port- 
Siirveyor,  took  a  fishing-boat  and  went  out 
with  the  intention  of  going  on  board  one  of 
the  ships  ;  they  were  presently  surprised  to 
find  tlieraselves  prisoners,  Between  seven 
and  eight,  a  terriQed  messenger  came  and 
told  the  bisliop  that  the  French  were  landed, 
and  that  near  three  hundred  of  them  were 
withia  a  mile  of  the  town.  The  cavalry  of- 
ficers rode  off  directly,  in  full  speed,  with 
the  intelligence  to  Ballina.  The  yeomanry 
and  fencibles  drew  up  before  the  castle-gate, 
and  resolutely  advanced  into  the  main  street 
to  meet  the  French  advance-guard. 

Borne  down  by  numbers,  and  seeing  two 
of  their  corps  fall,  they  were  seized  with  a 
panic,  and  fled.  Kirkwood  and  nineteen 
yeomen  were  taken,  and  ordered  into  close 
custody  at  the  castle.  All  oppositiou  being 
now  at  an  end,  the  French  General  marched 
into  the  castle-yard  at  the  head  of  his  offi- 
cers, and  demanded  to  see  the  bishop,  who, 
fortunately,  was  conversant  with  the  French 
language.  Humbert  desired  him  to  be  un- 
der no  apprehension  for  himself  or  his  peo- 
ple ;  they  should  be  treated  with  respectful 
attention,  and  nothing  should  be  taken  by 
the  French  troops  but  what  was  absolutely 
necessary  for  their  support ;  a  promise 
which,  as  long  as  those  troops  continued  iu 
Killala,  was  most  religiously  observed. 

Mr.  Kirkwood  was  examined,  as  to  the 
supplies  that  could  be  drawn  from  the  town 
and  neighborhood  to  assist  the  progress  of 
the  invaders.  The  queries  were  interpreted 
by  some  Irish  officers,  who  came  with  the 
French,  to  which  he  answered  with  such  an 
appearance  of  frankness  and  candor,  that  he 
gained  the  esteem  of  the  French  General, 
who  told  him  he  was  on  his  parole,  and 
should  have  full  permission  to  return  to  his 

*  Sir  J.  Barriiigton.    Else  and  FaU,  &c. 


family,  and  attend  to  his  private  affairs. 
The  conjugal  affection  of  this  gentleman  on 
the  next  day  made  him  forget  his  parole, 
and  go  to  attend  his  sick  wife,  who,  from 
the  dread  of  the  enemy,  had  secreted  her- 
self in  the  mountains.  Enraged  at  this 
breach  of  parole,  the  French  took  every- 
thing they  wanted  out  of  his  stores — oats, 
saU,  and  iron,  to  a  considerable  amount;  nor 
had  they  been  careful  to  prevent  depreda- 
tions by  the  rebels  in  his  dwelling-house,  as 
they  would  have  done  if  he  had  not  fled  ; 
so  that  when  he  returned  he  found  it  a 
wreck. 

The  bishop's  castle  was  made  the  head- 
quarters of  the  French  General.  But  such 
excellent  discipline  was  constantly  main- 
tained by  these  invaders  while  they  re- 
mained in  Killala,  that  with  every  tempta- 
tion to  plunder,  which  the  time  and  the 
number  of  valuable  articles  within  their 
reach,  presented  to  them — a  side-board  of 
plate  and  glasses,  a  hall  filled  with  hats, 
whips,  and  great-coats,  as  well  of  the  guests 
as  of  the  family — not  one  single  article  of 
private  property  was  carried  away. 

On  the  morning  after  his  arrival,  Hum- 
bert began  his  military  operations  by  push- 
ing forward  to  Ballina  a  detachment  of  a 
hundred  men,  forty  of  whom  he  had  mount- 
ed on  the  best  horses  he  could  seize.  A 
green  flag  was  mounted  over  the  castle-gate, 
witli  the  inscription  Erhi  go  Bragh,  import- 
ing to  invite  the  country  people  to  join  the 
French.  Their  cause  was  to  be  forwarded 
by  the  immediate  delivery  of  arms,  ammu- 
nition, and  clothing  to  the  new  levies  of  the 
country.  Property  was  to  be  inviolable. 
Ready  money  was  to  come  over  in  the  ships 
expected  every  day  from  France.  In  the 
meantime,  whatever  was  bought  was  paid 
for  in  drafts  on  the  future  Directory. 

Though  cash  was  wanting,  the  promise 
of  clothing  and  arms  to  the  recruits  was 
made  good  to  a  considerable  extent.  The 
first  that  offered  their  service  received  com- 
plete clothing  to  the  amount  of  about  a 
thousand.  The  next  comers,  at  least  as 
many,  received  arms  and  clothing,  but  no 
shoes  and  stockings.  To  the  hist,  arms 
only  were  given.  And  of  arms.  Colonel 
Charost  assured  the  bishop,  five  thousand 
and  five  hundred  stand  were  delivered. 


THE   RACES   AT   CASTLEBAB. 


351 


The  Rijrlit  Rov.  narrator  thus  describes 
the  little  army  of  invaders  : — 

"  Iiitellij^ence,  activity,  temperance,  pa- 
tience, to  a  surprising  degree,  appeared  to 
be  combined  in  the  soldiery  that  came  over 
with  Humbert,  together  with  the  exactest 
obedience  to  discipline  ;  yet,  if  you  except 
the  grenadiers,  they  had  nothing  to  catch  the 
eye.  Tiieir  stature  for  the  most  part  was 
low,  their  complexion  pule  and  sallow,  their 
clothes  much  the  worse  for  the  wear  ;  to  a 
superficial  observer  they  would  have  appear- 
ed almost  incapable  of  enduring  any  hard- 
sliip.  These  were  the  men,  however,  of 
whom  it  was  presently  observed  that  they 
could  be  well  content  to  live  on  bread  or 
potatoes,  to  drink  water,  to  make  the  stones 
of  the  street  their  bed,  and  to  sleep  in  their 
clothes,  with  no  cover  but  the  canopy  of 
heaven.  One  half  of  their  number  had 
served  in  Italy,  under  Buonaparte,  the  rest 
were  from  the  Army  of  the  Rhine." 

T!ie  French,  and  the  Irish  officers  who 
accom^)auied  them,  did  not  find  the  Con- 
naught  people  so  well  prepared  to  receive 
them,  nor  so  well  organized,  as  they  had 
hoped  and  expected.  The  general  insurrec- 
tion which  was  just  suppressed  had  not  pene- 
trated into  Mayo  at  all  ;  yet  the  bishop 
mentions  some  circumstances  to  show  that 
the  landing  was  not  unexpected  by  the  peas- 
antry of  those  parts.  At  any  rate,  a  French 
flag  displayed  anywhere  in  Ireland,  was  sure 
to  attract  the  fighting  part  of  the  popula- 
tion around  it — as,  indeed,  the  same  pheno- 
menon would  do  at  this  day.  The  bishop, 
whose  professional  prejudices  may  lead  him 
to  exaggerate  a  little,  gives  a  curious  ac- 
count of  the  astonishment  of  the  French 
when  they  found  their  Irish  allies  were  de- 
vout Catholics — as  if  they  had  not  known 
this  before  ;  he  says  : — 

"  The  contrast  with  regard  to  religious 
sentiments  between  the  French  and  their 
Irish  allies  was  extremely  curious.  The 
atheist  despised  and  affronted  the  bigot  ; 
but  the  wonder  was,  how  the  zealous  papist 
should  come  to  any  terms  of  agreement  with 
a  set  of  men  who  boasted  openly  in  our 
hearing,  that  they  had  just  driven  Mr.  Pope 
out  of  Italy,  and  did  not  expect  to  find  him 
again  so  suddeidy  in  Ireland.  It  astonished 
the  French  officers  to  hear  the  recruits,  when 


they  offi;red  their  services,  declare,  that  they 
were  come  to  take  arms  for  France  and  the 
Blessed  Virgin." 

Humbert  left  Killala  with  a  quantity  of 
ammunition  in  the  possession  of  two  hundred 
men  and  six  officers,  and  on  the  25th,  about 
seven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  took  possession 
of  Ballina,  from  whence  the  garrison  fled  on 
his  approach.  Here  he  left  behind  him  an 
officer  named  True,  with  a  very  small  part 
of  the  French  and  several  of  the  Irish  re- 
cruits. Humbert  was  sensible  of  the  ad- 
vantage of  pushing  forward  with  vigor,  and 
a  rapid  progress  into  the  interior  could 
alone  bring  the  natives  to  his  standard.  At 
Ballina  many  hundred  peasants  repaired  to 
the  French  standard,  and  with  eagerness  re- 
ceived arms  and  uniforms.  The  French 
commander  determined  to  attack  the  forces 
at  Castlebar,  and  began  his  march  on  the 
morning  of  the  26th,  with  eight  hundred  of 
his  own  men,  and  less  than  fifteen  hundred 
Irish. 

There  was  then  in  Castlebar  an  army  of 
six  thousand  men,  under  command  of  Gen- 
eral Lake,  including  some  fine  militia  regi- 
ments, with  the  Marquis  of  Ormond,  Gen- 
eral Lord  Hutchinson,  the  Earls  of  Long- 
ford and  Granard,  and  Lord  Roden,  with 
his  boasted  regiment  of  cavalry,  called  the 
"  Foxhunters,"  who  had  shown  themselves 
capable  of  at  least  riding  down  flying  and 
disarmed  peasants  in  Meath  and  Kildare. 
It  was  a  force  with  which  General  Lake 
reasonably  enough  thought  he  should  give  a 
good  account  of  eight  hundred  French  and 
some  raw  levies  of  Connaught  men.  The 
English  commander  expected  the  French  to 
advance  by  the  high  road  leading  to  Castle- 
bar ;  but  Humbert,  having  good  guides, 
took  the  way  over  the  pass  of  Barnagee, 
westward,  and  so  appeared,  early  in  the 
morning,  not  precisely  at  the  point  where  he 
was  looked  for. 

General  Lake  with  his  stafi"  had  just  ar- 
rived and  taken  command,  (as  an  elder  of- 
ficer,) as  Iiord  Hutchinson  had  determined 
to  march  the  ensuing  day  and  end  the  ques- 
tion, by  a  capture  of  the  French  detachment. 
The  change  of  commanders  had  occasioned 
discontent  and  demoralization  amongst  the 
troops  ;  at  least  that,  is  one  of  the  reasons 
or  excuses  which  loyalist  writers  have  been 


852 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


fiiiu  to  allege  for  the  shameful  conduct  of 
the  British  force  ia  the  action  which  fol- 
lowed.    Plowden  says,  on  this  subject  : — 

"There  is  no  question  but  that  a  very 
serious  difference  happened  previous  to  the 
disgraceful  action  at  Castlebar,  between 
General  (now  Lord)  Hutchinson  and  Gen- 
eral Lake;  and  that  the  army  in  general 
was  strongly  affected  by  the  former's  hav- 
ing been  superseded  in  his  command  by  tlie 
latter.  General  Hutchinson  was  acquainted 
with  every  inch  of  the  country,  and  had 
prepared  an  able  and  efficient  plan  for  stop- 
ping the  progress  of  the  enemy  ;  he  com- 
nuiuded  alike  the  confidence  of  the  army 
and  the  affections  of  the  natives.  As  cruelty 
and  cowardice  are  ever  inseparable,  it  was 
unlikely  that  troops,  which  had  debased 
themselves  by  massacring  the  fugitive,  sur- 
rendered or  unoffending,  by  burning  their 
houses  and  destroying  their  property,  by 
torturing,  strangling,  and  flogging  the  sus- 
pected to  extort  confessions,  should,  when 
left  to  themselves,  or  under  the  command 
of  the  promoter  of  that  savage  warfare, 
bravely  face  an  enemy,  upon  whom  they 
dared  not  exercise  their  wonted  atrocities." 

However  that  might  be,  on  the  appear- 
ance of  the  French  and  L'ish  deploying  from 
the  pass  of  Baruagee,  Sir  Jonah  Barrington 
describes  thus  the  singular  action  that  fol- 
lowed : — 

"The  troops  were  moved  to  a  position, 
about  a  mile  from  Castlebar,  which,  to  an 
unskilled  person,  seemed  unassailable.  They 
had  scarcely  been  posted,  with  nine  pieces 
of  cannon,  when  the  French  appeared  on 
the  opposite  side  of  a  small  lake,  descending 
the  hill  in  columns,  directly  in  front  of  the 
English.  Our  artillery  played  on  them  with 
effect.  The  French  kept  up  a  scattered  fire 
of  musketry,  and  took  up  the  attention  of 
our  army  by  irregular  movements.  In  half 
an  hour,  however,  our  troops  were  alarmed 
by  a  movement  of  small  bodies  to  turn  their 
left,  which,  being  covered  by  walls,  they  had 
never  apprehended.  The  orders  given  were 
either  mistaken  or  misbelieved  ;  the  line 
wavered,  and,  in  a  few  minutes,  the  whole  of 
the  royal  army  was  completely  routed  ;  the 
flight  of  the  infantry  was  as  that  of  a  mob, 
all  the  royal  artillery  was  taken,  our  army 
fled  to  Castlebar,  the  heavy  cavalry  galloped 


amongst  the  infantry  and  Lord  Jocelyn's 
Light  Dragoons,  and  made  the  best  of  their 
way,  through  thick  and  thin,  to  Castlebar, 
and  towards  Tuam,  pursued  by  such  of  the 
Fre4ich  as  could  get  horses  to  carry  them. 

"About  nine  hundred  French  and  some 
peasants  took  possession  of  Castlebar,  with- 
out resistance,  except  from  a  few  Highland- 
ers, stationed  in  the  town,  who  were  soon 
destroyed." 

So  violent  was  the  panic  of  the  British, 
that  they  never  halted  till  they  reached 
Tuam,  forty  miles  from  the  field  of  battle. 
They  lost  the  wiiole  of  their  artillery — four- 
teen pieces — five  stand  of  colors,  and  in  killed, 
wounded,  and  prisoners,  eighteen  officers  and 
three  hundred  and  fifty  men — but  the  French 
calculated  the  loss  of  the  enemy  at  six  hun- 
dred. The  fugitives  renewed  their  march, 
or  rather  flight,  from  Tuam  on  tlie  same 
night,  and  proceeded  to  Athlone,  where  an 
officer  of  Carbineers  with  sixty  of  his  men 
arrived  at  one  o'clock,  on  Tuesday,  the  29th,  ■ 
leaving  performed  a  march  of  above  seventy 
English  miles — the  distance  of  Athlone  fi-oni 
Castlebar  —  in  twenty-seven  hours.  Tlie 
whole  battle  and  rout  are  familiarly  known 
to  this  day  in  Connaught,  as  the  "  Races  of 
Castlebar." 

The  French  having  thus  easily  possessed 
themselves  of  the  county  town  of  Mayo, 
immediately  gave  a  ball  and  supper.  Sir 
Jonah  Barrington  says  : — 

"  The  native  character  of  the  French  never 
showed  itself  more  strongly  than  after  this 
action.  When  in  full  possession  of  the 
large  town  of  Castlebar,  they  immediately 
set  about  putting  their  persons  in  the  best 
order,  and  the  officers  advertised  a  ball  and 
supper  that  night,  for  the  ladies  of  the  town  ; 
this,  it  is  said,  was  well  attended  ;  decorum 
in  all  points  was  strictly  preserved  ;  they 
paid  ready  money  for  everything  ;  in  fact, 
the  French  army  established  tlie  French 
character  wherever  they  occupied." 

But  they  thought  of  something  else  be- 
sides amusement.  With  that  love  of  order 
which  is  a  distinguishing  trait  of  their  na- 
tion, they  established  districts,  each  under 
its  own  elected  magistrate  ;  they  repressed 
any  disposition  which  showed  itself  on  the 
part  of  the  people  to  maltreat  the  loyalist 
inhabitants,  if,  indeed,  such  disposition  ex- 


LOKD    COENTVALLIS    COLLECTS   A    GRKVT    ARMY. 


353 


isted,  as  the  bishop  affirms.  .  A  provincial 
government  was  at  once  established,  with 
Mr.  Moore,  of  Moore  Hall,  as  President, 
and  proclamations  were  issued  in  the  name 
of  the  "  Irish  Republic." 

From  the  terror  whicli  this  handful  of 
French  troops  inspired,  we  may  form  some 
idea  of  the  effects  which  might  have  fol- 
lowed the  landing  of  even  Humbert's  little 
force  anywhere  in  the  south  of  Ireland, 
while  the  Wexford  men  were  gallantly  hold- 
ing their  own  county  ;  or  we  may  conjecture 
what  might  have  been  the  result  if  Humbert 
had  brought  with  him  ten  thousand  men  in- 
stead of  one  thousand,  even,  in  that  month 
of  August,  crushed  as  the  people  had  been 
by  the  savage  suppression  of  their  insurrec- 
tion ; — or,  if  Grouchy  had  marclied  inland 
with  his  six  thousand  men,  at  the  moment 
when  the  people  were  eager  to  begin  the 
rising,  and  the  English  had  but  three  thou- 
sand regular  troops  in  the  island.  It  seemed 
as  if  England  were  destined  to  have  all  the 
luck,  and  either  by  favor  of  the  elements  or 
the  miscalculations  of  her  enemies,  to  escape, 
one  after  another,  the  deadly  perilst  hat  for- 
ever beset  her  empire. 

As  it  was,  this  arrival  of  Humbert,  even 
followed  by  so  brilliant  a  victory,  was  really 
so  much  profit  'to  the  British  Government. 
Barrington  truly  remarks  : — 

"  The  defeat  of  Castlebar,  however,  was 
H  victory  to  the  Viceroy  ;  it  revived  all  the 
horrors  of  the  rebellion  which  had  been  sub- 
siding, and  the  desertion  of  the  militia  regi- 
ments tended  to  impress  tlie  gentry  with  an 
idea  that  England  alone  could  protect  the 
country." 

The  Marquis  Cornwallis  determined  to 
collect  a  great  army,  and  march  in  imposing 
force  ;  but  he  did  not  hasten  his  movements 
so  much  as  it  was  thought  he  might  have 
done  ;  and,  in  the  meantime,  tiie  French  and 
insurgents  were  profiting  by  the  delay.  It 
was  said  that  forty  thousand  of  the  West- 
meath  people  were  preparing  to  assemble  at 
the  Crooked  Wood,  in  that  county,  so  as  to 
join  the  French  on  their  passnge,  and  march 
ou  the  metropolis. 

At  length,  the  Marquis  was  ready  ;  and 
Laving  assured  himself  of  the  presence  of 
twenty  thousand  men  on  his  line  of  march, 
he  thought  himself  strong   enough   to  eu- 

45 


counter  the  eight  hundred  audacious  French- 
men and  their  Irish  allies.  These  latter 
were  by  no  means  increasing,  but  rather  dim- 
inishing since  the  day  of  Castlebar  ;  and  in- 
deed, at  no  time  exceeded  two  thousand  men 
— a  circumstance  which  greatly  surprised  and 
disgusted  the  French. 

The  Marquis  proceeded  on  the  30th  of 
August  on  the  road  to  Castlebar,  and  ar- 
rived on  the  4th  of  September  at  Holly- 
mount,  fourteen  miles  distant  from  Castle- 
bar ;  in  the  evening  of  that  day  he  received 
intelligence,  that  the  enemy  had  abandoned 
his  post,  and  marched  to  Foxford. 

The  advanced  guard  of  the  French  hav- 
ing arrived  at  Coloony,  was  opposed  on  the 
5th  by  Colonel  Vereker,  of  the  city  of  Lim- 
erick militia,  who  had  marched  from  Sligo 
for  the  purpose,  with  about  two  hundred 
infantry,  thirty  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Regi- 
ment of  Light  Dragoons,  and  two  curricle 
guns.  After  a  smart  action  of  about  an 
hour's  continuance,  he  was  obliged  to  re- 
treat, with  the  loss  of  his  artillery,  to  Sligo. 

This  opposition,  though  attended  with 
defeat  to  tiie  opposers,  is  supposed  to  have 
caused  the  French  General  to  relinquish  his 
design  on  Sligo.  He  directed  his  march 
by  Drumnahair  towards  Manorhamilton,  iu 
the  County  of  Leitrim,  leaving  on  the  road, 
for  the  sake  of  expedition,  three  six-pouad- 
ers  dismounted,  and  throwing  five  pieces 
more  of  artillery  over  the  bridge  at  Drum- 
nahair, into  the  river.  In  approaching 
Manorhamilton  he  suddenly  wheeled  to  the 
right,  taking  his  way  by  Drumkerin,  per- 
haps with  design  of  attempting,  if  possible, 
to  reach  Granard,  in  the  County  of  Long- 
ford, where  an  insurrection  had  taken  place. 
Crawford's  troops  hung  so  close  on  the  rear- 
guard of  the  French,  as  to  come  to  action 
with  it  on  the  7th,  between  Drumshambo  and 
Ballynamore,  in  which  action  they  were  re- 
pulsed with  some  loss,  and  admonished  to 
observe  more  caution  in  the  pursuit. 

The  French  army  passing  the  Shannon 
at  Ballintra,  and  halting  some  hours  in  the 
night  at  Claone,  arrived  at  Ballinamuck, 
County  Longford,  on  tlie  8th  of  September, 
so  closely  followed  by  the  troops  of  Colonel 
Crawford  and  General  Lake,  that  its  rear- 
guard was  unable  to  break  the  bridge  at 
Ballintra,    to    impede    the   pursuit  j    while 


^54: 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND, 


Lord  Cornwallis,  with  the  grand  array, 
crossed  the  same  river  at  Carrick-on-Shan- 
iion,  marched  by  Mohill  to  Saint-Johnstown, 
in  ihe  County  of  Longford,  in  order  to  in- 
tercept tlie  enemy  in  front,  on  his  way  to 
Granard;  or,  should  he  proceed,  to  surround 
liira  with  an  army  of  thirty  thousand  men. 
In  this  desperate  situation,  Humbert  ar- 
ranged his  forces,  with  no  other  object,  as  it 
must  be  presumed,  tlian  to  maintain  the 
lionor  of  the  French  arms.  The  rear-guard 
liaving  been  attacked  by  Colonel  Crawford, 
about  two  hundred  of  the  French  infantry 
surrendered.  Tlie  rest  continued  to  defend 
tiiemselves  for  above  lialf  an  liour,  when,  on 
tlie  appearance  of  the  main  body  of  General 
Lake's  army,  they  also  surrendered,  after 
they  had  made  Lord  Roden,  with  a  body  of 
dragoons,  a  prisoner.  His  lordship  had 
precipitately  advanced  into  the  French  lines 
to  obtain  tiieir  surrender.  Tlie  Irish  insur- 
gents who  had  accompanied  the  French  to 
this  fatal  field,  being  excluded  from  quar- 
ter, tied  in  all  directions,  and  were  pursued 
with  the  slaughter  of  about  five  hundred 
men,  which  seems  much  less  to  exceed  the 
truth  than  the  returns  of  slain  in  the  south- 
eastern parts  of  the  island.  About  one 
thousand  five  hundred  insurgents  were  with 
the  French  army  at  Ballinamuck,  at  the 
time  of  the  surrender  of  Humbert.  The 
loss  of  the  King's  troops  was  officially  stated 
at  three  privates  killed,  twelve  wounded, 
three  missing,  and  one  officer  v/ounded.  The 
troops  of  General  Humbert  were  found, 
when  prisoners,  to  consist  of  seven  hundred 
and  forty-six  privates,  and  ninety -six  officers, 
having  sustained  a  loss  of  about  two  hun- 
dred men  since  their  landing  at  Killala  on 
the  22d  of  August. 

Vengeful  executions  began  on  the  field 
of  battle.  It  appears  that,  on  the  day  of 
the  "Races  of  Castlebar,"  a  considerable 
part  of  the  Louth  and  Kilkenny  regiments, 
not  finding  it  convenient  to  retreat,  thought 
the  next  best  thing  they  could  do  would  be  lo 
join  the  victors,  which  they  immediately  did, 
and  in  one  hour  were  completely  equipped 
as  Fiench  riflemen.  About  ninety  of  those 
men  were  hung  by  Lord  Cornwallis  at  Bal 
llnamuck.  One  of  them  defended  himself 
by  insisting  "  that  it  was  the  army,  and  not 
he,  who  were  deserters  ;  that  whilst  he  was 


fighting  hard  .they  all  ran  away,  and  left 
him  to  be  murdered." 

A  Mr.  Blake,  who  had  been  an  officer  in 
the  British  array,  was  also  executed  on  the 
field.  Bartholoraew  Teeling  and  Matthew- 
Tone  (brother  of  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone)  were 
among  the  prisoners,  and  were  both  exe- 
cuted within  a  few  days  in  Dublin.  Mr. 
Moore,  President  of  the  Provincial  Govern- 
ment, which  had  been  instituted  at  Castle- 
bar, was  one  of  the  prisoners  at  Ballina- 
muck, and  was  sentenced  to  banishment. 
Roger  Maguire,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the 
Irish  insurgents,  was  transported,  and  his 
father,  a  brewer,  was  hung. 

The  small  French  garrison  which  had 
been  left  in  Killala  still  occupied  that  place, 
and  great  part  of  North  Connaught  contin- 
ued in  insurrection. 

On  the  22d  of  September,  thirty-two 
days  after  the  landing  of  the  French  army, 
and  fifteen  after  its  capture  at  Ballinamuck, 
a  large  body  of  troops  arrived  at  Killala, 
under  the  command  of  Major-General 
Trench,  who  would  have  been  still  some 
days  later  in  his  arrival,  had  he  not  been 
hastened  by  a  message  from  the  bishop,  to 
aimounce  the  fearful  apprehensions  his  lord- 
ship's family  and  the  other  loyalists  were 
under. 

The  bishop's  narrative  of  what  followed 
indicates  that  the  recovery  of  this  place  by 
the  British  forces  was  a  scene  rather  of  in- 
discriminate massacre  than  of  combat.  He 
describes  how  "a  troop  of  fugitives  in  full 
race  from  Ballina,  women  and  children,  tum- 
bled over  one  another  to  get  into  the  castle, 
or  into  any  house  in  the  town  where  they 
might  hope  for  a  momentary  shelter,  contin- 
ued for  a  painful  length  of  time  to  give  no- 
tice of  the  approach  of  an  army." 

There  was,  however,  a  momentary  re- 
sistance. 

The  insurgents  quitted  their  camp  to  oc- 
cupy the  rising  ground  close  by  the  town, 
on  the  road  to  Ballina,  and  posted  them- 
selves under  the  low  stone-walls  on  each 
side,  in  such  a  manner  as  enabled  them 
with  great  advantage  to  take  aim  at  the 
King's  troops.  They  had  a  strong  guard 
also  on  the  other  side  of  the  town  towards 
Foxford,  havii'g  probably  received  intelli- 
gence, which  was  true,  that  General  Trench 


DEFEAT  AND  CAPTURE  OF  THE  FRENCH. 


35f 


had  divided  his  forces  at  Crosmolina,  and 
sent  one  part  of  them  by  a  detour  of  three 
.'miles  to  intercept  the  fngltives  that  might 
'take  that  course  in  their  flight.  This  last 
detachment  consisted  chiefly  of  the  Kerry 
militia,  under  the  orders  of  Lieutenant-Col- 
onel Crosbie  and  Maurice  Fitzgerald,  the 
Knight  of  Kerry,  their  Colonel,  the  Earl  of 
Glandore,  attending  the  General. 

The  two  divisions  of  the  royal  army  were 
supposed  to  make  up  about  twelve  hundred 
men,  and  they  had  five  pieces  of  cannon. 
The  number  of  the  insurgents  could  not  be 
ascertained.  Many  ran  away  before  the 
engagement,  while  a  very  considerable  num- 
ber flocked  into  the  town  in  the  very  heat 
of  it,  passing  nndcr  the  castle  wind(»ws  in 
view  of  the  French  ofiBcers  on  horseback, 
and  running  upon  death  with  as  little  ap- 
pearance of  reflection  or  concern  as  if  they 
were  hastening  to  a  show.  About  four  hun- 
dred of  these  people  fell  in  the  battle,  and 
immediately  after  it.  Whence  it  may  be  con- 
jectured that  their  entire  number  scarcely 
exceeded  eight  or  nine  hundred. 

The  whole  scene  passed  in  sight  of  the 
castle,  and  so  near  it  that  the  family  could 
distinctly  hear  the  balls  whistling  by  their 
ears. 

The  attempt  at  resistance  lasted  twenty 
minutes,  when  the  insurgents  scattered  in 
two  directions,  some  into  the  town  where 
they  were  shot  down  in  the  streets,  some 
along  the  shore  of  the  bay,  where  they  were 
enfiladed  by  a  gun  placed  in  position  for 
that  purpose. 

The  court-martial  began  the  day  after, 
and  sat  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Morrison.  They 
liad  to  try  not  less  than  seventy-five  prison- 
ers at  Killala,  and  a  hundred  and  ten  at 
Ballina,  besides  those  who  might  be  brought 
in  daily.  Tlie  two  first  persons  tried  at  this 
tribunal  were  General  Bellew  and  Mr.  Rich- 
ard Bourke.  The  trial  of  these  two  gentle- 
men wai  short.  They  were  found  guilty  on 
Monday  evening,  and  hung  the  next  morn- 
ing in  the  park  behind  the  castle. 

So  ended  the  last  of  the  series  of  partial 
insurrections  in  Ireland  in  the  year  1798. 
Little  I'eliance  is  to  be  placed  on  the  oflicial 
accounts  of  the  killed,  wounded,  and  missing, 
in  the  several  engagements  and  encounters. 
According  to  the  most  prubable   accounts 


to  be  had  from  the  War  Office,  the  number 
of  the  army  lost  in  this  rebellion  amounts 
iu  the  whole  to  nineteen  thousand  seven 
hundred  men  ;  and  according  to  the  general 
Government  accounts  of  the  total  loss  of  the 
insurgents,  it  exceeded  fifty  thousand,  with- 
out including  women  and  children,  great 
numbers  of  whom  were  shot  down  by  the 
yeomanry,  or  burned  in  their  own  houses. 
The  mere  loss  of  life,  too,  gives  but  a  faint 
idea  of  the  sufferings  endured  by  the  poor 
people.  Many  hundreds  had  been  put  to 
the  torture,  and  lacerated  by  cruel  scourg- 
ing to  extort  information.  Never,  perhaps, 
was  any  national  insurrection  in  the  world 
so  savagely  crushed  ;  never  was  insui-rection 
so  thoroughly  justified  by  the  oppression 
which  provoked  it ;  and  never  were  chiefs 
of  any  insurrection  more  pure  in  their  mo- 
tives, more  gallant,  honorable,  and  self- 
sacrificing,  than  those  whose  bodies  were 
now  swinging  upon  gibbets,  whose  heads 
were  grinning  upon  si)ike8,  or  who  were 
languishing  in  various  prisons,  to  expiate 
the  crime  of  loving  their  couutry  and  hating 
its  oppressors. 

The  policy  of  Mr.  Pitt  was  now  in  full 
operation;  and  the  "impression  of  horror" 
was  strong  and  deep  ;  indeed,  the  plans  of 
the  Minister  were  rather  aided  by  the  drift- 
less  and  helpless  French  expeditions,  which 
the  imbecile  government  of  the  Directory 
sent  to  help  the  insurgents,  but  which  came 
too  late,  and  arrived  at  the  wrong  places. 
Before  narrating  the  measures  of  the  Gov- 
ernment with  a  view  to  the  Legislative 
Union,  it  is  necessary  to  tell  how  it  fared 
with  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone.  The  founder 
of  the  United  Irish  Society  was  not  a  man 
to  evade  the  consequences  and  responsibili- 
ties of  his  own  acts,  nor  to  take  his  ease  ia 
France,  where  he  held  a  high  commission  in 
the  army,  while  his  comrades  were  perishing 
on  the  field  or  on  the  gallows.  He  never 
for  one  moment  relaxed  his  efforts  to  eflfect 
the  great  task  of  his  life  ;  which  was  to 
bring  an  adequate  force  of  Frenchmen  into 
Ireland,  and  so  to  stop  and  to  punish  the 
shocking  atrocities,  of  which  every  new  re- 
port tortured  his  soul. 

The  news  of  Humbert's  attempt,  as  may 
well  be  imagined,  threw  the  Directory  into 
the  greatest  perplexity.     They  instantly  de- 


356 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


teruiiiied,  however,  to  hurry  all  their  prepa- 
rations, aud  send  off  at  least  the  division  of 
General  Hardy,  to  second  his  efforts,  as  soon 
as  possible.  The  report  of  his  first  advan- 
tages, which  shortly  reached  them,  aug- 
mented their  ardor  and  accelerated  th^ir 
movements.  But  such  was  the  state  of  the 
French  navy  and  arsenals,  that  it  was  not 
until  the  20th  of  September  that  this  small 
expcLVition,  consisting  of  one  sail  of  the  line 
aud  eight  frigates,  under  Commodore  Bom- 
part,  and  three  thousand  men,  under  Gen- 
eral Hardy,  was  ready  for  sailing.  The 
Kevvs  of  Humbert's  defeat  bad  not  yet 
reached  France. 

Paris  was  then  crowded  with  Irish  emi- 
grants, eager  for  action.  Some  Irishmen 
embarked  before  Bompart,  in  a  small  and 
fast-sailing  vessel,  with  Napper  Tandy  at 
their  head.  They  reached,  on  the  16th  of 
September,  the  Isle  of  Raghlin,  on  the  north 
coast  of  Ireland,  where  they  heard  of  Hum- 
bert's disaster  ;  they  merely  spread  some 
.  proclamations,  and  escaped  to  Norway. 
Three  Irishmen  only  accompanied  Tone  in 
Hardy's  flotilla  ;  he  alone  was  embarked 
in  the  Admiral's  vessel,  the  Hoche,  the 
others  were  on  board  the  frigates.  These 
were  Mr.  T.  Corbett,  and  MacGuire,  two 
brave  officers,  who  afterwards  died  iu  the 
French  service,  and  a  third  gentleman,  con- 
nected by  marriage  with  his  friend  Russell. 

At  the  period  of  this  expedition,  Tone 
was  hopeless  of  its  success,  and  iu  the  deep- 
est despondency  at  the  prospect  of  Irish 
affairs.  Such  was  the  wretched  indiscretion 
of  the  Government,  that  before  his  departure, 
he  read  himself,  in  the  Bien  Informe,  a 
Faris  newspaper,  a  detailed  account  of  the 
whole  armament,  where  his  own  name  was 
mentioned  in  full  letters,  with  the  circum- 
stance of  his  being  on  board  the  Hoche. 
There  was,  therefore,  no  hope  of  secresy. 
He  had  all  along  deprecated  the  idea  of 
those  attempts  on  a  small  scale.  But  he 
had  also  declared,  repeatedly,  that,  if  the 
Government  sent  only  a  corporal's  guard, 
be  felt  it  his  duty  to  go  along  with  them  ; 
he  saw  no  chance  of  Kilmaine's  large  expedi- 
tion being  ready  in  any  reasonable  time,  and, 
therefore,  determined  to  accompany  Hardy. 
His  resolution  was,  however,  deliberately 
taken,  in  case  be  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 


enemy,  never  to  suffer  the  indignity  of  a 
public -execution.  And  his  son,  William 
Theobald  Wolfe  Tone,  informs  us  that  he 
had  expressed  himself  to  this  effect  "  at  din- 
ner, in  our  own  bouse,  and  in  my  mother's 
presence,  a  little  before  leaving  Paris."  * 

At  length,  about  the  20tb  cf  September, 
1798,  that  fatal  expedition  set  sail  from  the 
Bay  de  Camaret.  It  consisted  of  the 
Hoche,  seventy-four  ;  Loire,  Resolue,  Bel- 
lone,  Coquille,  Embuscade,  Immortalite, 
Romaine,  aud  Semillante,  frigates ;  and 
Biche,  schooner,  and  aviso.  To  avoid  the 
British  fleets,  Bompart,  an  excellent  sea- 
man, took  a  large  sweep  to  the  westward, 
and  then  to  the  northeast,  in  order  to  bear 
down  on  the  northern  coast  of  Ireland,  from 
the  quarter  whence  a  French  force  would 
be  least  expected.  He  met,  however,  with 
contrary  winds,  aud  it  appears  that  bis 
flotilla  was  scattered  ;  for,  on  the  lOtb  of 
October,  after  twenty  days'  cruise,  he  ar- 
rived off  the  entry  of  Loch  Swilly,  with  tlie 
Hoche,  the  Loire,  the  Resolue,  and  the 
Biche.  He  was  instantly  signalled,  and,  on 
the  break  of  day,  next  morning,  11th  of 
October,  before  be  could  enter  the  bay  or 
land  his  troops,  he  perceived  the  squadron 
of  Sir  John  Borlase  Warren,  consisting  of 
six  sail  of  the  line,  one  razee  of  sixty  guns, 
and  two  frigates,  bearing  down  upon  him. 
There  was  no  chance  of  escape  for  the  large 
and  heavy  man-of-war.  Bompart  ^gave  in- 
stant signals  to  the  frigates  and  schooner  to 
retreat  through  shallow  water,  and  prepared 
alone  to  honor  the  flag  of  bis  country  and 
liberty,  by  a  desperate  but  hopeless  defence. 
At  that  moment,  a  boat  came  from  the 
Biche  for  his  last  orders.  That  ship  had  the 
best  chance  to  get  off.  The  French  ofiicers 
all  supplicated  Tone  to  embark  on  board  of 
her.  "  Our  contest  is  hopeless,"  they  ob- 
served, "  we  will  be  prisoners  of  war,  but 
what  will  become  of  you?"  "Shall  it  be 
said,"  replied  he,  "  that  I  fled,  whilst  the 
French  were  fighting  the  battles  of  my 
country  ?  "  He  refused  their  offers,  and  de- 
termined to  stand  and  fall  with  the  ship. 
The  Biche  accomplished  her  escape. 

The  British  Admiral  dispatched  two  men- 

*  Memoirs   of  Wolfe    Tone ;   by  his  son.     Pub- 
lished in  W^ashiugton.    The  English  edition  ia  much 
, ,  mutilated. 


TONE   A    PRISONER CARRIED    TO    DUBLIN    IN    IRONS. 


367 


ot-\var,  the  razee  and  a  frij^ate,  after  the 
Loire  and  Resolue,  and  the  Hoche  was  soon 
Siirroundod  by  four  sail  of  the  line  and  a 
fi%ate,  and  bej^an  one  of  the  most  obstinate 
and  desperate  engaj^ements  which  have  ever 
l)eea  fought  on  the  ocean.  During  six 
hours,  she  sustained  the  fire  of  a  whole  fleet, 
till  her  masts  and  rigging  were  swept  away, 
hor  scnpp.ers  flowed  with  blood,  her  wound- 
ed filled  the  cock-pit,  her  shattered  ribs 
yawned  at  each  new  stroke,  and  let  in  five 
feet  of  water  in  the  hold,  her  rudder  was 
carried  ofl",  and  she  floated  a  dismantled 
wreck  on  the  waters  ;  her  sails  and  cordage 
hung  in  shreds,  nor  could  she  reply  with  a 
single  gun  from  her  dismounted  batteries  to 
the  unabating  cannonade  of  the  enemy. 
At  length,  she  struck.  The  Resolue  and 
Loire  were  soon  reached  by  the  English 
fleet ;  the  former  was  in  a  sinking  condi- 
tion ;  she  made,  however,  an  honorable  de- 
fence ;  the  Loire  sustained  three  attacks, 
drove  oflf  the  English  frigates,  and  had 
almost  efi'ected  her  escape  ;  at  length,  en- 
gaged by  the  Anson,  razee  of  sixty  guns, 
she  struck,  after  an  action  of  three  hours, 
entirely  dismasted.  Of  the  other  frigates, 
pursued  in  all  directions,  the  Bellone,  Im- 
inortalite,  Coquille,  and  Embuscade  were 
taken,  and  the  Roraaine  and  Semillante, 
through  a  thousand  dangers,  reached  sepa- 
rate ports  in  France. 

During  the  action,  Tone  commanded  one 
of  the  batteries,  and,  according  to  the  re- 
port of  the  officers  who  returned  to  France, 
fought  with  the  utmost  desperation,  and  as 
if  he  was  courting  death.  When  the  ship 
struck,  confounded  with  the  other  officers, 
he  was  not  recognized  for  some  time  ;  for 
he  had  completely  acquired  the  language 
and  appearance  of  a  Frenchman.  The 
two  fleets  were  dispersed  in  every  direction, 
nor  was  it  till  some  days  later  that  the 
Hoche  was  brought  into  Loch  Swilly,  and 
the  prisoners  landed  and  marched  to  Letter- 
kei.ny.  Yet  rumors  of  his  being  on  board 
must  have  been  circulated,  for  the  fact  was 
public  at  Paris.  But  it  was  thought  he 
had  been  killed  in  the  action.  It  was,  at 
length,  a  gentleman  well-known  in  the 
County  Derry  as  a  leader  of  the  Orange 
party,  and  one  of  the  chief  magistrates  in 
that  neighborhood,   Sir  George  Hill,   who 


had  been  his  fellow-student  in  Trinity  Col- 
lege, and  knew  his  person,  who  undertook 
the  task  of  discovering  him.  It  is  known 
that  in  Spain,  grandees  and  noblemen  of  the 
first  rank  pride  themselves  in  the  functions 
of  familiars,  spies,  and  informers  of  the 
Holy  Inquisition  ;  it  remained  for  Ireland 
to  ofi'er  a  similar  exanii)le.  The  French 
officers  were  invited  to  breakfast  with  the 
Earl  of  Cavan,  who  commanded  in  that  dis- 
trict. Tone  sat  undistinguished  amongst 
them,  when  Sir  George  Hill  entered  the 
room,  followed  by  police  officers.  Looking 
narrowly  at  the  company,  he  singled  out  the 
object  of  his  search,  and,  stepping  up  to 
him,  said,  "  Mr.  Tone,  I  am  very  happy  to 
see  you,"  Instantly  rising,  with  the  utmost 
composure,  he  replied,  "  Sir  Geortje,  I  am 
happy  to  see  you  ;  how  is  Lady  Hill  and 
your  family?"  *  Beckoned  into  the  next 
room  by  the  police  officers,  an  unexpected 
indignity  awaited  him.  It  was  tilled  with 
military,  and  one  General  Lavau,  who  com- 
manded them,  ordered  him  to  be  ironed,  de- 
claring that,  as  on  leaving  Ireland,  to  enter 
the  French  service,  he  had  not  renounced 
his  oath  of  allegiance,  he  remained  a  subject 
of  Britain,  and  should  be  punished  as  a  trai- 
tor. Seized  with  a  momentary  burst  of  in- 
dignation at  such  unworthy  treatment  and 
cowardly  cruelty  to  a  prisoner  of  war,  he 
flung  ofl"  his  uniform,  and  cried,  "  These  fet- 
ters shall  never  degrade  the  revered  insignia 
of  the  free  nation  which  I  have  served." 
Resuming  then  his  usual  calm,  he  offered  his 
limbs  to  the  irons,  and  'when  they  were 
fixed,  he  exclaimed,  "  For  the  cause  which 
I  have  embraced,  I  feel  prouder  to  wear 
these  chains  than  if  I  were  decorated  with 
the  star  and  garter  of  England," 

From  Letterkenny  he  was  hurried  to 
Dublin  wthout  delay.  Contrary  to  usual 
custom,  he  was  conveyed,  during  the  whole 
route,  fettered  and  on  horseback,  under  an 
escort  of  dragoons.  The  escort  was  com- 
posed of  Cambridgeshire  yeomanry  cavalry, 
and  commanded  by  a  Captain  Thackeray,  af- 

*  Dr,  Madden  points  out  that  this  Sir  George  Hill 
was  a  regular  secret  agent  of  the  Government,  and 
quotes  several  payments  made  to  him — and  tlirough 
him  to  otlier  agents  —  out  of  the  Secret  Service 
money.  See  accounts  of  Secret  Service  money  ia 
Madden's  work. 


358 


HISTORY   OP   IKELAKD. 


terwards  a  clergyman  and  Rector  of  Dun- 
dallj.  He  often,  long  afterwards,  described 
this  journey,  and  said  that  Tone  was  the 
most  delightful  companion  he  ever  traveled 
with. 

Thougli  the  reign  of  terror  was  drawing 
to  a  close,  and  Lord  Cornwallis  had  re- 
stored some  appearance  of  legal  order  and 
regular  administration  in  the  kingdom,  a 
prisoner  of  such  importance  to  the  Irish 
Protestant  Ascendancy  party,  as  the  founder 
and  leader  of  the  United  Irish  Society,  and 
the  most  formidable  of  their  adversaries, 
was  not  to  be  trusted  to  the  delays  and 
common  forms  of  law.  Though  the  Court 
of  King's  Bench  was  then  sitting,  prepara- 
tions were  instantly  made  for  trying  him 
summarily  before  a  court-martial.  It  has 
been  erroneously  stated  that  Tone  imagined 
his  French  commission  would  be  a  protec- 
tion to  him,  and  that  he  pleaded  it  on  his 
trial  He  never,  indeed,  was  legally  con- 
demned ;  for,  though  a  sul)ject  of  the 
Crown,  (not  of  Britain,  but  of  Ireland,)  he 
was  not  a  military  man  iu  that  kingdom  ; 
he  had  taken  no  military  oath,  and,  of 
course,  the  court-martial  which  tried  him 
liad  no  power  to  pronounce  on  his  case, 
which  belonged  to  the  regular  criminal  tri- 
bunals. But  his  heart  was  sunk  in  despair 
at  the  total  failure  of  his  hopes,  and  he  did 
not  wish  to  survive  them.  To  die  with 
lionor  was  his  only  wish,  and  his  only  re- 
quest to  be  shot  like  a  soldier.  For  this 
purpose  he  preferred  himself  to  be  tried  by 
a  court-martial,  and  proffered  his  French 
commission,  not  to  defend  his  life,  but  as  a 
proof  of  his  rank,  as  he  stated  himself  on 
his  trial. 

If  further  proof  were  required  that  he 
was  perfectly  aware  of  his  fate,  according  to 
the  English  law,  his  own  journals,  written 
during  tlie  Bantry  Bay  expedition,  afford 
an  incontestible  one.  (  See  Journal  of  Decem- 
ber 26,  1796.)  "If  we  are  taken,  my  fate  will 
not  be  a  mild  one  ;  the  best  I  can  expect  is 
to  be  shot  as  an  emigre  rentre,  unless  I  have 
the  good  fortune  to  be  killed  in  the  action  ; 
for,  most  assuredly,  if  the  enemy  will  have 
us,  he  must  fight  for  us.  Perhaps  I  may  be 
reserved  for  a  trial,  for  the  sake  of  striking- 
terror  into  others,  in  which  case  I  shall  be 
hanged  as  a  traitor,  and  emboweled,  &c.  | 


As  to  the  emboweling,  '  Je  m''en  fiche.^  If 
ever  they  hang  me,  they  are  welcome  to  em- 
bowel me  if  they  please.  These  are  pleasant 
prospects  !  Nothing  on  earth  could  sustain 
me  now  but  the  consciousness  that  I  am  en- 
gaged in  a  just  and  righteous  cause." 

Tone  appeared  before  this  Court  in  the 
uniform  of  a  Chef  de  Brigade  (Colonel.) 
The  firmness  and  cool  serenity  of  his  whole 
deportment  gave  to  the  awe-struck  assembly 
the  measure  of  his  soul.  Nor  could  his 
bitterest  enemies,  whatever  they  deemed  of 
his  political  principles,  and  of  the  necessity 
of  striking  a  great  example,  deny  him  the 
praise  of  determination  and  magnanimity. 

The  members  of  the  Court  having  taken 
the  usual  oath,  the  Judge  Advocate  pro- 
ceeded to  inform  the  prisoner  that  the  court- 
martial,  before  which  he  stood,  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  Lord-Lieutenant  of  the  king- 
dom, to  try  whether  he  had  or  had  not 
acted  traitorously  against  His  Majesty,  to 
whom,  as  a  natural-born  subject,  he  owed 
all  allegiance,  from  the  very  fact  of  his 
being  born  in  the  kingdom.  And,  according 
to  the  usual  form,  he  called  upon  him  to 
plead  guilty  or  not  guilty. 

The  prisoner  admitted  all  the  facts, 
"  stripping  the  charge  of  its  technical  word 
traitoroiislyy  He  would  make  no  defence, 
and  give  no  trouble,  but  asked  leave  to 
read  an  address,  giving  his  own  account  of 
his  conduct.  This  address  is  given  at  full 
length  in  his  son's  memoir,  and  is  iu  these 
words  : — 

"  Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen  of  the 
Court-martial — I  mean  not  to  give  you  the 
trouble  of  bringing  judicial  proof  to  convict 
me  legally  of  having  acted  in  hostility  to 
the  Government  of  His  Britannic  Majesty  in 
Ireland.  I  admit  the  fact.  From  my  earliest 
youth,  I  have  regarded  the  connection  be- 
tween Ireland  and  Great  Britain  as  the 
curse  of  the  Irish  nation  ;  and  felt  convinced 
that,  whilst  it  lasted,  this  country  could 
never  be  free  nor  happy.  My  mind  has 
been  confirmed  in  this  opinion  by  the  ex- 
perience of  every  succeeding  year,  and  the 
conclusions  which  I  have  drawn  from  every 
fact  before  my  eyes.  In  consequence,  I  de- 
termined to  apply  all  the  powers  which  my 
individual  efforts  could  move,  in  order  to  sep- 
arate the  two  countries. 


TRIED    BY   COURT-MARTIAL. 


359 


"  That  Irehiiid  was  not  able,  of  herself, 
to  throw  ofT  the  yoke,  I  knew,  I,  therefore, 
souijht  for  aid  wherever  it  was  to  be  found, 
la  honorable  poverty  I  rejected  offers,  which, 
to  a  man  in  my  circumstances,  might  be  con- 
sidered highly  advantageous.  I  remained 
faithful  to  what  I  thought  the  cause  of  my 
country,  and  souglit  in  the  French  Repub- 
lic an  ally  to  rescue  three  millions  of  my 

countrymen,  from — " 

The  President  here  interrupted  the  pris- 
oner, observing,  that  this  language  was 
neither  relevant  to  the  charge,  nor  such  as 
ought  to  be  delivered  in  a  public  court. 
One  member  said,  it  seemed  calculated  only 
to  inflame  the  minds  of  a  certain  descrip- 
tion of  people,  (the  United  Irishmen,)  many 
of  whom  might  probably  be  present  ;  and 
that,  therefore,  the  Court  ought  not  to  suffer 
it.  The  Judge  Advocate  said,  he  thought, 
that  if  Mr.  Tone  meant  this  paper  to  be 
laid  before  His  Excellency,  in  way  of  aicirn- 
ation,  it  must  have  quite  a  contrary  effect,  if 
any  of  the  foregoing  part  was  suffered  to  re- 
main. 

Tone — "  I  shall  urge  this  topic  no  further, 
since  it  seems  disagreeable  to  the  Court ; 
but  shall  proceed  to  read  the  few  words 
which  remain."  . 

General  Loftus — "  If  the  remainder  of 
your  address,  Mr,  Tone,  is  of  the  same  com- 
plexion with  what  you  have  already  read, 
will  you  not  hesitate  for  a  moment  in  pro- 
ceeding, since  you  have  learned  the  opinion 
of  the  Court?" 

Tone — "I  believe  there  is  nothing  in  what 
remains  for  me  to  say,  which  can  give  any 
offence.  I  mean  to  express  my  feelings  and 
gratitude  towards  the  Catholic  body,  in 
whose  cause  I  was  engaged." 

General  Loftua — "  That  seems  to  have 
nothing  to  say  to  the  charge  against  you,  to 
which  only  you  are  to  speak.  If  you  have 
anything  to  offer  in  defence  or  extenuation 
of  that  charge,  the  Court  will  hear  you  ; 
but  they  beg  that  you  will  confine  yourself 
to  that  subject." 

Tone — "I  shall,  then,  confine  myself  to 
some  points  relative  to  my  connection  with 
the  French  army.  Attached  to  no  party  in 
the  French  Re[)ul)lic,  without  interest,  with- 
out money,  without  intrigue,  the  openness 
and  integrity  of  my  views  raised  me  to  a  , 


high  and  confidential  rank  in  its  armies.  I 
ol)tained  the  confidence  of  the  Executive 
Directory,  the  approbation  of  my  generals, 
and,  I  venture  to  add,  the  esteem  and  afflic- 
tion of  my  brave  comrades.  When  I  re- 
view these  circumstances,  I  feel  a  secret  and 
internal  consolation  which  no  reverse  of  for- 
tune, no  sentence  in  the  power  of  this  Court 
to  inflict  can  ever  deprive  me  of,  or  weaken 
in,  any  degree.  Under  the  flag  of  the  French 
Republic  I  originally  engaged,  with  a  view 
to  save  and  liberate  my  own  country.  For 
that  purpose,  I  have  encountered  the  chances 
of  war  amongst  strangers  ;  for  that  purpose, 
I  have  repeatedly  braved  the  terrors  of  tho 
ocean,  covered,  as  I  knew  it  to  be,  with  the 
triumphant  fleets  of  that  power,  which  it 
was  my  glory  and  my  duty  to  oppose.  I 
have  sacrificed  all  my  views  in  life  ;  I  have 
courted  poverty  ;  I  have  left  a  beloved  wife 
unprotected,  and  children,  whom  I  adored, 
fatherless.  After  such  sacrifices,  in  a  cause 
which  I  have  always  conscientiously  consid- 
ered as  the  cause  of  justice  and  freedom — it 
is  no  great  effort  at  this  day,  to  add,  '  the 
sacrifice  of  my  life.' 

"  But  I  hear  it  said,  that  this  unfortunate 
country  has  been  a  prey  to  all  sorts  of  hor- 
rors. I  sincerely  lament  it.  I  beg,  how- 
ever, it  may  be  remembered,  that  I  have 
been  absent  four  years  from  Ireland.  To 
me,  these  sufferings  can  never  be  attributed. 
I  designed,  by  fair  and  open  war,  to  pro- 
cure the  separation  of  the  two  countries. 
For  open  war  I  was  prepared  ;  but  if,  in- 
stead of  that,  a  system  of  private  assassin- 
ation has  taken  place,  I  repeat,  while  I  de- 
plore it,  that  it  is  not  chargeable  on  me. 
Atrocities,  it  seems,  have  been  committed  on 
both  sides.  I  do  not  less  deplore  them  ;  1 
detest  them  from  my  heart  ;  and  to  those 
who  know  my  character  and  sentiments,  I 
may  safely  appeal  for  the  truth  of  this  as- 
sertion. With  them,  I  need  no  justifica- 
tion, 

"  In  a  cause  like  this,  success  is  everything. 
Success,  in  the  eyes  of  the  vulgar,  fixes  its 
merits,  Washington  succeeded,  and  Kos- 
ciusko failed, 

"After  a  combat  nobly  sustained,  a  com- 
bat which  would  have  excited  the  respect 
and  sympathy  of  a  generous  enemy,  ray  fate 
was  to  become  a  prisoner.     To  the  eternal 


SCO 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


disgrace  of  those  who  gave  the  order,  I  was 
brought  hither  in  irons,  like  a  felon.  I  men- 
tion tliis  for  the  sake  of  otliers  ;  for  me,  I 
am  indifferent  to  it ;  I  am  aware  of  the  fate 
which  awaits  me,  and  scorn  equally  the  tone 
of  complaint  and  that  of  supplication. 

"  As  to  the  connection  between  this  coun- 
try and  Grrat  Britain,  I  repeat  it,  all  that 
has  been  imputed  to  me,  words,  writings, 
and  actions,  I  here  deliberately  avow.  I 
have  spoken  and  acted  with  reflection,  and 
on  principle,  and  am  ready  to  meet  the  con- 
sequences. Whatever  be  the  sentence  of 
this  Court,  I  am  prepared  for  it.  Its  mem- 
bers will  surely  discharge  their  duty  ;  I  shall 
take  care  not  to  be  wanting  to  mine." 

This  speech  was  pronounced  in  a  tone  so 
magnanimous,  so  fall  of  noble  and  calm  se- 
renity, as  seemed  deeply  and  visibly  to  affect 
all  its  hearers,  the  members  of  the  Court  not 
excepted.  A  pause  ensued  of  some  continu- 
ance, and  silence  reigned  in  the  hall,  till  in- 
terrupted by  Tone  himself,  who  inquired, 
whether  it  was  not  usual  to  assign  an  inter- 
val between  the  sentence  and  execution  ? 
The  Judge  Advocate  answered,  that  the 
voices  of  the  Court  would  be  collected 
without  delay,  and  the  result  transmitted 
forthwith  to  the  Lord-Lieutenant.  If  the 
prisoner,  therefore,  had  any  observations  to 
make,  now  was  the  moment. 

Tone — "I  wish  to  offer  a  few  words  rela- 
tive to  one  single  point — to  the  mode  of  pun- 
ishment. In  France,  our  Emigres,  who  stand 
nearly  in  the  same  situation  in  which  I  sup- 
pose I  now  stand  before  you,  are  condemned 
to  be  shot.  I  a.sk,  that  the  Court  should  ad- 
judge me  the  death  of  a  soldier,  and  let  me 
be  shot  by  a  platoon  of  grenadiers.  I  re- 
quest this  indulgence,  rather  in  consideration 
of  the  uniform  which  I  wear,  the  uniform  of 
a  Chef  de  Brigade  in  the  French  army,  than 
from  any  personal  regard  to  myself.  In  or- 
der to  evince  my  claim  to  this  favor,  I  beg 
that  the  Court  may  take  the  trouble  to  per- 
use my  commi.ssiou  and  letters  of  service  in 
the  French  army.  It  will  appear  from  these 
jjapers,  that  I  have  not  received  them  as  a 
mask  to  cover  me,  but  that  I  have  been  long 
and  bona  Jide  an  o^cGY  \n  the  French  service. 

Judge  Advocate — "  You  must  feel  that  the 
papers  you  allude  to,  will  serve  as  undeni- 
able proofs  against  you." 


Tone — "  Oh  ! — /  know  it  well — I  have 
already  admitted  tlie  facts,  and  I  now  ad- 
mit the  papers  as  full  proofs  of  conviction." 

The  papers  were  then  examined  ;  they 
consisted  of  a  brevet  of  Chef  de  Brigade, 
from  the  Directory,  signed  by  the  Minister 
of  War  ;  of  a  letter  of  service,  granting 
him  the  rank  of  Adjutant-General  ;  and  of 
a  passport. 

General  Loftus — "  In  these  papers  you 
are  designated  as  serving  in  the  Army  of 
England." 

Tone— "I  did  serve  in  that  army,  when 
it  was  commanded  by  Buonaparte,  by  De- 
saix,  and  by  Kilmaine,  who  is,  as  I  am,  an 
Irishman.     But  I  have  served  elsewhere." 

General  Loftus  observed,  that  the  Court 
would,  undoubtedly,  submit  to  the  Lord-Lieu- 
tenant the  address  which  he  had  read  to 
them,  and,  also,  the  subject  of  his  last  de- 
mand. In  transmitting  the  address,  he, 
however,  took  care  to  efface  all  that  part 
of  it  which  he  would  not  allow  to  be  read. 
Lord  Cornwallis  refused  the  last  demand  of 
the  prisoner,  and  he  was  sentenced  to  die  the 
death  of  a  traitor,  in  forty-eight  hours,  on 
the  12th  of  November.  This  cruelty  he 
had  foreseen  ;  for  England,  from  the  days 
of  Llewellyn  of  Wales,  and  Wallace  of  Scot- 
land, to  those  of  Tone  and  Napoleon,  has 
never  shown  mercy  or  generosity  to  a  fallen 
enemy.  He,  then,  in  perfect  coolness  and 
self-possession,  determined  to  execute  hia 
purpose,  and  anticipate  their  sentence. 

The  sentence  upon  Tone,  pronounced  by  a 
court-martial,  was  obviously  illegal  ;  and  so 
every  lawyer  knew  it  to  be.  But  the  people 
looked  on  as  if  in  stupor.  Tiie  son  of  Tone 
has  truly  described  the  condition  of  Dublin 
at  that  moment : — 

"  No  man  dared  to  trust  his  next  neigh- 
bor, nor  one  of  the  pale  citizens  to  betray, 
by  look  or  word,  his  feelings  or  sympathy. 
The  terror  which  prevailed  in  Paris,  under 
the  rule  of  the  Jacobins,  or  in  Pi.orae,  dur- 
ing the  proscriptions  of  Marius,  Sylla,  and 
the  Triumviri,  and  under  the  reigns  of  Tib- 
erius, Nero,  Caligula,  and  Domitian,  was 
never  deeper  or  more  universal  than  that  of 
Ireland,  at  this  fatal  and  shameful  period. 
It  was,  in  sliort,  the  feeling  which  made  the 
people,  soon  after,  passively  acquiesce  in 
.the  Union,  and  in  the  extinction  of  their 


STTICIDE   rN   PRISON. 


361 


name  as  a  nation.  Of  tlie  numerous  friends 
of  my  fatlier,  and  of  those  who  had  shared 
in  his  pohtical  principles  and  career,  some 
had  perished  on  the  scaffold,  others  rotted 
in  dungeons,  and  the  remainder  dreaded,  by 
tlie  slii,^htest  marlc  of  recognition,  to  be  in- 
volved in  his  fate." 

But  there  was  one  friend  of  the  gallant 
prisoner  who  was  determined  that  the  law 
of  the  land  should  at  least  be  invoked,  and 
one  effort  made  to  rescue  this  noble  Irish- 
man from  the  jaws  of  death.  Tiie  friend 
was  John  Philpot  Curran.  He  believed 
that  by  moving  the  Court  of  King's  Bench 
to  assert  its  jurisdiction  some  delay  might 
be  interposed  —  the  French  Government 
might  threaten  to  retaliate  upon  some  im- 
portant prisoner  of  war — the  case  might 
thus  become  a  political  and  not  a  criminal 
one,  and,  in  the  end,  either  through  threats 
of  retaliation,  or  by  an  arrangement  with 
the  British  Government,  Tone  might  be 
saved. 

On  the  next  day,  November  12th,  (the 
day  fixed  for  his  execution,)  the  scene  in 
the  Court  of  King's  Bench  was  awful  and 
impressive  to  the  highest  degree.  As  soon 
as  it  opened,  Curran  advanced,  leading  the 
aged  father  of -Tone,  who  produced  his  aflS- 
davit  that  his  son  had  been  brought  before 
a  bench  of  officers,  calling  itself  a  court- 
martial,  and  sentenced  to  death.  "  I  do  not 
pretend,"  said  Curran,  "  that  Mr.  Tone  is 
not  guilty  of  the  charges  of  which  he  is  ac- 
cused. I  presume  the  officers  were  honor- 
able men.  But  it  is  stated  in  this  affidavit, 
as  a  solemn  fact,  that  Mr.  Tone  had  no 
commission  under  His  Majesty  ;  and,  there- 
fore, no  court-martial  could  have  cognizance 
of  any  crime  imputed  to  lum  whilst  the 
Court  of  King's  Bench  sat  in  the  capacity 
of  the  great  Criminnl  Court  of  the  land. 
In  times  when  war  was  ruging,  when  man 
was  opposed  to  man  in  the  field,  courts- 
martial  might  be  endured  ;  but  every  law 
authority  is  with  me  whilst  I  stand  upon 
this  sacred  and  immutable  principle  of  the 
Constitution— tliat  martial  law  and  civil  law 
are  incompatible,  and  that  the  former  must 
cease  with  the  existence  of  the  latter.  This 
is  not,  however,  the  time  for  arguing  this 
momentous  question.  My  client  must  ap- 
pear in  this  Court.  He  is  cast  for  death 
46 


this  very  dny.  He  may  be  ordered  for  exe- 
cution whilst  i  andress  you.  I  call  on  the 
Court  to  sujjport  the  law,  and  move  for  a 
habeas  a>rj)v.$,  to  be  directed  to  the  Provost- 
Marshal  of  the  barracks  of  Dublin  and 
Major  Sandys,  to  bring  up  the  body  of 
Tone." 

Chief -Justice — "  Have  a  writ  instantly 
prepared," 

Curran — "  My  client  may  die  whilst  the 
writ  is  preparing." 

Chief-Justice — "  Mr.  Sheriff,  proceed  to 
the  barracks  and  acquaint  the  Provost- 
Marshal  that  a  writ  is  preparing  to  suspend 
Mr.  Tone's  execution,  and  see  that  he  be 
not  executed." 

The  Court  awaited,  in  a  state  of  the  ut- 
most agitation  and  suspense,  the  return  of 
the  Sheriff.  He  speedily  appeared,  and 
said:  "My  lord,  I  have  been  to  the  bar- 
racks, in  pursuance  of  your  order.  The 
Provost-Marshal  says  he  must  obey  Major 
Sandys.  Miijor  Sandys  says  he  must  obey 
Lord  Cornwallis."  Mr.  Curran  announced, 
at  the  same  time,  that  Mr.  Tone  (the  father , 
was  just  returned,  after  serving  the  habeas 
corpus,  and  that  General  Craig  would  not 
obey  it.  Tiie  Chief-Justice  exclaimed  :  "Mr. 
Sheriff,  take  the  body  of  Tone  into  custody  • 
take  the  Provost-Marshal  and  Major  San- 
dys into  custody,  and  show  the  order  of  the 
Court  to  General  Craig." 

The  general  impression  Avas  now  that  the 
prisoner  would  be  led  out  to  execution,  in 
defiance  of  the  Court.  This  apprehension 
was  legible  in  the  countenance  of  Lord  Kil- 
warden,  a  man  who,  in  the  worst  of  times, 
preserved  a  religious  respect  for  the  laws, 
and  who,  besides,  I  may  add,  felt  every 
personal  feeling  of  pity  and  respect  for  the 
prisoner,  whom  he  had  formerly  contributed 
to  shield  from  the  vengeance  of  Government 
on  an  occasion  almost  as  perilous.  His 
agitation,  according  to  the  expression  of  aa 
eye-witness,  was  magnificent. 

The  Sheriff  returned  at  length  with  the 
fatal  news.  He  had  been  refused  admit- 
tance in  the  barracks  ;  but  was  informed 
that  Mr.  Tone,  who  had  wounded  him.self 
dangerously  in  the  neck  the  night  before, 
was  not  in  a  condition  to  be  removed,  Li 
short,  on  the  night  before,  after  writing  u 
letter  to  the  French  Directory,  and  a  touch 


3C2 


HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 


ing  adieu  to  his  wife,  wiiile  the  soldiers  were 
erecting  a  gibbet  for  him  in  the  yard  before 
his  window,  he  cut  his  throat  with  a  knife. 
But  it  was  not  effectually  done,  aud  he  lin- 
gered in  that  dungeon,  stretched  on  his 
bloody  pallet,  in  the  extremity  of  agony, 
seven  days  and  niglits.  Xo  friend  was 
allowed  access  to  him  ;  and  nobody  saw 
him  but  the  prison  surgeon,  a  French  emi- 
grant, and,  therefore,  his  natural  enemy. 
At  length  he  died.* 

The  Government  allowed  the  body  to  be 
carried  away  by  a  relative  named  Duubavin, 
and  it  was  buried  in  the  little  churchyard 
of  Bodenstown,  County  Kildare,  where 
Thomas  Davis  caused  a  monumental  slab  to 
be  erected  in  his  memory. 

"Thus  passed  away,"  says  Madden,  "one 
of  the  master  spirits  of  his  time.  Tlie  curse 
of  Swift  was  upon  this  man — he  Avas  an 
Irishman.  Had  he  been  a  native  of  any 
other  European  country,  his  noble  qualities, 
his  brilliant  talents,  would  have  raised  him 
to  the  first  honors  in  the  state,  and  to  the 
highest  place  in  the  esteem  of  his  fellow- 
citizens.  His  name  lives,  however,  and  his 
memory  is  probably  destined  to  survive  as 
long  as  his  country  has  a  history.  Peace 
be  to  his  ashes  !" 

The  expenses  incurred  in  first  exciting  the 
insurrection,  next  in  suppressing  it,  and 
afterwards  in  carrying  out  its  real  object — a 
Legislative  Union,  are  estimated  moderately 
by  Dr.  Maddtu,  as  follows  : — 

From  1797  to  1802,  the  cost  of  the  large 
military  force  that  was  kept  up  in  Ire- 
land, estimated  at  £4,000,000  per  an- 
num     £16,000,000 

Purchase  of  the  Irish  Parliament  .  .  1,500,000 
Payment  of  claims  of  suffering  loyalists  .  1,500,000 
secret  Service  money,  from  17'J7  to  1804, 

(from  official  reports,) 63,547 

Secret  Service  money  previous  to  Au- 
gust 21, 1797,  date  of  first  entry  in  pre- 

*  Madden  states  that  one  friend  of  Tone,  a  Mr. 
Fitzpatrick,  of  Capel  street,  was  admitted  to  see  him 
once.  This  is  a  matter  on  which  Tone's  son,  who 
was  then  far  away,  might  easily  have  been  misin- 
formed. Madden  further  testifies  that  the  surgeon, 
a  Dr.  Lentaigne,  was  a  very  good  aud  humane  man. 


ceding  account— say  from  date  of  Jack- 
son's mission  in  1794,  estimated  at  .     .  20,000 

Probable"  amount  of  pensions  paid  for 
bervices  in  suppressi(m  of  the  rebellion 
and  the  promotion  of  the  Union,  to  the 
present  time 1,200,000 

Increased  expense  of  legal  proceedings 
and  judicial  tribunals 500,000 

Additional  expenditure  in  public  offices, 
consequent  on  increased  duties  in  1798, 
and  alterations  in  establishments  at- 
tendant on  the  Union,  the  removal  of 
Parliamentary  archives,  and  compensa- 
tion of  officers,  servants,  &c 800,000 

Total £21,573,547 

The  whole  of  which  was  the  next  year, 
in  the  arrangement  of  the  terms  of  "Union," 
carried  to  the  account  of  Ireland,  and  made 
part  of  her  national  debt — as  if  it  were 
Ireland  that  profited  by  tiiese  transactions. 

The  military  force,  in  Ireland  during  and 
immediately  after,  the  insurrection,  was  : — 

FROM  PARLIAMENTARY  RETiniNS. 

The  Regulars 32,281 

The  Militia 2G,634 

The  Yeomanry 51,274 

The  English  Militia 24,201 

Artillery 1,500 

Commissariat 1,700 

Total 137,590 

These  figures  are  taken  from  a  report  of 
the  Parliamentary  proceedings  of  the  18th 
of  February,  1799.  They  are  introduced  in 
a  speech  of  Lord  Castlcreagh,  prefacing  a 
motion  on  military  estimates.  He  did  not 
think  that  one  man  could  be  then  spared  of 
the  131,590,  though  the  rebellion  was  com- 
pletely over,  and  though  he  had  to  deal 
with  a  population  only  one-half  of  the  pres- 
ent. We  have  not  at  hand  the  means  of 
ascertaining  the  force  of  1800,  bnt  there  is 
ground  for  concluding  that  it  was  over  tiiat 
of  1799,  though  the  time  of  the  rebellion 
was  still  further  off  by  a  year. 

Bnt,  in  fact.  Ministers  had  in  reserve 
still  another  ordeal  which  our  country  had 
to  pass  through — the  Union;  and  this  im- 
mense military  force  was  still  thought  need- 
ful, "as  good  lookers-on" — to  use  Lord 
Strafford's  phrase  of  a  century  and  a  half 
earlier. 


EXAMINATION    OF    O  CONNOR,    EMMET,    AND    MACNE\T;N. 


363 


CHAPTER    XXXTIII. 

1798—1799. 
Examination  of  O'Connor,  Emmet,  and  MacNeven — 
Lord  Enuiskillen  and  his  Court-Martial — Project  of 
Union — Bar  Meeting — Speecli  from  tlie  Throne — 
Union  Proposed — Reception  in  the  Lords — In  the 
Commons — Ponsonby— Fitzgerald— Sir  Jonah  Bar- 
rington — Castlereagli's  Explanation — Speech  of 
Plunket— First  Division  on  the  Union — Majority  of 
One — Mr.  Trench  and  Mr.  Fox — Methods  of  Con- 
version to  Unionism — First  Contest  a  drawn  Bat- 
tle— Excitement  in  Dublin. 

Paruamemt  continued  sitting.  In  Au- 
gust and  September,  1798,  the  examination 
of  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  Arthur  O'Connor, 
tiud  Dr.  MacNeven,  proceeded  before  the 
secret  conmiittees.  Wliile  the  report  of 
these  examinations  was  still  secret,  the  Dub- 
lin newspapers  under  the  control  of  the  Gov- 
erument,  published  some  very  garbled  and 
falsified  accounts  of  them,  calculated  not 
only  to  criminate  and  degrade  those  gen- 
tlemen themselves,  but  to  hold  them  forth 
as  betraying  their  comrades  and  associates. 
The  object  of  this  was  very  plain.  They 
thought  it  necessary  to  protest  against  it  by 
a  published  card.  Thereupon,  they  were 
examined  again  ;  were  asked  whether  they 
meant  to  retract  anything  ;  were  shown  the 
minutes  of  their  evidence  as  taken  down, 
and  interrogated  as  to  its  correctness  and 
fidelity.  They  answered  that  they  found  it 
correct,  so  far  as  it  went ;  but  Emmet  de- 
clared that  very  much  of  their  evidence  was 
omitted.  On  the  whole,  they  admitted 
that  the  report  shown  to  t/iem  was  substan- 
tially correct,  (except  the  omissions,)  and 
that  they  had  only  meant  to  protest  against 
the  false  newspaper  accounts.  Their  new 
examination  was  triumphantly  paraded  as  a 
complete  exculpation  of  the  committees 
from  all  charge  of  garbling  ;  but,  in  fact, 
the  newspiipers  could  not  have  come  by  even 
their  partial  and  carefully-distorted  accounts 
of  this  evidence,  except  through  some  one 
connected  with  the  Government  or  secret 
committees  ;  and  so  the  intended  effect  was 
in  part  produced,  without  the  Government 
seeming  to  be  a  party  to  it.  This  affair  is 
obscure  ;  but,  in  justice  to  the  unfortunate 
gentlemen  then  in  the  hands  of  most  unscru- 
pulous enemies,  it  is  right  to  throw  all  tlie 
light  possible  upon  it.     Arthur  O'Connor, 


in  a  letter  to  Lord  Castlereagh,  gives  this 
account  of  the  misunderstanding  : — 

"  At  the  instance  of  Government,  En^raet, 
MacNeven,  and  I,  drew  up  a  memoir  con- 
taining thirty-six  pages,  giving  an  account 
of  the  origin,  principles,  conduct,  and  views 
of  the  Union,  which  we  signed  and  delivered 
to  you  on  the  4Lh  of  August  last.  On  the 
Gth,  Mr.  Cook  came  to  our  prison,  and 
after  acknowledging  that  the  memoir  was  a 
perfect  performance  of  our  agreement,  he 
told  us  that  Lord  Cornwallis  had  read  it, 
but,  as  it  was  a  vindication  of  the  Union, 
and  a  condemnation  of  the  Ministers,  the 
Government,  and  Legislature  of  Ireland,  he 
could  not  receive  it ;  and,  therefore,  he 
wished  we  would  alter  it.  We  declared  we 
would  not  chauge  one  letter — it  was  all 
true,  and  it  was  the  truth  we  stood  pledged 
to  deliver.  He  then  asked  us  if  Govern- 
ment should  publish  such  parts  only  as  might 
suit  them,  whether  we  would  refrain  from 
publishing  the  memoir  entire.  We  answered 
that,  having  stipulated  for  the  liberty  of 
publication,  we  would  use  that  right  when 
and  as  we  should  feel  ourselves  called  ou. 
To  which  he  added  that,  if  we  published, 
he  would  have  to  hire  persons  to  answer  us; 
that  then  he  supposed  we  would  reply,  by 
which  a  paper  war  would  be  carried  ou 
without  end  between  us  and  the  Govern- 
ment. Finding  that  we  would  not  suffer 
the  memoir  to  be  garbled,  and  that  tlie 
literary  contest  between  us  and  these  hire- 
lings was  not  likely  to  turn  out  to  your 
credit,  it  was  determined  to  examine  us  be- 
fore the  secret  committees,  whereby  a  more 
complete  selection  might  be  made  out  of  the 
memoir,  and  all  the  objectionable  truths — 
with  which  it  was  observed  it  abounded — 
might  be  suppressed.  For  the  present  I 
shall  only  remark  tliat,  of  one  hundred 
pages,  to  which  the  whole  of  the  informa- 
tion I  gave  to  the  Government  and  to  the 
secret  committees  amounts,  only  one  page 
has  been  published." 

On  the  6th  of  October,  Parliament  was 
prorogued  with  a  highly  congratulatory 
speech  from  the  Throne,  on  the  suppression 
of  the  "  dangerous  and  wicked  rebellion," 
and  on  the  glorious  victory  obtained  by 
"  Sir  Horatio  Nelson  over  the  French  fleet 
in  the  Mediterranean." 


864 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAKD. 


About  the  same  time  occurred  a  certain 
Bhara  court-martial,  under  the  presidency  of 
the  Earl  of  Euniskillen,  a  Colonel  in  the 
army — a  great  favorite  with  the  Orange- 
men, and  probably  an  Orangeman  himself. 
A  man  named  Wollaghan,  a  yeoman,  had 
brutally  shot  a  poor,  peaceable  man  in  his 
own  house.  The  affair  is  not  otherwise  de- 
serving of  notice  than  that  the  evidence  on 
this  trial  shows  the  horrid  state  of  the  coun- 
try. A  corporal  of  the  corps  deposed  that 
a  certain  Cnptain  Armstrong,  who  com- 
manded at  Mount  Kennedy  before  and  after 
the  murder,  had  given  orders  "  that  any 
body  of  yeomanry  going  out,  (he  would  not 
wish  them  less  than  nine  or  ten  for  their 
own  safety,)  and,  if  they  should  meet  with 
any  rebels,  whom  they  knew  or  suspected  to 
be  such,  they  need  not  be  at  the  trouble  of 
bringing  them  in,  but  were  to  shoot  them  on 
the  spot ;  that  he  (the  witness)  communi- 
cated this  to  the  corps,  and,  is  very  certain, 
iu  the  hearing  of  the  prisoner  Wollaghan, 
who  was  a  sober,  faithful,  and  loyal  yeoman, 
and  not  degrading  the  rest  of  the  corps — 
one  of  the  best  in  it ;  that  it  was  the  prac- 
tice of  the  corps  to  go  out  upon  scouring 
parties  without  orders,"  &c. 

The  affair,  however,  made  a  noise — be- 
came notorious ;  and  Lord  Coruvvallis 
thought  himself  obliged  to  disapprove  the 
judgment  of  the  court-martial,  (which  ac- 
quitted Wollaghan,)  and  to  rebuke  Lord 
Euniskillen.  The  murderer,  however,  was 
only  dismissed  the  service.  The  Orange- 
men were  highly  disgusted  with  Lord  Corn- 
wallis,  and  called  him  "  Cropjjy  .  Corny." 
But  the  cases  of  local  tyranny  and  brutality 
exercised  upon  the  people  were  very  seldom, 
indeed,  brought  into  any  court.  Seldomer 
still  were  they  punished.  The  juryman  who 
should  have  ventured  to  hesitate  about  ac- 
quitting an  Orangeman  would  have  been 
himself  hunted  down  as  a  "croppy."  The 
moment  was  come  to  propose  the  Union  as 
the  only  way  of  putting  a  stop  to  these  hor- 
rors, and  to  all  the  other  woes  of  Ireland. 

Even  before  the  fury  of  rebelliou  had 
subsided,  had  the  British  Ministry  recom- 
mended preparatory  steps  to  enable  the 
Irish  Government  to  introduce  the  proposal 
of  a  Legi.>lative  Union  with  plausibility  and 
effect  upon  the  lirst  favorable  opening.     In 


pursuance  of  this  recommendation,  a  pam- 
phlet was  written,  or  procured  to  be  writ- 
ten, by  Mr.  Edward  Cooke,  the  under-Sec- 
retary  of  the  Civil  Department.  It  was  pub- 
lished anonymously,  but  was  well  under- 
stood to  speak  the  sentiments  of  the  British 
Administration,  and  the  Chief-Governor,  and 
those  of  the  Irish  Administration  who  went 
with  his  excellency  upon  the  question  of 
union.  It  was  circulated  with  incredible 
industry  and  profusion  throughout  every 
part  of  the  nation,  and  certainly  was  pro- 
ductive of  many  conversations  on  the  ques- 
tion under  the  then  existing  circumstances 
of  that  nation ;  the  most  prominent  of 
which  were — the  still  unallayed  horrors  of 
blood  and  carnage,  the  excessive  cruelty  and 
vindictive  ferocity  of  the  Irish  yeomanry 
towards  their  countrymen,  compared  with 
the  pacific,  orderly,  and  humane  conduct  of 
the  English  militia,  of  which  about  eighteen 
regiments  were  still  iu  the  country,  and, 
above  all,  the  confidence  which  the  concili- 
atory conduct  of  the  Chief  Governor  in- 
spired. This  pamphlet  was  considered  as  a 
kind  of  official  proclamation  of  the  senti- 
ments of.  Government  upon  the  question, 
and  had  no  sooner  appeared  than  it  pro- 
duced a  general  warfare  of  the  press,  and 
threw  the  whole  nation  into  a  new  division 
of  parties. 

No  sooner  was  the  intention  of  Govern- 
ment unequivocally  known,  than  most  of 
the  leading  characters  took  their  ranks 
according  to  their  respective  views  and 
sentiments,  the  Earl  of  Clare  at  the  head 
of  the  Unionists,  and  the  Right  Honorable 
Mr.  Foster,  his  late  zealous  colleague  in 
the  extorted  system  of  coercion  and  terror, 
put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Anti-Union- 
ists. Amongst  the  first  dismissals  for  op- 
posing the  Union  were  those  of  Sir  John 
Parnell,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
and  Mr.  Fitzgerald,  the  Prime-Sergeant. 
The  must  interesting  public  meeting  upon 
the  subject  of  the  Union  was  that  of  the 
gentlemen  of  the  Irish  bar.  It  has  before 
been  observed,  that  in  Ireland  the  bar  was 
the  great  road  that  led  to  preferment,  and 
few  were  the  families  in  the  nation  which 
looked  up  to  it;  that  did  not  furnish  one 
member  or  more  to  that  profession.  Tho 
bar,  consequently,  commanded  a  very  pow- 


PRCoECT    OF   UNION — BAR   MEETING. 


365 


erful  influence  over  the  public  mind,  even 
independently  of  the  weij,'ht  of  respectability 
attending  the  opinions  of  that  learned  body. 
Ill  pursuance  of  a  requisition  signed  by 
twenty-seven  lawyers  of  the  first  respecta- 
bility and  character  in  the  profession,  a 
meeting  of  the  Irish  bar  took  place  on  the 
9th  of  December,  at  the  Exhibition  House 
in  William  street,  to  deliberate  on  the  ques- 
tion of  Legislative  Union.  The  meeting 
was  very  numerous. 

It  must  be  observed  that  the  bar  of  Ire- 
land was  the  only  great  body  in  the  state 
or  in  society  that  Lords  Clare  and  Castle- 
reagh  feared,  as  a  serious  obstruction  to 
their  plans.  In  its  ranks  were  the  most 
accomplished  statesmen  and  most  formida- 
ble debaters  of  the  country,  and  the  most 
earnest  opponents  of  Union  to  the  last  were 
barristers.  Lord  Clare,  therefore,  had  ta- 
ken measures  to  corrupt  the  bar,  by  creating 
a  great  many  new  legal  offices,  which  they 
were  expected  to  solicit,  and  for  which  they 
would  sell  themselves  to  the  Castle.  He 
doubled  the  number  of  the  bankrupt  com- 
missioners ;  he  revived  some  offices,  created 
others,  and,  under  pretence  of  furnishing 
each  county  with  a  local  judge,  in  twu 
months  he  estabjished  thirty-two  new  offices, 
of  about  six  or  seven  hundred  pounds  per 
annum  each.  His  arrogance  in  court  intimi- 
dated many  whom  his  patronage  could  not 
corrupt  ;  and  he  had  no  doubt  of  overpow- 
ering the  whole  profession. 

There  was  much  interest,  therefore,  felt 
in  the  result  of  this  preliminary  meeting  of 
the  bar.  Among  those  who  had  called  the 
meeting  were  fourteen  of  the  King's  coun- 
sel :  E.  Mayne,  W.  Saurin,  W.  C.  Plunket, 
C.  Bushe,  W.  Sankey,  B.  Burton,  J.  Bar- 
rington,  A.  M'Cartney,  G.  O'Farrell,  J. 
O'DriscoU,  J.  Lloyd,  P.  Burrowes,  R.  Jcbb, 
and  H.  Joy,  Esquires, — a  very  distinguished 
list  of  names  ;  some  of  which  will  be  met 
with  again  and  again,  before  the  final  catas- 
trophe of  the  nation.  Saurin  spoke  against 
the  Union  project.  "  He  was  a  moderate 
Huguenot,"  says  Sir  Jonah  Barrington, 
"  and  grandson  of  the  great  preacher  at  Tlie 
Hague — an  excellent  lawyer  and  a  stead- 
fast and  pious  Cliristian."  Sir  Jonah  goes 
on  to  describe  this  important  meeting  : — 

**  Mr.   Saint   George    Daly,   a    briefless 


barrister,  was  the  first  supporter  of  the 
Union.  Of  all  men  he  was  the  least  thought 
of  for  preferment  ;  but  it  was  wittily  ob- 
served, '  that  the  Union  was  the  first  brief 
Mr.  Daly  had  spoken  from.'  He  moved  an 
adjournment. 

"  Mr.  Thomas  Grady  was  the  Fitzgibbon 
spokesman — a  gentleman  of  independent 
property,  a  tolerable  lawyer,  an  amatory 
poet,  a  severe  satirist,  and  an  indefatigable 
quality-hunter.  He  had  written  the  '  F/esh 
Brush,'  for  Lady  Clare  ;  the  'West  Briton,' 
for  the  Union;  the  'Barrister,'  for  the  bar; 
and  the  'Nosegay,'  for  a  banker  at  Limer- 
ick— wlio  sued  him  successfully  for  a  libel. 

"'The  Irish,'  said  Mr.  Grady,  'are  only 
the  rump  of  an  aristocracy.  Shall  I  visit 
posterity  with  a  system  of  war,  pesiilenre, 
and  famine?*  No  I  no  !  give  me  a  Union, 
Unite  me  to  that  country  where  all  is  peace, 
and  order,  and  prosperity.  Without  a  Union 
we  shall  see  embryo  chief  judges,  attorney- 
generals  in  perspective,  and  animalcula  ser- 
geants. All  the  cities  of  the  south  and  west 
are  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  between  the  rest 
of  the  world  and  Great  Britain  ;  they  are  all 
for  it — they  must  all  become  warehouses  ; 
the  people  are  Catholics,  and  they  are  all 
for  it,'  &c.,  &c.,  &c.  Such  an  oration  as 
Mr.  Grady's  had  never  before  been  heard 
at  a  meeting  of  lawyers  in  Europe. 

"  Mr.  John  Beresford,  Lord  Clare's 
nephew  and  purse-bearer,  followed,  as  if  for 
the  charitable  purpose  of  taking  the  laugh 
from  Mr.  Grady,  in  which  he  perfectly  suc- 
ceeded, by  turning  it  on  himself.  Mr.  Beres* 
ford  afterwards  became  a  parson,  and  is  now 
Lord  Decies. 

"  Mr.  Goold  said :  '  There  are  forty 
thousand  British  troops  in  Ireland,  and  with 
forty  thousand  bayonets  at  my  breast  the 
Minister  shall  not  plant  another  Sicily  in 
the  bosom  of  the  Atlantic.  I  want  not  the 
assistance  of  divine  inspiration  to  foretell, 
for  I  am  enabled  by  the  visible  and  unerr- 

*  Nothing  could  be  more  nnfortnnate  than  this 
crude  observation  of  Mr.  Grady,  as  the  very  three 
evils — war,  pestilence,  and  famine, — which  he  de- 
clared a  union  would  avert,  have  since  visited,  and 
are  still  visiting,  the  unioned  country;  which  has, 
since  the  connection  with  England,  been  depopulated 
by  the  famine  which  that  Union  caused ;  and,  in- 
oculated with  the  late  plague  from  Great  Britain, 
they  are  now  declared  in  a  state  of  war  by  the 
British  Legislature. 


3G6 


HISTORY   OF   rREL.\ND. 


iiig  demonstrations  of  Uiiture  to  assert,  that 
Ireland  was  destined  to  be  a  free  and  inde- 
pendent nation.  Our  patent  to  be  a  state, 
not  a  sliire,  comes  direct  from  heaven.  The 
Almighty  lias,  in  majestic  characters,  signed 
the  great  charter  of  our  independence.  The 
great  Creator  of  the  world  has  g'lvpn  our 
beloved  country  the  gigantic  outlines  of  a 
lingdora.  The  God  of  nature  never  intended 
that  Ireland  should  be  a  province,  and,  bt/ 

G ,  she  never  shall ! ' 

"The  assembly  burst  into  a  tumult  of 
applause.  A  repetition  of  the  words  came 
from  many  mouths,  and  many  an  able  law- 
yer swore  hard  upon  the  subject.  The  di- 
vision was — 

Against  the  Union 166 

In  favor  of  it 32 

Majority 134 

"Thirty-two,"  continues  Sir  Jonah  Bar- 
rington,  "  was  the  precise  number  of  the 
county  judges,  and  of  this  minority  the  fol- 
lowing persons  were  afterwards  rewarded 
for  their  adherence  to  Lord  Clare  : — ■ 
^^  List    of    Barristers    who    Supported    the 

Union,  and  their  Respedice  Rewards. 

Per  Annum. 

1.  Charles  Osborn,  appointed  a  Judge  of  the 

King's  Bench £3,300 

2.  Saint  John  Daly,  appointed  a  Judge  of  the 

King's  Bench 3,300 

3.  William  Smith,  appointed  Baron  of  the  Ex- 

chequer       3,300 

4.  Mr.  M'Cleland,  appointed  Baron  of  the  Ex- 

chequer      3,300 

5.  Robert  Johnson,  appointed  Judge  of  the 

Common  Pleas 3,300 

6.  William  Johnson,  appointed  Judge  of  the 

Common  Pleas 3,300 

7.  Mr.  Torrens,  appointed  Judge  of  the  Com- 

mon Pleas 3,300 

8.  Mr.  Vandeleur,  appointed  a  Judge  of  the 

King's  Bench 3,800 

9.  Thomas  Mauusell,  a  County  Judge   .     .     .        600 

10.  William  Turner,  a  County  Judge  ....  600 

11.  Jolin  Scholes,  a  County  Judge      ....  600 

12.  Thomas  Vickers,  a  County  Judge      .     .    .  600 

13.  J.  Homan,  a  County  Judge 600 

14.  Thomas  Grady,  a  Countj'  Judge   ....  600 

15.  John  Dwyer,  a  County  Judge 600 

16.  George  Leslie,  a  County  Judge    ....  600 

17.  Thomas  Scott,  a  County  Judge     ....  600 

18.  Henry  Brook,  a  County  Judge      ....  600 

19.  James  (-leraghty,  a  County  Judge     .     .     .  600 

20.  Richard  Sharkey,  a  County  Judge     .     .     .  600 

21.  William  Stokes,  a  County  Judge  ....  600 

22.  William  Roper,  a  County  Judge   ....  600 

23.  C.  Garnet,  a  County  Judge 600 

24.  Mr.  Jenison,  a  Commissioner  for  the  dis- 

tribution of  one  million  and  a  half  Union 
compensation 1,200 


Per  Anunm. 

25.  Mr.  Fitzgibbon  Henchy,  Commissioner  of 

-Bankrupts £400 

26.  J.  Keller,  Officer  in  the  Court  of  Chancery .       500 

27.  P.  W.  Fortescuo,  M.  P.,  a  secret  pension  .       400 

28.  W.  Longfield,  an  officer  in  the  Custom 

House 600 

20.  Arthur  Brown,  Commission  of  Inspector  .        800 

30.  Edmund  Stanley,  Commission  of  Inspector.       800 

31.  Charles  Ormsby,  Counsel  to  Commission- 

ers Value 5,000 

32.  William  Knott,  M.  P.,  Commission  of  Ap- 

peals            800 

33.  Henry  Deane  Grady,  Counsel  to  Commis- 

missioners  Value 5,000 

34.  John  Beresford,  his  father  a  title." 

It  was  already  so  notorious,  during  this 
winter,  that  a  Union  was  to  be  immediately 
proposed  that  the  measure  was  already 
warmly  discussed,  in  anticipation  of  the 
approaching  meeting  of  Parliament.  Mr. 
Cooke's  pamphlet  called  forth  scores  of 
other  pamphlets,  for  and  against.  Before 
the  end  of  December  no  less  than  thirty 
appeared,  of  which  Plowden  records  the 
titles. 

The  city  of  Dublin,  which  it  was  natural 
to  suppose  would  be  more  prejudiced  by  the 
Union  than  any  other  parj;  of  the  kingdom, 
inasmuch  as  it  would  lose  ranch  of  the  ad- 
vantages of  a  metropolis  by  the  abolition  of 
the  Parliament,  was  also  prominently  for- 
ward in  its  opposition  to  that  measure.  A 
post-assembly  of  the  Lord-Mayor,  sheriffs, 
commons,  and  citizens  of  the  city  of  Dublin 
was  convened  on  the  17th  of  December; 
who,  referring  to  a  variety  of  rumors  that 
were  then  in  circulation,  of  an  intended 
union  of  Ireland  with  Great  Britain,  came 
to  resolutions  strongly  denouncing  any  such 
project ;  which  certainly,  whatever  it  might 
be  supposed  to  do  for  other  parts  of  the 
kingdom,  was  sure  to  ruin  Dublin  at  all 
events. 

Kext  came  a  very  numerous  and  respect- 
able meeting  of  the  merchants  and  bankers 
of  the  city,  who  resolved — "  That  they  look- 
ed with  abhorrence  on  any  attempt  to  deprive 
the  people  of  Ireland  of  their  Parliament, 
and  thereby  of  their  constitutional  right,  and 
immediate  power  to  legislate  for  themselves. 
That,  impressed  with  every  sentiment  of 
loyalty  to  their  King,  and  affectionate  attach- 
ment to  British  connection,  they  conceived 
that  to  agitate  in  Parliament  a  question  of 
the  Legislative  Union  between  that  kingdom 


UKION  PEOPOSED. 


367 


and  Groat  Britain,  would  be  highly  diiiiger- 
oiis  and  impolitic." 

Even  the  fellows  and  scholars  of  Trinity 
Colleji:e  held  their  meeting,  and  passed  a 
resolution  calling  on  their  representatives  in 
Parliament  to  oppose  the  Union.  Similar 
resolutions  of  county  and  borough  meetings 
appeared  nearly  every  day  ;  so  that  when 
Lord  Cornwallis,  on  the  22d  of  January, 
]  799,  came  down,  along  with  his  trusty  coun- 
selors, Lords  Clare  and  Castlereagh,  to 
open  the  session  of  Parliament,  it  was  very 
evident  that  there  was  a  considerable  mass 
of  opposition  to  be  broken  down. 

On  that  day  there  was  a  great  concourse 
in  Dublin  streets  ;  and  College  Greeu  was 
filled  with  anxious  multitudes  ;  not  gay  and 
jubilant,  as  they  had  been  when  once  before 
they  had  crowded  those  avenues  to  witness 
the  parade  of  the  volunteers,  but  with  a 
gloomy  feeling  of  the  miseries  then  actually 
upon  the  country,  and  foreboding  of  some- 
thing worse  to  come.  The  Viceroy  came 
from  the  Castle  to  the  House  with  a  strong 
guard,  and  duly  delivered  his  speech  from 
the  throne  ;  of  which  these  two  portentous 
paragraphs  were  listened  to  with  breathless 
attention  : — 

"  The  zeal  of  His  Majesty's  regular  and 
militia  forces,  the  gallantry  of  the  yeomanry, 
the  honorable  cooperation  of  the  Britisii 
feucibles  and  militia,  and  the  activity,  skill, 
and  valor  of  His  Majesty's  fleets,  will,  I 
doubt  not,  defeat  every  future  effort  of  the 
enemy.  But  the  more  I  have  reflected  ou 
the  situation  and  circumstances  of  this  king- 
dom, considering  on  the  one  hand  the 
strength  and  stability  of  Great  Britain, 
and  on  the  other  those  divisions,  which  have 
shaken  L-eland  to  its  foundations,  the  more 
anxious  I  am  for  some  permanent  adjust- 
ment which  may  extend  the  advantages  en- 
joyed by  our  sister  kingdom  to  every  part 
of  this  island. 

"The  unremitting  industry  with  which 
our  enemies  persevere  in  their  avowed  de- 
sign of  endeavoring  to  effect  a  separation  of 
this  kingdom  from  Great  Britain,  must  have 
engaged  your  particular  attention  ;  and 
His  Majesty  commands  me  to  express  his 
anxious  hope  that  this  consideration,  joined 
to  the  sentiment  of  mutual  affection  and 
common   interest,  may  dispose  the    Parlia- 


ments in  both  kingdoms  to  provide  the  most 
effectual  means  of  maintaining  and  improv- 
ing a  connection,  essential  to  their  common 
security,  and  of  consolidating,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, into  one  firm  and  lasting  fabric,  tlie 
strength,  the  power,  and  the  resources  of 
the  British  empire." 

Here,  then,  was  the  dreaded  Union  dis- 
tinctly enough  raised  up  before  Parliament 
and  the  country,  and  avowed  as  the  policy 
of  the  Administration.  At  once  began  the 
tumult  of  debate  on  the  address.  la  the 
Lords,  an  address  was  proposed  which  was 
almost  an  echo  of  the  speech,  promising  to 
"give  tiie  fullest  attention  to  measures  of 
such  importance." 

Upon  which  it  was  proposed  by  Lord 
Powerscourt  to  amend  the  said  motion,  by 
inserting  after  the  word  importance,  the  fol- 
lowing words  : — "  That  it  is  our  most  earn- 
est desire  to  strengthen  the  connection  be- 
tween the  two  countries  by  every  possible 
means,  but  the  measure  of  a  Legislative 
Union  we  apprehend  is  not  within  the  limit 
of  our  power  ;  we  beg  leave  also  to  repre- 
sent to  your  Majesty,  that  although  this 
House  were  competent  to  adopt  such  a  mea- 
sure, we  conceive  that  it  would  be  highly 
impolitic  so  to  do,  as  it  would  tend,  in  our 
opinion,  more  than  any  other  cause,  ulti- 
mately to  a  separation  of  this  kingdom  from 
that  of  Great  Britain." 

A  motion  was  then  made  for  leave  to 
withdraw  the  amendment.  A  debate  arose 
thereupon,  and  the  question  being  put,  the 
House  divided,  and  the  Earl  of  Glandore 
reported,  that  the  contents  below  the  bar 
were  nineteen,  and  the  non-contents  in  the 
House  were  forty-six. 

A  motion  was  then  made,  that  after  the 
word  "security,"  in  the  same  paragraph, 
the  following  words  be  expunged,  "and  of 
consolidating  as  far  as  possible  into  one  firm 
and  lasting  fabric,  the  strength,  the  power, 
and  the  resources  of  the  British  empire," 
which  also  passed  in  the  negative.  Another 
motion  was  then  made  by  the  Earl  of  Bel- 
lamont,  that  after  the  said  word  "import- 
ance," the  following  words  be  inserted  :  "  so 
far  as  maybe  consistent  with  the  permanent 
enjoyment,  exercise,  and  tutelary  vigilance 
of  our  resident  and  independent  Parliament, 
as   established,     acknowledged,    aed    rec«)g» 


368 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


nized."  This  motion  was  also  negatived  by 
a  division  of  forty-nine  against  sixteen. 
Fourteen  of  the  lords  in  the  minority  pro- 
tested.* 

In  the  House  of  Commons  were  many 
anxious  faces  and  gloomy  brows.  It  had 
already  been  sufficiently  indicated  that  Gov- 
ernment, to  carry  this  measure,  would  stop 
at  nothing.  Immediately  after  the  bar 
meeting  the  Right  Honorable  James  Fitz- 
gerald, Prime  Sergeant,  was  dismissed  from 
office,  and  deprived  of  his  precedency  at  the 
bar.  It  was  known,  also,  that  unlimited 
funds  would  be  used  by  Government,  with- 
out scruple,  both  in  buying  up  boroughs 
(which  were  then  treated  as  the  private 
property  of  their  patrons,)  and  in  direct 
bribery,  to  pay  for  votes.  The  innumerable 
methods  which  a  powerful  government  has 
at  its  disposal  both  to  reward  and  to  pun- 
ish— all  these  considerations  rose  up  before 
the  anxious  minds  of  the  members  occupy- 
ing those  benches.  It  must  be  confessed, 
too,  that  the  previous  history  of  the  Irish 
Parliament,  as  recorded  in  these  pages,  was 
not  calculated  to  make  the  country  expect 
any  exhibition  of  stern  patriotism.  "  I  have 
now  seen,"  said  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone, 
"  the  Parliament  of  Ireland,  the  Parliament 
of  England,  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  the  Corps  Legislatif  of 
France,  and  the  Convention  of  Batavia  ;  I 
have  likewise  seen  our  shabby  Volunteer 
Convention  in  1783,  and  the  General  Com- 
mittee of  the  Catholics  in  1793  ;  so  that  I 
have  seen,  in  the  way  of  deliberate  bodies, 
as  many  I  believe  as  most  men,  and  of  all 
those  I  have  mentioned,  beyond  all  com- 
parison the  most  shamelessly  profligate  and 
abandoned  by  all  sense  of  virtue,  principle, 
or  even  common  decency,  was  the  Legislature 
of  ray  own  unfortunate  country  ;  the  scoun- 
drels 1 " 

But  when  we  read  so  harsh  a  judgment 
upon  the  Legislature  of  our  country,  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  it  did  not  repre- 
sent the  country  ;   did  not  even  represent 


*  Viz.,  Leinster, 
Granard, 
Belvidere, 
Arran, 
Charlemont, 
Bellamont, 


Kilkenny, 

Belmore, 

Powerscourt, 

De  Vesci, 

Dunsany, 

Lismore. 


Mountcashel,        Wm.  Down  and  Connor, 


the  Protestant  minority  of  the  country  ; 
represented  nothing  (as  to  its  vast  majority,) 
save  a  few  noble  families,  great  proprietors, 
and  the  enormous  "interest"  of  place  and 
pension.  Considering  all  this,  it  is  rather 
surprising,  and  was,  indeed,  very  surprising 
to  Lord  Castlereagh,  that  on  the  present 
vital  occasion,  the  policy  of  the  Castle  met 
with  so  hearty  an  opposition. 

The  address  in  the  Commons  was  moved 
by  Lord  Tyrone,  eldest  son  of  the  Marquis 
of  Waterford.  The  address,  he  said,  did 
not  pledge  him  in  any  manner  to  support 
the  measure  of  an  union  ;  let  that  question 
of  policy  stand  upon  its  own  merits  ;  let  it 
be  adopted  or  rejected  as  the  interests  of 
Ireland  and  *the  prosperity  of  the  empire 
should  dictate. 

Colonel  Fitzgerald,  (member  for  the 
County  of  Cork,)  seconded  the  address, 
expressing  a  zealous  desire  that  any  step 
likely  to  cement  and  strengthen  the  connec- 
tion between  the  two  countries  should  be 
adopted. 

After  several  speeches,  opposing  the  mea- 
sure of  a  union,  in  a  vague  and  hypotheti- 
cal sort  of  way,  as  if  there  were  really  no 
such  question  before  the  House,  Lord  Castle- 
reagh, whose  fault  was  certainly  not  lack  of 
boldness,  ruse  to  say,  that  although  there 
were  not  in  the  address  any  specific  pledge 
to  a  measure  of  union,  yet  it  was  clearly 
implied  in  the  wish  to  strengthen  the  re- 
sources of  the  empire  ;  for  he  had  ao  diffi- 
culty in  saying,  that  he  thought  the  only 
means  of  settling  that  unhappy  country  in 
permanent  tranquillity  and  connection  with 
Britain,  were  to  be  found  in  a  Legislative 
Union  ;  and  on  that  subject  he  did  intend  at 
an  early  day  to  submit  a  specific  motion  to 
the  House.* 

Mr.  G.  Ponsonby  entered  on  an  able  at- 
tack and  exposure  of  the  general  principle 
of  an  union,  by  boldly  avowing  the  princi- 
ple, that  neither  the  Legislature,  nor  any 
power  on  earth,  had  a  right  or  authority  to 

*  On  occasion  of  this  first  and  most  remarkable  of 
the  debates  on  the  Union,  it  has  been  judged  expe- 
dient to  go  somewhat  further  into  detail  than  ui^ual. 
It  was  now  that  Members  of  Parliament  took  their 
positions  on  that  great  question  ;  from  which  posi- 
tions many  of  them  afterwards  retreated  and  changed 
sides ;  from  motives,  unhappily,  too  well  known,  as 
will  soon  appear. 


RECEPTION    IN    THE    LOEDS — IN    THE   COMMONS. 


369 


annihilate  tlie  Irish  Parliumeut,  and  deprive 
people  forever  of  their  rights  to  the  bene- 
fits of  the  Constitution,  and  civil  liberty. 

The  Minister  had  told  them  they  ou<:!;ht 
to  discuss  this  measure  with  coolness  ;  but 
wheu  the  Minister  himself  would  not  leave 
men  to  the  free  exercise  of  their  understand- 
ing, but  turned  out  of  ofSce  tlie  best  and 
oldest  servants  of  the  Crown,  because  tliey 
would  not  prostitute  their  conscience,  when 
the  terror  of  dismissal  was  thus  holden  out 
to  deter  men  in  ofiSce  from  a  fair  exercise  of 
their  private  judgment,  how  could  he  talk 
of  cool  discussion  ?  He  concluded  by  mov- 
ing an  amendment,  which  would  give  every 
gentleman,  who  did  not  wish  to  pledge  him- 
self to  a  surrender  of  the  rights  of  the 
country,  an  opportunity  of  speaking  his 
mind.  The  amendment  was  —  that  after 
the  passage  which  declared  the  willingness 
of  the  House  to  enter  on  a  consideration  of 
what  measures  might  best  tend  to  confirm 
the  common  strength  of  the  empire,  should 
be  inserted,  "  maintaining,  however,  the  un- 
doubted birth-right  of  the  people  of  Ireland 
to  have  a  resident  and  independent  legisla- 
ture, such  as  was  recognized  by  the  British 
Legislature  in  1782,  and  was  finally  settled 
at  the  adjustment  of  all  differences  between 
the  two  counti'ies." 

Sir  L.  Parsons  seconded  the  amendment. 

Many  gentlemen  warmly  supported  Pon- 
sonby's  amendment  ;  amongst  others,  Mr. 
Fitzgerald,  ex-Prirae-Sergeant,  who  raised 
the  vital  Constitutional  question—"  It  w-as 
not,  in  his  opinion,  within  the  moral  compe- 
tence of  Parliament,  to  destroy  and  extin- 
guish itself,  and  with  it  the  rights  and  lib- 
erties of  those  who  created  it.  The  consti- 
tuent parts  of  a  state  are  obliged  to  hold 
their  public  faith  with  each  otiier,  and  with 
all  those  who  derive  any  serious  interest  un- 
der their  engagements  ;  such  a  compact  may, 
with  respect  to  Great  Britain,  be  an  union  ; 
but  with  respect  to  Ireland,  it  will  be  a  re- 
volution, and  a  revolution  of  a  most  alarm- 
ing nature." 

Mr.  Fitzgerald  also  quoted  Dr.  Johnson's 
remark  to  an  Irishman,  on  the  subject  of  an 
union  :  "  Don't  unite  with  us,"  said  he,  "we 
shall  unite  with  you  only  to  rob  you  ;  we 
should  have  robbed  the  Scots,  if  they  had 
anything  to  be  robbed  of." 


The  debate  proceeded,  warming  as  it  went. 
Sir  Boyle  Roche,  in  his  blundering  way, 
stumbled  upon  a  niDSt  accurate  descrijv 
tion  of  the  real  Castle  policy.  He  said 
"  he  was  for  an  union  to  put  an  end  to 
uniting  between  Presbyterians,  Protest- 
ants, and  Catholics,  to  overturn  the  Consti- 
tution." 

One  of  the  most  patriotic  speeches  made 
in  the  course  of  this  historic  argument  was 
by  Sir  Jonah  Bfirrington,  then  a  Judge  of  the 
Admiralty  Court.  He  strongly  deprecated 
this  plan  to  subject  irrevocably  one  in- 
dependent country  to  the  will  of  another, 
and  both  to  the  will  of  a  Minister  already 
stronger  than  the  Crown,  and  more  power- 
ful than  the  people  ;  and  this  great  and  im- 
portant usurpation  stolen  into  Parliament 
through  the  fulsome  paragraphs  of  an  echo- 
ing congratulation,  pledging  the  House  to 
the  discu.ssion  of  a  principle  subversive  of 
their  liberties,  and  in  tlie  hour  of  convales- 
cence calling  on  it  to  commit  suicide.  Ire- 
land (he  said)  had  not  fair  play  ;  her  Par- 
liament had  not  fair  play  ;  the  foulest  and 
most  unconstitutional  means,  he  believed, 
had  been  used  to  intimidate  and  corrupt  it, 
and  either  to  force  or  to  seduce  a  suffrage, 
when  nothing  but  general,  independent,  un- 
influenced opinion  could  warrant  for  a  mo- 
ment the  most  distant  view  of  so  ruinous  a 
subject.  He  had  good  reason  to  believe, 
that  corrupt  and  unconstitutional  means  had 
been  used  by  the  noble  lord  to  individuals  of 
the  Irish  Parliament.  Some  of  those  means 
were  open  and  avowed  ;  two  of  the  oldest, 
most  respectable,  and  most  beloved  officers 
of  the  Crown  had  been  displaced,  because 
they  presumed  to  hint  an  opinion  adverse 
to  the  stripling's  dictates,  on  a  subject 
where  their  country  was  at  stake  ;  their  re- 
movals crowned  them  with  glory,  and.  the 
Minister  with  contempt.  He  asserted,^  that 
other  gentlemen  in  office,  whose  opinions 
were  decidedly  adverse  to  the  measure, 
but  whose  circumstances  could  not  bear 
similar  sacrifices,  were  dragged  to  the  altar 
of  pollution,  and  forced,  against  their  will,  to 
vote  against  their  country  ;  he  had  good 
reason  to  believe,  that  unconstitutional  in- 
terference had  been  used  with  the  executive 
power  with  the  legislative  body  ;  one  gentle- 
man refused  the  instructions  of  his  constitu- 


370 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


ents,  and  had  been  promoted.  Peerages 
(iis  was  rumored)  were  bartered  for  the 
risihts  of  minors,  and  every  effort  used  to 
destroy  the  free  agency  of  Parliament ;  if 
this  were  true,  it  encroached  on  tlie  Consti- 
tution, and  if  the  executive  power  overstep- 
ped its  bounds,  the  people  were  warranted 
to  do  the  same  on  their  part,  and  between 
both  it  might  be  anuiiiilated,  and  leave  a 
wondering  world  in  amazement  how  the 
same  people  could  have  been  wise  enough 
to  frame  the  best  constitution  on  earth,  and 
foolish  enough  to  destroy  it.  One  king  and 
two  kingdoms  was  the  cry  of  the  people  of 
Ireland. 

Sir  John  Blaquiere,  on  the  side  of  the 
Government,  remonstrated  against  "  the 
cliarges  of  undue  influence  and  corruption  ;" 
and  then  proceeded  to  use  an  argument  in 
behalf  of  the  Union,  which  may  serve  as  a 
sample  of  the  means  by  which  so  many  of 
the  Catholics  were  "induced  to  favor  that 
measure.  Sir  John  said,  "  the  honorable 
member  who  proposed  amendment,  with  a 
flow  of  such  transcendant  eloquence  as  had 
seldom  been  heard  in  that  House,  had  ex- 
pressly stated,  that  the  Roman  Catholics 
must  oppose  tlie  Union.  He  knew  not  the 
mind  of  Catholics  upon  the  subject ;  but 
he  should  speak  his  own — that  the  Ro- 
luiin  Catholics,  under  the  present  order  of 
things,  could  never  be  accommodated,  as  he 
feared,  with  what  they  aslced,  without  im- 
minent danger  to  the  Protestant  establish- 
ment, both  in  church  and  state  ;  but  if 
once  an  unicn  should  be  adopted,  all  those  dif- 
ficnliies  would  vanish,  and  he  should  see  none 
in  graritivg  lliem  everything  they  desired.''^ 

Mr.  Knox  and  Mr.  Hans  Hamilton  made 
violent  attacks  upon  the  Union  and  upon 
the  Government. 

Mr.  Knox  (member  for  Philipstown)  la- 
mented that  that  accursed  measure  had  long 
been  the  favorite  object  of  that  Minister  of 
England,  whose  wild  ambition  had  already 
led  to  the  destruction  of  empires  ;  and  which 
then  sought  to  annihilate  that  nation.  In 
order  to  forward  that  wicked  scheme,  great 
pains  had  been  tiken  by  those  who  man- 
aged the  affairs  of  Government  nnder  his 
guidance,  to  promote  and  keep  alive  among 
the  people  every  d  sunct'ou  of  party  and 
religion,  all  differences  of  opinion,  whether 


in  politics  or  religion,  had  been  industriously 
fomented  and  encouraged,  and  every  means 
taken  to  distract  and  divide  the  inhabitants 
of  that  land.  If  that  fatal  measure  should 
ever  be  carried,  henceforth  that  insulted,  de- 
graded, debased  country  would  be  made  a 
barrack,  a  depot  from  whence  to  draw  the 
means  of  enslaving  Great  Britain,  and  no 
resource  left  to  save  either  country  but  a 
revolution. 

Mr.  Hans  Hamilton  declared  that  an 
union  was  a  measure  he  should  very  firmly 
oppose  within  those  walls  with  his  vote,  with- 
out them  with  his  life  ;  but  he  foresaw  that 
the  hour  was  at  hand  which  would  prove  this 
to  be  the  most  glorious  day  that  Ireland 
had  ever  beheld,  and  enable  the  members 
to  go  forth  to  their  constituents,  and  as- 
sure them  they  were  represented  by  an 
Irish  Parliament,  and  never  would  betray 
their  independence. 

Lord  Castlereagh  felt  that  the  day  was 
going  against  him.  He  rose  to  state  his 
reasons  for  favoring  the  measure  of  a  Legis- 
lative Union  ;  and  spoke,  as  he  well  knew 
how,  with  a  noble  air  of  candor.  It  is  al- 
most incredible,  however,  that  in  tlie  ab- 
stract of  his  speech  which  has  come  down  to 
us,  actually  appear  the  following  words  : — • 

"  His  lordship  trusted,  that  no  man  would 
decide  on  a  measure  of  such  importance  as 
that  in  part  before  the  House,  on  private  or 
personal  motives  ;  for  if  a  decision  were  thus 
to  be  influenced,  it  would  be  the  most  unfor- 
tunate that  could  ever  affect  the  country.'' 

His  reasons  for  supporting  the  mea- 
sure were,  of  course,  of  the  purest  descrip- 
tion ;  if  the  means  he  used  to  support  it 
had  been  as  fi;ee  from  taint  as  his  personal 
conduct,  his  lordship's  name  and  fame  would 
now  be  much  higher  than  they  are.  "  Dis- 
sensions" and  "divisions"  unhappily  exist- 
ing in  Ireland  (which  Mr.  Knox  said  the 
Government  had  "  industriously  fomented, ") 
formed  the  chief  motive,  in  his  mind,  for  our 
country  to  fling  itself  |into  the  arms  of  tlie 
English,  who  had  carefully  created  and  kept 
alive  those  dissensions  and  divisions  in  Ire- 
land for  centuries  !  One  passage  in  his  lord- 
ship's argument  reads  strangely  in  the  light 
of  subsequent  history  : — 

"  Absentees  (he  said)  formed  another  ob- 
jection.  They  would  be  somewhat  increased, 


CASTLEKEAGHS    EXPLANATION SPEECH    OF    PLTJNKET. 


371 


no  doubt,  by  an  union  ;  but  the  evil  would 
be  compensated  by  other  advantages,  and 
among  them  by  the  growth  of  an  intenne- 
diaU  class  of  men  between  the  landlord  and 
the  pe/isanl  ;  a  class  of  men  whose  loss  was 
felt  in  Ireland,  to  train  the  mind  of  the  lower 
class.  These  an  union  would  bring  over 
from  England.  They  would  also  have 
capital  from  thence.  At  all  events,  these  in- 
conveniences would  be  but  a  grain  of  sand 
compared  with  the  advantages  which  would 
be  derived  from  internal  security,  and  their 
growing  together  in  habits  of  amity  and  af- 
fection." 

The  next  powerful  speech  on  the  debate 
was  that  of  William  Conynghara  Plunket, 
then  in  the  prime  of  life  ;  he  had  been  the 
warm  friend  of  Tone  and  of  Emmet,  and 
was  now  fast  rising  into  high  eminence,  both 
as  a  barrister  and  a  member  of  Parliament. 
It  is  his  famous  Hamilcar  speech,  in  which  he 
assails  the  Government,  as  he  had  promised 
to  do,  more  daringly  than  Sir  Jonah  Bar- 
rington.  He  spoke  of  the  apparently  bluff, 
downright  old  soldier  (Cornwallis)  "  who,  as 
an  additional  evidence  of  tlie  directness  and 
purity  of  his  views,  had  chosen  for  his  sec- 
retary a  simple  and  modest  youth  {Puer 
ingenui  vuUas  ivgenuique  fudoris)  whose  in- 
experience was  the  voucher  of  his  innocence  ; 
yet,  was  he  bold  to  say,  that  during  the 
Vice-royalty  of  that  unspotted  veteran,  and 
during  the  adminstration  of  that  unassum- 
ing stripling,  within  the  last  six  weeks,  a 
system  of  black  corruption  had  been  carried 
on  within  the  wails  of  the  Castle,  which 
would  disgrace  the  annals  of  the  worst  period 
of  the  history  of  either  country.  Did  they 
choose  to  take  down  his  words  ?  lie  needed 
to  call  no  witnesses  to  their  bar  to  prove 
them.  He  saw  two  right  honorable  gentle- 
men sitting  within  those  walls,  who  had  long 
and  faithfully  served  the  Crown,  and  who 
had  been  dismissed,  because  tliey  dared  to 
express  a  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  freedom 
of  their  country.  He  saw  another  honor- 
able gentleman,  who  had  been  forced  to  re- 
sign his  place,  as  Commissioner  of  the  Re- 
venue, because  he  refused  to  cooperate  in 
that  dirty  job  of  a  dirty  Adminislrution  ; 
did  they  dare  to  deny  this?  I  say,  (he 
continued,)  that  at  this  moment,  the  threat 
of  dismissal  from  office  is  suspended  over  the 


heads  of  the  members  who  now  sit  around 
me,  in  order  to  inBuence  their  votes  on  the 
(juestion  of  this  niglit,  involving  everything 
that  can  be  sacred  or  dear  to  man  ;  do  you 
desire  to  take  down  my  words  ?  Utter  the 
desire,  and  I  will  prove  the  truth  of  them 
at  your  bar.  Sir,  I  wotdd  warn  you  against 
the  consequences  of  carrying  this  measure 
by  such  means  as  this,  but  that  I  see  the 
necessary  defeat  of  it  in  the  honest  and  uni- 
versal indignation  which  the  adoption  of 
such  means  excites  ;  I  see  the  protection 
against  the  wickedness  of  the  plan  in  the 
imbecility  of  its  execution,  and  I  congratu- 
late my  country  that  when  a  design  was 
formed  against  their  liberties,  the  prosecu- 
tion of  it  was  entrusted  to  such  hands  as  it 
is  now  placed  in." 

Mr.  Plunket  then  dealt  with  the  Consti- 
tutional grounds  of  opposition  to  a  union, 
and  especially  to  the  time  of  its  being  pro- 
posed. It  is  impossible,  within  our  limits, 
to  give  more  than  a  mere  abstract  of  such  a 
speech  : — 

"  At  a  moment,"  he  said,  "when  Ireland 
was    filled    with   British  troops,  when  the 
loyal  men  were  fatigued  and  exhausted  by 
their  efforts  to  subdue  rebellion — efforts  in 
which    they   had    succeeded    before    those 
troops   ari-ived  ;    whilst   their  habeas  corpus 
act  was  suspended,  whilst  trials  by  court- 
martial  were  carrying  on  in  many  parts  of 
the  kingdom,  whilst  the  people  were  taught 
to  think  that  they  had  no  right  to  meet  or 
to  deliberate,  and  whilst  the  great  body  of 
them   were   so  palsied    by  their  fears  and 
worn  dovrn  by  their  exertions  that  even  the 
vital   question   was  scarcely  able  to  ronse 
them  from  their  lethargy;  at  a  moment  when 
they  were  distracted  by  domestic  dissensions 
— dissensions  artfully  kept  alive  as  the  pre- 
text for  their  present  subjugation,  and  the 
instrument  of  their  future  thraldom.      He 
thanked   Administration    for    the   measure. 
They  were,  without  intending  it,  putting  an 
end    to    Irish   dissensions.        Through   that 
black  cloud,  which  they  had  collected  over 
them,   he   saw  the   light  breaking  in   upon 
their  unfortunate  country.     They  had  com- 
posed dissensions,  not  by  fomenting  the  em- 
bers of  a  lingering  and  subdued  rebellion  ; 
not  by  hallooing  the  Protestant  against  the 
Catholic  and  the  Catholic  against  the  Pro- 


372 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAIO). 


testuiit;  not  by  committing  the  North  against 
the  South  ;  not  by  inconsistent  appeals  to 
local  or  party  prejudices.  No  !  but  by  the 
avowal  of  that  atrocious  conspiracy  against 
the  liberties  of  Ireland  they  had  subdued 
every  petty  feeling  and  subordinate  distinc- 
tion, They  had  united  every  rank  and  de- 
scription of  men  by  the  pressure  of  that 
grand  and  momentous  subject  ;  and  he  told 
them  that  they  would  see  every  honest  and 
independent  man  in  Ireland  rally  round  her 
Constitution,  and  merge  every  other  consid- 
eration in  his  opjiosition  to  that  ungenerous 
und  odious  measure.  For  his  own  part,  he 
would  resist  it  to  the  last  gasp  of  his  exist- 
ence, and  with  the  last  drop  of  his  blood  ; 
and  when  he  felt  the  hour  of  his  dissolution 
approaching,  he  would,  like  the  father  of 
Hannibal,  take  his  children  to  the  altar,  and 
swear  them  to  eternal  hostility  against  the  in- 
vaders of  their  country's  freedom^'' 

This  gallant  speech  was  often  cited  after- 
wards against  Plunket ;  and  it  was  re- 
marked that  Hamilcar,  after  that  swearing 
scene,  never  helped  the  Romans  to  govern 
Carthage  as  a  province. 

Strange  to  say,  of  all  the  Beresfords,  John 
Claudius  Beresford  (of  the  Riding-House 
and  the  pitch-caps)  opposed  the  Govern- 
ment measure,  and  supported  Mr.  Ponson- 
by's  amendment.  Some  of  the  strongest 
Irish  nationalists  of  that  day  were  Orange- 
men, and  bitter  persecutors  of  Catholics. 

At  length,  after  twenty-two  hours'  de- 
bate, at  ten  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the 
24th,  the  House  divided,  and  the  vote  stood 
— for  Mr.  Ponsonby's  amendment,  105  ; 
against  it,  106.  Majority  for  the  Govern- 
ment, 1. 

It  was  held  by  both  sides  of  the  House  to 
be  substantially  a  defeat  for  the  Govern- 
ment, and  the  multitudes  who  had  been 
thronging  the  corridors,  the  porticos,  and 
the  streets  all  around,  burst  into  acclama- 
tions of  joy.  The  mob  waited  for  members 
as  they  came  out,  and  hooted  or  cheered, 
as  they  heard  each  member  had  voted  for 
the  Castle  or  the  nation. 

As  to  the  method  by  which  Castlereagh 
had  gained  even  that  apparent  and  most 
unsatisfactory  victory.  Sir  Jonah  Barring- 
ton,  an  eye-witness,  gives  us  this  detail, 
which  illustrates  the  whole  mode  and  ma- 


chinery whereby  the  Union  was  finally  car- 
ried :— 

"  A  very  remarkable  incident,"  says  Sir 
Jonah,  "during  the  first  night's  debate  oc- 
curred in  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Luke  Fox  and 
Mr.  Trench,  of  Woodlawn,  afterwards  cre- 
ated Lord  Ashtown.  These  were  the  most 
palpable,  undisguised  acts  of  public  tergiver- 
sation and  seduction  ever  exhibited  in  a  popu- 
lar assembly.  They  afterwards  became  the 
subject  of  many  speeches  and  of  many  pub- 
lications ;  and  their  consequences  turned  the 
majority  of  one  in  favor  of  the  Minister. 

"  It  was  suspected  that  Mr.  Trench  had 
been  long  in  negotiation  with  Lord  Castle- 
reagh ;  but  it  did  not,  in  the  early  part  of 
that  night,  appear  to  have  been  brought  to 
any  conclusion — his  conditions  were  supposed 
to  be  too  extravagant.  Mr.  Trench,  after 
some  preliminary  observations,  declared,  in  a 
speech,  that  he  would  vote  against  the  Min- 
ister, and  support  Mr.  Ponsonby's  amend- 
ment. This  appeared  a  stunning  blow  to 
Mr.  Cooke,  who  had  been  previously  in  con- 
versation with  Mr.  Trench.  He  was  imme- 
diately observed  sideling  from  his  seat  nearer 
to  Lord  Castlereagh.  They  whispered  ear- 
nestly, and,  as  if  restless  and  undecided,  both 
looked  wistfully  towards  Mr.  Trench.  At 
length,  the  matter  seemed  to  be  determined 
on.  Mr.  Cooke  retired  to  a  back  seat,  and 
was  obviously  endeavoring  to  count  the 
House,  probably  to  guess  if  they  could  that 
night  dispense  with  Mr.  Trench's  services, 
He  returned  to  Lord  Castlereagh — they 
whispered,  again  looked  most  aflfectionately 
at  Mr.  Trench,  who  seemed  unconscious 
that  he  was  the  subject  of  their  considera- 
tion. But  there  was  no  time  to  lose — the 
question  was  approaching — all  shame  was 
banished — they  decided  on  the  terms  ;  and 
a  significant  and  certain  glance,  obvious  to 
everybody,  convinced  Mr.  Trench  that  his 
conditions  were  agreed  to.  Mr.  Cooke  then 
went  and  sat  down  by  his  side  ;  an  earnest 
but  very  short  conversation  took  place  ;  a 
parting  smile  completely  told  the  House  that 
Mr.  Trench  was  that  moment  satisfied. 
These  surmises  were  soon  verified.  Mr. 
Cooke  went  back  to  Lord  Castlereagh  ;  a 
congratulatory  nod  announced  his  satisfac- 
tion. But  could  any  man  for  one  moment 
suppose  that  a  member  of  Parliament,  a  man 


METHODS   OF   CONVERSION   TO    UNIONISM. 


373 


of  very  larg-e  fortune,  of  respectable  family, 
and  good  character,  could  be  publicly,  and 
without  shame  or  compunction,  actually  se- 
duced by  Lord  Castlereagh,  in  the  very 
body  of  the  House,  and  under  the  eye  of  two 
hundred  and  twenty  gentlemen  ?  Yet  this 
was  the  fact.  In  a  few  minutes  Mr.  Trench 
rose,  to  apologize  for  having  indiscreetly 
declared  he  would  support  the  amendment. 
He  added,  that  he  had  thought  better  of  the 
pubject  since  he  had  unguardedly  expressed 
himself ;  that  he  had  been  convinced  he  was 
wrong,  and  would  support  the  Minister. 

"  Scarcely  was  there  a  member  of  any 
party  who  was  not  disgusted.  It  had,  how- 
ever, the  effect  intended  by  the  desperate 
purchaser,  of  proving  that  ministers  would 
fctop  at  nothing  to  effect  their  objects,  how- 
ever shameless  or  corrupt.  This  purchase 
of  Mr.  Trench  had  a  much  more  fatal  effect 
upon  the  destinies  of  Ireland.  His  change 
of  sides,  and  the  majority  of  one.  to  which 
it  contributed,  were  probably  the  remote 
causes  of  persevering  in  a  Union.  Mr. 
Trench's  venality  excited  indignation  in 
every  friend  of  Ireland.* 

"  Another  circumstance  that  night  proved 
by  what  means  Lord  Castlereagh's  majority 
of  even  one  was  acquired. 

"  The  Place  Bill,  so  long  and  so  pertina- 
ciously sought  for,  and  so  indiscreetly  framed 
by  Mr.  Grattan  and  the  Whigs  of  Ireland, 
now,  for  the  first  time,  proved  the  very  en- 
gine by  which  the  Minister  upset  the  oppo- 
sition, and  annihilated  the  Constitution. 

"Tliat  bill  enacted,  that  members  accept- 
ing offices,  places,  or  pensions,  during  the 
pleasure  of  the  Crown,  should  not  sit  in 
Parliament  unless  reelected  ;  but,  unfortu- 
nately, the  bill  made  no  distinction  between 
valuable  offices  which  might  influence,  and 
nominal  offices,  which  might  job  ;  and  the 
Chikern  Hundreds  of  England  were,  under 
the  title  of  the  Escheatorships  of  Munster, 
Leinster,  Conuaught,  &c.,  transferred  to 
Ireland,  with  salaries  of  forty  shillings,  to 
be  used  at  pleasure  by  the  Secretary.  Oc- 
casional and  temporary  seats  were  thus  bar- 
tered for  by  Government,  and  by  the  ensu- 

*  No  fewer  than  three  Trenches  are  found  in  the 
"  Black  List,"  as  voting  for  the  Union.  They  were 
all  appointed  to  valuable  ofiBces  for  it,  and  one  was 
made  a  peer  and  an  ambassador. 


ing  session  made  the  complete  and  fatal  in- 
strument of  packing  the  Parliament,  and 
effecting  a  union. 

"  Mr.  Luke  Fox,  a  barrister  of  very  hum- 
ble  origin,   of  vulgar   manners,   and   of  a 
coarse,  harsh  appearance,  was  indued  with 
a  clear,   strong,  and   acute  mind,  and  was 
possessed  of  much   cunning.     He   had  ac- 
quired very  considerable  legal  information, 
and  was  an  obstinate  and  persevering  advo 
cate.     He  had  been  the  usher  of  a  school, 
and  a  sizer  in  Dublin  University  ;  but  nei- 
ther  politics   nor  the  belles-lettres  were  his 
pursuit.     On  acquiring  eminence  at  the  bar, 
he  married  an  obscure  niece  of  the  Earl  of 
Ely's.     He   had   originally  professed  what 
was  called  wbiggism,  merely,  as  people  sup- 
posed, because   his   name   was   Fox.     His 
progress  was  impeded  by  no  pcjlitical  princi- 
ples ;  but  he  kept  his  own  secrets  well,  and, 
being  a  man  of  no  importance,  it  was  per- 
fectly indifferent  to  everybody  what  side  he 
took.     Lord  Ely,  perceiving  he  was  man- 
ageable, returned  him  to  Parliament  as  one 
of  his  automata;  and  Mr.  Fox  played  his  part 
very  much  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  manager. 
"When  the  Union  was  announced,  Lord 
Ely  had  not  made  his  terms,  and  remained 
long  in  abeyance  ;  *    and,  as   his   lordship 
had  not  issued  his  orders  to  Mr.  Fox,  he 
was  very  unwilling  to  commit  himself  until 
he  could  dive  deeper  into  probabilities  ;  but 
rather  believing  the  Opposition  would  have 
the  majority,  he  remained  in  the  body  of  the 
House,  with  the  Anti-Unionists,  when  the 
division  took  place.     The  doors  were  scarce- 
ly locked,  when   he   became  alarmed,  and 
slunk,  unperceived,  into  one  of  the  dark  cor- 
ridors, where  he  concealed  himself.    He  was, 
however,  discovered,  and   the  Sergeant-at- 
Arms  was  ordered  to  bring  him  forth,  to  be 
counted  amongst  the  Anti-Unionists.     His 
confusion  was  very  great,  and  he  seemed  at 
his  wit's  end.     At  length,  he  declared  he 
had  taken  advantage  of  the  Place  Bill ;  had 
actually  accepted  the  Escheatorship  of  Muns- 
ter, and  had  thereby  vacated  his  seat,  and 
could  not  vote. 

*  He  "  made  his  terms,"  however,  in  due  time.  We 
afterwards  tind  bim  in  receipt  of  a  sum  of  £45,000,  the 
price  of  his  three  boroughs,  which  he  sold  to  Govern- 
ment that  it  might  put  its  own  creatures  into  the 
representation. 


374 


HISTORY    OF    lEELAND. 


"The  fact  was  doubted  ;  but,  after  much 
discussion,  his  excuse,  ujpon  his  hoTwr,  was 
admitted,  and  he  was  allowed  to  return  into 
the  corridor.  On  the  numbers  being  count- 
ed, there  was  a  majority  of  oxe  for  I-ord 
Castlereag-h,  and  exclusive  of  Mr.  Trench's 
conduct  ;  but  for  that  of  Mr.  Fox  the  num- 
bers would  have  been  equal.  The  measure 
would  have  been  negatived  by  the  Speaker's 
vote,  and  the  renewal  of  it  the  next  day 
would  have  been  prevented.  This  would 
have  been  a  most  important  victory. 

"  The  mischief  of  the  Place  Bill  now  stared 
its  framers  in  the  face,  and  gave  the  Secre- 
tary a  code  of  instruction  how  to  arrange  a 
Parliament  against  the  ensuing  session. 

"  To  render  the  circumstance  still  more 
extraordinary  and  unfortunate  for  Mr.  Fox's 
reputation,  it  was  subsequently  discovered, 
by  the  public  records,  that  Mr.  Fox's  asser- 
tion was  false.  But  the  following  day,  Lord 
Castlereagh  purchased  him  outright  ;  and 
then,  and  not  before,  appointed  him  to  the 
nominal  office  of  Escheator  of  Munster,  and 
left  the  seat  of  Lord  Ely  for  another  of  his 
creatures.*  This  is  mentioned,  not  only  as 
one  of  the  most  reprehensible  public  acts 
committed  during  the  discussion,  but  be- 
cause it  was  the  primary  cause  of  the  mea- 
sure being  persisted  in." 

Thus  the  preliminary  contest  on  the  very 
threshold  of  the  Union  question  may  be  said 
to  have  ended  in  a  drawn  battle.  It  was 
known,  however,  that  it  was  to  be  renewed 
on  that  very  evening.  It  was  an  exciting 
day  for  the  people  of  Dublin  ;  and  to  those 
who  know  into  what  a  dismal  condition  the 
Union  has  since  dragged  down  the  once 
proud  metropolis  of  our  island,  there  is 
something  pathetic  in  the  passionate  anxiety 
with  which  its  thronging  people  then  crowd- 
ed round  their  Parliament  House,  hanging 
on  the  momentous  vote  ;  watching  with 
beating  hearts,  the  progress  of  a  struggle 
which  was  to  decide  the  destinies  of  their 
city  and  their  nation. 

*  This  did  not  conclude  the  remarkable  acts  of  Mr. 
Fox.  After  his  seat  had  been  so  vacated,  he  got 
himself  reelected  for  a  borough  under  the  influence 
of  the  Earl  of  Granard,  a  zealous  Anti-Unionist;  here 
he  once  more  betrayed  the  country,  and  was  ap- 
pointed a  Judge  when  the  subject  was  decided. 


.  CHAPTER    XXXIX 

I7;i9 
Sacond  Debate  on  Union — Sir  Lawrence  Parsons- 
Mr.  Smith — Ponsonby  and  Plunket — Division — Ma- 
jority against  Government— Posonby's  Resolutioa 
for  Perpetual  Independence — Defection  of  ForLes- 
cue  and  Otherd — Resolution  Lost — "  Possible  Cir- 
cumstances "--Tumult — Danger  of  Lord  Chire — 
Second  Debate  in  the  Lords — Lord  Clare  Triumph- 
ant— "Loyalists'  Claim-Bill" — "Rebels  Disqualifi- 
cation Bill  "—"  Flogging  Fitzgerald" — Asks  In- 
demnity— Regency  Act — Opposed  by  Castlereagh. 

It  was  naturally  supposed  that  if  the 
Minister  was  left  in  a  minority  on  the  sec- 
ond debate  upon  the  reception  of  the  ad- 
dress, he  would,  according  to  all  precedents, 
resign  his  situation  ;  whilst  an  increased  ma- 
jority, however  small,  in  favor  of  his  mea- 
sure might  give  plausible  grounds  for  pressing 
it  forward  at  all  hazards.  No  wonder,  then, 
that  the  excitement  and  anxiety  were  intense 
on  that  day.  Sir  Jonah  Barrington  de- 
scribes the  scene  : — 

"  The  people  collected  in  vast  multitudes 
around  the  House  ;  a  strong  sensation  was 
everywhere  perceptible  ;  immense  numbers 
of  ladies  of  distinction  crowded  at  an  early 
hour,  into  the  galleries,  and  by  their  pres- 
ence and  their  gestures  animated  that  patri- 
otic spirit,  upon  the  prompt  energy  of  which 
alone  depended  the  fate  of  Ireland. 

"  Secret  messengers  were  dispatched  ia 
every  direction,  to  bring  in  loitering  or  re- 
luctant members — every  emissary  that  Gov- 
ernment could  rely  upon  was  busily  employ- 
ed the  entire  morning  ;  and  five  and  thirty 
minutes  after  four  o'clock,  in  the  afternoon 
of  the  24th  of  January,  1799,  the  House 
met  to  decide,  by  the  adoption  or  rejection 
of  the  address — the  question  of  national  in- 
dependence or  annihilation.  Within  the  cor- 
ridors of  the  House,  a  shameless  and  un- 
precedented alacrity  appeared  among  the 
fi'iends  of  the  Government. 

"  Mr.  Cooke,  the  under-Secretary,  who, 
througliout  all  the  subsequent  strtges  of  the 
question,  was  the  private  and  efficient  actu- 
ary of  the  Parliamentary  seduction,  on  this 
night  exceeded  even  himself,  both  in  his 
public  and  private  exertions  to  gain  over  the 
wavering  members.  Admiral  Pakenhara,  a 
naturally  friendly  and  good-natured  gentle- 
man, that  night  acted  like  the  captain  of  a 
press-gang,   and    actually  hauled    in    some 


SECOND    DEBATE   ON   CTNION. 


375 


nien;bers  who  were  desirous  of  retirinj^. 
He  had  deelared  that  he  would  act  in  any 
capacity,  according  to  the  exigencies  of  his 
part}'  ;  and  he  did  not  shrink  from  his 
task. 

"  This  debate,  in  point  of  warmth,  much 
exceeded  the  former.  Lord  Castlereagh  sat 
long  silent  ;  his  e}'e  ran  round  tiie  assembly, 
as  if  to  ascertain  his  situation,  and  was  often 
withdrawn,  with  a  look  of  uncertainty  and 
disappointment.  The  members  had  a  little 
iiici'eased  since  the  last  division,  principally 
by  members  who  had  not  declared  them- 
selves, and  of  whose  opinions  the  Secretary 
was  ignorant.'' 

"When  the  address  was  reported,  on  the 
reading  of  that  part  of  it  which  related  to 
the  Union,  Sir  Lawrence  Parsons  offered 
an  amendment,  objecting  to  the  paragraph 
which  "pledged  the  House,  under  a  meta- 
phorical expression  ('  maintaining  and  im- 
ploring a  connection,'  &c.,)  to  admit  the 
principle  of  the  Legislative  Union."  Two 
short  passages  of  his  long  speech  are  enough 
to  sliow  its  spirit  : — 

"  Were  the  Union  ever  so  good  a  measure, 
why  bring  it  forward  at  that  time  ?  Was 
it  not  evidently  to  take  advantage  of  Eng- 
land's strength  ihere,  and  their  own  internal 
weakness  ?  It  was  always  in  times  of  di- 
vision and  disaster  that  a  nation  availed  it- 
self of  the  infirmities  of  its  neiglibor,  to 
obtain  an  unjust  dominion.  That  Great 
Britain  should  desire  to  do  so,  he  did  not 
much  wonder  ;  for  what  nation  did  not  de- 
sire to  rule  another  ?  Nor  was  he  surprised 
that  there  should  be  some  among  them  base 
enough  to  conspire  with  her  in  doing  so  ; 
for  no  country  could  expect  to  be  so  fortu- 
nate as  not  to  have  betrayers  and  parricides 
among  its  citizens." 

'.'  Annihilate  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  ; 
that  is  the  cry  that  came  across  the  water. 
Now  is  the  time — Ireland  is  weak — Ireland 
is  divided — Ireland  is  appalled  by  civil  war 
— Ireland  is  covered  with  troops,  martial 
law  brandishes  its  sword  throughout  the  land 
• — now  is  the  time  to  put  down  Ireland  for- 
ever— now  strike  the  blow.  JVho? — is  it 
you  ?  Will  you  obey  that  voice  ?  AVill 
you  betray  your  country?" 

On  the  second  debate,  the  most  important 
speech  in  favor  of  union  (tliougli  Castlereagh 


spoke  strongly,)  was  that  -)f  Mr.  William 
Smith,  a  barrister  —  afterwards  rewarded 
with  the  place  of  a  Baron  of  the  Exchequer. 
He  addressed  himself  principally  to  the  re- 
futation of  the  main  Constitutional  objection 
to  an  union,  decreed  by  Parliament — namely, 
the  objection  that  Parliament  had  been 
"  elected  to  make  law.s,  and  not  legisla- 
tures" — that  it  had  no  powers  to  divest  it- 
self of  its  legislative  capacity  to  give  itself 
away  to  another  people,  still  less  to  sell  it- 
self, and  sell  its  constituents  along  with  it- 
self.    Mr.  Smith  said  : — 

"Of  the  comi)etency  of  Parliament  to 
the  enactment  of  such  reform  he  had  never 
heard  any  doubts  expressed  ;  and  the  argu- 
ments which,  he  thought,  might  be  offered 
against  the  alleged  right  were  inconclusive, 
yet,  perhaps,  as  plausible  as  any  that  could 
be  urged  against  the  competency  of  the  Leg- 
islature to  a  decree  of  union.  That  the 
authority  of  the  Parliament  had  this  extent, 
he  had  not  the  slightest  doubt.  His  opinion, 
he  said,  was  founded  on  precedent,  on  tlie 
mischiefs  which  would  result  from  a  contrary 
doctrine,  on  the  express  authority  of  Con- 
stitutional writers,  and  on  the  genuine  prin- 
ciples of  the  Constitution  itself.  By  enact- 
ing an  union.  Parliament  would  do  no  more 
than  change  (it  would  not  surrender  or  sub- 
vert) the  Constitution.  Ireland,  after  a  Leg- 
islative incorporation,  would  still  be  etov- 
erned  by  three  estates  ;  and  her  inhaljitant.s 
would  enjoy  all  their  privileges  unimpaired. 
If  the  Legislature  could  new-model  the  suc- 
cession of  the  Crown,  or  change  the  estal>- 
lished  religion,  it  might  certainly  ordain 
those  alterations  which  an  union  would  in- 
volve. To  controvert  its  right,  would  be  to 
deny  the  validity  of  the  act  for  the  incor- 
poration of  Scotland  with  England  and 
Wales.  But  (he  added)  that,  if  he  con- 
ceived that  the  measure  would  be  a  surren- 
der of  national  independence,  he  would  by 
no  means  agree  to  it  ;  but  it  would  merely 
be  an  incorporation  of  national  distinctions  ; 
nor  would  he  promote  the  scheme,  if  he 
thought  that  it  would  not  insure  an  iden- 
tity or  community  of  iterests." 

Between  Lord  Castlereagh  and  Mr.  Pon- 
sonby,  the  debate  took  a  very  bitter  per- 
sonal turn.  The  Secretary  was  .provoked 
out  of  his   usual   cuol  indifference.     To  the 


5J76 


HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 


bar  he  applied  tlie  term  "  pettifoggers  ;"  to 
the  Opposition,  "cabal — combinatoi's — des- 
perate faction  ; "  and  to  the  nation  itself, 
"  barbarism — ignorance,"  and  "  insensibility 
to  protexlion  and  paternal  regards  she  had 
ever  experienced  from  the  British  nation." 
His  speech  was  severe  beyond  anything  he 
had  ever  uttered  witliin  the  walls  of  Parlia- 
ment, and  far  exceeded  the  powers  he  was 
supposed  to  possess. 

After  many  speeches  on  each  side,  Mr. 
Pluiiket  arose  ;  and,  in  what  Sir  Jonah  Bar- 
rington  calls  "  the  ablest  speech  ever  heard 
from  any  member  in  that  Parliament,"  went 
at  once  to  the  grand  and  decisive  point,  the 
incompetence  of  Parliament ;  he  could  go  no 
further  on  principle  than  i\Ir.  Ponsonby,  but 
liis  language  was  irresistible,  and  he  left  noth- 
ing to  be  urged.  It  was  perfect  in  eloquence, 
and  unanswerable  in  reasoning.  Its  effect 
was  indescribable  ;  and,  for  the  first  time, 
Lord  Castlereagh,  whom  he  personally  as- 
gailed,  seemed  to  shrink  from  the  encounter. 
That  speech  was  of  great  weight,  and  it 
proved  the  eloquence,  and  the  fortitude  of 
the  speaker. 

But  a  short  speech,  on  that  night,  which 
gave  a  new  sensation,  and  excited  novel  ob- 
servations, was  a  maiden  speech  by  Colonel 
O'Donnell,  of  Mayo  County,  the  eldest  son 
of  Sir  Xeil  O'Donnell,  a  man  of  very  larga 
fortune  in  that  county  ;  he  was  Colonel  of  a 
Mayo  regiment.  He  was  a  brave  officer, 
and  a  well-bred  gentleman  ;  and  in  all  the 
situations  of  life  he  showed  excellent  quali- 
ties. On  this  night,  roused  by  Lord  Castle- 
reagh's  invectives,  he  could  not  contain  his 
indignation  ;  and  by  anticipation,  "disclaim- 
ed all  future  allegiance  ;  if  a  union  were  ef- 
fected, he  held  it  as  a  vicious  revolution, 
and  avowed  that  he  would  take  the  field  at 
the  head  of  his  regiment  to  oppose  its  exe- 
cution, and  would  resist  rebels  in  rich  clothes 
as  he  had  done  the  rebels  in  rags."  And 
fur  tl1is  speech  in  Parliament,  he  was  dis- 
missed his  regiment  without  further  notice. 

On  a  division  being  called  for,  there  ap- 
peared a  majority  of  six  against  the  Union. 
The  gratification  of  the  Anti-Unionists  was 
unbounded  ;  and  as  they  walked  in  one  by 
one  to  be  counted,  "  the  eager  spectators," 
says  Sir  Jonah,  "  ladies  as  well  as  gentle- 
men, leaning  over  the  galleries,  ignorant  of 


the  result,  were  panting  with  expectation. 
Lady-  Castlereagh,  then  one  of  the  finest 
women  of  the  Court,  appeared  in  the  Ser- 
geant's box,  palpitating  for  her  husband's 
fate.  The  desponding  appearance  and  fallen 
crests  of  the  Ministerial  benches,  and  the 
exulting  air  of  the  Opposition  members,  as 
they  entered,  were  intelligible.  Mr.  Egan, 
Chairman  of  Dublin  County,  a  large,  bluff, 
red-faced  gentleman,  was  the  last  who  en- 
tered. As  Ko.  110  was  announced,  he 
stopped  a  moment  at  the  bar,  fionrished  a 
stick  which  he  held  in  his  hand  over  his  head, 
and,  with  the  voice  of  a  stentor,  cried  out : 
*  Avd  Pm  a  hundred  and  eleren  !  ' " 

The  same  writer  has  thus  analyzed  for  us 
this  celebrated  division  : — 

For  Mr.  Ponsonby's  amendment Ill 

For  Lord  Tyrone's  address 105 


Majority  against  Government 


On  this  debate,  the  members  who  voted 
were  circumstanced  as  follows  : — 

Members  holding  offices  during  pleasure     ...  69 
Members  rewarded  by  offices  for  their  votes  .     .  19 
Memberopenly  seduced  in  the  body  of  the  House  .  1 
Commoners  created  peers,  or  their  wives  peer- 
esses, for  their  votes 18 

Total 102 

Supposed  to  be  uninfluenced 3 

The  House  composed  of 300 

Voted  that  night 216 

Absent  members 84 

Of  these  eighty-four  absent  members, 
twenty-four  were  kept  away  by  absolute  ne- 
cessity, and  of  the  residue  there  can  be  no 
doubt  they  were  not  friends  to  the  Union, 
from  this  plain  reason,  that  the  Govern- 
ment had  the  power  of  enforcing  the  attend- 
ance of  all  dependent  members.  Thus  the 
moral  effect  of  this  victory — to  those  who 
knew  the  composition  of  the  House — was 
much  greater  than  was  indicated  by  the 
mere  numerical  majority.  It  was  hoped 
that  "Union"  was  defeated  forever. 

But  now,  in  the  very  moment  of  triumph, 
and  even  by  the  means  taken  to  make  that 
triumph  definitive  and  irreversible,  the  tide 
was  turned. 

The  members  assembled  in  the  lobby  were 
preparing  to  separate,  when  Mr.  Ponsonby 


ponsonby's  kesolution  for  perpetual  independence. 


377 


requested  tliey  would  return  into  tlie  House 
and  continue  a  very  few  minutes,  as  he  had 
business  of  tlie  utmost  importance  for  their 
consideration.  This  produced  a  profound 
silence.  Mr.  Ponsonby  then,  in  a  few  words, 
"  cong-ratuhited  the  House  and  the  country 
on  the  honest  and  patriotic  assertion  of  their 
liberties  ;  but  dechired  that  he  considered 
there  would  be  no  security  against  future 
attempts  to  overthrow  their  independence 
but  by  a  direct  and  absolute  declaration  of 
the  rights  of  Irishmen,  recorded  upon  their 
journals,  as  the  decided  sense  of  the  people, 
through  their  Parliament  ;  and  he,  there- 
fore, without  further  preface,  moved — *That 
this  House  will  ever  maintain  the  undoubted 
birthright  of  Irishmen,  by  ^preserving  an  in- 
dependent Parliament  of  Lords  and  Com- 
mons residing  in  this  kingdom,  as  stated  and 
approved  by  His  Majesty  and  the  British 
Parliament  in  1782.'" 

Lord  Castlereagh,  conceiving  that  fur- 
ther resistance  was  unavailing,  only  said, 
"that  he  considered  such  a  motion  of  the 
most  dangerous  tendency  ;  however,  if  the 
House  were  determined  on  it,  he  begged  to 
declare  his  entire  dissent,  and  on  their  own 
heads  be  the  consequences  of  so  wrong  and 
inconsiderate  a;  measure."  No  further  op- 
position was  made  by  Government ;  and 
the  Speaker  putting  the  question,  a  loud 
cry  of  api)robation  followed,  with  but  two 
negatives — those  of  Lord  Castlereagh  and 
Mr.  Toler  (Lord  Norbury);  the  motion  was 
carried,  and  the  members  were  rising  to 
withdraw,  when  the  Speaker,  wishing  to  be 
strictly  correct,  called  to  Mr.  Ponsonby  to 
write  down  his  motion  accurately.  He,  ac- 
cordingly, walked  to  the  table  to  write  it 
down. 

During  this  short  delay,  the  Ministerialists 
and  Opposition  regarded  one  another  in  si- 
lence. Some  members  who  had  voted  with 
Mr.  Ponsonby  did  not  wish  the  Govern- 
ment to  be  finally  defeated.  They  had 
heard  of  the  determination  of  the  Castle  to 
buy  a  miijority,  and  that  at  very  high  prices  ; 
and  these  patriots,  though  they  would  uot 
give  themselves  away,  desired  to  sell  them- 
selves. Accordingly,  when  Mr.  Ponsonby's 
absolute  resolution  was  put  in  writing,  and 
the  Speaker  had  read  it,  and  put  the  ques- 
tion, and  a  loud  cry  of  "yli/e"  burst  forth, 
48 


Mr.  Chichester  Fortescue,  of  Louth  County, 
desired  to  be  heard  before  the  resolution 
should  finally  pass.  He  said  he  was  "advf-r.se 
to  the  Union — had  voted  against  it, — but 
did  not  wish  to  bind  h'\mse\f  forerer  ;  possi- 
ble circumstances  might  occur  which  should 
render  that  measure  expedient  for  the  em- 
pire," &c.  This  was  caught  at  by  some 
moderate  and  hesitating  members  of  Parlia- 
ment— by  some  from  honest  and  by  others 
from  dishonest  motives — amongst  others  by 
John  Claudius  Beresford  (of  the  Riding- 
House)  ;  and  the  motion  was  not  pressed 
by  Mr.  Ponsonby,  for  fear  of  a  defeat.* 

This  created  great  despondency  and  alarm 
amongst  the  honest  Anti-Unionists.  But 
for  this  incident  Cornwallis  and  Castlereagh 
must  probably  have  resigned  ;  but  now  cha- 
grin and  disappointment  had  changed  sides, 
and  the  friends  of  the  Union,  who  a  moment 
before  had  considered  their  measure  as  near- 
ly extinguished,  rose  upon  their  success,  re- 
torted in  their  turn,  and  opposed  its  being 
withdrawn.  It  was,  however,  too  tender  a 
ground  for  either  party  to  insist  upon  a  di- 
vision ;  a  debate  was  equally  to  be  avoided, 
and  the  motion  was  suffered  to  be  withdrawn. 
Sir  Henry  Cavendish  keenly  and  sarcastical- 
ly remarked,  that  "it  was  a  retreat  after  a 
victory."  After  a  day's  and  a  night's  de- 
bate, without  intermission,  the  House  ad- 
journed at  eleven  o'clock  the  ensuing  morn- 
ing. 

Upon  the  rising  of  the  House,  the  popu- 
lace became  tumultuous,  and  a  violent  dis- 
position against  those  who  had  supported 
the  Union  was  manifest,  not  only  amongst 
the  common  people,  but  amongst  those  of  a 
much  higher  class,  who  had  been  mingling 
with  them. 

On  the  Speaker's  coming  out  of  the  House, 
the  horses  were  taken  from  his  carriage,  and 
he  was  drawn  in  triumph  through  the  streets 
by  the  people,  who  conceived  the  whimsical 
idea  of  tackling  the  Lord-Chancellor  to  the 
coach,  and  (as  a  captive  general  in  a  Roman 
triumph)  forcing  him  to  tug  at  the  chariot 
of  his  conqueror. 

The  populace  closely  pursued  his  lordship 

*  Those  "possible  circumstances"  did  occur — and 
very  soon.  Both  Mr.  Fortescue  and  others  who  had 
voted  with  Ponsonby  voted  for  the  Uniou  ou  its  pas- 
sage in  the  next  session. 


378 


mSTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


for  that  extraordinary  purpose  ;  he  escaped 
with  great  di£Qculty,  and  fled,  with  a  pistol 
iu  his  hand,  to  a  receding  doorway  in  Claren- 
don street.  But  the  people,  who  pursued 
him  in  sport,  set  up  a  loud  laugh  at  him,  as 
be  stood  terrified  against  the  door.  They 
offered  him  no  personal  violence,  and  re- 
turned in  high  glee  to  their  more  innocent 
amusement  of  drawing  the  Speaker. 

Formally,  however,  and  for  the  moment, 
the  division  of  that  day  was  a  triumph.  A 
Bcene  of  joy  and  triumph  appeared  universal 
— every  countenance  had  a  smile,  through- 
out all  ranks  and  classes  of  the  people — 
men  shook  their  neighbors  heartily  by  the 
hand,  as  if  the  Minister's  defeat  was  an 
event  of  individual  good  fortune,  the  mob 
seemed  as  well  disposed  to  joy  as  mischief, 
and  tlmt  was  saying  much  for  a  Dublin  as- 
semblage. But  a  view  of  their  enemies,  as 
they  came  skulking  from  behind  the  corri- 
dors, occasionally  roused  them  to  no  very 
tranquil  temperature.  Some  members  had 
to  try  their  speed,  and  others  their  intre- 
pidity. 

Sir  Jonah  Barrington,  who  looked  on  at 
all  these  jiroceediugs  with  the  eye  rather  of 
a  humorist  than  of  a  statesman,  tells  us  that 
Mr.  Richard  Martin,  unable  to  get  clear, 
turned  on  his  hunters,  and  boldly  faced  a 
mob  of  many  thousands,  with  a  small  pocket 
pistol  in  his  hand.  lie  swore  most  vehe- 
mently that,  if  they  advanced  six  inches  on 
him,  he  would  immediately  "shoot  every 
moi/ier^s  bale  of  them  as  dead  as  that  paving 
stone"  (kicking  one).  The  united  spirit 
and  fun  of  his  declaration,  and  his  little 
pocket  pistol,  aimed  at  ten  thousand  men, 
women,  and  children,  were  so  entirely  to 
the  taste  of  our  Irish  populace,  that  all 
symptoms  of  hostility  ceased.  They  gave 
him  three  cheers,  and  he  regained  his  home 
without  further  molestation. 

In  the  House  of  Lords,  on  the  same  ques- 
tion, upon  the  reception  of  this  aidress. 
Lord  Clare  carried  everything  with  a  higli 
hand.  The  same  handful  of  spirited  peers 
who  had  voted  against  Union  on  the  former 
division  agaiu  opposed  it;  and  it  is  remarked 
that  Dr.  Dickson,  Bishop  of  Down,  and 
Marlay,  Bishop  of  Limerick,  were  the  only 
two  spiritual  peers  who  ventured  to  stand 
up  against  the  stern  and  haughty  Chancel- 


lor. The  Bishop  of  Limerick  was  Grattan's 
uncle,  -and  the  Bishop  of  Down  was  an  inti- 
mate friend  of  Mr.  Fox.  That  degraded 
assemblage,  the  Irish  House  of  Peers,  many 
of  whom  had  bought  their  titles  within  the 
past  few  years  for  money,  or  for  the  Castle- . 
votes  of  tlieir  borough  members,  and  others 
of  whom  were  promised  a  noble  price  for 
those  boroughs  to  promote  the  Union,  lay 
helplessly  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  Govern- 
ment, and  the  low-boru  but  audacious 
Chancellor  cracked  his  whip  over  the  coro- 
netted  slaves. 

Kot  mnch  business  of  great  national  im- 
portance was  transacted  in  the  remainder 
of  that  session  ;  the  Government  had  re- 
solved to  employ  all  its  resources  in  favor 
of  union  during  the  recess.  The  Loyalist 
Claim  bill,  however,  was  passed ;  under 
which  bill  the  country  was  afterwards 
charged  more  than  a  million  sterling,  to 
compensate  "  loyalists "  who  had  suffered 
loss  by  the  insurrection.  An  attempt  was 
made  to  pass  also  a  "Rebel  Disqualitication 
bill  ;"  the  title  was  "  A  Bill  for  preventing 
persons  who  have  ever  taken  the  Oath  of  the 
United  Irishmen  from  voting  for  members 
to  serve  in  Parliament."  On  the  second 
reading  this  bill  of  disfranchisement  was 
opposed  by  Sir  Hercules  Langrishe,  sup- 
ported vehemently,  of  course,  by  Dr.  Dui- 
genan,  John  Claudius  Beresford,  and  Mr. 
Ogle  ;  but  was  defeated. 

A  very  singular  discussion  took  place  in 
the  House  of  Commons  this  session,  on  the 
presentation  of  a  petition  from  Mr.  Thomas 
Judkiu  Fitzgerald,  known  as  the  "  flogging 
sheriff"  of  Tipperary.  It  seems  that  he 
had  been  so  wanton  and  indiscriminate  in 
his  flagellations,  that  he  thought  even  the 
"Indemnity  act"  not  sufficient  to  screen 
him  from  the  legal  consequences  of  such  a 
raging  loyalty  ;  and  this  petition  was  to 
ask  a  special  indemnity  for  himself.  "  Many 
actions,"  the  petition  said,"  had  been  brought, 
and  many  more  threatened."  Several  mem- 
bers of  Parliament  from  Munster,  bore  the 
warmest  testimony  to  the  zeal  and  activity 
of  tliis  monster  in  dealing  with  rebels.  The 
Attorney-General  "  bore  testimony  from  of- 
ficial information,  as  well  as  from  local 
knowledge,  to  the  very  spirited  and  meritori- 
ous  conduct   of    Mr.    Fitzgerald,    and    he 


■FLOGGING    FITZGEEALD     ASKS    INDEMNITY. 


379 


trusted  the  House  would  cheerfully  accede 
to  the  prayer  of  the  petition."  Uv.  Yelver- 
tou  then  read  to  the  House  the  sworn  testi- 
mony of  witnesses  in  one  case — that  of  Mr. 
Wright,  (which  has  been  already  mention- 
ed.) 

"The  action  (he  said)  brought  by  Mr. 
Wright  was  for  assault  and  battery.  It 
appeared  that  Mr.  Wright  was  a  teacher 
of  the  French  language,  of  which  he  was 
employed  as  professor  by  two  eminent  board- 
ing-schools at  Clonrael,  and  in  the  families 
of  several  respectable  gentlemen  in  the  town 
and  neighborhood. 

"  Mr.  Wright  had  heard  that  Mr.  Fitz- 
jrerald  had  received  some  charges  of  a  sedi- 
tious nature  against  him,  and  with  a  prompti- 
tude not  very  characteristic  of  conscious 
guilt,  he  immediately  went  to  the  house  of 
Mr.  Fitzgerald,  whom  be  did  not  find  at 
home,  and  afterwards  to  that  of  another 
magistrate,  who  was  also  out,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  surrendering  himself  for  trial  ;  he 
went  again  the  same  day,  accompanied  by  a 
gentleman,  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Fitzgerald, 
and  being  shown  into  his  presence,  explained 
the  purpose  of  his  coming,  when  Mr.  Fitz- 
gerald drawing  his  sword,  said,  '  down  on 
your  knees,  you  nebellious  scoundrel,  and  re- 
ceive your  sentence.'  In  vain  did  the  poor 
uian  protest  his  innocence  ;  in  vain  did  he 
implore  trial,  on  his  knees.  Mr.  Fitzgerald 
sentenced  him  first  to  be  flogged,  and  then 
shot.  The  unfortunate  man  surrendered  his 
keys  to  have  his  papers  searched,  and  ex- 
pressed his  readiness  to  suffer  any  punish- 
ment the  proof  of  guilt  could  justify  ;  but  no 
— this  was  not  agreeable  to  Mr.  Fitzgerald's 
principles  of  jurisdiction  ;  his  mode  was  first 
to  sentence,  then  punish,  and  afterwards  in- 
vestigate. His  answer  to  the  unfortunate 
man  was,  '  What,  you  Carmelite  rascal,  do 
you  dare  to  speak  after  sentence  V  and  then 
struck  him,  and  ordered  him  to  prison. 

"  Next  day  this  unhappy  man  was  dragged 
to  a  ladder  in  Clonmei  street,  to  undergo 
his  sentence.  He  knelt  down  in  prayer  with 
his  hat  before  his  face.  Mr.  Fitzgerald 
came  up,  dragged  his  hat  from  him  and 
trampled  on  it,  seized  the  man  by  the  hair, 
dragged  him  to  the  earth,  kicked  him,  and 
cut  him  across  the  forehead  with  his  sword, 
and   then   had    him    stripped    naked,   lied 


up  to  the  ladder,  and  ordered  liim  fifty 
lashes. 

"  Major  Rial,  an  officer  in  the  town,  came 
up  as  the  fifty  laslies  were  completed,  and 
asked  Mr.  F.  the  cause.  Mr.  F.  handed 
the  major  a  note,  written  in  French,  saying, 
he  did  not  himself  understand  French, 
though  he  understood  Irish,  but  he  (Major 
Rial)  would  find  in  that  letter,  what  would 
justify  him  in  flogging  the  scoundrel  to 
death. 

"  Major  Rial  read  the  letter.  He  found 
it  to  be  a  note  addressed  for  the  viclim, 
translated  in  these  words  : — 

"  '  Sir, — /  am  extremely  sorry  I  camiot 
wait  on  you  at  the  hour  appointed,  being 
unavoidably  obliged  to  attend  Sir  Lawrence 
Parsons.     Yours, 

"  '  Baron  de  Clues.' 

"  Notwithstanding  this  translation,  which 
Major  Rial  read  to  Mr.  Fitzgerald,  he  or- 
dered fifty  lashes  more  to  be  inflicted,  and 
with  such  peculiar  severity,  that,  horrid  to 
relate,  the  bowels  of  the  bleeding  victim 
could  be  perceived  to  be  convulsed  and 
working  through  his  wounds  !  Mr.  Fitz- 
gerald finding  he  could  not  continue  the  ap- 
plication of  his  cat-o'nine-tails  on  that  part 
without  cutting  his  way  into  his  body,  or- 
dered the  waistband  of  his  breeches  to  be 
cut  open  and  fifty  more  lashes  to  be  inflicted 
there.  He  then  left  the  unfortunate  man 
bleeding  and  suspended,  while  he  went  to 
the  barrack  to  demand  a  file  of  men  to  come 
and  shoot  him  ;  but  being  refused  by  the 
commanding  officer,  he  came  back  and 
sought  for  a  rope  to  hang  him,  but  could 
not  get  one.  He  then  ordered  him  to  be 
cut  down  and  sent  back  to  prison,  where  he 
was  confined  in  a  dark,  small  room,  with  no 
other  furniture  than  a  wretched  pallet  of 
straw,  without  covering,  and  there  he  re- 
mained six  or  seven  days,  without  medical 
assistance  1  * 

*  Mr.  Plowden  records  another  case,  almost  pre- 
cisely alike,  in  which  Fitzgerald's  victim  was  a  young 
man,  named  Doyle,  a  respectable  tradesman  of  ('ar- 
rick.  The  action  was  tried  at  Clonmei  Spring  Assizes, 
in  1801.  Mr,  Plowden  says:  "  The  plaintiff,  who  was 
a  young  man  of  excellent  character  and  iintaiiited 
loyalty,  was  seized  in  the  street  by  the  defendant  ia 
order  to  be  flagellated.  In  vain  did  he  protest  his  iu- 
nocence,  which  was  also  supi)ortcd  by  some  of  the 
most  respectable  ivihabitauts  of  the  place.  He  beg- 
ged to  have  Captain  Jcphson  seut  for,  the  commaudel 


380 


HISTORY   OF  IREIAND. 


The  Attorney-General,  in  reply,  said : 
"  Tlie  petitioner,  whose  exertions  had  been 
prodnetive  of  the  happiest  consequences, 
only  complained  of  the  persecutions  to  which 
he  was  exposed.  His  property,  and  what  was 
of  infinitely  more  important  to  an  honora- 
ble man,  his  character,  was  at  stake."  He 
also  censured  Mr.  Yelverton,  and  said  that 
gentleman  would  have  acted  more  becoming- 
ly by  awaiting  in  discreet  patience  the  testi- 
mony offered  by  the  petitioner,  &c.  The 
petition  was  at  length  referred  to  a  commit- 
tee, then  to  a  secret  committee.  Nothing 
seems  to  have  been  done  upon  it  ;  but  Mr. 
Judkin  Fitzgerald  afterwards  received  a 
considerable  pension,  "  for  his  active  ser- 
vices in  quelling  the  rebellion."  * 

Before  the  adjournment  of  Parliament, 
the  Anti-Unionists  conceived  they  might 
preclude  the  possibility  of  any  conflict  be- 
tween the  two  Parliaments — and  thus  lake 
one  main  argument  away  from  the  Unionists 
— by  the  simple  measure  of  a  Regency  act, 
euacth>g  that  the  Regency  in  Ireland  should 
forever  be  exercised  by  the  same  person  who 
should  be  Regent  of  England.  Lord  Cas- 
tlereagh  opposed  the  measure,  being  unwil- 
ling to  lose  any  of  his  arguments,  and  main- 
tained that  such  an  act  would  not  meet  the 
difficulty. 

His  lordship's  opinion  was,  that  it  would 
not  prove  a  remedy  for  the  inconvenience 
complained  of.  It  went,  in  his  mind,  only 
to  a  part  of  the  evil,  namely,  the  effect — but 
left  the  cause  of  the  evil  untouched.  Thus 
the  great  malady  still  remained,  and  the 
connection  between  both  countries  would  in 
no  instance  be  better  secured.  Two  Parlia- 
ments, perfectly  equal  in  point  of  rights, 
might,  at  any  future  period,  differ  respecting 
their  choice  of  a  regent ;  and,  therefore,  the 
bill  could  not  effect  that  unity  of  the  execu- 

of  the  jeomanry,  of  whicli  he  was  a  member ;  that 
was  refased.  He  oflered  to  go  to  instant  execution 
if  the  Itast  trace  of  guilt  appeared  against  him  on 
inquiry ;  that  was  also  refused.  Bail  was  offered  to 
any  amount  for  his  appearance.  '  No,'  says  the  sher- 
ifl',  '  I  know  by  his  face  that  he  is  a  traitor — a  Carme- 
lite scoundrel.'  The  plaintiff  was  tied  to  the  whip- 
ping-post; lie  received  one  hundred  lashes,  till  his 
ribs  appeared.  The  young  man's  innocence  was 
afterwards  fully  established.  He  applied  to  a  court  of 
law  for  redress  ;  the  action  was  tried  at  Clonmel  As- 
bizes ;  these  facts  fully  proved ;  an  Orange  jury  acquit- 
ed  the  defendant." 

*  Piowden's  Hist.  Review,  5th  vol. 


five  which  the  measure  proposed  to  estab- 
lish. - 

Circumstanced  as  the  countries  were,  the 
questions  of  peace  and  war,  of  treaties  with 
foreign  powers,  of  different  religions,  might, 
at  some  future  period,  lead  to  a  difference 
of  decision  between  their  Parliaments  ;  and 
such  an  occurrence  would  shake  the  connec- 
tion, and,  in  consequence,  the  empire,  to  its 
foundations. 

If  questions  of  comparative  advantage 
between  countries  might  arise,  how  could  a 
Regency  bill  operate  as  a  remedy  for  the 
evil? 

His  lordship  wished  to  be  informed  how  a 
bill,  which  went  to  establish  the  unity  of  the 
regal  powers,  could  identify  the  necessary 
powers  of  a  regent  for  other  countries. 
Might  not  the  particular  circumstances  of 
one  country  differ  so  materially  from  the 
other  that  the  Regency  for  both  kingdoms 
could  not  conveniently  be  exercised  by  the 
same  person  ?  Or,  did  not  the  bill  go  to 
oblige  the  monarch  to  appoint  one  and  the 
same  Regent,  which,  in  fact,  went  to  restrict 
the  regal  authority  ?  Thus,  either  the  regal 
powers  were  curtailed,  or  the  Regency  bill 
was  inefficient  to  remove  the  inconvenience 
it  went  to  remedy.  The  Regent  was,  to  all 
intents  and  purposes,  a  deputy  ;  and  could 
a  Regent  in  tiiat  case  appoint  a  Lord-Lieu- 
tenant? Could  a  deputy  appoint  a  deputy  ? 
He  presumed  he  could  not ;  and  should  a 
Regent  send  over  a  Lord-Lieutenant  to  that 
country,  he  was  satisfied  that  the  Council 
could  object  to  his  authority. 

His  lordship  read  part  of  a  speech  of  Mr. 
Fox,  to  show  that  the  adjustment  of  1782 
was  not  considered  as  a  final  one  ;  that  it 
went  merely  to  quiet  the  political  struggle 
which  then  existed  ;  and  that  it  was  indis- 
pensably necessary  to  give  up  something  for 
that  imperial  purpose. 

His  lordship  concluded  by  saying  that 
the  measure  was  inefficient  to  the  purpose  it 
held  forth  ;  calculated  to  blind  the  country, 
and. disgrace  the  Legislature. 

It  ranst  be  acknowledged  that  these  argu- 
ments of  Lord  Castlereagh  have  considera- 
ble weight,  and  that  the  only  possibility  of 
Ireland's  real  and  effective  independence  lies 
in  complete  separation  from  Enghmd.  It 
was  on  the  discussion  of  the  Regency  bill 


UNION    PROPOSED   IN   BRITISH    PARLIAMENT. 


381 


that  Mr.  Foster,  the  Speaker,  took  occa 
sion  to  express  his  sentiments  with  great 
weiijlit  and  earnestness  against  the  project 
of  Union  ;  contending  tliat  the  settlement 
of  1782  was  a  final  settlement,  and  that  the 
pending  Regency  bill  would  remove  the  last 
remaining  difficulty  in  the  way  of  harmonious 
action  between  the  two  independent  coun- 
tries. The  Regency  bill,  however,  was  not 
acted  upon.  That,  with  all  other  legislation 
having  reference  to  the  Union,  was  thrown 
over  till  the  ne.xt  session  ;  by  which  time. 
Lord  Castlereagh  hoped  to  have  his  votes 
ready  to  carry  his  grand  measure.  He  vio- 
lently opposed  the  Regency  bill,  and  got  rid 
of  it  by  moving  an  adjournment  of  the 
House,  which  was  carried. 

In  the  meantime,  the  English  Lords  and 
Commons  were  also  busy  upon  the  Union  ; 
and  we  must  now  turn  from  College  Green 
to  Westminster  for  a  time. 


CHAPTER    XL. 

1790. 
Union  Proposed  in  British  Parliament— Opposed  by 
Slieridan — Supported  by  Canning — Great  Speech 
of  Mr.  Pitt — Ireland  to  be  Assured  of  English  Pro- 
tection— Of  English  Capital— Promises  to  the  Cath- 
olics—Mr. Pittas  Resolutions  for  Union — Sheridan — 
Dundas  —  Resolutions  Passed  —  In  the  House  of 
Lords— Labors  of  Cornwallis  and  Castlereagh — 
Corruption — Intimidation — Onslaught  of  Troops  in 
Dublin  — Lord  Cornwallis  Makes  a  Tour  —  Lord 
Downshire  Disgraced— Handcock  of  Athlone — His 
Song  and  Palinode — Opposition  Inorganic — The 
Orangemen — The  Catholics — Arts  to  Delude  Them 
— Dublin  Catholics  Against  Union  —  O'Connell  — 
System  of  Terror — County  Meeting  Dispersed  by 
Troops  —  Castlereagh's  Announcement  of  "Com- 
pensation." 

On  the  same  day,  (January  22,  1799,)  on 
which  the  Union  was  proposed  to  the  L'ish 
Parliament  in  the  speech  of  Lord  Corn- 
wallis, the  same  business  was  brought  be- 
fore both  Houses  in  England.  Mr.  Pitt 
was  80  confident  of  his  power  to  carry  that 
measure  that  he  did  not  think  it  advisable 
to  await  the  result  of  the  deliberations  of 
the  Irish  Senate  upon  it;  but,  presuming  on 
his  strength  in  the  Irish  as  much  as  in  the 
British  Houses  of  Parliament,  he  opened  his 
plan  of  operations  in  both  on  the  same  day. 
Accordingly,  on  the  22d  of  January,  1799, 
a  message  from  the  Sovereign  was  delivered 
to  the  British  Peers  by  Lord  Greuville,  re- 


commending a  Union  in  the  following  terms  : 

"  His  Majesty  is  persuaded  that  the  un- 
remitting industry  with  which  our  enemies 
persevere  in  their  avowed  design  of  efTectiiig 
the  separation  of  Ireland  from  this  kingdom 
cannot  fail  to  engage  the  particular  atten- 
tion of  Parliament ;  and  His  INIajesty  recom- 
mends it  to  this  House  to  consider  of  the 
most  effectual  means  of  counteracting  and 
finally  defeating  this  design  ;  and  he  trusts 
that  a  review  of  all  the  circumstances  which 
have  recently  occurred  (joined  to  the  senti- 
ments of  mutual  affection  and  common  in- 
terests) will  dispose  the  Parliaments  of  both 
kingdoms  to  provide,  in  the  manner  which 
they  shall  judge  most  expedient,  for  settling 
such  a  complete  and  final  adjustment  as  may 
best  tend  to  improve  and  perpetuate  a  con- 
nection." 

The  same  day  a  similar  message  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Commons  by  Mr.  Dundas,  who 
moved  that  it  should  be  taken  into  consid- 
eration on  the  morrow.  Richard  Brinsley 
Sheridan,  though  a  member  for  an  English 
borough,  did  not  forget  that  he  was  an 
Irishman.  He  immediately  rose,  and  while 
he  declared  his  concurrence  in  the  general 
sentiments  which  the  message  conveyed,  he 
thought  it  but  fair  thus  to  give  early  notice 
that  he  viewed  the  bringing  forward  of  tliat 
question  at  tliat  time  as  a  measure  replete 
with  so  much  miscliief,  that  he  held  it  his 
duty  to  take  the  first  opportunity  to  do 
everything  in  his  power  to  arrest  the  fur- 
ther progress  of  it. 

Mr.  Pitt,  in  reply,  said  he  was  at  a  loss 
to  guess  on  what  grounds  the  honorable  gen- 
tleman would  attempt  to  satisfy  the  House 
they  ought  not  to  proceed  to  the  considera- 
tion of  the  important  measure,  which  Ilis 
Majesty,  from  his  paternal  regard  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  empire,  had  thought  proper  to 
recommend  to  their  consideration  ;  at  the 
same  time,  he  informed  the  House  that  his 
intention  was  only  to  propose  an  address 
to  His  Majesty  on  the  next  day  ;  and  then, 
after  a  sufficient  interval,  (about  ten  days,) 
to  proceed  to  the  further  discussion  of  tlie 
subject. 

When  the  address,  accordingly,  was  pro- 
posed the  next  day,  Mr.  Slieridan  made  a 
long  and  able  speech  against  the  whole  pro- 
ject.    "  He  thought  it  incumbent,"  he  said, 


382 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


"upon  Ministers  to  offer  some  explanations 
witli  regard  to  the  failure  of  the  hist  solemn 
adjustment  between  the  eonntries,  wliieh  had 
been  generally  deemed  final.  There  was  the 
stronger  reason  to  expect  this  mode  of  pro- 
ceeding, when  the  declaration  of  the  Irish 
Parliament  in  1782*  was  recollected.  The 
British  Legislature  having  acquiesced  in  this 
declaration,  no  other  basis  of  connection 
ought  to  be  adopted  " 

He  then  spoke  of  the  injustice  of  attempt- 
ing to  consummate  this  union  by  intimida- 
tion and  corruption.  He  contended  that  the 
adjustment  proposed  would  only  unite  two 
wretched  bodies  ;  that  the  minds  would  still 
be  distinct ;  and  that  eventually  it  might 
lead  to  separation. 

"  Let  uo  suspicion,"  he  continued,  "  be 
entertained  that  we  gained  our  object  by 
intimidation  or  corruption.  Let  our  Union 
oe  an  union  of  affection  and  attachment,  of 
plain-dealing  and  free-will.  Let  it  be  an  union 
of  mind  and  spirit,  as  well  as  of  interest  and 
power.  Let  it  not  resemble  those  Irish 
marriages  which  commenced  in  fraud  and 
were  consummated  by  force.  Let  us  not 
20mmit  a  brutal  rape  on  the  independence 
cf  Ireland,  when,  by  tenderness  of  behavior, 
^f,e  may  have  her  the  willing  partner  of  our 
fate.  The  state  of  Ireland  did  not  admit 
such  a  marriage.  Her  bans  ought  not  to 
be  published  to  the  sound  of  the  trumpet, 
with  an  army  of  forty  thousand  men.  She 
was  not  qualified  for  hymeneal  rites,  when 
the  grave  and  the  prison  held  so  large  a 
5hare  of  her  population." 

Sheridan  was  answered  by  George  Can- 
ning ;  who  spoke  earnestly  in  favor  of  an  Un- 
ion. Canning  is  sometimes  claimed  as  an 
Irishman,  but  he  was  born  in  London,  and 
never  in  all  his  life  allowed  the  claim,  no 

*  "We  beg  leave  to  represent  to  His  Majesty  that 
the  subjects  of  Ireland  are  entitled  to  a  free  Consti- 
tution ;  that  the  Imperial  Crown  of  Ireland  is  insepa- 
rably annexed  to  the  Crown  of  Great  Britain,  on 
which  connection  the  happiness  of  both  nations  es- 
Bontially  depends ;  but  that  the  kingdom  of  Ireland 
is  a  distinct  dominion,  having  a  Parli;xment  of  her 
o\%  ^,  the  sole  Legif^lature  thereof;  that  there  is  no 
power  whatsoever  competent  to  make  laws  to  bind 
this  nation,  except  the  King,  Lords,  and  Commons 
of  Ireland.  Upon  which  exclusive  right  of  legislation 
•we  conoider  the  very  essence  of  our  liberties  to  de- 
pend— a  riglit  which  we  claim  as  the  birthright  of 
the  people  of  h-eland,  and  which  we  are  determined, 
iu  every  situation  of  life,  to  assert  and  maintain.'' 


more  than  Swift,  who  said  it  was  too  hard 
if  he  was  to  be  considered  an  Irishman, 
although  he  had  the  misfortune  to  be  "  drop- 
ped "  in  that  island.  At  any  rate,  Mr.  Can- 
ning, never,  in  his  whole  career,  showed  the 
slightest  Irish  feeling  ;  and  on  this  occasion 
he  viewed  the  question  wholly  as  an  Eng- 
lishman, as  he  was.  Here  is  an  extract 
from  his  speech  : — 

"  It  had  been  said,  that  for  the  space  of 
three  hundred  years  we  had  oppressed  Ire- 
land ;  but  for  the  last  twenty  years,  the 
conduct  of  England  had  been  a  series  of 
concessio7is.  The  Irish  wanted  an  octennial 
parliament — it  v/as  granted.  They  wished 
for  an  independent  legislature — they  had 
their  wish.  They  desired  a  free  trade — it 
was  given  to  them.  A  very  large  body  of 
the  people  of  Ireland  desired  a  repeal  of  a 
part  of  the  Penal  Code  which  they  deemed 
oppressive — the  repeal  was  granted.  The 
honorable  gentleman  had  spoken  as  if  noth- 
ing had  been  done  for  Ireland  but  what 
she  extorted,  and  what  she  had  a  right  to 
demand — he  seemed  to  think  that  past 
favors  were  no  proofs  of  kindness.  It  was, 
undoubtedly,  expedient  that  these  advanta- 
ges should  be  given  to  Ireland,  because  her 
prosperity  was  the  prosperity  of  England  ; 
but  they  were  not  privileges  which  she  could 
claim  as  matters  of  rights 

It  was  on  the  31st,  after  the  message  had 
been  again  read,  that  Mr.  Pitt  made  his 
great  speech,  fully  developing  the  view 
which  the  British  Ministry  desired  to  be  re- 
ceived on  the  question  of  Union.  In  jus- 
tice to  the  Unionists  it  is  necessary  to  give 
an  abstract  of  what  this  able  statesman 
urged  on  his  own  part  : — 

"The  nature  of  the  existing  connection," 
he  said,  "evidently  did  not  afford  that  de- 
gree of  security,  which,  even  in  times  less 
dangerous  and  less  critical,  was  necessary  to 
enable  the  empire  to  avail  itself  of  its 
strength  and  resources. 

"  The  settlement  of  1182,  far  from  deserv- 
ing the  name  of  a  final  adjustment,  was  one 
that  left  the  connection  between  Great  Brit- 
ain and  Ireland  ex|)0sed  to  all  the  attacks 
of  parry  and  all  the  effects  of  accident. 
That  settlement  consisted  in  the  demolition 
of  the  system  which  before  held  the  two 
countries  together.     A  system  unworthy  of 


MR.    PITTS    GREAT   SPEECH. 


583 


tlie  liberality  of  Great  Britain,  and  injurious 
to  the  interests  of  Ireland.  Hut  to  call 
that  a  system  in  itself — to  call  that  a  glo- 
rious fabric  of  human  wisdom,  which  was 
no  more  than  the  mere  demolition  of  an- 
other system — was  a  perversion  of  terms." 

Mr,  Pitt  then  quoted  the  Parliamentary 
joiu-uals,  to  prove  that  the  repiuil  of  the 
Declaratory  act  was  not  considered  by  the 
Minister  of  the  day  as  precluding  endea- 
vours for  the  formation  of  an  ulterior  settle- 
ment between  the  kingdoms. 

Mr  Pitt  was  good  enough  to  add,  that 
Great  Britain  had  always  felt  a  common  in- 
terest in  the  safety  of  Ireland  ;  but  that  in- 
terest was  never  so  obvious  and  urgent  as 
when  the  common  enemy  made  her  attack 
npon  Britain  through  the  medium  of  Ire- 
land, and  when  the  attack  upon  Ireland 
tended  to  deprive  her  of  her  connection  with 
Britain,  and  to  substitute  in  lieu  of  it  the 
new  government  of  the  French  Republic. 
When  that  danger  threatened  Ireland,  the 
purse  of  Great  Britain  was  opened  for  the 
wants  of  Ireland,  as  for  the  necessities  of 
England. 

To  those  who  know  how  Ireland  has  been 
drained  of  her  wealth  and  crushed  in  her  in- 
dustry since,  the  Union,  and  by  tb«  Union, 
the  following  paragraph  of  Mr.  Pitt's  speech 
will  seem  strange  : — 

"  Among  the  great  and  known  defects  of 
Ireland,  one  of  the  most  prominent  features 
was  its  want  of  industry  and  of  capital. 
How  were  those  wants  to  be  supplied,  but 
by  blending  more  closely  with  Ireland  the 
industry  and  capital  of  Great  Britain  ?  " 

The  Minister  enlarged  very  much  upon 
the  benefit  which  Ireland  would  derive  from 
the  certainty  of  being  defended  by  England 
against  foreign  enemies,  and  upon  her  ina- 
bility to  protect  herself.  Of  course,  he  did 
not  advert  to  the  fact  (which  he  well  knew) 
that  the  great  majority  of  the  Irish  people, 
Protestants  as  well  as  Catholics,  knew  of 
no  other  foreign  enemy  than  England  ;  that 
in  resisting  French  invasions  of  Ireland, 
England  was  defending  not  Ireland  but  her- 
self ;  and  that  in  capturing  Frenchmen  at 
Ballinarauck,  or  in  Lojgh  Swilly,  the  Eng- 
lish forces  were  not  capLuring  Ireland's  ene- 
mies, bnt  Ireland's  friends.  He  drew  a 
glowing  picture   of   the   great   advantages 


which  the  lesser  country  would  draw  from 
her  uiu'on  with  the  greater,  tlie  protection 
which  she  would  secure  to  herself  in  the 
hour  of  danger  ;  the  most  effectual  means 
of  increasing  her  commerce  and  improving 
her  agriculture,  the  command  of  English 
capital,  the  infusion  of  English  manners  and  , 
English  industry,  necessarily  tending  to 
meliorate  her  condition,  to  accelerate  the 
progress  of  internal  civilization,  and  to  ter- 
minate those  feuds  and  dissensions,  which 
distracted  the  country,  and  which  she  did 
not  possess  within  herself  the  power  either 
to  control  or  to  extinguish.  She  would  see 
the  avenue  to  honors,  to  distinctions,  and 
exalted  situations  in  the  general  seat  of  em- 
pire, opened  to  all  those,  whose  abilities  and 
talents  enabled  them  to  indulge  an  honora- 
ble and  laudable  ambition. 

He  did  not  forget  to  make  his  bid  for  the 
Catholics  ;  and  without  giving,  in  this 
speech,  any  distinct  pledge  of  emancipation 
liy  the  Imperial  Parliament,  he  intimated 
very  clearly  that  the  principal  difficulty  in  the 
way  of  that  measure  would  be  removed  by 
the  Union.  "No  man  could  say,"  he  re- 
marked, "  that,  in  the  present  state  of  things, 
and  while  Ireland  remained  a  separate  king- 
dom, full  concessions  could  be  made  to  the 
Catholics,  without  endangering  the  State, 
and  shaking  the  Constitution  of  Ireland  to 
its  centre.  On  the  other  hand,  when  the 
conduct  of  the  Catholics  should  be  such  as 
to  make  it  safe  for  the  Government  to  ad- 
mit them  to  the  participation  of  the  priv- 
ileges granted  to  those  of  the  established 
religion,  and  when  the  temper  of  the  times 
should  be  favorable  to  such  a  measure,  it 
was  obvious  that  this  question  might  be 
agitated  in  an  United  Imperial  Parliament, 
with  much  greater  safety  than  it  could  be  in 
a  separate  Legislature." 

The  Minister  dwelt  much  upon  the  weak- 
ness of  Ireland,  which  was  not,  he  said,  able 
to  protect  herself — he  had  not  said  so  in  the 
days  of  the  volunteers  ;  npon  the  confusions 
and  atrocities  which  prevailed  at  that  mo- 
ment throughout  the  coiuitr}' — but  he  did 
not  say  that  it  was  he.  who  had  ordered  and 
organized  those  horrors;  upon  "the  hos'ile 
division  of  sects  in  Ireland,  and  the  animosi- 
ties between  ancient  settlers  and  original  in 
habitants" — l)ut -without  saying  that  Eng- 


384 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


lish  policy  had  created  and  perpetuated 
those  evils  ;  upon  the  "  ignorance  and  want 
of  civilization  which,"  he  was  pleased  to  say, 
"marked  that  country  more  than  any  in 
Europe  " — but  he  forgot  to  say  that  for  a  cen- 
tury it  had  been  a  penal  offence  for  any 
Catholic  to  go  to  school,  or  to  teach  a  school. 
For  all  this,  he  insisted  there  was  no  cure 
but  in  the  formation  of  a  General  Imperial 
Legislature,  free  alike  from  terror  and  from 
resentment,  removed  from  the  danger  and 
agitation,  uninfluenced  by  the  prejudices, 
and  uninflamed  by  the  passions  of  that  dis- 
tracted country. 

Ireland,  Mr.  Pitt  admitted,  might  suffer 
somewhat  "  by  the  absence  of  the  chief 
nobility  and  gentry  who  would  flock  to  the 
huperial  metropolis  ;"  but  this  disadvantage 
would  be  far  more  than  counterbalanced  by 
the  beneficial  results  of  the  system  in  other 
respects.  And  as  to  the  idea  that  the  pro- 
ject of  union  with  England  meant  subject- 
ing Ireland  to  a  foreign  yoke,  Mr.  Pitt  met 
that  with  a  quotation  from  Virgil — 
Nee  Teucris  Italos  parere  jubebo, 


Nee  nova  regna  peto  :  paribus  se  legibus  ambce 
Invictse  gentes  sterna  in  fajdera  mittant." 

All  this  looks  to-day  like  cruel  and  deadly 
irony.  It  was  with  the  most  severe  gravity, 
however,  that  Mr.  Pitt  enumerated  all  the 
great  blessings  which  would  flow  from  the 
Union  to  Ireland  ;  —  if  England  was  to 
benefit  by  it,  he  did  not  seem  to  be  aware 
of  that  circumstance,  did  not  think  of  it  ap- 
parently at  all  ;  so  much  absorbed  was  he 
by  the  generons  thought  of  binding  up  the 
bleeding  wounds  of  Ireland,  and  whispering 
peace  to  her  distracted  spirit.  He  ended 
by  moving  his  eight  resolutions,  to  serve  as  a 
basis  for  the  proposed  Union.  As  these 
preliminary  resolutions  were  greatly  en- 
larged in  the  subsequent  "  Articles  "  and 
"Act  of  Union,"  they  need  not  be  here 
given  at  length.  They  were  to  the  effect 
that  it  was  fit  to  propose  an  union  of  the 
two  kingdoms  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 
That  the  succession  to  the  Crown  should  re- 
main settled  as  it  was.  That  the  United 
Kingdom  should  be  represented  in  one  Par- 
liament, in  proportions  afterwards  to  be 
agreed  upon.  That  the  two  Churches  of 
England  and  Ireland  should  be  preserved. 
That  the  people  of  the  two  kingdoms  should 


stand  on  the  same  footing,  as  to  trade  and 
navigation,  and  no  duties  should  be  imposed 
on  e.\'port  or  import  between  the  two  islands. 
That  the  charge  for  the  debts  of  the  two 
kingdoms  should  be  s(!parately  defrayed  ; 
the  [)roportioiis  of  future  expenses  to  be  set- 
tled by  the  two  Parliaments  previous  to  the 
Union.  That  all  laws  and  courts  should  re- 
main as  they  were  then  established,  subject 
to  future  modifications  by  the  United  Par- 
liament. Mr.  Sheridan  opposed  these  reso- 
lutions from  first  to  last. 

"  If  the  condition  of  Ireland,"  he  said, 
"  were  really  as  deplorable  as  it  was  stated 
to  be,  the  House  ought  to  be  informed  from 
what  misconceptions  such  evils  had  arisen, 
amidst  the  advantages  which  God  and  na- 
ture had  bestowed  upon  her.  It  might  be 
concluded,  indeed,  that  her  poverty  was 
chiefly  occasioned  by  the  narrow,  unwise 
policy  of  Britain,  a  policy  which,  he  was 
glad  to  find,  the  Minister  now  disapproved. 
Her  weakness,  perhaps,  was  not  so  great  as 
it  was  supposed  to  be  ;  and,  if  it  were,  it 
was  ungenerous  to  insult  her.  Such  an  in- 
sult would  not  have  been  offered  to  her 
while  her  volunteers  were  in  arms." 

In  the  course  of  the  several  debates  which 
took  place,  Sheridan  was  supported  by  sev- 
eral eminent  members  of  the  House  ;  by 
Mr.  Grey,  (afterwards  Lord  Grey,)  by 
General  Fitzpatrick,  (who  had  been  Irish 
Secretary  under  Lord  Portland,)  Mr.  Tier- 
ney,  the  Honorable  Mr.  St.  John,  Mr.  Hob- 
house,  and  others  ;  most  of  whom  oj)posed 
the  measure  on  account  of  the  time  being 
improper  for  its  discussion.  Of  those  who 
supported  it  may  be  named  Sir  John  Mit- 
ford,  Mr,  Perceval,  Mr,  Dudley  Ryder,  Mr. 
Secretary  Dundas,  afterwards  Lord  Mel- 
ville, (a  Scotchman,)  spoke  warmly  for  the 
Union  ;  and  in  his  speech  took  occasion  to 
throw  out  again  the  bait  which  was  to  catch 
the  Catholics  ;  and  as  he  was  a  member  of 
the  administration,  his  words  were  supposed 
to  have  weight.  He  said  "  that,  after  union, 
the  Protestants  would  lay  aside  their  jeal- 
ousies and  distrust,  being  certain  that  against 
any  attempt  to  endanger  their  establishment 
the  whole  strength  of  the  United  Legislature 
would  be  exerted  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  Catholics  would  expect  that  their  cause 
would  be  candidly  and  impartially  considered 


LABORS    OF    CORXWALUS   AND    CASTLi;  RE-IGH. 


385 


by  a  general  Parliament,  the  great  body  of 
which  would  be  relieved  from  the  apprehen- 
sions and  animosities  interwoven  with  the 
Constitution  of  the  exi.sting  Legislature." 

Mr.  Dnndas  further  vaunted  the  excellent 
effects  which,  he  said,  had  followed  the 
union  of  Scotland  with  England,  and  re- 
ferred to  a  letter  of  Queen  Anne  to  the 
Northern  Parliament,  predicting  the  various 
blessings,  with  respect  to  religion,  liberty, 
and  property,  which  would  result  from  the 
scheme  of  incorporation  ;  and,  he  said,  that 
not  one  syllable  of  her  predictions  had  failed. 

It  is  observable  that,  throughout  the 
wjiole  of  these  debates  in  the  English  Par- 
liament, not  one  of  the  advocates  of  Union 
ever  seems  to  have  thought  of  the  interest 
or  honor  of  his  own  country.  It  was  for 
Ireland  tliey  were  all  conerned.  At  length, 
on  the  12th  of  February,  came  the  division 
on  bringing  up  the  report.  Tiie  ayes  were 
120  ;  nays,  16.  This  was  followed  by  a  con- 
ference between  the  Lords  and  Commons  ; 
and  the  House  of  Peers  ordered  a  month's 
interval  before  entering  upon  the  discussion 
in  their  House. 

On  the  19th  of  March,  the  matter  was 
brought  before  the  British  House  of  Peers 
by  Lord  Grenville.  He  went  through  all 
the  common  arguments  for  the  Union,  and  re- 
peated the  usual  carefully-calculated  phrases 
intended  to  win  the  Irish  Catholics  without 
any  distinct  ministerial  pledge  for  emancipa- 
tion.    He  said  : — 

"  The  good  consequences  of  union  would 
quickly  appear,  in  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion, the  prevalence  of  order,  the  increase  of 
industry  and  wealth,  and  the  improvement 
of  moral  habits.  The  Hibernian  Protestants 
would  feel  themselves  secure  under  the  pro- 
tection of  a  Protestant  Imperial  Parliament ; 
and  the  anxiety  of  the  Catholics  would  be 
allayed  by  the  hope  of  a  more  candid  exam- 
ination of  their  claims  from  a  Parliament 
not  iuOuenced  by  the  prejudices  of  a  local 
legislature." 

Tiie  Union  was  opposed  by  Earl  Fitzwil- 
liam,  advocated  by  the  Marquis  of  Town- 
shend,  Lord  Clifton,  Lord  Minto,  the  Bish 
op  of  Llandaff,  and  many  others.  Lord 
Moira  o|)posed  it.  Lord  Camden  (the  re- 
bellion Viceroy)  supported  it,  Tliis  noble- 
man took  occasion  to  enter  ou  a  defence  of 
49 


his  own  administration  in  Ireland,  which 
seemed  indeed  to  need  defence.  He  denied 
that  the  recall  of  Earl  Filzwilliam  was  pro- 
ductive of  disorder  or  disaffection,  and  af- 
firmed that  the  rigorous  proceedings  of  the 
Government  were  rendered  neces.sary  by  that 
seditious  spirit  which  existed  independently 
of  the  Catholic  question.  He  declared  that 
all  the  severities  imputed  to  his  administra- 
tion were  preceded  by  acts  of  outrage,  of  in- 
surrection, or  of  rebellion.  He  allowed  that 
his  conduct,  ia  adopting  active  and  vigorous 
measures,  and  apprehending  some  of  the 
leaders,  did  accelerate  the  rebellion  ;  but, 
as  the  same  steps  facilitated  its  suppression, 
he  did  not  think  that  he  could  justly  be 
blamed. 

Lord  Minto  advised  the  insertion  of  a  dis- 
tinct clause  in  the  articles  or  act  of  Union, 
providing  for  the  "just  claims  of  the  Catholic 
Irish  ;"  but  he  did  not  insist  on  this,  and 
Ministers  took  care  that  no  such  clause 
should  be  inserted.  Tlieir  policy  at  that 
moment,  with  regard  to  Catholics,  was  only 
to  whisper  hopes  and  private  promises  into 
the  ear  of  bishops  and  })eers  of  that  persua- 
sion, as  will  be  seen  more  fully  hereafter. 
At  the  end  of  a  long  debate  the  address  was 
finally  adopted,  embracing  Mr,  Pitt's  pro- 
posals ;  and  so  the  matter  rested  until  the 
next  session. 

The  remainder  of  the  year  1199  was  a 
busy  time  for  Lord  Cornwallis,  Lord  Clare, 
Lord  Castlereagh,  and  under-Secretary 
Cooke.  They  were  all  excessively  mortified 
at  the  temporary  failure  of  this  measure  ; 
but  if  certain  too  credulous  and  generous 
Irishmen  fondly  imagined  that  the  danger 
was  over,  they  were  signally  mistaken.  Nei- 
ther Clare  nor  Castlereagh  was  the  man  to 
be  so  easily  discouraged  at  a  crisis  on  which 
their  own  future  political  honors  and  exist- 
ence depended.  They  had  it  in  command  from 
London  to  carry  the  Union  through.  Mr 
Pitt,  by  a  "private  dispatch  to  Lord  Corn- 
wallis, desired  that  the  measure  should  not 
be  pressed  unless  he  could  be  certain  of  a 
majority  of  fifty  ;*  and  his  lordship  knew 
wiiat  that  meant,  coming  from  Mr.  Pitt. 
Lord  Cornwallis  seems  to  have  been  quite  a 
willing  agent  in  the  system  of  corruption  and 

*  "This  original  dispatch  1  saw  and  read.'"— iSi/  /. 
Barrington. 


886 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


iutiDiidalion  now  to  be  inaugurated  on  a 
grander  scale  than  ever  before  ;  and,  indeed, 
to  an  extent  never  viitnessed,  either  before 
or  since,  in  any  conntry  of  the  globe.  And 
never  had  a  government  two  more  efficient 
officers  for  such  a  purpose  than  Clare,  the 
Lord-Chancellor,  and  Castlereagh,  the  Sec- 
retary. The  Chancellor,  in  fact,  was  too 
violent  and  arrogant  to  be  politic.  He  called 
that  a  pusillanimous  idea  ;  and  could  have 
been  well  content  for  his  part  to  carry  the 
Union  with  a  majority  of  one,  and  then  dra- 
goon the  island  into  submission.  In  his  rage 
ut  the  first  check  in  Parliament,  and  at  the 
somewhat  tumultuous  rejoicings  of  the  Dub- 
lin mob,  (who,  however,  hurt  nobody,)  he 
hastily  had  the  Privy  Council  called  togeth- 
er, and  urged  the  necessity  of  making  what 
in  Ireland  is  called  a  salutary  example.  Ac- 
cordingly, about  nine  at  night,  a  party  of 
the  military  stationed  in  the  old  Custom 
House,  near  Essex  Bridge,  silently  sallied 
out,  with  trailed  arms,  without  any  civil 
magistrate,  and  only  a  sergeant  to  command 
them  ;  arriving  at  Capel  street,  the  populace 
were  in  the  act  of  violently  huzzaing  for  their 
friends,  and,  of  course,  witli  equal  vehemence 
execratiug  their  enemies  ;  but  no  riot  act 
was  read,  no  magistrate  appeared,  and  no 
disturbance  or  tumult  existed  to  warrant 
military  interference. 

The  soldiers,  however,  having  taken  a 
position  a  short  way  down  the  street,  with- 
out being  in  any  way  assailed,  fired  a  volley 
of  balls  amongst  the  people.  Of  course,  a 
few  were  killed  and  some  wounded  ;  amongst 
the  former,  were  a  woman  and  a  boy.  A 
man  fell  dead  at  the  feet  of  Mr.  P.  Hamil- 
toy,  the  King's  Proctor  of  the  Admiralty, 
w^bo,  as  a  mere  spectator,  was  viewing  the 
illumination.  This  is  only  mentioned  to 
evince  the  violent  spirit  which  guided  the 
Government  of  that  day,  and  the  tyrannic 
means  which  were  employed  to  terrify  the 
people  from  testifying  their  joy  at  their  de- 
liverance, as  they  fancied,  from  the  proposed 
annexation.* 

Lord  Castlereagh,  however,  knew  a  bet- 
ter way  of  going  to  work :  The  session  had 
scarcely  closed,  when  his  lordship  recom- 
menced his  warfare  against  his  country. 
The  treasury  was  in  his  hands,  pati'onage  in 
♦  Sir  J.  Barrington. 


his  note-book,  and  all  the  influence  vviiich 
the  scourge  or  the  pardon,  reward  or  pun- 
ishment, could  possibly  produce  on  the  tremb- 
ling rebels,  was  openly  resorted  to.  Lord 
Cornwallis  determined  to  put  Irish  honesty 
to  the  test,  and  set  out  upon  an  experiment- 
al tour  through  those  parts  of  the  country 
where  the  nobility  and  gentry  were  most 
likely  to  entertain  him.  He  artfully  select- 
ed those  places  where  he  could  best  make 
his  way  with  corporations  at  public  dinners, 
and  with  the  aristocracy,  country-gentlemen, 
and  farmers,  by  visiting  their  mansions  and 
cottages.  Ireland  was  thus  canvassed,  and 
every  jail  was  converted  to  a  hustings,  at 
which  prisoners  of  various  grades  of  crime 
were  asked  1o  sign  petitions  for  the  Union, 
by  the  promise  of  pardon. f  Lord  Castle- 
reagh's  ulterior  efforts  were  extensive  and  in- 
defatigable, his  sj)irit  revived  and  every  hour 
gained  ground  on  his  opponents.  He  clear- 
ly perceived  that  the  ranks  of  the  Opposi- 
tion were  too  open  to  be  strong,  and  too 
mixed  to  be  unanimous.  The  extraordi- 
nary fate  of  Mr.  Ponsouby's  declaration  of 
rights,  and  the  debate  on  a  similar  motion 
by  Lord  Corry,  which  so  shortly  afterwards 
met  a  more  serious  negative,  proved  the 
truth  of  these  observations,  and  identified 
the  persons  through  whom  that  truth  was  to 
be  afterwards  exemplified. 

It  was  soon  perceived  by  the  Anti-Union- 
ists, that  Government  was  recruiting  and 
marshalling  its  forces  to  carry  its  measure 
with  n  high  hand  in  the  next  session  ;  and 
that  they  also  must  do  somewhat  on  their 
side,  to  maintain  the  high  national  spirit  in 
resistance  to  the  hated  measure.  The  Mar- 
quis of  Downshire,  the  Earl  of  Charlemont, 
and  William  Brabazon  Ponsouby,  member 
for  the  county  of  Kilkenny,  sent  circular 
letters  to  the  Irish  gentry  and  yeomanry,  to 
the  following  effect.  They  were  authorized, 
they  said,  by  a  number  of  gentlemen  (;f 
both  houses  of  Parliament — thirty  eight  of 
whom  were  representatives  of  counties — to 
Intimate  their  opinion,  that  petitions  to  Par- 
liament, declaring  the  real  sense  of  the  free- 
holders on  the  subject  of  a  Legislative  Union, 
would  at  that  time  be  highly  expedient. 

t  This  fact,  that  felons  in  the  jails  were  thus  induc- 
ed to  sign  Union  petitions,  was  mentioned  in  Parlia- 
mentary debate,  and  not  contradicted.  Sir  J.  Bar' 
ringten. 


HANDCOCK    OF   ATHLONE mS   SOKG   XXO   PALINODE. 


387 


Tlie  Mnrquis  of  Downsliire  was  at  once 
dismissed  from  the  g^overnment  of  his  conn- 
,ty — the  colonelcy  of  tlie  Royal  Downshire 
^regiment  of  twelve   hundred   men,  and  his 
name  was   erased    from  the   list   of  Privy 
Councillors.*     All  the  resources  of  Govern- 
ment,   either    for    reward   or  punishnient, 
were  to  be  used,  and  that  without  reserve. 
The  management  of  Mr.  Handeock,  mem- 
ber for  Athlone,  is  an  example  of  the  system 
of   treatment  opposite  to  that  pursued  to- 
wards Lord  Downshire.     Immediately  after 
the  close  of  the  session  of  1799,  a  public  din- 
ner of  the  patriotic  members  was  had  in  Dub- 
lin, to  commemorate  the  rescue  of  their  coun- 
try from  so  imminent  a  datiger.  One  hundred 
and  ten  members  of  Parliament  sat  down  to 
that  splendid  and  triumphant  entertainment. 
Never  was  a  more  cordial,  happy  assem- 
blage of  men   of  rank,  consideration,   and 
frove.n  integrity,  collected  in  one  chamber, 
than  upon  that  remarkable  occasion.    Every 
man's  tried  and  avowed  principles  were  sup- 
posed to  be  untaintable,  and  pledged  to  his 
own   honor  and  his  country's  safety  ;    and 
amongst  others,  Mr.  Handeock,  member  for 
Athlone,  appeared  to  be  conspicuous.     He 
t^poke  strongly,  gave  numerous  Anti-Union 
toasts,  vowed,  his  eternal  hostility  to  so  in- 
famous a  measure,  pledged  himself  to  God 
and  man  to  resist  it  to  the  utmost,  and,  to 
finish  and    record   his   sentiments,    he    had 
composed  an  Anti-Union  song  of  many  stan- 
zas, which  he  sung  himself  with  a  general 
chorus.      In  short,  he  was  the  life   of  the 
party.     Lord   Castlereagh    marked   him  as 
a  man  to  be  won  upon  any  terms.     Before 
Parliament  assembled  in  the  next  session, 
Mr.   Handeock  was  composing  and  singing 
Union  songs.     He  received  a  large  bribe  in 
money  ;  "  but,"  says  Sir  Jonah  Barrington, 
"  still  he  held  out  until  title  was  added  to 
the  bribe,  his  own  conscience  was  not  strong 
enough  to  resist  the  charge,  the  vanity  of 
his  family  lusted  for  nobility.     lie  wavered, 
but   he  yielded  ;  his   vows,  his  declaration, 
his  song,  all  vanished  before  vanity,  and  the 
year  1800,  saw  Mr.  Handeock  of  Athlone, 
Lord  Castlemaine."    It  is  uimecessary  to  say 
that  he  voted  for  the  Union. 

The  very   heterogeneous   nature   of   the 
Opposition  which  had  rejected  the  Union  in 
*  Plowdea. 


the  last  session,  gave  Lord  Castlereagh  great 
facilities  in  breaking  it  down.  In  that  for- 
tuitous concourse  of  members,  were  to  be 
found  old  reformers,  and  those  who  had 
always  opposed  reform,  Catholic  .Emanci- 
pators, as  well  as  the  most  violent  and  bit- 
ter of  the  Orangemen.  Indeed,  the  most 
Altai  cause  of  division  amongst  them,  was 
their  radical  difl'erence  of  opinion  on  the 
Catholic  question.  Those  wlio  had  deter- 
mined to  support  the  Catholic  cause,  as  the 
surest  mode  of  preventing  any  future 
attempts  to  attain  a  Union,  were  obliged  to 
dissemble  their  intentinus  of  proposing  eman- 
cipation, lest  they  shuuld  disgust  the  A.s- 
cendancy  party  who  acted  with  them  solely 
against  the  Union.  Those  who  were  ene- 
mies to  Catholic  relaxation,  were  also  oblig- 
ed to  conceal  their  wishes,  lest  their  deter- 
mination to  resist  that  measure  should  dis- 
gust the  advocates  of  emancipation,  who  had 
united  with  them  on  the  present  occasion. 

The  talent  of  Parliament  principally  exist- 
ed amongst  the  members  who  had  formed 
the  general  opposition  to  the  Union.  Some 
habitual  friends  of  administration,  tiierefore, 
who  had  on  this  .single  question  seceded  from 
the  Court,  and  who  wished  to  resume  tlieir 
old  habits  on  the  Union  being  disposed  of, 
obviously  felt  a  portion  of  narrow  jealousy 
at  being  led  by  those  they  had  been  accu.s- 
tomed  to  oppose,  and  reluctantly  joined  in 
any  liberal  opposition  to  a  Court  which  they 
had  been  in  the  habit  of  supporting.  They 
desired  to  vote  against  the  Union  in  the 
abstract,  but  to  commit  themselves  no  fur- 
ther against  the  Minister.  Many,  upon  tliis 
temporizing  and  inefl'ective  principle,  caii- 
tiou.sly  avoided  any  discussion,  save  upon  the 
direct  proposition  ;  and  this  was  remarkable, 
and  felt  to  be  ruinous  in  the  succeeding  ses- 
sion. 

In  the  meetings  and  discussions  which 
took  place  during  that  anxious  interval  be- 
tween the  two  sessions,  and  in  the  first  days 
of  the  new  one,  the  Orange  body  held  aloof 
from  the  question  as  Orangemen  ;  and  in 
the  first  days  of  the  new  session,  a  circular 
was  issued  signed  by  the  "  Grand  Master," 
and  "  Grand  Secretary,"  and  dated  "  Grand 
Orange  Iiodge,"  exhorting  Orangemen  "  to 
avoid,  as  injurious  to  the  institution,  all  con- 
troversy npoD  subjects  not   connected  with 


388 


HISTORY   OF   IREL,VXD. 


their  principles."  There  is  no  doubt,  how- 
ever, that  most  of  the  Orangemen  were  for 
the  Union  ;  and  both  the  Grand  Master 
and  Grand  Secretary,  being  members  of 
Parliament,  voted  for  it  in  1800. 

To  the  countless  petitions  which  were 
poured  in,  almost  all  (igainst  the  Union, 
were  signed  the  names  of  Catholics  and 
Protestants  indiscriminately  ;  but  the  Cath- 
olic Bishops  certainly  used  their  influence 
in  many  cases  to  dissuade  the  people  of  their 
flocks  from  coming  forward  against  the  mea- 
sure. "  It  may,  indeed,  be  said  with  truth," 
says  Mr.  Plowdcn,  "  that  a  very  great  pre- 
ponderancy  in  favor  of  the  Union  existed 
in  the  Catholic  body,  particularly  in  their 
nobility,  gentry,  and  clergy."  The  same 
authority  accounts  for  this  by  "  the  severities 
and  indignities  practiced  upon  them  after 
the  rebellion  by  many  of  the  Orange  party, 
and  the  offensive,  affected  confusion,  in  the 
use  of  the  terms,  papist  and  rebel,  producing 
fresh  soreness  in  the  minds  of  many."  But 
this  is  not  a  satisfactory  account  of  the  in- 
different or  hostile  position  assumed  at  that 
time  of  peril,  by  many  leading  Catholics 
towards  the  Legislature  of  their  country. 
If  they  did  see  some  Orangemen  sitting 
upon  the  Opposition  benches,  they  also  saw 
there  all  their  own  old  and  tried  friends  and 
advocates  ;  and  their  attitude  is  rather  to 
be  ascribed  to  the  impression  produced  by 
the  underhand  half-promises  made  by  people 
connected  with  the  Government.  Sir  Jonah 
Barrington  says  : — 

"The  Viceroy  knew  mankind  too  well  to 
dismiss  the  Catholics  without  a  comfortable 
conviction  of  their  certain  emancipation  ;  he 
turned  to  them  the  honest  side  of  his  coun- 
tenance ;  the  priests  bowed  before  the  sol- 
dierly condescensions  of  a  starred  veteran. 
The  titular  archbishop  was  led  to  believe 
he  would  instantly  become  a  real  pre- 
late ;  and  before  the  negotiation  conclud- 
ed. Dr.  Troy  was  consecrated  a  decided 
Unionist,  and  was  directed  to  send  pas- 
toral letters  to  his  colleagues  to  promote 
it." 

Sir  Jonah  tells  us,  further,  that  "some  of 
the  persons,  assuming  to  themselves  the  title 
of  Catholic,  leaders,  sought  an  audience,  in 
order  to  inquire  from  Marquis  Cornwallis, 
'What  would    be    the    advantage    to    the 


Catholics,  if   a  union  should  happen  to  bd 
effected  in  Ireland  ? ' 

"  Mr.  Bellew,  (brother  to  Sir  Patrick  Bel- 
lew,)  Mr.  Lynch,  and  some  others,  had  sev- 
eral audiences  with  the  Viceroy  ;  the  Catho- 
lic Bishops  were  generally  deceived  into  the 
most  disgusting  subservience,  rewards  were 
not  withheld,  Mr.  Bellew  was  to  be  appoint- 
ed a  County  Judge,  but  that  being  found  im- 
practicable, he  got  a  secret  pension,  which 
he  has  now  enjoyed  for  thirty-two  years." 

But,  undoubtedly,  the  main  motive  of  the 
anti-national  conduct  of  leading  Catholics  is 
to  be  sought  in  those  uniform  declarations 
of  Ministers,  both  in  England  and  in  Ire- 
land, that  the  Union,  and  the  Union  alone, 
would  remove  all  impediments  to  a  fair  set- 
tlement of  the  demands  of  the  Catholics. 

There  were,  however,  some  Catholics  not 
to  be  so  easily  deluded.  The  trading  and  com- 
mercial class  of  Catholics  in  Dublin  was  ve- 
hemently opposed  to  union  ;  and,  immediately 
before  the  opening  of  the  session,  a  meeting 
of  these  people  was  held  at  the  Royal  Ex- 
change, to  deliver  their  opinions  upon  it. 
It  was  proposed  to  prevent  this  meeting 
from  assembling,  by  military  force  —  such 
was  always  Lord  Clare's  first  thought ; 
but  better  counsels  prevailed,  and  the  meet- 
ing was  held,  Mr.  Ambrose  Moore  iu  the 
chair. 

Ko  less  a  person  than  Daniel  O'Connell, 
then  a  rising  young  barrister,  took  the  lead- 
ing part  at  this  meeting  ;  and  it  is  interest- 
ing to  see  with  what  patriotic  earnestness  he 
then  protested  against  the  perpetration  of 
that  Union  which,  near  half  a  century  later, 
he  laid  down  his  life  in  the  effort  to  repeal. 
He  said  : — 

"That  under  the  circumstances  of  tlie 
present  day,  and  the  systematic  calumnies 
flung  at  the  Catholic  character,  it  was  more 
than  once  determined  by  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics of  Dublin  to  stand  entirely  aloof,  as  a 
mere  sect,  from  all  political  discussion,  at 
the  same  time  that  they  were  ready,  as 
forming  generally  a  part  of  the  people  of 
Ireland,  to  confer  with  and  express  their 
opinions  in  conjunction  with  their  Protest- 
ant fellow-subjects.  This  resolution,  which 
they  had  entered  into,  gave  rise  to  an 
extensive  and  injurious  misrepresentation, 
and  it  was   asserted   by  the   advocates  of 


COUNTY   MEETING   DISPERSED    BY    TROOPS. 


389 


TJiuon,  darinirly  and  insolently  asserted,  that 
the  Roman  Catholics  of  Ireland  were  friends 
to  the  measure  of  Union,  and  silent  allies  to 
that  conspiracy  formed  against  the  name, 
the  interests,  and  the  liberties  of  Ireland. 
This  libel  on  the  Catholic  character  was 
etrengthened  by  the  partial  declarations  of 
some  mean  and  degenerate  members  of  the 
commnnion,  wrought  upon  by  corruption  or 
by  fear,  and,  unfortunately,  it  was  received 
with  a  too  general  credulity.  Every  Union 
pamphlet,  every  Union  speech  imprudently 
put  forth  the  Catholic  name  as  sanctioning 
a  measure  which  would  annihilate  the  name 
of  the  country,  and  there  was  none  to  re- 
fute the  calumny.  In  the  speeches  and 
pamphlets  of  Anti-Unionists,  it  was  rather 
admitted  than  denied,  and,  at  length,  the 
Catholics  themselves  were  obliged  to  break 
through  a  resolution  which  they  had  formed, 
in  order  to  guard  against  misrepresentation, 
for  the  purpose  of  repelling  this  worst  of 
misrepresentations.  To  refute  a  calumny  di- 
rected against  them,  as  a  sect,  they  were 
obliged  to  come  forward  as  a  sect,  and  in  the 
face  of  their  country  to  disavow  the  base 
conduct  imputed  to  them,  and  to  declare 
that  the  assertion  of  their  being  favorably 
inclined  to  the'  measure  of  a  legislative  in- 
corporation with  Great  Britain,  was  a  slan- 
der the  most  vile  ;  a  libel  the  most  false, 
scandalous,  and  wicked,  that  ever  was  di- 
rected against  the  character  of  an  individual 
or  a  people. 

"  Sir,"  continued  Mr.  O'Connell,  "  it  is 
my  sentiment,  and  I  am  satisfied  it  is  the 
sentiment,  not  only  of  every  gentleman  who 
now  hears  me,  but  of  the  Catholic  people 
of  Ireland,  that  if  our  opposition  to  this  in- 
jurious, insulting,  and  hated  measure  of 
Union  were  to  draw  upon  us  the  revival  of 
the  penal  laws,  we  would  boldly  meet  a  pro- 
scription and  oppression,  which  would  be  the 
testimonies  of  our  virtue,  and  sooner  throw 
ourselves  once  more  on  the  mercy  of  our 
Protestant  brethren,  than  give  our  assent 
to  the  political  murder  of  our  country  ;  yes, 
1  know — I  do  know,  that  although  exclu- 
sive advantages  may  be  ambigiicmsly  held  fortk 
to  the  Irish  Catholic,  to  seduce  him  from  the 
sacred  duty  which  he  owes  his  country  ;  I 
know  that  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  still  re- 
member that  they  have  a  country,  and  that 


they  will  never  accept  of  any  advantages, 
as  a  sect,  which  would  debase  and  destroy 
them  as  a  people.'' 

After  which  Mr.  O'Connell  moved  cer- 
tain  resolutions  which  were  unanimously 
agreed   to. 

The  first  of  these  resolutions  was — 

"  Resolved,  Tliat  we  are  of  opinion  that 
the  proposed  incorporate  Union  of  the  Leg- 
islature of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  is,  in 
fact,  an  extinction  of  the  liberty  of  this 
country,  which  would  be  reduced  to  the  ab- 
ject condition  of  a  province,  surrendered  to 
the  mercy  of  the  Minister  and  Legislature 
of  another  country,  to  be  bound  by  their 
absolute  will,  and  taxed  at  their  pleasure  by 
laws,  in  the  makit)g  of  which  this  country 
could  have  no  efficient  participation  what- 
ever." 

As  the  decisive  moment  approached  for. 
the  trial  of  this  great  issue,  men's  minds  be- 
came more  and  more  excited  on  both  sides 
of  the  question.  The  patriotic  leaders  did 
what  was  possible  to  evoke  a  respectable 
body  of  public  opinion  by  way  of  meetings, 
petitions,  and  resolutions  ;  but  this  was  a 
service  of  danger,  as  Lord  Dovvnshire  had 
found,  A  far  more  extraordinary  example 
of  the  determination  of  Government  to 
crush  down  all  legitimate  expression  of  pub- 
lic feeling  occurred  at  a  proposed  county 
meeting  in  Kings  County.  The  circum- 
stances were  thus  related  by  Sir  Lawrence 
Parsons,  in  his  place  in  Parliament,  and  were 
never  denied  : — 

"  Some  time  ago.  Major  Rogers,  who  com- 
mands at  Birr,  having  been  told  that  there 
was  an  intention  of  assembling  the  freehold- 
ers and  inhabitants  to  deliberate  on  the  pro- 
priety of  petitioning  against  a  Legislative 
Union,  the  Major  replied  that  he  would  dis- 
pei-se  them  by  force  if  they  attempted  any 
such  thing  ;  that  the  Major,  however,  ap- 
plied to  Government  for  direction.  What 
answer  or  directions  he  received  could  only 
be  judged  of  by  his  immediate  conduct.  On 
Sunday  last,  several  magistrates  and  respec- 
table inhabitants  assembled  in  the  session 
house,  when  the  Iligh-Slieriif  (Mr.  Derby) 
went  to  tliera  and  ordered  them  to  disperse, 
or  he  would  compel  them.  Tiiey  were  about 
to  depart,  when  a  gentleman  came  and  told 
them  the  array  was  approaching.    The  As* 


390 


HISTORY   OF   IliELAND. 


sembly  had  but  just  time  to  vote  tlie  resolu- 
tions, but  not  to  sign  them.  They  broke  up, 
and  as  they  went  out  of  the  session  honse 
they  saw  moving  towards  it  a  column  of 
troops  with  four  pieces  of  cannon  in  front, 
matches  lighted,  and  every  disposition  for  an 
attack  upon  the  session  house — a  building 
so  constructed  that  if  a  cannon  had  been 
fired  it  inust  have  fallen  on  the  magistrates 
and  the  people,  and  buried  them  in  its  I'uins. 
A  gentleman  spoke  to  Major  Rogers  on  the 
subject  of  his  approaching  in  tiiat  hostile 
manner.  His  answer  was  that  he  waited 
but  for  one  word  from  the  Sheriff  that  he 
might  blow  them  to  atoms  1  These  were 
the  dreadful  measures.  Sir  Lawrence  said, 
by  which  Government  endeavored  to  force 
the  Union  upon  the  people  of  Ireland,  by 
stifling  their  sentiments  and  dragooning  them 
into  submission." 

Sir  Jonah  Barrington  states  positively 
that  many  other  meetings  throughout  the 
counties  were  thus  prevented  by  simple 
"dread  of  grape-shot."  English  generals 
then  quartered  in  various  parts  of  the  island, 
at  a  moment  when  either  martial  law  still 
existed  or  the  horrible  memory  of  it  was 
fresh,  could  not  fail  to  have  their  own  influ- 
ence over  proclaimed  districts  and  a  bleeding 
peasantry.  To  them  nothing  could  be  easier 
than  to  pi-eveut  any  political  meetings,  under 
pretence  that  they  might  endanger  the  pub- 
lic peace. 

The  Anti-TJnioQ  addresses,  innumerable 
and  ardent,  in  their  very  nature  voluntary, 
and  with  signatures  of  high  consideration, 
were  stigmatized  by  Government  journals 
as  seditious  and  disloyal ;  "  while  those  of 
the  compelled,  the  bribed,  and  the  culprit, 
were  i)rinted  and  circulated  by  every  means 
that  the  Treasury  or  the  influence  of  the 
Government  could  effect."  * 

There  were  a  gocd  many  new  elections 
held  this  summer  ;  because  members  were 
persuaded  to  resign  their  seats  "  upon  terms," 
says  Mr.  Plowden  ;  but  he  does  not  tell  us 
what  those  terms  were.    In  fact,  tliey  sirap'y 

*  Sir  Jonah  Barrington.  He  states,  and  O'Connell 
has  affirmed  ttie  same,  that,  notwithstanding  all  ob- 
stacles and  intimidations,  seven  hundred  thousand 
persons  petitioned  against  union;  and,  notwithstand- 
ing ail  inducements,  only  three  thousand  petitioned 
lor  it^-the  most  of  these  being  Government  officials 
and  prisoners  ia  the  jails. 


accepted  one  of  the  "  Escheatorships,"  a 
species  of  "  Chiltern  Hundreds,"  to  vacate 
their  seats,  that  those  seats  might  be  filled 
by  creatures  of  the  Castle.  In  this  way  a 
small  majority  had  already  been  secured  be- 
fore the  opening  of  the  session. 

Lords  Cornwallis  and  Castlereagh,  having 
made  so  good  progress  during  the  recess,  now 
discarded  all  secrecy  and  reserve.  Many  of 
the  peers  and  several  of  the  commoners  had 
the  patronage  of  boroughs,  the  control  of 
which  was  essential  to  the  success  of  th© 
Minister's  project.  These  patrons  Lord  Cas- 
tlereagh assailed  by  every  means  which  his 
power  and  situation  afforded.  Lord  Corn- 
wallis was  the  remote,  Lord  Castlereagh  the 
intermediate,  and  Mr.  Secretary  Cooke,  the 
immediate  agents  on  many  of  these  bargains. 
Lord  Shannon,  the  Marquis  of  Ely,  and  sev- 
eral other  peers  commanding  votes,  after 
much  coquetry  had  been  secured  during  th© 
first  session  ;  but  the  defeat  of  Government 
rendered  their  future  support  uncertain.  The 
Parliamentary  patrons  had  breathing  time 
after  the  preceding  session,  and  began  to 
tremble  for  their  patronage  and  importance  ; 
and  some  desperate  step  became  necessary 
to  Government,  to  insure  a  continuance  of 
the  support  of  these  personages. 

Accordingly,  Lord  Castlereagh  boldly  an- 
nounced his  intention  to  turn  the  scale,  by 
bribes  to  all  who  would  accept  them,  under 
the  name  of  compensation  for  the  loss  of  pa- 
tronage and  interest.  He  publicly  declared, 
first,  that  every  nobleman  who  returned 
members  to  Parliament  should  be  paid,  in 
cash,  £15,000  for  every  member  so  returned; 
secondly,  that  every  member  who  had  purchased 
a  seat  in  Parliament  should  have  his  purchase- 
money  repaid  to  him  out  of  the  Treasury  of 
Ireland  ;  thirdly,  that  all  members  of  Par^ 
liament,  or  others,  who  were  losers  by  the 
Union  should  be  fully  recompensed  for  their 
losses,  and  that  £1,500,000  should  be  devot- 
ed  to  this  service.  In  other  words,  all  who 
should  affectionately  support  his  measure 
were,  under  some  pretext  or  other,  to  share 
in  this  "  bank  of  corruption." 

A  declaration  so  desperately  and  reckless- 
ly flagitious  was  never  made  in  any  country 
on  eartli  by  the  Minister  of  any  Sovereign. 
It  was  treating  the  elective  franchise  of  the 
country  as  the  private  property  of  those  pro* 


PROGRESS    OF   UNION    CONSPIRACY. 


391 


pi-ietors  who  returned  the  ineinbors  by  means 
of  tlieir  unconstitutional  influence.  It  was 
acknowledging  and  consecrating  the  practice 
of  tliose  members  themselves  in  treating  their 
seats  also  as  a  property,  from  which,  during 
their  tenure,  they  drew  profit  in  bribes,  or 
plnce,  or  some  substantial  Court  favor.  And 
it  was  charging  the  whole  expense  of  this 
nefarious  transaction  to  the  Irish  tax-payers 
themselves,  the  very  people  who  were  thus  to 
be  sold  by  their  representatives,  and  pur- 
chased with  their  own  money  by  their  ene- 
mies. 

But  the  declaration  had  a  powerful  efifect 
in  favor  of  the  Castle  ;  and  before  the  meet- 
ing of  Parliament  in  Jainiary  he  found, 
through  the  infallible  information  of  the 
Under-Secretary,  ISIr.  Cooke,  that  he  could 
count  upon  a  small  majority  of  about  eight. 
This  he  hoped  to  increase. 


CHAPTER    XLI. 

1799—1800. 
Progress  of  Union  Conspiracy— Grand  Scale  of  Brib- 
ery— Castlereagti  Organizes  "  Fighting  Men '' — Din- 
ner at  his  House — Last  Session  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment— Warm  Debate  the  First  Day — Daly  Attacks 
Bushe  and  Plunket — Reappearance  of  Grattau — His 
Speech — Curry.  Attacks  Him — Division — Majority 
for  Government — Castlereagh  Proposes  "Articles" 
of  Union — His  Speech — Promises  Great  Gain  to 
Ireland  from  Union — Ii-elaud  to  "Save  a  Million  a 
Year" — Proposed  Constitution  of  United  Parlia- 
ment— Irish  Peerage — Ponsonby — G rattan — Again 
a  Majority  for  the  Castle — Lord  Clare's  Famous 
Speech — Duel  of  Grattan  and  Corry— Torpor  and 
Gloom  in  Dublin — The  Catholics^"  Articles  "  final- 
ly Adopted — By  Commons — By  Lords. 

In  the  cool,  calculating  head  of  the  Irish 
Secretary,  the  whole  project  was  now  ma- 
tured, and  its  accomplishment  provided  for. 
Things  were,  he  thought,  in  a  good  train. 
County  meetings  of  freeholders  were  pre- 
vented by  "dread  of  grape-shot ; "  the  Cath- 
olic Bishops  and  gentry  were  lulled  asleep 
by  what  Mr.  O'Connell  had  well  described 
as  "  riopes  of  advantage  amljiguously  held 
forth  ;"  the  people  were  crushed,  disarmed, 
bleeding  ;  there  were  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  armed  men  in  the  country,  one- 
third  regular  troops,  the  other  two-thirds  of- 
ficered and  controlled  by  Government ;  and 
above  all,  and  beyond  all,  Mr.  Cooke  was 
successfully  driving  his  bargains  with  the 
Lords   Spiritual   and    Temporal  and  Com- 


mons of  the  Parliament  of  Ireland.  Yet  his 
lordship  evidently  dreaded  the  meeting  of 
Parliament.  He  loved  not  that  inevitable 
encounter  with  so  many  honest,  ardent,  and 
able  men,  who  all  knew  and  would  proclaim 
the  villanies  he  was  practising.  In  fact,  he 
felt,  with  uneasiness,  that  the  genius  and  elo- 
quence of  the  land,  as  well  as  its  integrity, 
were  full  against  him  ;  and  no  kgislaiive 
body  ever  yet  sitting  in  one  house  has  pos- 
sessed so  large  a  proportion  of  grand  orators, 
learned  lawyers,  and  accomplished  gentle- 
men. It  may  be  fearlessly  added,  that  no 
Parliament  has  ever  had  so  large  a  propor- 
tion of  honorable  men.  Had  it  not  been  so, 
the  splendid  bribes  then  ready  to  be  thrust 
into  every  man's  hand  would  have  insured  to 
the  Castle  a  much  greater  majority,  and  we 
should  not  have  seen  the  noble  ranks  of  un- 
purchasable  patriots  thronging  so  thifk  on 
the  Opposition  benches  to  the  last.  What 
Parliament  or  Congress  has  ever  been  tempt- 
ed so?*  There  is  no  need  to  make  invidi- 
ous or  disparaging  reflections  ;  but  English- 
men, and  Frenchmen,  and  Americans,  should 
pray  that  their  respective  Legislatures  may 
never  be  subjected  to  such  an  ordeal. 

But  still,  Castlereagh  disliked  this  meetr 
ing  with  the  Irish  Parliament  ;  and,  as  his 
party  fell  so  far  short  of  their  opponents  in 
point  of  talent  and  oratory,  he  bethought 
him  of  a  singular  expedient  to  make  sure  of 
an  effective  corps  of  fighting  men  amongst 
his  supporters  in  the  House.  He  was  him- 
self a  man  of  most  reckless  courage  ;  but  he 
saw  the  necessity  of  infusing  a  little  of  tliat 
spirit  into  his  party.  Sir  Jonah  Barriugton 
describes  his  system   of  procedure   in  this 

*  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  compensation 
fund  of  £1,500,000  represents  a  small  part  of  the 
bribery.  Vast  sums  were  also  paid  for  votes  out  of  the 
Secret  Service  money.  O'Connell, in  his  Corporation 
Speech,  estimates  these  latter  bribes  at  "more  than 
a  million."  Then  there  were  about  forty  new  peer- 
ages created,  and  conferred  as  bribes.  The  tariff  of 
prices  for  Union  votes  was  familiarly  known— £S,000, 
or  an  office  worth  £2,000  a  year  if  the  member  did 
not  like  to  touch  the  ready-money.  Ten  bishoprics, 
one  chief-justiceship,  six  puisne-jndgesliips,  besidea 
regiments  and  ships  given  to  officers  of  the  army  and 
navy.  On  the  whole,  the  amount  of  all  this  in  money 
must  have  been,  at  least,  Jive  millions  sterling— $25,- 
000,000.  If  bribery  upon  the  same  scale,  say,  $100,- 
000,000,  were  now  judiciously  administered  in  the  En- 
glish Parliament,  a  majority  could  be  f  btained  which 
would  annex  the  Three  Kingdoms  to  the  United 
States. 


392 


HISTORY    OP   IRELAND. 


matter,  wliicli  is  too  characteristic  of  tlie 
time  and  of  the  country  to  be  iiere  omitted  : 

"He  invited  to  dinner,  at  his  house  in 
Merrion  Square,  about  twenty  of  his  most 
etaunch  supporters,  consisting  of  '  tried 
men,'  and  men  of  '  fighting  families,'  who 
might  feel  an  individual  pride  in  resenting 
every  personality  of  the  Opposition,  and  in 
identifying  their  own  honor  with  the  cause 
of  Government.  This,  dinner  was  sump- 
tuous ;  the  champagne  and  Madeira  had 
their  full  effect ;  no  man  could  be  more  con- 
descending than  the  noble  host.  After  due 
preparation,  the  point  was  skillfully  intro- 
duced by  Sir  John  Blaquiere,  (since  created 
Lord  de  Blaquiere,)  who,  of  all  men,  was 
best  calculated  to  promote  a  gentlemanly, 
convivial,  fighting  conspiracy  ;  he  was  of 
the  old  school,  an  able  diplomatist,  and  with 
the  most  polished  manners  and  imposing  ad- 
dress, he  combined  a  friendly  heart,  and  de- 
cided spirit  ;  iu  polite  conviviality  he  was 
unrivaled. 

"  Having  sent  round  many  loyal,  mingled 
with  joyous  and  exhilarating,  toasts,  he 
stated  that  he  understood  the  Opposition 
were  disposed  to  personal  unkindness,  or 
even  incivilities,  towards  His  Majesty's  best 
friends — the  Unionists  of  Ireland.  He  was 
determined  that  no  man  should  advance 
upon  him  by  degrading  the  party  he  had 
adopted,  and  the  measures  he  was  pledged 
to  support.  A  full  bumper  proved  his  sin- 
cerity, the  subject  was  discussed  with  great 
glee,  and  some  of  the  company  began  to  feel 
a  zeal  for  '  adual  service.^ 

"  Lord  Castlereagh  affected  some  coquetry, 
lest  this  idea  should  appear  to  have  origina- 
ted with  him  ;  but,  when  he  perceived  that 
many  had  made  up  their  minds  to  act  even 
on  tlie  offensive,  he  calmly  observed,  that 
some  mode  should,  at  all  events,  be  taken  to 
secure  the  constant  presence  of  a  sufficient 
number  of  the  Government  friends  during 
the  discussion,  as  subjects  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance were  often  totally  lost  for  want  of 
due  attendance.  Never  did  a  sleight-of-hand 
man  juggle  more  expertly. 

"  One  of  his  lordship's  prepared  accessor- 
ies (as  if  it  were  a  new  thought)  proposed, 
humorously,  to  have  a  dinner  for  twenty  or 
thirty  every  day,  in  one  of  the  committee- 
chambers,  where  they  could  be  always  at 


hand  to  make  up  a  House,  or  for  any  emer- 
gency which  should  call  for  an  unexpected 
reinforcement,  during  any  part  of  the  dis- 
cussion. 

"The  novel  idea  of  such  a  detachment 
of  legislators,  was  considered  whimsical  and 
humorous,  and,  of  course,  was  not  rejected. 
Wit  and  puns  began  to  accompany  the  bot- 
tle. Mr.  Cooke,  the  Secretary,  then,  with 
significant  nods  and  smirking  iimendos,  be- 
gan to  circulate  his  official  rewards  to  tho 
company.  The  hints  and  the  claret,  united 
to  raise  visions  of  the  most  gratifying  nature, 
every  man  became  in  a  prosperous  state  of 
official  pregnancy — embryo  judges,  counsel 
to  boards,  envoys  to  foreign  courts,  com- 
pensation pensioners,  placemen  and  com- 
missioners in  assortments,  all  revelled  in 
the  anticipation  of  something  substantial  to 
be  given  to  every  member  who  would  do  the 
Secretary  the  honor  of  accepting  it. 

"  The  scheme  was  unanimously  adopted. 
Sir  John  Blaquiere  pleasantly  observed  that, 
at  all  events,  they  would  be  sure  of  a  good 
cook  at  their  dinners.  After  much  wit,  and 
many  flasiies  of  convivial  bravery,  the  meet- 
ing separated  after  midnight,  fully  resolved 
to  eat,  drink,  speak,  awA  fight  for  Lord  Cas- 
tlereagh." 

It  was  not  long  before  one  of  these  gen- 
tlemen found  an  opportunity  of  proving  his 
mettle. 

On  the  L5th  of  January,  the  last  session 
of  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  assembled. 
Every  member  expected  that  the  speech 
from  the  Throne  would  have  again  introduc- 
ed the  subject  of  an  Union,  the  basis  for 
which,  was  now  firmly  laid  by  the  action  of 
the  British  Parliament  in  adopting  the  Ar- 
ticles of  Union.  There  was  deep  and  ex- 
pectant attention,  as  the  Viceroy  congratu- 
lated Parliament  upon  "  victories  of  the 
combined  imperial  armies "  over  France ; 
upon  good  understanding  with  Naples  ; 
upon  the  failure  of  the  plans  of  "  the  enemy  " 
in  India  ;  upon  the  check  given  to  Buona- 
parte's Egyptian  successes  ;  and  he  went 
on  to  demand  supplies  as  usual,  and  to 
promise  economy  ; — and  earnestly  recom- 
mended to  their  care  and  patronage  agri- 
culture, manufactures,  and  the  "Protestant 
Charter  Schools  ; " — but  he  ended  without 
saying  one  word  of  Union. 


WAKM   DEBATE   THE   FIRST   DAT. 


393 


Lord  Viscount  Loftiis  (afterwards Marquis 
of  Ely)  moved  the  address,  wiiicli  was  as 
vague  as  the  speccli  was  empt}'.  It  was 
this  p;eiitleman's  father,  Marquis  of  Ely, 
wlio  had  been  promised  £45,000  for  his 
tlirce  Ijoroughs.  Sir  Jouaii  Barriugton 
says  tiiis  youtig  nobleman  "  had  been  chris- 
tened Lee-hoo,  by  the  humorons  party  of  the 
House,  and  was  only  selected  to  show  the 
Coniinous  that  his  father  had  been  purchas- 
ed " — in  other  words,  poii,r  tncowragcr  les 
autres. 

Tiicre  was  not  a  point  in  the  Yiceroy's 
speech  intended  to  be  debated.  Lord  Cas- 
tlereagli,  having  judiciously  collected  his 
flock,  was  better  enabled  to  decide  on  num- 
bers, and  to  count  with  sufficient  certainty 
on  the  result  of  his  labors  since  the  pre- 
ceding session,  without  any  hasty  or  pre- 
mature disclosure  of  his  definitive  measure. 

Tliis  negative  and  insidious  mode  of  pro- 
ceeding, however,  could  not  be  permitted  by 
the  Opposition,  and  Sir  Lawrence  Parsons, 
after  one  of  the  most  able  and  luminous 
speeches  he  had  ever  uttered,  moved  an 
amendment,  declaratory  of  the  resolution  of 
Parliament,  to  preserve  the  Constitution  as 
established  in  1782,  and  to  support  the  free- 
dom and  independence  of  the  nation.  This 
motion  occasioned  a  warm  debate  on  the 
very  first  day  of  the  session.  Lord  Castle- 
reagh,  in  pursuance  of  the  bullying  policy 
which  had  been  agreed  upon,  spoke  con- 
temptuously of  the  arguments  of  Sir  Law- 
rence. Tlie  silence  of  the  Lord-Lieutenant 
on  the  subject,  did  not  arise  from  any  con- 
viction of  the  impolicy  of  prosecuting  the 
scheme.  The  question  had  been  witlidrawn, 
when  the  House  of  Commons  seemed  unwil- 
ling to  entertain  it,  but,  as  a  great  majority 
of  the  people  now  approved  the  measure,  and 
as  there  was  reason  to  believe,  that  many  of 
its  late  Parliamentary  opponents  had  re- 
nounced their  ideas  of  its  demerits.  His 
Majesty's  counselors  had  resolved  to  give  it 
a  new  chance  of  regular  investigation.  The 
reason  of  its  not  having  been  mentioned  in 
the  Viceroy's  speech,  was  merely  that  it  was 
to  be  made  a  subject  of  distinct  communi- 
cation to  Parliament. 

There  ensued  a  vehement  debate  on  the 

whole  question  of  Union.     Many  members 

now  ventured  to  show  their  hands.     After 
60 


Mr.  Ponsonl)y  had  spoken  strongly  and  earn- 
estly in  favor  of  Sir  L.  Parsons'  amendment, 
up  rose  Dr.  Brown,  member  for  the  Univer- 
sity, who  had  voted  against  the  Union  in 
the  preceding  session.  He  said  "  he  had 
become  more  inclined  to  the  Union  than  he 
had  been  in  the  preceding  session,  because 
he  thought  it  more  necessary  from  inlervie- 
diate  circumstances P  Unhappily,  we  know 
what  those  circumstances  were.  He  had 
been  promised  the  place  of  Prime-Sergeant, 
and  got  it  for  his  vote,  and  for  that  alone, 
as  he  had  no  other  merit.* 

Charles  Kendal  Bushe  made  a  vigorous 
speech  in  this  debate.     He  said  : — 

"  You  are  called  upon  to  give  up  your  in- 
dependence, and  to  whom  are  you  to  give  it 
up  ?  To  a  nation  which  for  six  hundred 
years  has  treated  you  with  uniform  oppres- 
sion and  injustice.  The  Treasury  Bench 
startles  at  the  assertion — Non  mens  hie  scrmo 
est.  If  the  Treasury  Bench  scold  me,  Mr. 
Pitt  will  scold  them,  it  is  his  assertion  in  so 
many  words  in  his  speech.  Ireland,  says 
he,  has  always  been  treated  with  injustice 
and  illiberality.  Ireland,  says  Junius,  has 
been  uniformly  plundered  and  oppress- 
ed. This  is  not  the  slander  of  Junius,  or 
the  candor  of  Mr.  Pitt,  it  is  history.  For 
centuries  has  the  British  nation  and  Parlia- 
ment kept  you  down,  shackled  your  com- 
merce, paralyzed  your  exertions,  despised 
your  character,  and  ridiculed  your  preten- 
sions to  any  privileges,  commercial  or  con- 
stitutional. She  never  conceded  a  point  to 
vou  which  she  could  avoid,  or  granted  a 
favor  which  was  not  reluctantly  distilled. 
They  have  been  all  wrung  from  her,  like 
drops  of  her  heart's  blood,  and  you  are  not 
in  possession  of  a  single  blessing,  except 
those  which  yon  derive  from  God,  that  has 
not  been  either  purchased  or  extorted  by  the 
virtue  of  your  own  Parliament  from  the  il- 
liberality of  England." 

Mr.  Plunket  al.so  had  spoken  with  his 
usual  force  against  the  project  of  Union, 
when  Mr.  St.  George  Daly,  a  very  thii'd-rate 
barrister,  who  had  been  appointed  Prime- 
Sergeant  on  the  dismissal  of  Mr.  Fitzgerald, 
rose  and  began  to  put  in  practice  the  bully- 
ing policy  which  had  been  settled  upon  at 

*  This  gentleman  was  by  birth  an  American. 


394 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


Lord  Castlereagli's.  "  He  was  a  gentle- 
man," says  Sir  Jonah  Bari-ington,  "  of  ex- 
cellent family,  and,  what  was  formerly  high- 
ly esteemed  in  Ireland,  of  a  '  fighting  fami- 
ly.' He  was  proud  enongh  for  his  preten- 
sions, and  sufficiently  conceited  for  his  capac- 
ity, and  a  private  geutlenum  he  would  have 
remained,  had  not  Lord  Castlereagh  and  the 
Union  plnced  him  in  public  situations  where 
he  had  himself  too  much  sense  not  to  feel 
that  he  certainly  was  over-elevated."  This 
JMr.  Daly  ventured  upon  the  system  of  per- 
sonal insolence.  Barrington  describes  the 
scene  :  "  Mr.  Daly's  attack  on  Mr.  Bushe, 
was  of  a  clever  description,  and  had  Mr. 
Bu^he  had  one  vulnerable  point,  his  assailant 
might  have  prevailed.  He  next  attacked 
Mr.  Plunket,  who  sat  immediately  before 
him,  but  the  materials  of  his  vocabulary  had 
been  nearly  exhausted  ;  however,  he  was 
making  some  progress,  when  the  keen  visage 
of  Mr.  Plunket  was  seen  to  assume  a  curled 
sneer,  which,  like  a  legion  offensive  and  de- 
fensive, was  prepared  for  an  enemy.  No 
speech  could  equal  his  glance  of  contempt 
and  ridicule.  Mr.  Daly  received  it  like  an 
arrow,  it  pierced  him,  he  faltered  like  a 
wounded  man,  his  vocal  infirmity  became 
more  manifest,  and  after  an  embarrassed 
pause,  he  yielded,  changed  his  ground,  and 
attacked  by  wholesale  every  member  of  his 
own  profession  who  had  opposed  an  Union, 
and  termed  them  a  disaffected  and  danger- 
ous faction" 

But  the  House  had  nearly  wearied  itself 
out,  and  exhausted  the  subject,  when,  about 
seven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  a  sudden  ap- 
parition broke  upon  the  House,  which  caus- 
ed men  to  hold  their  breath  for  a  time.  It 
was  the  entrance  of  Henry  G rattan.  Since 
bis  "secession"  from  Parliament,  more  than 
two  years  before,  along  with  Curran,  Fitz- 
gerald and  others,  Grattan  had  been  an  in- 
valid, trying  to  recruit  his  shattered  consti- 
tution, by  change  of  scene  and  climate.  He 
had  spent  some  time  in  the  mild  air  of 
the  Isle  of  Wight,  then  among  the  moun- 
tains of  Wales,  and  had  but  lately  return- 
ed to  his  house  of  Tinnehinch,  near  Bray, 
when  this  momentous  session  of  Parliament 
opened. 

At  that  time,  Mr.  Tighe  returned  the  mem- 
bers ibr  the  close  borough  of  Wicklow,  and 


a  vacancy  having  occurred,  it  was  tendered 
to  Mr  Grattan,  who  would  willingly  have 
declined  it  but  for  the  importunities  of  his 
fi  lends. 

The  Lord-Lieutenant  and  Lord  Castle- 
reagh, justly  appreciating  the  effect  his  pres- 
ence might  have  on  the  first  debate,  had 
withheld  the  writ  of  election  till  the  last 
moment  the  law  allowed,  and  till  tliey  con- 
ceived it  might  be  too  late  to  return  Mr. 
Grattan  in  time  for  the  discussion.  It  was 
not  until  tiie  day  of  the  meeting  of  Parlia- 
ment that  the  writ  was  delivered  to  the  re- 
turning officer.  By  extraordinary  exertions, 
and,  perhaps,  by  following  the  example  of 
Government  in  overstraining  the  law,  the 
election  was  held  immediately  on  the  arrival 
of  the  writ, .a  sufficient  number  of  voters 
were  collected  to  return  Mr.  Grattan  before 
midnight.  By  one  o'clock,  the  return  was 
on  its  road  to  Dublin  ;  it  arrived  by  five  ;  a 
party  of  Mr.  Grattan's  friends  repaired  to 
the  private  house  of  the  proper  officer,  and 
making  him  get  out  of  bed,  compelled  him 
to  present  the  writ  to  Parliament  before 
seven  in  the  morning,  when  the  House  was 
in  warm  debate  on  the  Union.  A  whisper 
ran  through  every  party  that  Mr.  Grattan 
was  elected,  and  would  immediately  take  his 
seat.  The  Ministerialists  smiled  with  incred- 
ulous derision,  and  the  Opposition  thought 
the  news  too  good  to  be  true. 

Mr.  Egan  was  speaking  strongly  against 
the  measure,  when  Mr.  George  Ponsonby 
and  Mr.  Arthur  Moore,  (afterwards  Judge 
of  the  Common  Pleas,)  walked  out,  and  im- 
mediately returned,  leading,  or  rather  help- 
ing, Mr.  Grattan,  in  a  state  of  total  feeble- 
ness and  debility.  The  effect  was  electric. 
Mr.  Grattan's  illness  and  deep  chagrin  had 
reduced  a  form,  never  symmetrical,  and  a  vis- 
age at  all  times  thin,  nearly  to  the  appearance 
of  a  spectre.  As  he  feebly  tottered  into 
the  House,  every  member  simultaneously 
rose  from  his  seat.  He  moved  slowly  to  the 
table  ;  his  languid  countenance  seemed  to 
revive  as  he  took  those  oaths  that  restored 
him  to  his  preeminent  station  ;  the  smile  of 
inward  satisfaction  obviously  illuminated  his 
features,  and  reanimation  and  energy  seemed 
to  kindle  by  the  labor  of  his  mind.  The 
Hou>e  was  silent.  Mr.  Egan  did  not  resume 
his  speech,  Mr.  Grattan,  almost  breathless, 


DIVISION MAJORITY   fOR    GOVERNMENT. 


395 


attempted  to  rise,  but  foiiiul  himself  unable 
at  first  to  stand,  and  asked  permission  to 
address  the  House  from  his  seat.  Never 
was  a  finer  illustration  of  the  sovereignty 
of  mind  over  matter.  G rattan  spoke  two 
hours,  with  all  his  usual  vehemence  and 
fire,  a2:ainst  the  Union,  and  in  favor  of  the 
amendment  of  Sir  Lawrence  Parsons.  The 
.  Treasury  Bench  was  at  first  disquieted  ; 
then  became  savage  ;  and  it  was  resolved  to 
bully,  or  to  kill  Mr.  Grattan.  Sir  Jonah 
Barrington  describes  the  scene  : — 

"  He  had  concluded,  and  the  question  was 
loudly  called  for,  when  Lord  Castlereagh  was 
perceived  earnestly  to  whisper  to  Mr.  Corry, 
they  for  an  instant  looked  round  the  House, 
whispered  again,  ]\Ir.  Corry  nodded  assent, 
and,  amidst  the  cries  of  '  question,'  began  a 
speech,  which,  as  far  as  it  regarded  Mr. 
Grattan,  few  persons  in  the  House  could 
have  [)revailed  upon  themselves  to  utter. 
Lord  Castlereagh  was  not  clear  what  im- 
pression Mr.  Grattan's  speech  might  have 
made  upon  a  few  hesitating  members  ;  he 
had,  in  the  course  of  the  debate,  moved  the 
question  of  adjoui-nment  ;  he  did  not  like 
to  meet  Sir  Lawrence  Parsons  on  his  mo- 
tion, and  Mr.  Corry  commenced  certainly 
an  able,  but,  towards  Mr.  Grattan,  au  un- 
generous and  an  unfeeling  personal  assault." 
For  that  time  the  Castle  bravo  carried 
the  matter  with  a  high  hand  ;  the  exhaust- 
ed invalid  was  too  feeble  to  attend  to  him  ; 
perhaps,  did  not  even  hear  him.  At  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  a.  division  was  called 
for.  Ninety-six  voted  for  the  amendment 
of  Sir  Lawrence  Parsons  ;  one  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  against  it  ;  a  majority  of  forty- 
two  for  the  Castle.  This  majority  of  forty- 
two  exceeded  the  warmest  expectations  of 
Government ;  and  the  Viceroy  hoped  to  in- 
crease it  by  allowing  an  interval  of  some 
weeks  to  pass,  before  he  sent  to  either 
House  a  copy  of  the  resolutions  of  the  Par- 
liament of  Great  Britain. 

The  defeat  of  the  Anti-Unionists  by  a 
majority  of  forty-two,  flushed  the  Minister 
wirh  confidence.  The  members  were  now 
so  far  marshaled  into  their  ranks,  that  con- 
siderable clianges  or  conversions  were  not  to 
be  expected  on  either  side.  Some  solitary 
instances  of  conversions  did  appear.  A  hot 
and    open    canvass  was   carried   on   in   the 


House  itself,  by  the  friends  of  Government, 
wherever  au  uncertain  or  reluctant  member 
was  observed,  or  his  convictions,  interests, 
and  aspirations  could  be  discovered.  What 
effect  attended  this  canvass  is  seen  in  the 
subsequent  divisions,  and  iu  the  Black 
List. 

It  was  on  the  15th  of  February  that  Lord 
Castlereagh,  for  the  first  time,  formally 
brought  the  project  of  Union  before  the 
House,  by  reading  a  message  from  Lord 
Cornwallis,  recommending  that  measure  to 
the  earnest  attention  of  Parliament.  His 
lordship  then  delivered  a  long  speech,  set- 
ting forth  the  several  articles  of  Union,  as 
agreed  upon  by  the  British  Houses.  He 
affirmed,  without  scruple,  that  public  opin- 
ion was  now  favorable  to  Union.  With  re- 
gard to  the  multitudinously-signed  petitions 
which  had  poured  in  against  it,  he  remarked  : 

"  That  had  also  been  the  case  in  the  Scot- 
tish Union.  The  table  of  the  Parliament 
was  day  after  day,  for  the  space  of  three 
months,  covered  with  such  petitions  ;  but 
the  Scottish  legislators  acted  as,  he  trusted, 
the  Irish  Parliament  would  act ;  they  con- 
sidered only  the  public  advantage  ;  and, 
steadily  pursuing  that  object,  neither  misled 
by  artifices  nor  intimidated  by  tumult,  they 
received,  in  the  gratitude  of  their  country, 
that  reward  which  amply  compensated  their 
arduous  labors  in  the  great  work  so  haj)- 
pily  accomplished."  * 

As  to  the  principle  of  the  measure — the 
competency  of  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  to 
extinguish  itself — his  lordship  affirmed  that 
this  had  been  so  firmly  established  by  a 
speech,  (that  of  Mr.  Smith,)  which  had  been 
published,  "that  he  considered  it  as  placed 
beyond  question  or  doubt."  He  then  de- 
scribed the  articles  in  succession.  He  at- 
tempted to  show  that  the  contemplated 
financial  arrangement,  making  the  two  coun- 
tries bear  separately  the  charge  of  their  re- 
spective debts,  and  requiring  Ireland  to  pay 
in  the  proportion  of  one  to  seven  and  a  half, 
towards  the  general  expenses  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  for  twenty  years — the  propor- 
tions to  be  afterwards  modified,  according  to 
the  respective  abilities  of  the  twocounlries — 

*  The  reader  will  recollect  that  the  Scottish  Union 
also  was  accomplished  by  purchasing  a  majority  with 
money  and  office. 


896 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


was  an  arranirement  by  which  Ireland  would 
sai'f  a  million  fer  annum.  The  proposed 
commercial  regnlaLioiis  also  he  discussed, 
most  elaborately,  and  showed  to  the  satis- 
faction of  his  friends,  that  in  this  article, 
also,  Ireland  would  be  the  gainer.  His 
lordship  then  spoke  of  the  article  to  con- 
.solidate  the  Church  of  England  and  Church 
of  Ireland.  In  this  place  he  took  care  to 
introduce  the  regular  ministerial  phrase,  in- 
tended to  comfort  the  Catholics  : — 

"  The  cause  of  distrust  must  vanish  with 
the  removal  of  w"eakness  ;  strength  and  con- 
fidence would  produce  liberality  ;  and  the 
claims  of  the  Catholics  might  be  temperately 
discussed  and  impartially  decided  before  an 
Imperial  Parliament,  divested  of  those  local 
circumstances,  which  would  ever  produce  ir- 
ritation and  jealousy." 

With  respect  to  the  composition  of  the 
United  Parliament,  his  lordship  observed, 
that,  while  the  population  of  Great  Britain 
exceeded  ten  millions,  that  of  Ireland  was 
only  three  million  five  hundred  thousand  or 
four  millions  ;  *  and  while  Ireland's  share 
in  the  general  expenses  of  the  empire  was 
to  be  only  one,  against  Great  Britain's 
seven  and  a  half,  she  was  to  have  a  hundred 
members  in  the  Imperial  Parliament. 

Lord  Castlereagh  next  approached  the 
delicate  question — what  was  to  be  done  with 
the  Irisli  Peerages  ?  According  to  the  ar- 
ticles of  Union,  Irish  Peers  w^ere  not  to  sit 
in  any  House  of  Lords  by  their  own  right  ; 
yet,  they  were  not  to  be  altogether  degraded 
to  Commoners,  (which  would  have  been  re- 
publican, and  savoring  of  "  French  princi- 
ples.") So  the  awkward  compromise  which 
was  adopted  caused  his  lordship  some 
trouble  to  explain,  in  a  plausible  manner. 
They  were  to  be  represented  in  the  Imperial 
House  of  Lords  by  four  spiritual  Peers, 
elected  by  their  order,  and  twenty-eight 
temporal  Peers,  elected  by  theirs,  and  hold- 
ing their  seats  for  life.      Peers  of  Ireland 

*  It  was  at  least  five  millions.  Mr.  Plowden,  though 
he  does  not  like  to  contradict  Lord  Castlereagh,  says, 
'"  there  are  many  strong  reasons  for  believing  that  it 
amounted  to  near  five  millions.  Six  years  later,  it  was 
live  million  three  hundred  and  ninety-five  thousand 
four  hundred  and-fifty-six,  according  to  the  estimate 
for  that  year,  (1805,)  given  in  the  official  Irish  Direc- 
tory. But  as  there  was  then  no  census.  Lord  Castle- 
reagh felt  limself  at  liberty  to  give  his  own  esti- 
mate. 


were  to  be  capable  of  holding  seats  in  the 
House-  of  Commons,  but  not  for  an  Irish 
constituency  ;  only  for  a  county  or  borough 
in  England. 

In  describing  the  apportionment  of  the  re- 
presentation between  counties  and  boroughs, 
giving  sixty-four  to  the  former  and  thirty- 
six  to  the  latter,  his  lordship  said  this  would 
necessarily  disfranchise  many  boroughs  ;  and 
here  he  took  occasion  formally  to  promise 
"compensation" — not  to  the  disfranchised 
electors,  but  to  the  landed  proprietors  who 
were  the  "  patrons  "  of  those  boroughs,  and 
were  supposed  to  own  the  franchise  of  those 
electors.  This  intended  purchase  of  the 
"pocket  boroughs,"  and  the  immense  prices 
to  be  paid  for  them,  had  been  known  be- 
fore ;  but  this  was  the  first  time  the  stupend- 
ous bribe  had  been  mentioned  in  Parlia- 
ment.    Lord  Castlereagh  coolly  said  : — 

"  As  the  disfranchisement  of  many  bor- 
oughs would  diminish  the  influence  and 
privileges  of  those  gentlemen  whose  prop- 
erty was  connectjed  with  such  places  of 
election,  he  endeavored  to  obviate  their  com- 
plaints by  promising  that,  if  the  plan  sub- 
mitted to  the  House  should  be  finally  ap- 
proved, he  would  ofi"er  some  measure  of 
compensation  to  those  individuals  whose  pe- 
culiar interests  should  sufi'er  in  the  arrange- 
ment. 

"  Much  and  deep  objection  might  be  stated 
to  sucli  a  measure  ;  but  it  surely  was  conso- 
nant with  the  privileges  of  private  justice  ; 
it  was  calculated  to  meet  the  feelings  of  the 
moderate  ;  and  it  was  better  to  resort  to 
such  a  measure,  however  objectionable,  than 
adhere  to  the  present  system,  and  keep 
afloat,  forever,  the  dangerous  question  of 
Parliamentary  reform.  If  this  were  a  mea- 
sure of  purchase,  it  should  be  recollected 
that  it  would  be  the  purchase  of  peacf\  and 
the  expense  of  it  would  be  redeemed  by  one 
yearns  saving  of  the  Union." 

Lord  Castlereagh  did  not  feel  it  neces- 
sary to  mention  any  of  the  other  classes  of 
bribes  which  were  to  reward  those  patriots 
who  would  consent  to  enrich  Ireland  by 
all  these  gains  and  savings.  He  knew  that 
the  faithful  Mr.  Cooke  was  arranging 
those  matters  of  business  in  the*  lobbies,  in 
the  corriders,  on  the  very  floor  of  the  House. 

Mr.  George  Ponsouby  made  a  violent  at- 


LABORS    OF    CORXWALLIS   AND    CASTLEEEAGH. 


397 


tack  upon  the  Minister  and  his  whole  scheme. 
He  treated  as  visionary  all  the  proffered  ad- 
vantages of  Union.  In  the  ecclesiastical 
establishment,  Union  would  produce  but  one 
solid  effect,  which  would  be  to  translate  the 
Irish  into  Eiiu;lish  bishops. 

He  then  summed  up  the  effects  of  the 
Union  in  these  terms  :  "  Your  peerage  is 
to  be  disgraced;  your  Commons  purchased  ; 
no  additional  advantage  in  commerce  ;  for 
twenty  years  a  little  saving  in  contributions, 
but  if  the  Cabinet  of  England  think  that  we 
contribute  more  than  we  should,  why  not 
correct  that  extravagance  now  ?  If  any- 
thing should  be  conceded  in  the  wny  of 
trade,  why  is  it  not  conceded  now  ?  Are 
any  of  those  benefits  incompatible  with  our 
present  state  ?  No  1  but  the  Minister  wants 
to  carry  his  union,  and  no  favor,  however 
trifling,  can  be  yielded  to  us,  unless  we  are 
willing  to  purchase  it  with  the  existence  of 
Parliament  and  the  liberties  of  tlae  coun- 
try." 

Sir  John  Parnell,  Mr.  Dobbs,  Mr.  Sau- 
rin,  Mr.  Peter  Burrowes,  all  attacked  the 
measure,  and  exposed  the  fallacies  of  Lord 
Castlereagh  ;  and  amongst  the  opponents  of 
the  Minister,  we  still  find  the  name  of  John 
Claudius  Berasford,  of  the  "  Riding-House," 
Grand  Secretary  of  the  Orangemen.  His 
time  for  being  converted  had  not  yet  come. 

Mr.  Grattan  spoke  at  considerable  length. 
He  said  :  "  In  this  proposition,  the  Minister 
had  gigantic  difficulties  to  encounter.  It 
was  incumbent  upon  him  to  explain  away 
the  tyrannical  acts  of  a  century  ;  to  apolo- 
gize for  the  lawless  and  oppressive  proceed- 
ings of  England,  for  a  system  which  had 
countei'acted  the  kindness  of  providence  to- 
wards Ireland,  and  had  kept  her  in  a  state 
of  thraldom  and  misery  ;  to  prove  that 
the  British  Parliament  had  undergone  a 
great  change  of  disposition  ;  to  disprove  two 
consequences,  which  were  portended  by  the 
odium  of  the  Union,  and  the  increased  expen- 
ses of  the  empire,  namely,  a  military  govern- 
ment for  a  considerable  time,  and  at  no  very 
distant  period,  an  augmentation  of  taxes  ;  to 
deny  or  dispute  the  growth  of  the  prosper- 
ity of  Ireland,  under  the  maternal  wing  of 
her  own  Parliament  ;  to  controvert  the  suf- 
ficiency of  that  Legislature  for  imperial  pur- 
poses or   commercial   objects,  though  facts 


were  against  him  ;  and  to  explode  or  recall 
his  repeated  declarations  in  its  favor.  In 
short,  he  had  to  prove  many  points,  which 
he  could  by  uo  means  demonstrate  ;  and  to 
disprove  many,  which  might  be  forcibly 
maintained  against  him.  It  was,  moreover, 
singular  to  behold  the  man,  who  denied  the 
right  of  France  to  alter  her  government, 
maintaining  the  omnipotence  of  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Ireland  to  annul  her  Constitution." 

He  then  urged  the  very  serious  importance 
of  the  question.  It  was  not  such  as  had 
formerly  occupied  their  attention  ;  not  old 
Poynings,  not  peculation,  nor  an  embargo, 
not  a  Catholic  bill,  not  a  Reform  bill — it 
was  their  being — it  was  more,  it  was  their 
life  to  come — whether  they  would  go  to  the 
tomb  of  Charlemont  and  the  volunteers,  and 
erase  his  epitaph,  or  whether  their  children 
should  go  to  their  graves,  saying,  "A  venal, 
a  military  court  attacked  the  liberties  of  the 
Irish,  and  here  lie  the  bones  of  the  honora- 
ble men  who  saved  their  country."  Such  an 
epitaph,  was  a  nobility  which  the  King  could 
not  give  to  his  Slaves;  it  was  a  glory  which 
the  Crown  could  not  give  to  the  King. 

On  a  division,  there  appeared  for  the 
printing  of  the  articles,  one  hundred  and 
fifty-eight  ;  against  it,  one  hundred  and  fif- 
teen ;  giving  the  Minister  a  majority  of 
forty-three.* 

Even  the  staunch  Unionist,  Mr.  Plowden, 
is  honest  enough  to  say  on  this  occssion  : — 

"  When  the  number  of  the  placemen, 
pensioners,  and  otlier  influenced  members, 
who  had  voted  on  the  late  division  is  con- 
sidered, the  Minister  had  but  slender  grounds 
for  triumphing  in  his  majority  of  forty-three, 
if  from  tliem  were  to  be  collected  the  genu- 
ine sense  of  the  independent  part  of  that 
House,  and  of  the  people  of  Ireland,  whom 
they  represented." 

And  he  adds  in  a  note  : — 

"  Many,  it  is  to  be  feared,  in  both  Houses, 
sacrificed  their  convictions.  Twenty-seven 
new  titles  were  added  to  the  Peerage  ; 
promotions,  grants,  cou'jessions,  arrange- 
ments, promises  were  lavished  with  a  profu- 
sion never  before  known  in  that  country. 
Pity  for  both  sides,  that  so  great  and  impor- 
tant a  political  measure  should  owe  any  part 

*  For  the  Articles  of  Union  at  full  length,  see  ap- 
pendix, No.  I. 


898 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


of  its  success,  to  other  than  the  means  of 
temperate  reason  and  persuasion." 

Triumphantly  Lord  Castlereagh  sent  up 
his  articles  to  the  Lords  ;  where  Lord  Clare 
was  ready  for  his  part  of  the  work.  It  was 
on  this  occasion,  that  he  made  that  lono;  and 
able  discourse,  which  has  been  so  ofton  re- 
printed ;  and  from"  which  many  extracts 
liave  been  already  given  in  these  pages. 
Great  part  of  it  consists  of  a  historical  dis- 
quisition upon  the  whole  career  of  the  Eng- 
lish colony,  its  connection  on  one  hand  with 
the  mass  of  the  Irish  nation,  and  on  the  other, 
with  the  English  Crown  and  Parliament ; 
and  whilst  it  contains  many  truths,  powerful- 
ly expressed,  the  general  effect  of  the  whole 
is  to  traduce  all  the  classes,  sects,  and  par- 
ties of  Ireland  for  several  centuries.  Grat- 
taa  afterwards  wrote  an  answer  to  this 
speech,  charging  the  Chancellor  with  many 
deliberate  misrepresentations  and  falsehoods, 
"  His  idea,"  said  Mr.  Grattan,  was  to  make 
the  Irish  histoi'y  a  calumny  against  their 
ancestors,  in  order  to  disfranchise  their  pos- 
terity." 

Tne  measure  was  opposed  in  the  House  of 
Peers  by  the  Earl  of  Charlemont,  the  Mar- 
quis of  Dovvnshire,  the  Earl  of  Bellamont, 
Lord  Powerscourt,  Lord  Dillon,  and  others, 
supported  by  Lord  Glentworth,  Lord  Glen- 
dure,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Cashel.  How- 
ever, on  the  first  division  there  was  a  large 
majority  for  the  Government — 75  for,  and 
26  against.  The  general  principles  of  the 
Uniuu  were  thus  propounded  and  accepted 
iu  both  Houses  of  the  Irish  Legislature. 

In  the  next  debate  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, the  Honorable  Isaac  Corry,  who  seemed 
to  have  taken  special  charge  of  replying  to 
Mr.  Grattan,  again  made  a  coarse  personal 
attack  on  that  gentleman.  Grattan  replied 
with  such  studied  and  contemptuous  insult 
as  to  throw  upon  Mr.  Corry  the  onus  of  re- 
sentment. 

The  House  saw  the  inevitable  conse- 
quences. The  Speaker  (the  House  was  in 
committee)  sent  for  Mr.  Grattan  into  his 
chamber,  and  pressed  his  interposition  for  an 
amicable  adjustment,  which  Mr.  Grattan 
positively  refused,  saying,  he  saw,  and  had 
been  for  some  time  aware  of,  a  set  made  at 
him.  to  j}islnf  kh/i  off  on  that  question  ;  there- 
fore, it  was  as  well  that  the  experiment  were 


tried  then  as  at  any  other  time.  Both  par- 
ties instantly  left  the  House  upon  Mr.  Grat- 
tan's  finishing  his  philippic.  They  met  with- 
out delay  in  a  field  on  the  Ball's  Bridge 
road  ;  and,  after  an  exchange  of  two  shots, 
Mr.  Corry  received  a  wound  in  the  hand. 
So  the  affair  ended.  The  populace,  amongst 
whom  the  certainty  of  a  duel  was  noised 
abroad,  followed  the  parties  to  the  ground  ; 
and  there  was  reason  to  fear  that  if  Mr. 
Grattan  had  fallen  his  antagonist  would  have 
been  sacrificed  on  the  spot. 

On  the  21st  of  February,  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  took  his  next  step.  This  was  to  move 
the  adoption  in  the  Commons  of  the  articles, 
one  by  one.  It  is  unnecessary  to  analyze 
the  speeches  made  at  the  various  debates 
which  intervened  before  the  final  scene  of 
the  Irish  Parliament.  They  generally  dealt 
with  the  same  facts  and  the  same  principles  ; 
but  on  one  of  these  occasions  there  were  two 
efforts  to  obtain  at  least  some  delay  in  the  re- 
morseless progress  of  the  Minister.  On  the 
4th  of  March,  Mr.  G.  Ponsonby  alleging 
that  the  Sovereign  would  not  have  persisted 
in  recommending  the  present  measure  unless 
he  had  firmly  believed  that  the  sentiments 
of  the  public  on  the  subject  had  undergone 
a  great  change,  urged  the  House  to  remove 
so  injurious  a  delusion  by  an  intimation  of 
the  truth.  A  knowledge  of  the  number  of 
Anti-Union  petitions  would,  he  said,  correct 
that  error  ;  and  he,  therefore,  proposed  an 
address,  stating  that,  in  conformity  with  the 
constitutional  rights  of  the  people,  petitions 
against  a  Legislative  Union  had  been  pre- 
sented to  the  Parliament  from  twenty-si.x 
counties,  and  from  various  cities  and  towns. 

The  reply  of  Lord  Castlereagh  to  this 
moderate  proposal  was  highly  characteristic. 
He  contented  himself  with  affirming  that  the 
public  opinion  had  really  undergone  a  change 
friendly  to  the  measure,  and  that  seventy- 
four  declarations,  nineteen  of  which  were  of 
those  counties,  had  been  presented  in  its  fa- 
vor. Even  if  this  were  not  the  case,  he  would 
oppose  a  motion  which  derogated  from  the 
deliberative  power  of  Parliament,  and  tended 
to  encourage  a  popular  interference  pregnant, 
in  these  critical  times,  with  danger  and  alarm. 
In  another  debate,  Mr.  Speaker  Foster 
look  occasion  to  point  out  and  denounce  the 
manifest  object  of  the  Government  in  their 


TORPOR  AND  GLOOM  IN  DUBLIN. 


399 


article  relatirij^  to  the  Irish  peerage.  He 
p:ii(l  it  ci-Ccated  a  sort  of  raong-rel  peer,  half 
lord,  half  commoner,  neither  the  one  nor  the 
other  complete,  and  yet  enough  of  each  to 
remind  you  of  the  motley  mixture.  It  would 
depress  the  spirit  and  enervate  the  exertions 
of  all  the  rising  nobility  of  the  land.  Fur- 
ther, by  a  strange  sort  of  absurdity,  the 
measure,  in  suffering  a  peer,  as  a  commoner, 
to  take  a  British  seat,  and  refusing  to  allow 
him  an  Irish  one,  admitted  this  monstrous 
position,  that  in  the  country  where  his  prop- 
erty, his  connections,  and  residence  were,  he 
should  not  be  chosen  a  legislator,  but  where 
he  was  wholly  a  stranger  he  might.  The 
certain  consequence  of  which  was,  that  it 
would  induce  a  residence  of  the  Irish  nobili- 
ty in  Britain,  where  they  might  be  elected 
commoners,  and  must,  of  course,  solicit  in- 
terest ;  thereby  increasing  the  number  of 
Irish  absentees,  and  gradually  weaning  the 
men  of  largest  fortune  from  an  acquaintance 
or  a  connection  with  their  native  country. 

Mr.  Saurin  and  Sir  John  Parnell  then 
severally  proposed  an  appeal  to  the  people, 
by  a  dissolution  of  Parliament  ;  but  this  pro- 
ject was  scouted  by  the  triumphant  Castle 
party.  If  that  present  Parliament,  they  ar- 
gued, had  no  fjower  to  do  the  deed — neither 
would  any  other  ;  besides,  that  very  Parlia- 
ment was  already  bought  up  by  the  Castle  ; 
and  the  Castle  would  have  value  for  its 
money,  or  rather  the  nation's  money — for 
the  peculiar  and  exquisite  villany  of  this 
transaction  was,  that  the  peo[)le  of  Ireland 
were  to  pay  the  purchase-money  of  their  own 
sale  to  their  enemies. 

While  these  last  struggles  of  a  perishing 
ration  were  taking  place  within  the  walls  of 
Parliament,  there  was  deep  gloom  hanging 
over  Dublin  and  the  country.  The  Houses 
were  now  always  surrounded  by  military  ju- 
diciously posted  in  College  Green,  Dame  and 
"Westmoreland  streets,  ostensibly  to  keep  the 
peace,  but  really  to  strike  terror,  and  pre- 
vent any  manifestation  of  po[)nlar  feeling  by 
the  fear  of  a  sudden  onslaught.  Lord  Cas- 
tlereagh  also  threatened  to  remove  the  Par- 
liament to  Cork,  if  its  proceedings  were  at 
gU  troubled  by  the  populace.  Unfortunately, 
the  An^i-TJnionists  had  no  efficient  organiza- 
tion, and  no  acknowledged  leader.  "  Con- 
versions" to  Unionism  were  every  day  taking 


place,  through  the  earnest  persuasions  of 
Mr.  Cooke.  Some  of  the  cheated  and  de- 
luded Catholic  Bishops  began  to  send  ad- 
dresses to  the  Castle  favorable  to  the  Union. 
Bishop  Lanigan,  of  Kilkenny,  and  his  clergy, 
addressed  Lord  Cornwallis  in  this  sense  ;  a 
proceeding  which  bitterly  hurt  and  grieved 
the  mass  of  the  Catholic  laity,  although  in 
the  address  itself  occurred  a  ludicrous  appli- 
cation of  a  phrase,  which  made  the  people 
laugh,  as  they  are  at  all  times  willing  to  do. 
One  of  his  excellency's  eyes,  by  some  natu- 
ral defect,  appeared  considerably  diminished, 
and,  like  the  pendulum  of  a  clock,  was  gen- 
erally in  a  state  of  motion.  The  Right  Rev- 
erend Bishop  and  clersry  having  never  before 
seen  the  Marquis,  unfortunately  commenced 
their  address  with  the  most  vial  a  propos  ex- 
ordium of — "Your  excellency  has  always 
kept  a  steady  eye  on  the  interests  of  Ireland." 
The  address  was  presented  at  levee.  His 
excellency,  however,  was  graciously  pleased 
not  to  return  any  answer  to  that  part  of  their 
compliment. 

It  must  be  admitted,  injustice  to  the  Cath- 
olic Bishops,  that  they  were  really  deceived 
by  the  continual  representations  of  Ministers  ; 
and,  indeed,  we  may  be  sure  that  in  private 
conference  with  Archbishop  Troy,  Lord 
Cornwallis  did  not  confine  himself  to  the 
stereotyped  formula  always  repeated  in  Par- 
liament, with  regard  to  the  claims  of  the 
Catholics,  but  plainly  promised  that  Catho- 
lic Emancipation  would  be  immediately  made 
a   Cabinet  question.*     However  that  may 

*  Mr.  Plowden,  who  could  not  think  of  supposing 
that  British  Ministers  did  not  mean  what  they  said, 
gives  wliat  he  considers  a  clear  proof  of  their  sinceri- 
ty and  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  Catholics : — 

"  Tliat  the  British  Ministers  were  sincere  in  their 
inlentions  of  bringing  forward,  and  confident  in  their 
expectations  of  carrying,  the  question  of  Catholic 
Emancipation  in  an  Imperial  Parliamennt,  is  manifest 
from  certain  written  communications  made  by  them 
to  some  of  the  leading  persons  of  the  Catholic  body, 
about  the  time  of  their  retiring  from  office,  which 
were  to  the  following  effect: — 

"  The  leading  part  of  His  Majesty's  Ministers  find- 
ing insurmountable  obstacles  to  the  bringing  forward 
measures  of  concession  to  the  Catholic  body,  whilst 
in  ofBce,  have  felt  it  impossible  to  continue  in  admin- 
istration under  the  inability  to  propose  it  with  the  cir- 
cumstances necessary  to  carrying  the  measure  wiih 
all  its  advantages,  and  they  have  retired  from  His 
Majesty's  service,  considering  this  line  of  conduct  as 
most  likely  to  contribute  to  its  ultimate  success.  The 
Catholic  body  will,  therefore,  see  how  much  their  fu- 
ture  hopes  must  depend  upon  strengtheiuug   their 


400 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


be,  it  is  certain  that  the  friends  of  indepen- 
dence, while  they  were  struggling  against 
the  Union  in  Parliament  were  discouraged 
on  finding  their  efforts  not  only  not  ap- 
preciated, but  actually  thwarted  by  cer- 
tain of  the  Catholic  prelates  who  exer- 
cised necessarily  so  large  an  influence  in  the 
country. 

Thus,  all  was  gloom  and  despondency, 
while  the  several  "articles"  were  sepa- 
rately argued  and  assented  to.  This  was 
finished  on  the  22d  of  March. 

A  message  was  then  sent  to  the  House  of 
Lords,  importing  that  the  Commons  had 
agreed  to  the  articles  of  the  Union  ;  and 
on  the  27th,  the  Peers  intimated  to  the  oth- 
er House,  that  they  had  adopted  them  with 
some  alterations  and  additions.  Two  amend- 
ments had  been  proposed  by  the  Earl  of 
Clare,  and  adopted,  importing  that  on  the 
extinctiou  of  tliree.  Irish  peerages  one  might 
be  created,  till  the  number  should  be  re- 
duced to  one  hundred,  and  afterwards  one 
for  every  failure  ;  and  that  the  qualifications 
of  the  Irish  for  the  Imperial  Parliament 
should  be  the  same  in  point  of  property  with 
those  of  the  British  members.    These  araend- 

caiise  by  good  conduct  in  the  meantime.  They  will 
prudently  consider  their  prospects  as  arising  from 
the  persons  who  now  espouse  their  interests,  and 
compare  them  with  those  which  they  could  look  to 
from  any  other  quarter.  They  may  with  confidence 
rely  on  the  zealous  support  of  all  those  who  retire, 
and  of  many  who  remain  in  ofBce,  when  it  can  be 
given  with  a  prospect  of  success,  they  may  be  as- 
sured that  Mr.  Pitt  will  do  his  utmost  to  establish 
their  cause  in  the  public  favor,  and  prepare  the  way 
for  their  finally  attaining  their  objects;  and  the  Cath- 
olics will  feel  that,  as  Mr.  Pitt  could  not  concur  in  a 
hopeless  attempt  to  force  it  now,  he  must  at  all 
times  repress,  with  the  same  decision  as  if  he  held  an 
adverse  opinion,  any  unconstitutional  conduct  in  the 
Catholic  body. 

"Under  these  circumstances,  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that  the  Catholics  will  take  the  most  loyal,  dutiful, 
and  patient  line  of  conduct ;  that  they  will  not  suffer 
themselves  to  be  led  into  measures  which  can,  by  any 
construction,  give  a  handle  to  the  opposers  of  their 
wishes,  either  to  misinterpret  their  principles  or  to 
raise  an  argument  for  resisting  their  claims ;  but  that 
by  their  prudent  and  exemplary  demeanor  they  will 
afford  additional  grounds  to  the  growing  number  of 
their  advocates  to  enforce  their  claims  on  proper  oc- 
•asions,  until  their  objects  can  be  finally  and  advan- 
taigeoasly  attained. 


ments  were  readily  approved  by  the  Com- 
mons \  and  Lord  Castlereagh  immediately 
proposed  an  address  to  His  Majesty,  in  which 
both  Houses  concurred.  In  this  address 
they  declared  that  they  cordially  embraced 
the  principle  of  incorporating  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  into  one  kingdom,  by  a  complete 
and  entire  union  of  their  Legislatures  ;  that 
they  considered  the  resolutions  of  the  British 
Parliament  as  wisely  calculated  to  form  the 
basis  of  such  a  settlement ;  that  by  those 
propositions  they  had  been  guided  in  their 
proceedings  ;  and  that  the  resolutions  now 
offered  were  those  articles  which,  if  approved 
by  the  Lords  and  Commons  of  Great  Britain, 
they  were  ready  to  confirm  and  ratify,  in  or- 
der that  the  same  might  be  established  forever 
by  the  mutual  consent  of  both  Parliaments. 

At  this  stage  of  the  business,  the  matter 
rested  in  Ireland  ;  and  the  British  Parlia- 
ment had  next  to  do  its  part,  a  matter  which 
might  be  supposed  somewhat  doubtful,  if  all 
tlie  advantages  of  the  proposed  Union  were 
to  be,  as  Lord  Castlereagh  said,  on  tiie  side 
of  Ireland  ;  but  we  shall  find  that  this  con- 
sideration did  not  act  upon  the  Lords  and 
Commons  of  England. 

"Tlie  Sentiments  of  a  Sincere  Friend  (i.  e.,  Marquis 
Cornxoallis)  to  the  Catholic  Claims. 

" '  If  the  Catholics  should  now  proceed  to  violence, 
or  entertain  any  ideas  of  gaining  tlieir  object  by  con- 
vulsive measures,  or  forming  associations  with  men 
of  Jacobinical  princijjles,  they  must,  of  course,  lose 
the  support  and  aid  of  those  who  have  sacrificed  their 
own  situations  in  their  cause,  but  who  would,  at  the 
same  time,  feel  it  to  be  their  indispensable  duty  to 
oppose  everything  tending  to  confusion. 

"  '  On  the  other  lumd,  should  the  Catholics  be  sensi- 
ble of  the  benefit  they  possess  by  having  so  many 
characters  of  eminence  pledged  not  to  embark  in  the 
service  of  Government,  except  on  the  terms  of  the 
Catholic  privileges  being  obtained,  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that,  on  balancing  the  advantages  and  disadvantages 
of  their  situation,  they  would  prefe  r  a  quiet  and  peace- 
able demeanor  to  any  line  of  conduct  of  an  opposite 
description.' 

"The  originals  of  these  two  declarations  were 
handed  to  Dr.  Troy,  and  afterwards  to  Lord  Fingall 
on  the  same  day,  by  Marquis  Cornwallis,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Littlehales,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  May,  1801,  shortly  before  his  departure  from 
the  Government  of  Ireland,  and  before  the  arrival  of 
Lord  Hardwicke,  his  successor.  His  excellency  de- 
sired they  should  be  disc7-eetly  communicated  to  the 
Bishops  and  principal  Catholics,  but  not  inserted  in 
the  neiospapeis." 


THE   mflON   IN   ENGLISH   PARLIAMENT. 


401 


CHAPTER    XLII. 

ISOO. 

The  Union  in  English  Parliament — Opposed  by  Lord 
Holland— Jfr.  Grey— Sheridan — Irish  Act  for  Elec- 
tors—Distribution of  Seats^Castlcreagh  brings  in 
Bill  for  the  Union — Warm  Debates  — Union  de- 
nounced by  Plunket,  Bushe,  Saurin,  Grattan — Their 
Earnest  Language — Last  Days  of  the  Parliament — 
Last  Scene  —  Passes  the  Lords— The  Protesting 
Peers — The  Compensation  Act — The  King  Congra- 
tulates the  British  Parliament  —  Lord  Cornwallis 
— The  Irish — Union  to  date  from  January  1,  1801 — 
Irish  Debt — History  of  it. 

In  the  Parliament  of  Engliind,  there  was 
no  daiijrer  that  any  time  would  be  lost. 
The  articles  of  Union  passed  through  the 
Irish  Parliament  as  they  had  been  origin- 
ally framed  by  the  British  Ministry,  having 
received  no  other  alterations  in  their  pro- 
gress than  such  as  were  dictated  by  the 
Court.  They  were  now  brought  forward  as 
terms  proposed  by  the  Lords  and  Commons 
of  Ireland,  in  the  form  of  resolutions.  And 
on  April  2,  1800,  the  Duke  of  Portland 
communicated  .to  the  House  of  Lords  a  mes- 
sage from  the  King,  and  at  the  same  time 
presented  to  them,  as  documents,  a  copy  of 
the  Irish  address,  with  the  resolutions. 

Lord  Holland  in  vain  opposed  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  committee  ;  he  objected  to 
the  whole  project  of  Union.  "  It  was  evi- 
dently offensive  to  the  great  body  of  the 
Irish  ;  and,  if  it  should  be  carried  into  ef- 
fect against  the  sense  of  the  people,  it 
would  endanger  the  connection  between  the 
countries,  and  might  produce  irreparable 
mischief.  He  should  oppose  the  motion  for 
a  committee." 

All  remonstrance  was  useless.  Ministers 
felt  that  their  arrangements  were  perfect, 
and  the  result  sure  ;  they  would  never,  per- 
haps, hold  Ireland  so  thoroughly  in  hand 
as  they  held  her  now  —  thanks  to  Lord 
Castlereagh. 

On  a  division,  only  three  Peers  (the  Earl 
of  Derby,  and  the  Lords  Holland  and 
King,)  voted  against,  and  eighty-two  sup- 
ported the  motion  for  going  into  a  commit- 
tee. The  three  first  articles  were  then  pro- 
posed to  the  committee,  and  received  the  as- 
sent of  the  Peers. 

The  motion  for  a  committee  was  made  in 

the  House  of  Commons  bv  Mr.  Pitt.     On 
51 


the  House  resolving  itself  into  a  committee, 
Mr.  Pitt  entered  at  great  lengtli  into  the 
whole  question,  going  in  general  over  the 
same  well-beaten  ground.  In  closing  hi.'i 
speech,  this  Minister,  (knowing  well  the  sys- 
tem of  management  of  the  Irish  Parliament 
— and  knowing,  also,  that  everybody  else 
knew  it,)  was  not  ashamed  to  say  : — 

"  The  amjjle  discussion  which  every  part 
of  this  subject  has  met  with,  (so  ample  that 
nothing  like  its  deliberation  was  ever  known 
before  in  any  legislature)  has  silenced  clam- 
or, has  rooted  out  prejudice,  has  overruled 
objections,  has  ansiccral  all  arguments,  has 
refuted  nil  cavils,  and  caused  the  flan  fa  be 
entirely  esteemed.  Both  branches  of  the  Leg- 
islature, after  long  discussion,  mature  delil)- 
eration,  and  laborious  inquiry,  have  expres- 
sed themselves  clearly  and  decidedly  in  its 
favor.  The  opinion  of  the  people,  who,  from 
their  means  of  information,  were  most  likely, 
because  best  enabled  to  form  a  correct  judg- 
ment, is  decidedly  in  its  favor." 

Mr  Grey,  (afterwards  Lord  Grey,)  still 
opposed  the  Union.  Referring  to  Mr.  Pitt's 
last  assertions,  he  permitted  himself  to  doubt 
their  accuracy  : — 

"  It  was  said  thnt  the  public  voice  was  in 
its  favor,  after  a  fair  appeal  to  the  unbiassed 
sense  of  the  nation.  Kineteen  counties  were 
said  to  have  signified  a  wish  for  its  adop- 
tion ;  and  he  believed  that  addresses  had 
really  been  presented  from  that  number  of 
shires  ;  but  by  whom  they  were  signed  he 
did  not  exactly  know,  though  it  had  been 
understood  they  were  procured  at  meetings 
not  regularly  convened,  and  promoted  by 
the  personal  exertions  of  a  governor,  who, 
to  the  powerful  influence  of  the  Crown,  ad- 
ded the  terrors  of  martial  law.  To  speak 
of  the  uncontrolled  opinion  of  the  commu- 
nity, in  such  a  case,  reminded  him  of  the 
Duke  of  Buckingham's  account  to  Richard 
III.  of  the  manner  in  which  the  citizens  of 
London  had  agreed,  to  liis  daim  of  the 
Crown — 

"  Some  followers  of  mine-owji- 
At  lowest  end  o'  ttle  hall  hurl'd  np  their  caps, 
And  some  ten  voices  cried,  God  save  King  Rich- 
ard. 

And  thus  I  took  the  'vantage  of  those  few 

Thanks,  gentle  citizens  and  friends,  quoth  I ; 
This  general  applause  and  cheerful  shout, 
Argues  your  wisdom  and  your  love  to  Richard." 


402 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAIfD. 


Mr.  Grey  proceeded  further.  He  iiidig- 
iiaully  exposed  a  portion  of  the  infamies 
then  perpetrated  in  Ireland  ;  and  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  show  tliat  he  had  fully  in- 
formed himself.     He  said  : — 

"  He  did  not  mean  to  speak  disrespect- 
fully of  the  Irish  Parliament.  But  the  facts 
were  notorious.  Tliere  are  three  hundred 
members  in  all,  and  one  hundred  and  twenty 
of  these  strenuously  opposed  the  measure  ; 
among  whom  were  two-thirds  of  the  county 
members,  tlie  representatives  of  the  city  of 
Dublin,  and  almost  all  the  towns  which  it  is 
proposed  shall  send  memV)ers  to  the  Imperial 
Parliament.  One  hundred  and  sixty-two 
voted  in  favor  of  the  Union — of  those,  one 
liundred  and  sixteen  were  placemen,  some 
of  them  were  English  Generals  on  the  Staff, 
without  one  foot  of  ground  in  Ireland,  and 
completely  dependent  upon  Government. 
Is  there  any  ground,  then,  to  presume  that 
even  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  thinks  as 
the  right  honorable  gentleman  supposes  ;  or 
that,  acting  only  from  a  regard  to  the  good 
of  their  country,  the  members  would  not 
have  reprobated  the  measure  as  strongly 
and  unanimously  as  the  rest  of  the  people  ? 
But  this  is  not  all  ;  let  us  reflect  upon  the 
arts  which  have  been  used  since  the  last  ses- 
f<ion  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  to  pack  a  ma- 
jority in  the  House  of  Commons.  All  hold- 
ing offices  under  Government,  even  the  most 
intimate  fi'iends  of  the  Minister,  who  had 
uniFonnly  supported  his  administration  till 
the  present  occasion,  if  they  hesitated  to 
vote  as  directed,  were  dismissed  from  office, 
and  stripped  of  their  employments.  Even 
this  step  was  found  ineffectual,  and  other 
arts  were  had  recourse  to,  which  I  cannot 
name  in  this  f lace  ;  all  will  easily  conjecture. 
A  bill  for  preserving  the  purity  of  Parlia- 
ment was  likewise  abused,  and  no  less  than 
Kixty-three  seats  were  vacated  by  their  hold- 
ers having  received  nominal  offices.  I  will 
not  press  this  subject  further  upon  the  at- 
tention of  the  committee.  I  defy  any  man 
\o  lay  his  hand  upon  his  heart  and  say,  that 
he  l)elieves  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  was  sin- 
cerely in  favor  of  the  measure."  Mr.  Grey 
then  moved  an  address  to  His  Majesty, 
praying  him  to  direct  hi.s  Ministers  to  sus- 
pend all  proceedings  ou  the  Union,  till  tiie 
Beutimeuts  of  the  people  of  Ireland  respecting 


that  measnre  should  have    been  ascertained. 

Mr.  Sheridan,  of  course,  was  at  his  post 
and  supported  the  motion  of  Mr.  Grey.  He 
deprecated  the  prosecution  of  a  measure, 
which,  if  it  should  be  carried  into  effect  by 
corruption  or  violence,  would  become  the 
fatal  source  of  discontent  and  rebellion. 
That  the  Union  had  the  general  approbation 
and  independent  assent  of  the  Irish  nation, 
a  number  of  addresses  and  declarations  were 
mentioned  as  a  proof  ;  but  where  were  these 
addresses  ?  The  addresses  against  it  were 
easy  to  be  found.  Twenty-seven  of  the 
counties  had  openly  declared  against  it  j  and 
with  these  would  have  united  Antrim  and 
Sligo,  if  martial  law  had  not  been  proclaim- 
ed, and  prevented  the  intended  meetings.  If 
the  measure  were  thus  to  be  carried,  he  had 
no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  it  would  be  an 
act  of  tyranny  and  oppression,  and  must  be- 
come the  fatal  source  of  new  discontents  and 
future  rebellions  ;  and  the  only  standard 
round  which  the  pride,  the  passions,  and  the 
prejudices  of  Irishmen  would  rally,  would  be 
that  which  would  lead  them  to  the  recovery 
of  a  constitution  that  would  have  been  tlius 
foully  and  oppressively  wrested  from  them. 
No  attempt  hud  been  made  to  deny  the  notorious 
fact,  that  sixty-five  seats  had  been  vacated 
to  make  places  for  men,  whose  obsequious- 
ness would  not  permit  them  to  oppose  the 
measure  ;  and  it  was  equally  notorious,  that 
no  art  or  influence  which  the  policy  of  cor- 
ruption and  intimidation  could  put  in  play, 
had  been  left  untried  to  gain  over  partizans 
to  the  Union. 

It  is,  indeed,  singular,  that  in  the  course  of 
these  debates,  no  Minister  was  hardy  enough 
to  deny  the  system  of  intimidation  and 
bribery.  Mr.  Secretary  Dundas  contented 
himself  on  this  occasion  with  saying,  "  he 
would  not  admit  "  that  the  Irish  in  general  dis- 
sented from  the  scheme.  Lord  Carysfort  bold- 
ly propounded  a  strange  argument  ;  he  af- 
firmed, tliat  the  Unionists  in  the  Irish  Par- 
liament, had  a  much  greater  extent  of  pro|> 
erty  than  their  adversaries,  in  the  Lords  ten 
to  one,  and  that  the  judging  portion  of  the 
people  approved  the  project.  Mr.  Pitt,  how- 
ever, indignantly  scouted  the  idea  of  ap- 
pealing to  a  community  so  influenced  by  fac- 
tious leaders  ;  he  was  satisfied  with  the  con 
stitutional  assent  of  Parliament. 


OPPOSED  BY  LORD  HOLLAND ^MR.  GEET — SHERIDAN. 


403 


In  short,  Mr.  Grey's  tiiotioii  to  ''suspend 
proceedings  on  the  Union,  till  the  sentiments 
I  of  the  people  of  Ireland  should  be  ascer- 
tained," wiis  net^atived  by  a  vote  of  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty-six,  against  thirty.  And  the 
three  first  articles  were  adopted  by  the  com- 
mittee. 

Other  debates  upon  varions  parts  of  the 
articles,  had  uniformly  tl>e  same  result, 
vast  mnjorities  for  the  Minister.  Two  in- 
cidents only  of  these  discussions,  merit  no- 
tice. 

On  the  30th  of  April,  a  debate  arose 
upon  a  motion  of  Lord  Holland,  tending  to 
give  the  Catholics  a  pledge  or  prospect  of 
the  abolition  of  the  disabilities,  to  which 
they  were  still  subject  both  in  Ireland  and 
Great  Britain.  This  M'as  opposed  on  the 
part  of  Government  as  "  unseasonable.'' 
Ministers,  in  fact,  intended  that  the  Catholic 
Bishops  and  influential  leaders,  should  con- 
tent themselves  witii  the  vague  promises  al- 
ready so  often  mentioned.  The  Government 
was  practically  receiving  support  for  their 
measure,  from  many  of  those  prelates  and 
gentlemen,  on  the  faith  of  the  treacherous 
promises  of  Lord  Cornwallis  and  his  under- 
lings ;  and  had  no  idea  of  pledging  the  Brit- 
ish Parliament-  to  emancipation.  I^ord 
Grenville  "  was  of  opinion  that  these  ques- 
tions would  be  best  determined  by  an  United 
Parliament."     So  the  subject  dropped. 

The  other  incident  arose  from  the  alarm 
of  the  woollen-manufacturers.  It  will  be 
remembered  how  this  class  of  manufactur- 
ers, in  the  reign  of  William  III,  had 
been  able  to  procure  express  acts  of  the 
English  Parliament  for  the  destruction  of 
that  kind  of  industry  in  Ireland,  and  to  en- 
sure to  themselves  the  full  monopoly  of  Irish 
wool  in  fleece.  They  were  now  very  natur- 
ally of  opinion  that  the  Commercial  "  Ar- 
ticle," in  the  articles  of  Union  permitting 
the  free  mutnal  import  and  export  between 
ihe  two  islands,  was  a  gross  infringement 
upon  tiieir  vested  rights.  They,  accorditigly, 
petitioned  the  Honse  of  Commons  against 
the  "  Article."  Their  demand  was  too  mon- 
strous, but  it  was  sustained  in  the  House  by 
Mr.  Peel  and  Mr.  Will)erforce.  Mr.  Pitt,. 
however,  who  knew  that  the  English  monop- 
oly of  tlie  woollen  manufacture  was  now 
practically  safe  enongli,  maintained,  that,  if 


any  transfer  of  mannfactr.re  should  result 
from  the  permission  of  exporting  wool,  it 
would  be  gradual  and  inconsiderable  ;  that 
any  void,  which  it  might  occasion,  would  be 
nuich  more  than  filled  up  by  the  great  in- 
crease of  our  trade  in  this  article  ;  that  we 
had  no  reason  to  apprehend  a  scarcity  of 
the  commodity,  or  dread  the  rivalry  of  the 
Irish  in  the  manufacture  ;  and  that  his 
friend's  proposal  would  be  an  unnecessary 
deviation  from  that  liberal  principle  of  a 
free  intercourse,  wliich  was  the  intended 
basis  of  the  Union.  The  article,  therefore, 
was  adopted  as  it  stood,  to  the  deep  indig- 
nation of  the  good  people  of  Leeds  and  all 
Yorkshire. 

All  the  articles  had  been  adopted  before 
the  9th  of  May.  A  joint  address  was  on 
that  day  presented  to  the  King,  importing 
that  they  were  now  ready  to  conclude  an 
Union  with  the  Irish  Parliament  upon  the 
basis  of  the  articles.  This  address,  in  a 
tone  which  resembles  a  cold  and  solemn 
sneer,  expresses  the  "unspeakable  satisfac- 
tion "  of  Parliament  at  "  the  general  conform- 
ity of  the  articles  transmitted  from  Ireland 
with  those  which  they  had  voted  in  the  pre- 
ceding year." 

The  next  thing  in  order,  was  that  each 
Parliament  was  to  frame  the  articles  into 
a  bill,  and  so  pass  the  Ad  of  Union. 

As  an  Irish  act  for  regulating  elections 
was  to  be  incorporated  in  the  general  bill  of 
Union,  Lord  Castlereagh  at  once,  in  the 
Irish  House  of  Commons,  .brought  in 
that  parliamentary  measure.  It  passed  the 
House  of  ConmiDus  on  the  20th  of  May. 
This  measure  arranged  the  representation  as 
it  remained  from  tlie  Union  until  the  "  Re- 
form act."  It  gave  one  member  of  Parlia- 
ment to  each  of  the  following  towns  : — 

Waterford,  Limerick,  Belfast,  Drogheda, 
Carrickfergns,  Newry,  Kilkenny,  London- 
derry, Galway,  Clonmell,  Wexford,  Armagh, 
Youghall,  Bandon,  Dundalk,  Kinsale,  Lis- 
bnrne,  Sligo,  Catherlogh,  Emu's,  Dungar- 
van,  Down-Patrick,  Coleraine,  Mallow,  Ath- 
lone.  New- Ross,  Tralee,  Ca^h(■l,  Dimgannou, 
Portarlington,  and  p]nniskillen.  One  mem- 
ber for  each  of  these  towns,  with  four  for 
Dublin  and  Cork,  one  for  the  University, 
and  sixty-four  representatives  of  the  thirty- 
two  count 'es. 


404 


HISTOKT   OF   IRELANl). 


The  act  then  made  its  singular  provision 
to  allow  present  Irish  members  of  Parlia- 
ment, to  sit  in  a  Parliament  they  had  never 
been  elected  to  serve  in.  It  provided,  that 
if  the  King  should  authorize  the  present 
lords  and  commons  of  Great  Britain  to  form 
a  part  of  the  first  Impe'rial  Legislature,  the 
sitting  members  for  Dublin  and  Cork,  and 
for  the  thirty-two  counties  of  Ireland,  should 
represent  the  same  cities  and  shires  in  that 
Parliament ;  that  the  written  names  of  the 
members  for  the  college  of  the  Holy  Trini- 
ty, for  the  cities  of  Waterford  and  Limer- 
ick, and  the  other  towns  before-mentioned, 
should  be  put  into  a  glass,  and  successively 
drawn  out  by  the  clerk  of  the  Crown,  and 
that,  of  the  tvvo  representatives  of  each  of 
those  places,  the  individual  whose  name 
should  be  first  drawn,  should  serve  for  the 
same  place  in  the  first  United  Legislature  ; 
and  that,  when  a  new  Parliament  should.be 
convoked,  writs  should  be  sent  to  the  Irish 
counties,  to  the  University,  and  to  the  cities 
and  boroughs  above  specified,  for  the  elec- 
tion of  members  in  the  usual  mode,  accord- 
ing to  the  number  then  adjusted. 

The  act  also  arranged  the  rotation  in 
which  the  four  Irish  bishops  should  sit  in 
the  House  of  Peers,  and  also  the  election  of 
the  twenty-eight  Irish  Peers  by  their  own 
order. 

On  the  very  next  day — for  Ministers 
were  in  hot  haste — Castlereagh  moved  for 
leave  to  bring  in  his  bill  for  the  Legislative 
Union.  Leave  was  given  by  a  vote  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty,  against  one  hundred. 
It  was  at  once  presented,  read,  and  ordered 
to  be  printed.  On  the  25th,  it  was  read 
again.  The  uncorrupted  members  of  the 
House  looked  on  with  impotent  indigna- 
tion. Mr.  Grattan  proposed  a  delay  until 
the  first  of  August,  to  allow  the  measure 
to  be  more  fully  canvassed.  He  proceeded 
also  to  argue  very  warmly  against  the  whole 
principle  of  it.  He  said  it  was  "  a  breach 
of  a  solemn  covenant,  an  innovation  promo- 
ted by  martial  law,  an  unauthorized  assump- 
tion of  a  competency  to  destroy  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  realm  :  an  unjustifiable  at- 
tempt to  injure  the  piosperity  of  the  coun- 
try. The  bill  would  be,  quoad  the  constitu- 
tion, equivalent  to  a  murder,  and,  quoad  the 
government,  to  a  separation.     If  it  should  be 


carried  into  effect,  he  foretold  its  want  of 
permanence,  and  intimated  his  apprehensions, 
that  popular  discontent,  perhaps  dangerous 
commotions,  might  result  from  its  enforce- 
ment." 

Lord  Castlereagh  defended  the  bill,  and 
censured  the  inflammatory  language  of 
Mr.  Grattan.  "But  he  defied,"  he  said, 
"  their  incentives  to  treason,  and  had  no  doubt 
of  the  energy  of  the  Government  in  defend- 
ing the  Constitution  against  every  attack." 
Such  was  the  insolent  and  half-menacing 
tone  adopted  upon  system  by  the  adminis- 
tration. 

Several  earnest  debates  followed.  The 
faithful  representatives  of  the  people,  whom 
money,  and  place,  and  title,  could  not  buy, 
did  their  sad  duty  to  the  end.  Tiie  ablest 
lawyers  in  the  country,  and  some  of  the  purest 
patriots  of  whom  history  makes  mention, 
could  at  least  protest  against  this  parricide 
and  suicide,  and  their  solemn  and  well-weigh- 
ed words  of  warning  and  expostulation,  if 
they  could  not  save  the  country,  for  that 
time  remain  on  record  as  a  protest,  as  a 
continual  claim,  and  perpetual  muniment  of 
title,  on  behalf  of  the  independence  of  the 
Irish  nation.  As  several  passages  of  these 
Anti-Union  pleadings  have  been  often  cited 
by  Mr.  O'Connell,  and  others,  who  have 
never  ceased  to  demand  the  repeal  of  that 
evil  act,  they  have  become  classical,  and 
must  always  be  held  an  essential  part  of 
any  history  of  Ireland. 

William  Conyngham  Plunket,  afterwards 
Lord-Chancellor,  said  : — 

"  Sir,  I,  in  the  most  express  terms,  deny 
the  competency  of  Parliament  to  do  this 
act.  I  warn  you,  do  not  dare  to  lay  your 
hands  upon  the  Constitution.  I  tell  you, 
that  if,  circumstanced  as  you  are,  you  pass 
this  act,  it  will  be  a  mere  nullity,  and  no 
man  in  Ireland  will  be  bound  to  obey  it.  I 
make  the  assertion  deliberately.  I  repeat  it, 
I  call  on  any  man  who  hears  me  to  take 
down  my  words.  You  have  not  been  elect- 
ed for  this  purpose.  You  are  appointed  to 
make  laws,  and  not  legislatures.  You  are 
appointed  to  exercise  the  function  of  legis- 
lators, and  not  to  transfer  them. 

"  You  are  appointed  to  act  under  the 
Constitution,  and  not  to  alter  it  ;  and  if 
you  do  so,  y(mr  act  is  a  dissolution  of  the 


LAST  DATS  OF  PARLIAMEKT LAST  SCEKE. 


405 


povernraent  —  you  resolve  society  into  its 
original  elements,  and  no  man  in  the  land  is 
hound  to  obey  you.  Sir,  I  state  doctrines 
that  are  not  merely  founded  on  the  immut- 
able laws  of  truth  and  reason  ;  1  state  not 
merely  the  opinions  of  the  ablest  and  wisest 
men  who  have  written  on  the  science  of 
government  ;  but  I  state  the  practice  of 
our  Constitution,  as  settled  at  the  era  of  the 
revolution  ;  and  J  state  the  doctrine  under 
which  the  House  of  Hanover  derives  its  title 
to  the  Throne. 

"  For  me,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  declare, 
that  if  the  madness  of  the  revolutionists 
were  to  tell  me,  '  You  must  sacrifice  British 
connection,'  I  would  adhere  to  that  coimec- 
tion  in  preference  to  the  independence  of  my 
country.  But  1  have  as  li/tle  hesitation  in 
saying,  that  if  the  loanton  ambition  of  a  Mim 
ister  shauld  assail  the  freedom  of  Ireland, 
and  comjpel  me  to  the  alternative,  I  would  fling 
the  connection  to  the  winds,  and  clasp  the  in- 
dependence of  my  country  to  my  hnrl^ 

Mr.  Bnshe,  (subsequently  Chief  Justice 
of  Ireland,)  spoke  these  words: — 

"  I  strip  this  formidable  measure  of  all 
its  pretensions  and  all  its  aggravations  ;  I 
look  on  it  nakedly  and  abstractedly,  and  I 
see  nothing  in  it  but  one  question — will  you 
give  up  the  country  ?  I  forget  for  a  mo- 
ment the  unprincipled  means  by  which  it 
has  been  promoted  ;  I  pass  by  for  a  mo- 
ment the  unseasonable  time  at  which  it 
has  been  introduced,  and  the  contempt  of 
Parliament  upon  which  it  is  bottomed,  and 
I  look  upon  it  simply  as  England  reclaim- 
ing in  a  moment  of  your  weakness  that  do- 
minion which  you  extorted  from  her  in  a 
moment  of  your  virtue — a  dominion  which 
she  uniformly  abused,  which  invariably  op- 
pressed and  impoverished  you,  and  from  the 
cessation  of  which  you  date  all  your  pros- 
perity  

"  Odious  as  this  measure  is  in  my  eyes, 
and  disgusting  to  my  feelings,  if  I  see  it  is 
carried  by  the  free  and  uninfluenced  sense 
of  the  Irish  Parliament,  I  shall  not  only  de- 
fer and  submit,  but  I  will  cheerfully  obey. 
It  will  be  the  first  duty  of  every  good  sub- 
ject. But  fraud,  and  oppression,  and  un- 
constitutional practice  may,  possibly,  he  another 
question.  If  this  be  factious  language,  Lord 
Isomers  was  factious,   the   founders  of  the 


revolution  were  factious,  Wiiliam  III.  was 
an  usurper,  and  the  revolution  was  a  re- 
bellion." 

Mr.  Saurin,  (subsequently  a  Privy  Coun- 
cillor and  an  Attorney-General,)  spoke  these 
words  : — 

"  You  make  the  Union  binding,  as  a  law, 
but  you  cannot  make  it  obligatory  on 
conscience.  It  will  be  obeyed  so  long  as 
England  is  strong — but  resistance  to  it  will 
be  in  the  abstract  a  duty  ;  and  the  exhibi- 
tion of  that  resistance  will  be  a  mere  ques- 
tion of  prudence." 

Mr.  Grattan,  who  was  afterwards  deemed 
worthy  of  a  resting-place  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  spoke  these  words  in  the  Irish 
House  of  Commons,  in  one  of  the  debates 
on  Union  : — 

"  !Many  honorable  gentlemen  thought  dif- 
ferently from  me.  I  respect  their  opinions, 
but  I  keep  ray  own  ;  and  I  think  now  as  I 
thought  then,  tho.t  the  treason  of  the.  Minis- 
ter against  the  liberties  of  the  people  was  •in- 
finitely worse  than  the  rebellion  of  the  people 

against  the  Minister 

"The  cry  of  the  connection  (the  Union 
measure)  will  not  in  the  end  avail  against 
the  principles  of  liberty.     .     .     . 

"  The  cry  of  disaffection  will  not  in  the 
end  avail  against  the  principle  of  liberty. 
"Yet  I  do  not  give  up  the  country.  I 
see  her  in  a  swoon  ;  but  she  is  not  dead. 
Though  iu  her  tomb  she  lies  helpless  and 
motionless,  still  there  is  on  her  lips  a  spirit 
of  life,  and  on  her  cheek  a  glow  of  beauty, 
"  Thou  art  not  conquered  ;  beauty's  en- 
sign yet  is  crimson  on  thy  lips  and  in  thy 
cheek,  and  death's  pale  flag  is  not  ad- 
vanced there."  * 

Eloquence  and  constitutional  law-learn- 
ing were  alike  vain.  The  bill  was  hurried 
to  its  third  reading  ;  and  when  it  was  seen 
that  the  evil  deed  was  inevitable,  most  of  the 
they  might  not  witness  the  division  by  which 

*  It  is  true  that  several  of  these  Anti-Uuion  ora- 
tors subsequently  acted  as  if  they  had  not  been  alto- 
gether sincere  in  so  strongly  denouncing  the  Union, 
pronouncing  it  a  nullity,  and  proclaiming,  as  T.ord 
Plunket  and  Mr.  Saurin  did,  that  no  man  would  be 
bound  to  obey  it — that  is,  to  obey  laws  enacted  in  the 
Imperial  Parliament.  Yet  the  speakers  were  sincere 
at  the  time  ;  and  even  if  their  own  personal  position 
afterwards  seem  inconsistent  with  the  principle*  then 
laid  down,  yet  the  principles  are  not  to  sufl'er,  nor  is 
the  law  less  sound  on  that  account. 


406 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


Anti-Unionists  rose  and  left  the  House,  that 
it  vvns  to  be  carried.  This  was  on  the  7th 
of  June.  There  was,  if  we  are  to  credit 
Sir  Jonah  Barrington,  a  certain  theatrical 
solemnity  in  some  of  these  last  scenes  of 
our  national  life.     For  example  : — 

"  Before  the  third  reading  of  the  bill, 
when  it  was  about  to  be  reported,  Mr. 
Charles  Ball,  member  for  Clogher,  rose,  and, 
without  speaking  one  word,  looked  round 
impressively,  every  eye  was  directed  to  him, 
he  only  pointed  his  hand  significantly  to  the 
bar,  and  immediately  walked  forth,  casting 
a  parting  look  behind  him,  and  turning  his 
eyes  to  heaven,  as  if  to  invoke  vengeance 
on  the  enemies  of  his  country.  His  example 
was  contagious.  Tiiose  Anti-Unionists  who 
were  in  the  House  immediately  followed  his 
example,  and  never  returned  into  that  Sen- 
ate, which  had  been  the  glory,  the  guardian, 
and  the  protection  of  their  country.  There 
was  but  one  scene  more,  and  the  curtain  was 
to  drop  forever." 

On  these  last  days  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment there  was  an  ostentatious  display  of 
u)ilitary  force.  Troops  were  drawn  up  un- 
der the  Ionic  colonnades  of  the  superb  Par- 
liament House ;  and  the  citizens  of  Dublin 
knew  that  batteries  of  field  artillery  were 
ready  at  convenient  spots  to  sweep  their 
streets  at  a  moment's  notice — an  arrange- 
ment to  which  they  have  been  long  accus- 
tomed. Sir  Jonah,  who  was  present  and 
i;aw  all,  and  who,  though  not  in  all  respects 
an  estimable  man,  at  least  stood  by  his  coun- 
try in  this  crisis  to  the  last,  describes  the 
scene  ibr  us  : — 

"Tile  day  of  extinguishing  the  liberties  of 
Ireland  had  now  arrived,  and  the  sun  took 
his  last  view  of  independent  Ireland ;  he  rose 
no  more  over  a  proud  and  prosperous  nation. 
She  was  now  condemned,  by  the  British  Min- 
ister, to  renounce  her  rank  amongst  the 
states  of  Europe  ;  she  was  sentenced  to  can- 
cel her  Constitution,  to  disband  her  Com- 
mons and  disfranchise  her  nobility,  to  pro- 
claim her  incapacity,  and  register  her  cor- 
ruption in  the  records  of  the  empire. 

"  The  Commons  House  of  Parliament,  on 
the  last  evening,  afforded  the  most  melan- 
choly example  of  a  fine,  independent  people, 
"betrayed,  divided,  sold,  and,  as  a  state,  aiini- 
iiilated.      British   clerks   and   officers  were 


smuggled  into  her  Parliament  to  vote  away 
the  Constitution  of  a  country  to  which  they 
were  strangers,  and  in  which  they  had  nei- 
ther interest  nor  connection.  They  were  em- 
ployed to  cancel  the  royal  charter  of  the 
Irish  nation,  guaranteed  by  the  British  Gov- 
ernment, sanctioned  by  the  British  Legisla- 
ture, and  unequivocally  confirmed  by  the 
words,  the  signature,  and  the  great  seal  of 
their  monarch. 

"  The  situation  of  the  Speaker  on  that 
night  was  of  the  most  distressing  nature  ;  a 
sincere  and  arde.it  enemy  of  the  measure,  he 
headed  its  opponents  ;  he  resisted  it  with  all 
the  power  of  his  mind,  the  resources  of  his 
experience,  his  influence,  and  his  eloquence. 

"  It  was,  however,  through  his  voice  that 
it  was  to  be  proclaimed  and  consummated. 
His  only  alternative  (resignation)  would 
have  been  unavailing,  and  could  have  added 
nothing  to  his  character.  His  expressive 
countenance  bespoke  the  inquietude  of  his 
feeling  ;  solicitude  was  perceptible  in  every 
glance,  and  his  embarrassment  was  obvious 
in  every  word  he  uttered. 

"  Tlie  galleries  were  full,  but  the  change 
was  lamentable  ;  they  were  no  longer  crowd- 
ed with  those  who  had  been  accustomed  to 
witness  the  eloquence  and  to  animate  the 
debates  of  that  devoted  assembly.  A 
monotonous  and  melancholy  murmur  ran 
through  the  benches  ;  scarcely  a  word  was 
exchanged  amongst  the  members  ;  nobody 
seemed  at  ease  ;  no  cheerfulness  was  appa- 
rent, and  the  ordinary  business,  for  a  short 
time,  proceeded  in  the  usual  manner. 

"At  length,  the  expected  moment  arrived. 
The  order  of  the  day — for  the  third  reading  of 
the  bill  for  a  'Legislative  Union  between 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland ' — was  moved  by 
Lord  Castlereagh.  Unvaried,  tame,  cold- 
blooded, the  words  seemed  frozen  as  they 
issued  from  his  lips  ;  and,  as  if  a  simple  citi- 
zen of  the  world,  he  seemed  to  have  no  sen- 
sation on  the  subject. 

"  The  Speaker,  Mr.  Foster,  who  was  one 
of  the  most  vehement  opponents  of  tlie  Union 
from  first  to  last,  would  have  risen  and  left 
the  House  with  his  friends,  if  he  could.  But 
this  would  have  availed  nothina:.  With 
grave  dignity  he  presided  over  '  the  last 
agony  of  the  expiring  Parliament.'  Tie 
held  up  the  bill  for  a  moment  in  silence, 


THE   PROTESTIXa   PEERS THE    COMPENSATION   ACT. 


401 


then  asked  the  usual  question,  to  which  the 
rt'sponse,  '  aye,^  was  hin!:;ni(l,  but  unmistak- 
able. Another  momentnry  pause  ensued. 
Again  his  lips  seemed  to  decline  tlieir  office. 
At  length,  with  an  eye  averted  from  the  ob- 
ject which  he  hated,  he  proclaimed,  with  a 
subdued  voice,  ^The  ayes  hate,  ii.'  For  an 
instant  he  stood  statue-like  ;  then,  indig- 
nantly and  in  disgust,  flung  the  bill  upon  the 
table,  and  sunk  into  his  chair  with  an  ex- 
hausted spirit."  * 

So  far,  the  picturesque  historian  of  the 
"Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Irish  Nation  ;"  and, 
doubtless,  to  many  readers  this  closing  per- 
formance will  appear  somewhat  histrionic 
and  melodramatic.  Yet  in  sad  and  bitter 
earnest,  that  scene  was  deep  tragedy  ;  and 
its  catastrophe  is  here  with  us  at  this  day — 
in  thousands  upon  thousands  of  ruined  cab- 
ins, and  pining  prisoners,  and  outlawed  reb- 
els, and  the  poverty  and  hunger  that  move 
and  scandalize  the  world.  A  few  details  will 
fitly  close  up  this  subject. 

The  bill  was  carried  up  to  the  House  of 
Peers  by  Lord  Casllereagh,  but  the  consid- 
eration of  it  was  postrioned.  On  its  second 
reading,  the  Earls  of  Farnham  and  Bella- 
mont  offered  some  clauses,  which  were  nega- 
tived, and  the  bill  was  committed.  It  passed 
the  committee  without  amendment,  was  re- 
ported in  due  form,  and,  after  an  uninterest- 
ing debate,  was  read  a  third  time. on  the  13th 
of  June.  A  protest  was  entered  by  the 
Duke  of  Leinster  and  the  other  dissenting 
Peers.     This  protest  is  given  at  full  length 

*  It  is  well  to  preserve  the  record  of  those  Irish- 
men who  voted  against  tlie  extinction  of  their  coun- 
try. As  for  the  names  of  those  persona,  phicemen, 
pensioners,  and  bribe-takers,  who  voted  on  the  other 
side,  it  were  better  to  forget  them  But  their  names 
and  crime  are  also  a  portion  of  history ;  and  many 
readers  may  be  interested  to  know  the  manner  in 
which  some  great  families  in  Ireland  obtained 
their  titles  and  laid  the  foundation  of  their  fortunes. 
Candor  also  requires  it  to  be  stated  that  some  few 
members  did  vote  for  the  Union  without  either  bribe 
or  pension,  without  being  influenced  either  by  inter- 
est or  intimidation;  and,  therefore,  it  is  presumable, 
from  a  sincere  conviction  that  this  measure  would 
benefit  the  two  countries.  There  was  published  soon 
after  the  Union  a  "Red  List"  and  a  "Black  List," 
giving  the  names  of  those  who  were  for  and  against 
the  measure.  The  lists  have  often  been  reprinted, 
■fhey  may  be  found  in  Plowden's  Appendix  and  in 
Sir  Jonah  Barrington's  liixe  and  Fall.  But  as  the 
latter  has  added  some  observations  to  manj'  of  the 
names,  either  from  his  own  personal  knowledge,  or 
from  common  notoriety  at  tlie  time,  we  adopt  his 
edition  oi  the  lists. — See  Appendix,  No.  II. 


in  the  Lords' journals  ;  but  it  will  be  enungh 
in  this  place  to  record  its  Inst  parii!.i:r!iph 
and  summing  up,  with  the  names  of  the  dis- 
sentient Peers.  It  concludes  in  these  words  : 
"  Because  the  argument  made  use  of  in 
favor  of  the  Union,  namely,  that  the  sense 
of  the  people  of  Irehind  is  in  its  favor,  we 
know  to  be  untrue  ;  and  as  the  Ministers 
have  declared  that  they  would  not  pre-s  the 
measure  against  the  sense  of  the  people,  and 
as  the  people  have  pronounced  decidedly,  and 
under  all  difficulties,  their  judgment  against 
it,  we  have,  together  with  the  sense  of  the 
country,  the  authority  of  the  Minister  to  en- 
ter our  protest  against  the  project  of  Union, 
against  the  yoke  which  it  imposes,  the  dis- 
honor which  it  inflicts,  the  disqualification 
passed  upon  the  peernge,  the  stigma  thciehy 
branded  on  the  realm,  the  disproportionate 
principle  of  expense  it  introduces,  the  means 
employed  to  effect  it,  the  dis<'ontents  it  has 
excited,  and  must  continue  to  excite.  Against 
all  these,  and  the  fatal  consequences  the}' 
may  produce,  we  have  endeavored  to  inter- 
pose our  votes,  and  failing,  we  transmit  to 
after-titnes  our  names,  in  solemn  protest  on 
behalf  of  the  Parliamentary  Constitution  of 
this  realm,  the  liberty  which  it  secured,  the 
trade  which  it  protected,  the  connection 
which  it  preserved,  and  the  Constitution 
which  it  supplied  and  fortified.  This  we  feel 
ourselves  called  upon  to  do  in  support  of  our 
characters,  our  honor,  and  whatever  is  left  to 
us  worthy  to  be  transmitted  to  our  posterity. 

Lein'ster, 

Arkan, 

Mount  Cashel, 

Farnham, 

Beiaiore,  by  proxy, 

Massy,  by  proxy, 

Strang FORD, 

Granard, 

Ludlow,  by  proxy, 

MoiRA,  by  proxy. 

Rev.  Waterford  and  Lismore. 

PoWERSCOURT, 

Dr  Yksci, 
Charlfmont, 
Kingston,  by  proxy, 
Rivefjsdale,  by  proxy, 

Meath, 

LisMOKE,  by  proxy, 

Sun'derlin." 


408 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


No  part  of  the  plan  now  remained  for  the 
Secretary  to  bring  forward,  but  the  scheme 
of  compensation.  This  he  phui-ibly  ushered 
in  upon  a  principle  of  justice.  He  proposed 
a  grant  of  iBl,260,000  for  those  who  should 
suffer  a  loss  of  patronage,  and  be  deprived 
of  a  source  of  wealth,  by  the  disfrauchise- 
ment  of  eighty-four  boroughs — at  the  rate 
of  £15,000  to  each.  Mr.  Saurin,  Mr.  J.  Clau- 
dius Beresford,  and  Mr.  Dawson,  maintained 
that  the  grant  of  compensation  to  those  who 
had  no  right  to  hold  such  a  species  of  prop- 
erty, would  be  an  insult  to  the  public  and  an 
infringement  of  the  Ccnstitution.  Mr.  Pren- 
dergast  defended  the  proposition,  alleging 
that,  though  such  possessions  might  have 
been  vicious  in  their  origin,  yet,  from  pre- 
scriptive usage,  and  from  having  been  the 
subject  of  contracts  and  family  settlements, 
they  could  not  be  confiscated  without  a 
breach  of  honor  and  propriety.  In  the 
House  of  Peers,  this  bill  was  chiefly  opposed 
by  the  Earl  of  Farnham  ;  but  it  passed  into 
law  with  little  oppusitiou  in  either  House, 
the  Anti-Unionists  having  now  given  up  tlie 
question  as  lost.* 

Soon  after  the  Union  bill  had  passed 
through  both  Houses  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment, Mr.  Pitt  brought  a  bill  in  the  same 
form  into  the  British  House- of  Commons.  It 
proceeded  through  the  usrfal  stages,  without 
occasioning  any  important  debate  ;  and  was 
sent,  on  the  24th  of  June,  to  the  Peers.  On 
the  30th,  Lord  Grenviile  moved  for  its  third 

*  When  the  compensation  statute  had  received  the 
royal  assent,  the  Viceroy  appointed  four  commission- 
ers to  carry  its  provisions  into  execution.  Three 
were  members  of  Parliament,  whose  salaries  of 
£1,'200  a  year  each  (with  probable  advantages)  were 
a  tolerable  consideration  for  their  former  services. 
The  Honorable  Mr.  Aunesley,  Secretary  Hamilton, 
and  Dr.  Duigenan,  were  the  principal  commissioners 
of  that  extraordinary  distribution.  Unfortunately,  we 
have  not  full  details  and  accounts  of  this  scandalous 
pecuniary  transaction.    Sir  Jonah  Barrington  says  :— 

"It  is  to  be  lamented  that  the  records  of  the  pro- 
ceedings have  been  unaccountably  disposed  of.  A 
voluminous  copy  of  claims,  accepted  and  rejected, 
was  published,  and  partially  circulated  ;  but  the  great 
and  important  grants,  the  private  pensions,  and  oc- 
ouU  compensations,  have  never  been  made  public, 
further  than  by  those  who  received  them.  It  is 
linown  that — 
*•  Lord  Shannon  received  for  his  patronage 

in  the  Commons £45,000 

"  The  Marquis  of  Ely 45,000 

"  Lord  Clanmorris  (besides  a  peerage)  .  2.3,000 
"  Lord  Belvidere  (besides  his  douceur)  ,  15,000 
"  Sir  Hercules  Langrishe  15,000  " 


reading,  declaring  that  he  ro.se  for  that  pur- 
pose with  greater  pleasure  than  he  had  ever 
felt  before  in  making  any  proposition  to  their 
lordships.  Tlie  Marquis  of  Downshire  merely 
said  that  his  opinion  of  the  measure  remained 
unaltered,  and  that  he  would,  therefore,  give 
the  bill  his  decided  negative.  It  passed 
without  a  division  ;  and,  on  the  2d  of  July, 
it  received  the  royal  assent. 

On  the  29th  of  July,  in  proroguing  the 
last  separate  Parliament  of  Great  Britain, 
the  King  felicitated  his  Parliament,  as  he 
well  might : — 

"  With  peculiar  satisfaction  I  congratu- 
late you  on  .the  success  of  the  steps,  which 
you  have  taken  for  effecting  an  entire  Union 
between  ray  kingdoms.  This  great  measure, 
on  wiiich  my  wishes  have  been  long  earnest- 
ly bent,  I  shall  ever  consider  as  the  happi- 
est event  of  my  reign." 

The  royal  assent  was  given  in  Ireland  to 
the  Union  bill  on  the  1st  of  August,  the 
anniversary  of  the  accession  of  the  House  of 
Brunswick  to  the  thrones  of  these  realms. 
The  ne.xt  day,  the  Lord-Lieutenant  put  an 
end  to  the  session,  -with  an  ai)propriate 
speech  from  the  Throne.  Lord  Cornwallis 
said,  amongst  other  fine  things — speaking 
to  the  legislators  whom  he  had  bribed  : — 

"The  whole  business  of  this  important 
session  being  at  length  happily  concluded,  it 
is  with  the  most  sincere  satisfaction  that  I 
communicate  to  you  by  His  Majesty's  ex- 
press command,  his  warmest  acknowledg- 
ments for  that  ardent  zeal  and  unshaken 
perseverance  which  you  have  so  conspicu- 
ously manifested  in  maturing  and  completing 
the  great  measure  of  Legislative  Union  be- 
tween this  kingdom  and  Great  Britain. 

"The  proofs  you  have  given  on  this  occa- 
sion of  your  uniform  attachment  to  the  real 
welfare  of  your  country,  inseparably  con- 
nected with  the  security  and  prosperity  of 
the  empire  at  large,  not  only  entitle  you  to 
the  full  approbation  of  your  Sovereign,  and 
to  the  applause  of  your  fellow-subjects,  but 
must  afford  you  the  surest  claim  to  the  grati- 
tude of  posterity. 

"You  will  regret,  with  His  Majesty,  the 
reverse  which  His  Majesty's  allies  have  ex- 
perienced on  the  Continent ;  but  His  Majes- 
ty is  persuaded  that  the  firmness  and  public 
spirit  of  his  subjects  will  enable  him  to  per- 


IRISH   DEBT HISTORY   OF   IT. 


409 


severe  in  the  line  of  conduct  which  will  best 
provide  for  the  honor,  and  the  essential  in- 
terests of  his  dominions,  whose  means  and 
resources  have  now,  by  your  wisdom,  been 
more  closely  and  intimately  combined." 

Iniincdiatcly  after  piissinjij  the  Knjrlish 
Act  of  Union,  early  in  July,  the  British  Par- 
liament was  prorogued  ;  and  the  "  Union," 
in  so  far  as  parchment  can  make  an  union, 
was  complete.  It  was  to  take  effect  from 
the  1st  of  January,  1801.  Pursuant  to 
proclamation,  a  new  Imperial  Standard  was 
on  that  day  displayed  on  the  Tower  of  Lon- 
don, and  on  the  Castles  of  Edinburgh  and 
Dublin.  It  was  the  same  Royal  Standard 
now  in  use;  being  "quartered,  first  and 
fourth,  England  ;  second,  Scotland  ;  third, 
Ireland."  So,  since  that  day,  the  Harp  of 
Ireland  has  its  place  in  the  corner  of  the 
great  Banner  of  England. 

The  "  Union  Jack "  was  also  ordained 
and  described  by  the  same  proclamation — 
"  And  it  is  our  will  and  pleasure  tiiat  the 
Union  flag  shall  be  azure,  the  crosses,  sal- 
tires  of  St.  Andrew  and  St.  Patrick,  quar- 
terly per  saltire,  counterchanged,  argent  and 
gules  ;  the  latter  inibriated  of  the  second, 
surmounted  by  the  Cross  of  St.  George  of 
the  third,  as  the  saltire." 

As  for  the  Public  Debt  of  Ireland,  which 
was  to  remain  a  separate  charge  on  the  rev- 
enues of  that  country,  tliat  debt  had  been 
less  than  four  millions  just  before  the  insur- 
rection. At  the  Union,  that  debt  was  de- 
clared to  be  i£'26,84l,219,  being  increased 
nearly  sevenfold  in  three  years.  Tliat  is  to 
say,  the  whole  of  the  expenses  incurred  in  pro- 
voking that  insurrection — then  in  maintain- 
ing a  great  army  to  crush  it — tiie  cost  of 
keeping  English  and  Scotch  militia  regiments 
in  the  country — the  pay  of  the  Hessians — 
the  bribes  and  pensions  to  spies,  informers, 
and  meml)ers  of  Parliament — the  Conipen- 
sation-fnnd  to  owners  of  boroughs — all  was 
charged  to  Irish  account. 

O'Conuell  said,  "  it  was  strange  that  Ire- 
land was  not  afterwards  made  to  pay  for  tlie 
knife  with  which  Lord  Castlereagh,  twenty- 
two  years  later,  cut  his  own  throat." 

This  enormous  debt  was  to  remain  separ- 
ate from  the  English  Debt,  according  to  the 
Act  of  Union,*   until  tliese  two  conditions 

♦  See  the  act  in  the  Appendix,  No.  III. 
52 


should  occur  :  First.  That  the  two  debts 
should  como  to  bear  to  each  other  the  pro- 
pt)rtion  of  fifteen  i)arts  for  Great  Britain 
to  two  parts  for  Ireland,  and.  Second.  That 
the  respective  circumstances  of  the  two 
countries  should  admit  of  uniform  taxation. 

After  that,  they  were  to  be  consolidated. 
Since  that  day,  an  English  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  has  "kept  the  books"  of  the 
two  islands  ;  so  that  while  the  debt  of 
England  went  on  increasing  rapidly,  owing 
to  the  war,  and  subsidies  to  all  enemies  of 
France,  the  debt  of  Ireland  was  somehow 
found  to  increase  more  than  twice  as  fast  as 
that  of  England — as  if  Ireland  had  a  double 
interest  in  crushing  France. 

"  Woe  to  the  land  on  whose  judgment- 
seats  a  stranger  sits — at  whose  gates  a 
stranger  watclic^  I  "  We  may  add — "  whose 
books  a  stranger  keeps  !  "  f 

The  two  debts  were  consolidated  in  ISIt. 
According  to  Lord  Castlereagh's  report  to 
Parliament,  the  military  force  in  Ireland  at 
the  time  of  the  Union  amounted  to  one 
hundred  and  twenty  six  thousand  five  huiv- 
dred  men — viz.,  forty-five  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  thirty-nine  regulars,  twenty- 
seven  thousand  one  hundred  and  four  militia, 
and  filty-tiiree  thousand  five  hundred  and 
fifty-seven  yeomanry. 

f  Mr.  O'Neill  Daunt,  in  his  excellent  paper  en- 
titled, "Financial  Grievances  of  Ireland,"  extracts 
from  ParliameiUary  I'aper  No.  35,  of  1819,  this 
table : — 


TEAR. 

BRITISH 
DEBT. 

AN. 

CHARGE. 

IRISH  DEBT.j  ^j,^;\^ 

6th  Jan. 
1801. 

450,504,984 

£ 

17,7]8,851 

£ 
28,545,134 

£ 
1,244,463 

5th  Jau. 

1817. 

734,522,104 

28,238,416 

112,704,773 

4,104,5U 

The  difference  between  the  statement  of  the  Irish 
Debt  given  in  this  table,  and  that  given  in  the  text, 
(from  another  Parliamentary  paper  of  the  same  year,) 
is  made  up  by  adding  a  small  amount  of  unfunded 
debt. 

Thus,  while  the  Imperial  Government  less  than 
doubled  the  British  Debt,  they  quadrupled  the  Irish 
Debt  By  this  management  the  Iri.sh  Debt,  which  in 
ISOl  had  been  to  the  British  as  one  to  sixteen  and  a 
half,  was  forced  up  to  bear  to  the  British  Debt  the 
ratio  of  one  to  seven  and  a  lialf  This  was  the  pro- 
portion required  by  the  Act  of  Union,  as  a  condition 
of  subjecting  Ireland  to  indiscriminate  taxation  with 
Great  Britain  Ireland  was  to  be  loaded  with  inordi- 
nate debt ;  and  tlion  this  debt  was  to  be  made  the 
pretext  for  raising  her  taxation  to  the  high  British 
standard,  and  thereby  rendering  her  liable  to  the  pre- 
union  debt  of  Great  Britain ! 


4fia 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


CHAPTER    XLIII. 

1800—1803. 

The  Catholics  Duped — Resignation  of  Pitt — Mj'stery 
of  this  Resignation^ — First  Measure  of  United  Par- 
liament— Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus — Report 
of  Secret  Coiumittee^Pate  of  Lord  Clare — Lord 
Hardwieke  Viceroy  —  Peace  of  Amiens  —  Treaty 
Violated  by  England — Malta— War  again  Declared 
by  England— Mr.  Pitt  resumes  Oflace  —  Coalition 
against  France. 

The  Ur.iou  luid  scnrcely  been  accomplisli- 
ed,  wlien  those  Irish  Catholics  who  had  sup- 
ported the  measure  found  they  had  been 
cheated,  as  usual,  by  the  British  Govern- 
ment. They  had  been  told  that  Catholic 
Emancipation  would  at  once  be  made  a 
Ministerial  measure  ;  and  in  so  far  as  the 
distinct  pledges  of  Mr.  Pitt  and  of  Lord 
Cornwallis  could  avail  them,  they  were  as- 
sured of  their  liberties. 

The  Orst  United  Parliament  met  on  the 
22d  of  January.  It  inuiiediately  began  to 
be  rumored  that  Mr.  Pitt  and  his  Ministry 
were  about  to  resign.  The  reason  falsely 
alleged  for  the  resignation  was  that  King 
Geoi'ge  III.  would  not  toleiate  the  idea  of 
Catholic  Emancipation,  which  he  imagined 
to  be  contrary  to  his  Coronation  oath  ;  and 
as  Mr.  Pitt  pretended  to  be  pledged  to  that 
measure,  he  made  this  difference  the  pretext 
for  a  temporary  resignation,  which  he  found 
expedient  at  this  time  for  other  reasons. 

Mr.  Pitt  had  been  the  all-powerful  Min- 
ister who  had  governed  England  for  seven- 
teen years.  It  was  he  who  had  recalled 
Lord  Fitzwilliam  from  the  Irish  Vice-royalty, 
because  that  nobleman  favored  Catholic 
Emancipation.  It  was  he  who  had  sent 
over  Lord  Camdeu  with  express  instruc- 
tions to  prevent  such  emancipation  by  the 
Irish  Parliament  ;  and  in  desiring  Lord 
Cornwallis  and  Lord  Castlereagh  to  prom- 
ise Catholic  relief  after  the  Union,  he  in- 
tended to  delude  the  Catholics  into  a  sup- 
port of  his  measure,  and  to  deceive  them 
afterwards.  He  knew  the  King's  opinion 
upon  that  question — if  anything  that  passed 
in  the  mind  of  George  III  can  be  called 
an  opinion — and  that  the  obstinate  and 
stupid  old  man  would  never  suffer  any  pro- 
ject of  Catholic  Emancipation  to  be  made 
a  Ministerial  measure. 


No  human  being  acquainted  with  public 
affairs  ever  believed  that  Mr.  Pitt  resigned 
office  at  that  time  on  account  of  the  Catho- 
lic question,  or  any  other  Irish  qnesiiou 
whatever.  The  truth  was,  simply,  that  Mr. 
Pitt's  continental  policy  had  failed,  and  that 
the  English  people,  devoured  by  taxes,  and 
wearied  out  with  the  still  unfulfilled  predic- 
tions of  the  total  rain  of  their  French  enemy, 
were  crying  aloud  for  peace.  Mr.  Pitt  saw 
that  peace  must  be  made,  at  least  for  a 
little  while  ;  but  his  sullen  pride  could  not 
submit  to  negotiate  that  peace  himself.  Mr. 
Plowden  *  says  : — 

"  The  only  transaction  which  furnished 
him  with  a  plausible  or  popular  ground  for 
resignation,  vi'as  the  Catholic  question,  \\\\\ch 
that  crafty  Minister  and  his  followers  have 
so  frequently  used  as  a  most  powerful  engine 
for  the  worst  of  political  purposes.  "With- 
in very  few  days  after  the  meeting  of  Par- 
liament, he  made  no  secret  of  his  I'esigna- 
tion.  Great  were  the  surprise  and  conster- 
nation which  attended  the  report.  Few, 
indeed,  gave  credit  to  the  alleged  cause  of 
resignation — namely,  his  inability  to  carry 
the  Catholic  question,  which  was  imperiously 
necessary  for  the  safety  of  the  state.  He 
was  too  fond  of  power,  his  influence  in  the 
country  was  too  imposing,  Ireland  was  too 
insigniticant  to  have  caused  such  an  im- 
portant change  in  all  the  departments  of  the 
state.  Abstracting  from  the  merits  and 
justice  of  the  question,  and  from  the  expe- 
diency or  necessity  of  its  being  then  pro- 
pounded and  carried,  neither  Mr.  Pitt's 
friends  nor  opponents  could  bring  their 
minds  to  believe  that  an  administration, 
which  had  established  itself  in  spite  of  the 
House  of  Commons  ;  which  had  baffled,  and 
at  last  subdued,  a  most  formidable  opposi- 
tion ;  which  had  maintained  itself  upon  new 
courtly  principles  for  seventeen  years,  and 
still  commanded  a  decided  majority  in  the 
Cabinet  and  Senate,  should  have  been  thna 
broken  up  from  the  Premier's  inability  to 
carry  so  simple  and  just  a  measure  as  that 

*  Worthy  Mr.  Plowden,  who  had  rather  supported 
the  Union,  as  many  other  leading  Catholics  had  done, 
when  he  wrote,  ten  years  later,  the  second  series  of 
his  Historical  Collections,  says,  in  its  first  page  : 
"  They  (the  Catholics)  now  beheld  the  baleful  mea- 
sure of  Union  in  its  full  deformity."  But  tlicy  beheld 
it  too  late 


RESIGNATION    OF    MR.    PITT. 


411 


of  an  equal  participation  of  Constitutional 
rights  amongst  all  the  King's  subjects." 

"  Simple  and  just  a  measure  "  as  this 
uaturally  appeared  to  the  Catholic  histo- 
rian, it  was  steadily  refused  and  resisted, 
both  by  Mr.  Pitt  and  by  his  whole  party 
for  twenty-nine  years  longer,  and  then  only 
carried  on  account  of  the  imminent  danger 
of  civil  war,  as  its  ^Ministerial  supporters 
alleged. 

There  was  an  air  of  mystery  about  the 
retirement  of  Ministers  at  this  crisis.  No- 
body gave  credit  to  tlie  ostensible  motives 
of  it;  and  several  distinct  reasons  were 
alleged  and  discussed.  In  fact,  every  con- 
ceivable reason,  except  the  true  one,  was 
assigned  by  the  friends  of  Mr.  Pitt.  One 
was  a  serious  difference  which  had  sprung 
up  between  the  Minister  and  the  Duke  of 
York,*  partly  with  respect  to  military  ar- 
rangements and  operations  ;  partly,  because 
certain  "  unconstitutional  influence  in  a 
high  quarter  counteracted  and  embarrassed 
the  important  duties  of  Ills  Majesty's  offi- 
cial and  responsible  advisers;  "  and  partly,  it 
was  also  alleged,  because  the  Duke  of  York, 
as  the  special  patron  of  the  Orange  Society, 
was  resolutely  opposed  to  the  project  of 
Catholic  Emancipation.  His  Pv-oyal  Uigh- 
aess  might  have  spared  his  uneasiness.  No 
Grand  Master  of  Orangemen  was  ever  more 
violently  opposed  to  all  claims  and  rights  of 
Catholics  than  Mr.  Pitt  himself. 

Innocent  Catholics  had  been  expecting 
that  the  King's  speech,  on  opening  this  ses- 
sion, would  have  recommended   a  measure 

*  From  the  year  1797  the  Orange  Societies  were  so 
tenderly  cherished  and  zealously  promoted  by  the 
Duke  of  York,  that  almost  every  regiment,  even  of 
militia  in  Ireland,  received  from  the  office  of  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief, encouragement,  authority,  or  orders 
for  establishing  Orange  Lodges  in  their  respective 
regiments.  The  person  delegated  for  this  niiasion 
was  generally  the  Sergeant  Major,  or  some  other 
iion-commissioued  ofBcer,  signalized  for  his  zeal 
Against  the  Catholics.  In  some  instances,  the  institu- 
tion of  Orange  Lodges,  under  this  high  and  official 
sanction  has  produced  ferment  and  dissension,  which 
compelled  the  commanding  officer  to  investigate  and 
punish  both  those  who  gave  rise  to,  and  those  who 
perpetrated,  the  consequent  outrages.  When  often, 
to  the  astonishment  of  the  corps,  and  in  defiance  of 
tnilitary  discipline  and  subordination,  the  conduct  of 
the  Sergeant  has  been  justified  by  the  production  of 
the  official  document  or  warrant,  most  irregularly 
superseding  that  immediate  authority,  upon  which 
alone  the  subordination  and  union  of  a  regiment  de- 
pend. 


for  their  em;!ncipation.  Tlie  suljject  was 
not  once  alluded  to.  The  address  was 
moved  in  the  House  of  Commons  by  Sir 
Watkin  William  Wynne,  (commander  of 
the  Ancient  Britons).  Mr.  Grey  moved  an 
amendment,  and  made  some  pointed  ob- 
servations upon  Ireland  and  the  Union.  "  If 
any  good  effect,"  he  said,  "could  result  from 
a  measure  so  brought  forward,  and  so  sup- 
ported, he  hoped  it  would  be  the  extension 
of  the  British  Constitution  to  the  Catholics 
of  Ireland,  and  their  restoration  to  all  the 
rights  of  British  subjects.  This  they  had 
been  taught  to  expect,  and  this  was  the  least 
they  were  entitled  to  in  return  for  that 
measure  having  been  forced  upon  them  by 
England."  Mr.  Pitt,  in  replying  to  Mr. 
Grey,  studiously  avoided  even  remote  refer- 
ence to  Ireland.  Ireland  had  served  his 
turn  ;  she  was  now  safe  under  British  law 
and  government ;  and  he  desired  to  hear  of 
her  no  more.  But  he  had  much  to  say  in 
denunciation  of  "Jacobinism,"  which  was 
the  name  then  given  to  any  assertion  of  any 
kind  of  right  or  liberty,  concluding  hia 
speech  with  a  warm  appeal  to  the  majority 
of  the  House,  whether  all  the  public  calam- 
ities of  this,  and  all  tlie  nations  of  the  Con- 
tinent, were  not  occasioned  by  those  princi- 
ples, which  the  gentleman  opposite  to  him 
had  uniformly  supported,  and  which  he  and 
the  gentlemen  on  his  side  of  the  House 
had  as  uniformly  combated. 

Before  quitting  the  subject  of  Mr.  Pitt's 
deliberate  deception  upon  the  Irish  Catho- 
lics, it  must  be  mentioned  that  the  paper 
which  had  been  delivered  by  Lord  Cornwal- 
lis  to  Doctor  Troy,  Catholic  Archbishop  of 
Dublin,  and  Lord  Fingal,  soon  became  pub- 
lic ;  although  Lord  Cornwallis  had  prudent- 
ly stipulated  that  it  should  be  "  dixcncUy 
communicated  to  the  Bisliops,  and  should 
not  find  its  way  into  the  newspapers,"'}* 
When  Mr.  Grey,  on  the  25th  of  March, 
moved  the  House  of  Commons  to  resolve  it- 
self into  a  Committee  of  the  Whole  House  to 
take  into  consideration  the  state  of  the  na- 
tion, he  referred  to  these  written  pledges, 
and  roundly  charged  them  with  having  been 
given  witliout  sincerity  and  without  author- 
ity.    "  If  Catholic  freedom  were  offered  to 

f  This  is  the  document  which  is  printed  in  a  note 
to  the  last  chapter. 


412 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


the  Irish  as  the  price  of  tlieir  support  of  the 
TJnioii,  if  the  faith  of  the  Government  were 
pledged  on  that  occasion,  it  forms  tlie  higli- 
est  species  of  crimiuality  in  Ministers,  be- 
cause I  am  confident,  said  he,  if  such  were 
the  case,  it  was  so  pledged  without  the  author- 
ity of  the  King  ;  for  I  know  His  Majesty  is 
superior  to  the  idea  of  swerving  in  the  slight- 
est degree  from  the  observance  of  his  word. 
This,  then,  was  a  crime  of  the  highest  de- 
nomination in  Ministers,  and  calls  for  inqui- 
ry. I  ask,  if  such  promise  were  made,  was 
Lord  Clare  and  the  Protestant  Ascendancy 
Party  made  acquainted  with  it  ?  If  so,  they 
were  a  party  to  the  delusion  that  was  in- 
tended to  be  practiced  on  the  unhappy 
Catholic." 

Mr.  Pitt,  though  no  longer  in  office,  sat 
ou  the  Ministerial  side  of  the  House — in 
fact,  he  was  virtually  Prime  Minister  all 
the  while  ; — he  replied  to  Mr.  Grey,  and 
touched  as  lightly  as  possible  upon  that  part 
of  his  speech  which  referred  to  Ireland. 
Concerning  the  famous  written  pledge,  he 
said,  "  he  had  no  part  in  the  uwrdivg  of  tlnit 
paper.  It  was  drawn  up  by  Lord  Castle- 
reag/i.  To  the  sentiments  it  contained, 
wheu  ■prvjierhj  interpreted,  he,  however,  sul)- 
scribed — further,  he  would  neither  avow 
nor  explain."  He  added  :  "  As  to  the 
particular  expressions  in  the  paper,  he  knew 
nothing  of  them,  having  never  seen  it  before 
it  was  published.  He  denied  that  any 
pledge  had  been  given  to  the  Catholics, 
either  by  himself,  Lord  Cornwallis,  or  the 
Noble  Lord  near  him  (Castlereagh).  The 
Catholics  might  very  naturally  have  con- 
ceived a  hope,  and  he  himself  had  always 
thought,  that  in  time  that  measure  would  be 
a  consequence  of  the  Union,  because  the  dif- 
ficulties would  be  fewer  than  before." 

Mr.  Plowden  wrote  to  Lord  Cornwallis 
upon  the  subject  ;  and  his  lordship,  in  his 
reply,  stated  that  the  paper  (which  has  been 
called  the  pledge  to  llie  Catholics,)  "was 
hastily  given  by  him  to  Dr.  Troy  to  be  cir- 
culated amongst  his  friends  with  the  view  of 
preventing  any  immediate  disturbances,  or 
other  bad  effects." 

In  short,  the  Catholics  very  soon  per- 
ceived that  they  had  been  deluded,  and  un- 
derstood very  well  tiiat  their  cause  had  been 
turned   into   a  convenient  pretext  by  Mr. 


Pitt  for  abandoning  office  in  order  to  throwr 
upon  other  men  the  business  of  making  the 
peace  of  Amiens.* 

Thus  within  six  weeks  after  carrying  the 
Union,  Mr.  Pitt,  Lord  Grenville,  Mr.  Dun- 
das,  (Lord  Melville,)  Lord  Cornwallis,  and 
Lord  Castlereagh,  all  went  out  of  office. 
Mr.  Addington,  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  was  the  new  Prime  Minister  ; 
and  Lord  Hardwicke  was  sent  over  as  Lord- 
Ijieutenant  of  Ireland.  Mr.  Pitt  and  his 
colleagues  resigned,  pledging  themselves  to 
support  their  successors,  (who  declined  to 
accept  office  without  that  supjjort,)  in 
an  administration  avowedly  placed  on  im- 
placable hostility  to  that  identical  measure, 
which  he  scrupled  not  to  declare  essential  to 
the  safety  of  the  empire. 

The  first  measure  which  the  Imperial  Par- 
liament bestowed  upon  Ireland,  was  not  an 
act  of  emancipation,  but  an  act  for  suspend- 
ing the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  and  estab- 
lishing martial  law.  Lord  Castlereagh  had 
for  some  time  been  preparing  the  materials 
for  the  fabrication  of  a  report  of  a  secret 
committee,  to  prove  (contrary  to  the  fact,) 
that  rebellion  still  existed  in  Ireland,  and, 
therefore,  that  there  was  a  necessity  for  re- 
newing the  act  for  suspending  the  Habeas 
Corpus,  which  was  abvout  to  expire  on  the 
25th  of  March.  Accordingly,  he  had  fixed 
the  20th  of  February  for  moving  for  a  bill 
to  enable  the  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland  to 
put  martial  law  in  fV)rce  in  such  parts  of 
Ireland  as  he  should  think  proper. 

Tlie  first  act  for  this  purpose  was  passed 
in  the  beginning  of  April,  and  was  to  expire 
in  three  months.  Shortly  after  its  passage, 
the  Chancellor  of  the  p]xchequer,  by  com- 
mand of  His  Majesty,  laid  before  the  House 
of  Commous  copies  and  extracts  of  papers, 
containing  secret  information  received  by 
His  Majesty's  government,  relative  to  the 
state  of  Ireland,  and  proceedings  of  certain 
disaffected  persons   in   both  parts    of  the 

*  It  has  always  been  considered  by  Englisb  states- 
men a  small  and  easy  matter  to  cheat  the  Irish. 
More  than  two  hundred  years  before,  Sir  Francis 
Bacon,  (afterwards  Lord  Bacon,)  in  his  "  Considera- 
tions Touching  the  Queen's  Service  in  Ireland," 
said  :  "  Nothing  can  be  more  fit  than  a  treaty,  or  a 
shadow  of  a  treaty,  of  a  peace  with  Spain,  vrhich, 
niethinks,  should  be  in  our  power  to  fasten,  at  least 
rumore  teuas,  to  the  deluding  of  as  wise  a  people  as 
the  Irish." 


REPORT   OF    SECRET    COMMITTEE. 


413 


United  Kingdom,  which,  upon  his  motion, 
were  referred  to  a  committee.  This  was  a 
preconcerted  plan  for  representing  Ireland, 
and  collaterally  the  whole  United  Kingdom, 
as  overrun  with  the  spirit  of  Jacobinism. 
On  no  occasion  was  Mr.  Pitt  more  vehement 
in  his  declamation  against  Jacobinism,  appa- 
rently with  a  view  of  drawing  ofif  the  public 
attention  from  the  real  authors  of  the  na- 
tional disasters,  by  directing  its  indignation 
against  the  Jacobins,  whose  cause  they  es- 
sentially tended  to  strengthen.  "  It  was," 
said  he,  "the  inherent  spirit  of  Jacobinism 
to  ally  itself  with  every  disaster,  to  press 
into  its  service  every  evil  of  the  state,  to 
wed  itself  to  every  misfortune  of  the  country 
it  inhabits,  and  to  make  them  forerunners  of 
its  ruin." 

The  report  of  this  secret  committee  was 
well  got  up  to  effect  Mr.  Pitt's  favorite  pol- 
icy— that  of  "  exciting  alarm."  It  repre- 
sented the  three  kingdoms  as  infested  with 
the  spirit  of  rebellion,  French  principles,  or 
"Jacobinism."  It  recited  with  great  em- 
phasis certain  songs  and  toasts,  which  were 
alleged  to-be  favorites  with  the  seditious 
rabble. 

It  reported  the  formation  of  new  societies 
of  Millenariaiis,  New  Jerusalemites,  Spenson- 
ians,  and  other  fanatics,  whom  it  traced 
from  London  into  Yorkshire,  Lancashire, 
Nottingham,  Scotland,  and  other  neighbor- 
ing places  ;  but  it  extended  them  not  to 
Ireland.  Yet  Ireland  was  not  to  be  wholly 
omitted,  where  the  report  was  incidentally, 
at  least,  calculated  to  justify  the  coercive 
measures  intended  for  that  part  of  the 
United  Kingdom  ;  and  the  committee  add- 
ed to  their  own  surmises  of  the  workings  of 
these  fanatics,  that  they  borrowed  their  ideas 
from  the  Irish  rebellion.  "  They  saw  in  Ire- 
land the  example  of  such  a  rebellion  as  they 
wished  to  promote  here."  They  further  pro- 
duced a  printed  address,  signed  Ilybernicus, 
directed  to  Britons  and  fellow-citizens.  The 
committee  said,  "  they  had  thus  detailed  the 
proceedings  of  the  disaffected,  carried  on  in 
the  metropolis,  and  as  directed  principally  to 
its  disturbance,  but  these  would  afford  a 
very  inadequate  representation  of  the  extent 
of  the  confederacy,  yet  in  proceeding  to  ad- 
vert to  the  state  of  the  other  parts  of  the 
country,  and  even  of  Ireland,  they  omitted  to 


notice  the  concert  which  in  some  measure 
pervaded  the  whole."  In  other  parts  of  the 
report,  they  lay  stress  upon  the  exaggerated 
statements  of  some  men,  of  the  number  ol 
the  confederates,  all  trained  to  military  exer- 
cise, which,  including  Ireland,  amounted  to 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  They  added 
that  the  principal  of  these  emissaries  were 
represented  as  delegated  from  London,  York, 
Birmingham,  Bristol,  Sheffield,  and  other 
considerable  towns,  as  %oell  as  from  Ire/and. 

The  Committee  added,  that  a  new  revolu- 
tionary association  had  been  formed  in  Ire- 
land ;  that  a  "  Committee  of  Rebellion," 
composed  of  certain  Irishmen,  existed  in 
Paris,  and  was  negotiating  with  the  French 
Government  on  the  best  mode  of  abolishing 
the  British  Constitution. 

This  astounding  report  was  received  by 
Parliament  as  ample  proof  of  all  tliat  it 
afSrmed. 

When  Lord  Hobart,  as  Secretary  of 
State  for  Ireland,  introduced  to  the  Lords 
the  bill  for  continuing  martial  law  in  Ire- 
land, he  observed,  that  he  had  not  attempted 
to  use  any  arguments  to  prove  the  necessity 
for  passing  the  bill,  because,  "  the  report 
on  the  face  of  it  proved  the  necessity,  and 
he  thought  their  lordships  would  be  more 
impressed  with  the  arguments  contaiued  in 
the  report  than  by  any  he  could  add."  All 
the  restrictive  and  coercive  bills  touching 
Ireland  were  passed  under  the  still  prevail- 
ing influence  of  Mr.  Pitt  and  Lord  Greu- 
ville  ;  the  opposition  to  them  was  numeri- 
cally insignificant.  During  the  first  session 
of  tlie  Imperial  Parliament,  no  question  re- 
specting Ireland  caused  any  difference  be- 
tween the  seceders  and  their  successors. 
They  both  equally  deprecated  the  very  men- 
tion of  Catholic  Emancipation,  and  emulated 
each  other  in  zeal  for  curbing  and  coercing 
the  Irish  people. 

The  bill  passed  both  Houses  by  immense 
majorities  ;  and  the  British  Constitution 
was  suspended,  so  far  as  respected  Ireland. 
The  Lord-Lieutenant  was  empovi'ered  to 
proclaim  any  part,  or  the  whole,  of  the 
island  under  martial  law  ;  the  act  professed 
to  be  only  temporary,  as  these  coercion  laws 
for  Ireland  are  always  said  to  be  ;  but  they 
are  almost  always  renewed  before  they  ex- 
pire ;  and  thus,  under  one  name  or  another, 


414 


HISTORY   OF   IKELAND. 


"Insurrection  Act,"  "Crime  and  Outrage 
Act,"  and  the  like,  tliis  coercive  code  has 
been  substantially  the  law  of  Ireland  from 
that  day  to  the  present. 

Another  Irish  measure,  passed  abont  the 
same  time,  was  an  act  to  regulate  the  office 
of  Master  of  the  Rolls  in  Ireland.  Before 
the  Union,  this  office  was  a  mere  sinecure, 
holdea  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Crown  by  two 
Peers.  (Lords  Glandore  and  Carysfort,) 
with  consideral)le  salaries.  These  had  been 
promised  a  large  compensation  for  the  loss 
of  their  places,  in  case  the  Union  should  be 
carried.  Henceforward  it  was  to  be  an  ef- 
ficient legal  office,  to  be  holdcn  for  life,  with 
a  suitable  salary,  in  order  to  give  the  Irish 
Chancellor  an  opportunity  of  attending  his 
Legislative  duties  in  the  House  of  Peers. 
It  v/as  warmly  contended  that,  as  the  Com- 
missioners for  the  Rolls  were  removable  at 
pleasure  from  the  sinecures,  they  were  en- 
titled to  no  compensation,  as  the  Chancel- 
lor of  the  Exchequer  and  Prime-Sergeant 
had  been.  Mr.  Pitt  and  Lord  Castlereagh 
justified  the  compensation  ;  because  it  had 
been  promised  by  the  Irish  Parliament,  and 
they  were  bounden  in  honor  to  make  it 
good. 

"  In  fact,"  as  Mr.  Plowdcn  bitterly  ob- 
serves, "  none  but  the  Catholic  supporters 
of  the  Union  had  to  complain  of  Ministerial 
infidelity  in  the  observance  of  previous  stipu- 
lations and  promises." 

There  was  one  other  who  thought  he  had 
reason  to  complain.  This  was  Lord  Clare. 
The  Irish  Chancellor  had  for  many  years 
made  himself  the  instrument — and  a  most 
able  and  thorough-going  instrument  of  Mr. 
Pitt's  policy  in  Ireland.  Scarcely  had  Lord 
Castlereagh  himself  been  more  efficient  in 
accomplishing  the  Union  ;  and  his  lordship, 
who  was  naturally  arrogant  and  presumptu- 
ous, evidently  imagined  that  he  was  only 
promoting  himself  from  a  narrow  provincial 
stage  to  the  wide  imperial  theatre,  where 
Ills  audacity  and  powerful  will  would  soon 
enable  him  to  predominate  in  London,  as  he 
had  done  in  Dublin.  In  the  discussion  of 
this  bill  to  complete  the  great  job  of  the 
Rolls  Court,  Mr.  Pitt  said,  "  it  was  highly 
desirable  that  the  House  of  Jjords  should 
enjoy  the  benefit  of  that  great  luminary  of 
the  law,  who  hud  rendered  such  eminent  ser- 


vices to  his  country."  Mr.  Grey  replied, 
that  much  had  been  said  that  night  in  praise 
of  the  Irish  Chancellor.  "  He  only  knew 
his  politics  ;  and  those  he  highly  disapprov- 
ed of.  It  had  been  already  shown  that 
night,  that  the  noble  lord  vindicated  the 
use  of  torture  to  extort  confessions."  Lord 
Clare,  from  his  first  arrival  in  England,  put 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  opponents  of  the 
Catholic  claims.  Foreseeing  that  the  new 
administration  was  to  consist  of  men  as- 
suming the  arrogant  appellation  of  the 
Kir)g\<!  friends,  he  attempted,  by  decrying 
his  own  country  in  the  Imperial  Parliament, 
to  secure,  as  one  of  the  King^s  friends,  an 
influence  in  the  councils  of  Great  Britain. 

He  failed  in  this  unworthy  ambition.  He 
was  reminded,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that 
he  was  not  now  predominating  over  an  as- 
sembly of  Irish  Peers.  He  was  not  at  all 
consulted  in  the  arrangements  for  the  new 
Addington  Administration.  He  returned 
to  Ireland,  consumed  by  disappointment, 
and  did  not  scruple  to  express  his  bitter 
regret  at  the  part  he  had  taken  in  car- 
rying the  Union.  If  he  did  regret  that 
act,  it  was  for  his  own  sake  alone,  not  for 
the  sake  of  his  country. 

He  remained  some  time  in  London,  in  or- 
der to  negotiate  for  some  more  efficient  in- 
fluence in  the  British  Cabinet  than  the 
Great  Seal  of  Ireland  was  ever  likely  to 
give  him.  Mr.  Pitt,  who  well  knew  that 
nobleman's  insatiable  ambition,  cautioned 
Mr.  Addington  against  admitting  him  to  a 
situation,  in  which,  in  case  of  resumption, 
(of  which  Mr.  Pitt  never  lost  sight,)  he 
might  meet  a  rival  in  the  colleague.  Lord 
Clare,  foiled  in  his  projects  of  British  ambi- 
tion, his  pride  wounded  by  the  speeches  of  the 
late  Duke  of  Bedford,  and  some  other  of  the 
Whig  Lords  in  Parliament,  who  freely  re- 
minded him,  that  Union  had  not  transferred 
his  dictatorial  powers  to  the  Imperial  Par- 
liament, had,  in  disgust,  formed  the  resolu- 
tion of  withdrawing  from  scenes  which  he 
neither  directed  nor  cotitrolled.  He  had 
determined  to  return  to  his  official  situation 
in  Ireland  ;  but,  by  the  Union,  the  Irish 
Seal  had  been  shorn  of  its  lustre,  and  all 
political  consequence. 

Lord  Clare  soon  fell  into  bad  health  ; 
and  he  died  within  the  year  and  day  after 


LORD   HAEDWICKE   VICEKOY PEACE   OF   AMIENS. 


415 


tliat  Act  of  Union  which  wns  to  have 
crowned  him  with  trinni})li.  He  died  in 
Jjuiuury,  1802.  His  remains  were  interred 
with  great  pomp,  in  St.  Peter's  Church- 
yard, in  DubHn.  Some  of  the  popnhice  at- 
temi)ted  at  the  funeral  to  ex[)ress  their  horror 
of  the  deceased  by  offering  indignities  to 
his  corpse. 

It  is  singuhir  tliat  the  only  two  eminent 
men  who  were  within  the  present  century, 
borne  to  their  graves  amidst  the  hootings 
of  the  people,  were  the  Earl  of  Clare  and 
the  Marquis  of  Londonderry,  (Castlereagh,) 
the  two  able  tools  of  British  policy  in  ruin- 
ing the- independence  of  their  country. 

The  Earl  of  Hardwicke  arrived  in  Dub- 
lin, to  assume  his  government,  on  the  25tli 
of  May.  Lord  Cornwallis  proceeded  to 
England  in  June  ;  and  we  next  hear  of  him 
as  the  negotiator  of  the  Peace  of  Amiens. 

The  English  and  French  people  both 
eagerly  desired  peace.  Tlie  First  Consul, 
Buonaparte,  was  also  sincerely  desirous  of 
giving  repose  to  his  countrymen,  after  so 
many  years  of  bloody  warfare.  As  Mr. 
Pitt  and  his  high  Anti-Jacobin  friends  were 
notoriously  the  party  of  war,  it  was  believed 
in  France  that  the  change  of  Ministry  be- 
tokened a  disposition  towards  peace  in  the 
Councils  of  England.  The  First  Consul 
was  not  aware  that  Mr.  Pitt  still  continued 
really  to  govern  the  country  ;  and  that  he 
had  made  this  new  arrangement  because  he 
desired  that  other  men  than  himself  should 
make  that  treaty,  and  afterwards  violate  it. 
It  is  manifest  that  Napoleon  Buonaparte 
did  not  at  that  time  fully  know  how  incom- 
patible, how  mutually  destructive  were  a 
French  Government,  the  product  of  the  re- 
volution— and  an  P^nglish  oligarchy.  He 
not  only  truly  desired  peace,  but  could  see 
no  reason  why  it  might  not  be  attained  ; 
while  Mr.  Pitt  and  the  Court  were  fully  re- 
solved that,  while  England  had  a  ship  afloat, 
and  a  guinea  to  hire  allies,  the  struggle 
must  go  on.  The  momentary  Peace  of 
Amiens  was  intended  to  delude  the  French  ; 
and  Mr.  Pitt  ceased  for  a  while  to  be  the 
ostensible  Minister,  adroitly  availing  him- 
self of  his  pretended  zeal  fur  the  Cath- 
olic question,  by  wiiich  he  had  deluded  the 
Irish. 

The  preliminaries  of  peace  were  signed  at 


London,  the  1st  of  October,  in  this  yenr, 
1801.  The  treaty  itself  was  signed  at  the 
city  of  Amiens,  tlie  27th  of  March,  1802, 
between  France,  Great  Britain,  Spain,  and 
the  Batavian  Republic.  France  and  Eng- 
land were  represented  by  Joseph  Buona- 
parte and  Lord  Cornwallis.  England  was 
to  preserve,  of  her  maritime  conquests,  the 
two  islands  of  Ceylon  and  Trinidad.  France 
w^as  to  re-possess  all  her  colonies.  The  Re- 
public of  tlie  Seven  Islands  was  to  be  recog- 
nized. Malta  was  to  be  restored  to  the 
Order  of  the  Kniglits,  Spain,  and  the  Ba- 
tavian Republic  were  to  have  back  all  their 
colonies,  except  Ceylon  and  Trinidad  ;  and 
the  French  were  to  evacuate  Rome,  Naples, 
and  the  Isle  of  Elba.  A  ce.'^sation  of  hos- 
tilities, by  land  and  sea,  had  been  already 
proclaimed  ;  and  on  the  signature  of  the 
treaty,  the  people  really  began  to  taste  the 
luxury  of  peace. 

The  popular  outcry  for  peace  was  now 
satisfied  ;  but  as  it  had  been  resolved  upon 
from  the  first  that  this  repose  should  be  of 
very  short  duration,  pretexts  began  to  be 
immediately  souglit  for  bi'eaking  the  treaty. 
The  French  Government  was  making  active 
naval  preparations  in  tlie  port  of  Brest,  in- 
tended, ostensibly,  for  St.  Domingo  ;  but  it 
was  assumed  tliat  the  armament  was  really 
for  Ireland. 

Similar  naval  preparations  and  military 
movements  were  on  foot  in  England  in  the 
winter  of  1802.  In  the  spring  of  1803, 
volunteering  in  England  and  the  raising  of 
yeomany  corps  in  Ireland,  were  matters  of 
public  notoriety. 

In  fact,  the  English  Government  was  re- 
solved never  to  give  up  the  island  of  St. 
Malta  ;  and  as  this  was  a  vital  article  of 
the  treaty  in  the  eyes  of  Buonaparte,  it  was 
evident  tliat  war  must  again  break  out. 
Lord  Whitwortb  was  sent  over  as  Minister  to 
France  ;  and  from  his  dispatches  to  Lon- 
don, and  tho.'-.e  of  Lord  Hawkesbury  in  reply, 
it  is  easy  to  discover  what  were  tlie  true  ob- 
stacles to  the  real  establishment  of  peace. 

Buonaparte,  in  a  conference  with  Lord 
Wliitworth,  communicated  to  the  British 
Government,  21st  February,  1803,  reiter- 
ated his  complaints  agiirist  the  Britisli  Gov- 
ernment in  reference  to  the  retention  of 
Malta,  in  dii'ect  violation  of  the  terms  of 


416 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


the  treaty.  He  said  :  "  Of  the  two,  he 
would  rather  see  us  (the  English)  in  pos- 
session of  the  Faubourg  St.  Antoine  than  of 
Malta."  .  .  .  He  complained  of  the 
protection  given  in  England  to  the  assassin 
Georges,  handsomely  pensioned,  and  of  his 
plans  being  permitted  to  be  curried  into  ef- 
fect in  France,  and  of  two  of  his  fellow-agents 
being  sent  into  France  by  the  emigres  to  as- 
sassinate him  (Buonaparte)  and  being  then 
in  custody.  The  two  men,  he  referred  to, 
were  subsequently  tried,  and  convicted  of 
the  ci'ime  they  were  charged  with  on  their 
own  confessions. 

lu  regard  to  the  abuse  lailnched  on  Buo- 
naparte in  the  English  papers  and  French 
emigrant  journals,  published  in  London,  he 
(the  First  Consul)  said  to  Lord  Whit- 
worth  :  "  Tlie  irritation  he  felt  against 
England  increased  daily,  because  every 
wind  which  blew,  from  England  brougiit 
notliiiig  but  enmity  and  hatred  against  him." 
Lord  Hawkesbury,  in  reply  to  Lord  Whit- 
wortli's  communication,  18th  February, 
1803,  made  the  following  admission,  for  tiie 
first  time  explicitly  and  plainly  expressed  : 
"  With  regard  to  that  article  of  the  treaty 
which  relates  to  Malta,  the  stipulations  con- 
tained in  it,  owing  to  circumstances  which 
it  was  not  in  the  power  of  His  Majesty  to 
control,  had  not  been  found  capable  of 
execution."' 

In  Lord  Whitworth's  communication  (dat- 
ed February  21,  1803,)  to  Lord  Hawkesbury, 
an  account  is  given  of  an  interview  with 
Buonaparte,  when  the  latter,  in  reference  to 
the  proofs  he  had  given  of  a  desire  to  main- 
tain peace,  said  he  wished  to  know  what  he 
had  to  gain  by  going  to  war  with  Eng- 
land. A  descent  was  the  only  means  of  of- 
fence he  had,  and  if  determined  to  attempt 
one,  it  must  be  made  by  putting  himself  at 
the  head  of  an  expedition.  But  how  could 
it  be  supposed  that,  after  having  gained 
the  height  on  which  he  stood,  he  would 
risk  his  life  and  reputation  in  such  a  haz- 
ardous attempt,  unless  forced  to  it  by 
necessity,  when  the  chances  were,  that  he 
and  the  greatest  part  of  the  expedition  would 
go  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  He  talked  much 
on  the  subject,  but  never  affected  to  di- 
minish the  danger.  He  acknowledged  there 
were  a  hundred  chances  to  one  against  him  ; 


but  still  he  was  determined  to  attempt  it,  if 
war  ,  should  be  the  consequence  of  the 
present  discussion  ;  and,  such  was  the  dis- 
position of  the  troops,  that  army  after 
army  would  be  fonnd  for  the  enterprise.  He 
concluded  by  stating,  that  France,  with  au 
army  of  four  hundred  and  eighty  thousand 
men,  to  be  immediately  completed,  was 
ready  for  the  most  desperate  enterprise  ; 
that  England,  with  her  fleet,  was  mistress  of 
the  seas,  which  he  did  not  think  he  should 
be  able  to  equal  in  ten  years.  Two  such 
countries,  by  a  proper  understanding,  might 
govern  the  world,  but  by  their  strifes  might 
overturn  it 

On  the  9th  of  March,  1803,  a  message 
from  the  King  was  delivered  to  the  Parlia- 
ment, wherein  His  Mnjesty  "  thinks  it 
necessary  to  acquaint  the  House  of  Com- 
mons that,  as  very  considerable  military 
preparations  were  carrying  on  in  the  ports  of 
France  and  Holland,  he  had  judged  it  expe- 
dient to  adopt  additional  measures  of  pre- 
caution for  the  security  of  his  dominions." 

Lord  Wliitworth,  in  March,  by  the  in- 
structions of  his  Government,  demanded  an 
explanation  of  the  motives  and  objects  of 
the  warlike  preparations  in  the  French 
ports,  and  the  reply  (not  ofiBcial)  of  M. 
Talleyrand,  was  said  to  have  been  short  and 
not  satisfactory  :  "  It  was  the  will  of  the 
First  Consul."  Buonaparte,  on  the  other 
hand,  on  the  11th  of  March,  at  a  levee  at 
the  Tuilleries,  attended  by  the  different  am- 
bassadors and  a  great  number  of  distin- 
guished persons,  on  entering  the  grand  .sa- 
loon seemed  violently  agitated,  and  appeared 
to  be  conversing  with  his  attendants,  or 
rather  thinking  aloud,  for  the  following- 
words,  pronounced  in  a  very  audible  voice, 
were  heard  by  all  the  persons  in  the  audi- 
ence chamber  :  "  Vengeance  will  fall  on 
that  power  which  will  be  the  cause  of  the 
war."  He  approached  the  British  Ambas- 
sador, Lord  Whitworth,  and  said  :  "  You 
know,  my  lord,  that  a  terrible  storm  has 
arisen  between  England  and  France."  Lord 
Whitworth  said  it  was  to  be  hoped  that  this 
storm  would  be  dissipated  without  any  seri- 
ous consequences.  Buonaparte  replied  :  "It 
will  be  dissipated  when  England  shall  have 
evacuated  Malta  ;  if  not,  the  cloud  would 
burst  and  the  bolt  must  fall.     The  King  of 


naST   YKAR    OF   THE    UNION. 


41' 


England  had  promised  by  treaty  to  evacuate 
that  place — and  who  was  to  viuhite  the  faith 
of  treaties  ?  " 

All  this  while,  Mr.  Pitt  was  out  of  office  ; 
and  it  was  given  out  that  his  health  was  so 
shattered  as  to  render  him  quite  incapable 
of  the  cares  and  labors  of  public  business  ; 
yet.  in  reality,  while  the  London  Chronicle 
was  officially  announcing  his  great  snflVr- 
ings,  Mr.  Pitt  had  never  been  so  intensely 
and  inderatigal)ly  occupied  with  state  affairs 
as  he  was  at  the  very  time  of  these  negotia- 
tions.* There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt 
that  he  directed  and  governed  them  from 
point  to  point. 

On  the  10th  of  May,  the  Court  of  London 
presented  certain  new  projects  plainly  inad- 
missible ;  making  further  demands  on 
France,  and  saying  nothing  of  tiie  surrender 
of  Malta.  The  new  conditions  being  re- 
jected. Lord  Whitworth  demanded  his  pass- 
ports, in  order  to  quit  the  country. 

On  t!ie  15th  of  May,  1803,  His  Britannic 
Majesty  sent  a  message  to  Parliament,  an- 
nouncing the  recall  of  the  British  Ambas- 
sador from  Paris,  and  the  departure  of  the 
French  Ambassador  from  London.  The 
dcclai'ation  of  hostilities  with  France  was 
published  in  The  Gazette,  of  18th  May,  1803. 

Mr.  Pitt's  health  was  immediately  re- 
stored. On  the  23d  of  May,  there  was  an 
animated  debate  in  the  House  on  an  address 
to  the  King,  pledging  the  House  to  support 
him  in  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war. 
On  that  night,  the  night  of  the  debate  of  the 
'2od  of  May,  Mr.  Pitt  was  found  in  his  place 
in  Parliament,  and  it  is  hardly  necessary  to 
add,  that  his  "  voice  was  still  for  war." 
I'erhaps,  greater  vigor  of  mind  or  body  was 
never  exhibited  by  him  than  on  that  occa- 
sion. The  ex-Minister  was  Ijimself  again — 
V7ar  was  about  to  be  let  loose  on  the  world, 
and  all  the  principles  of  evil  seemed  coticen- 
trated  in  the  unholy  exultation  with  which 
the  prospect  of  war  was  hailed  on  that 
occasion.  Li  the  heat  of  his  passion,  he 
reviled  Buonaparte  in  the  most  vehement 
terms  of  invective  ;  he  s{»oke  of  the  First 
Consul  as  "  a  sea  of  liquid  fire,  which 
destroyed    everything  which    was    unfortu- 

*  Doctor  Madden    ( U.   2.  Third  Series,  p.  310,) 
makes  this  Htateraent  on  the  authority  of  Lad)'  Hes- 
ter Staahope,  Mr.  Pitt'a  niece  and  private  secretary. 
i>6 


nate  enough  to  come  in  contact  with 
it."  It  then  only  remained  for  honor- 
able members  to  express  a  hope  that  "  tlie 
only  man  in  the  empire  qualified  to  conduct 
the  war  to  a  successful  issue  "  should  be  re- 
called to  the  Councils  of  his  Sovereign. 

Mr.  Pitt  resumed  in  May,  1804,  the  su- 
preme direction  of  public  affairs  as  Prime 
Minister.  He  made  no  stipulation  with  the 
King  concerning  the  Catholic  claims  ;  nor 
did  lie  ever  again  offend  his  Sovereign's  'ear 
upon  this  subject,  nor  urge  him  to  "violate 
his  coronation  oath  "  by  emancipating  four 
millions  of  his  subjects. 

Mr.  Pitt's  first  great  task  now  was  to 
form  that  gigantic  coalition  of  European 
Powers  against  France  ;  and  occupied  by 
these  mighty  projects  he  thought  no  more  of 
Ireland  unless  when  she  seemed  to  need 
more  coercion. 


CHAPTER    XLIY. 

1802—1803. 

First  Year  of  the  Union — Distress  in  Ireland— Eiot  in 
Dublin — Irisli  Exiles  in  France — Renewed  Hopes  of 
French  Aid — The  two  Emmets,  MacNeven  and 
O'Connor  in  France^Apprehensions  of  Invasion  in 
England- Robert  Emmet  comes  from  France  to 
Ireland — His  Associates — His  Plans — Miles  Byrne — 
Despard's  Conspiracy  in  England — Emmet's  Prepa- 
rations—E.xplosion  in  Patrick  Street — The  23d  of 
July— Failure — Bloody  Riot — Murder  of  Lord  Kil- 
warden — Emmet  sends  Miles  Byrne  to  France- 
Retires  to  Wicklow — Returns  to  Dublin— Arrested 
— Tried — Convicted — Hanged — Fate  of  Russell. 

The  first  year  of  the  Union  was,  for  Ire- 
land, a  year  of  severe  distress.  The  crops 
of  1801,  had  in  great  measure  failed  ;  and 
as  the  people  then  depended  or  snbsistance 
chiefly  upon  agriculture,  as  they  do  still,  the 
usual  results  ensued.  Hunger  and  hardship 
produced  discontent,  and  in  some  places  dis- 
order also.  The  fair  promises  of  immediate 
prosperity  which  was  to  have  followed  the 
Union,  were  not  realized.  Even  trade  and 
commerce  were  languishing.  Mr.  Foster, 
late  Speaker,  stated,  in  his  place  in  the  Im- 
perial Parliament,  that  in  I  SO  I,  the  decrease 
of  exported  linen  was  five  million  yards. 
The  taxes  were  increasing,  as  the  means  of 
paying  them  diminished  ;  for  Ireland  had 
now  to  provide  for  the  charges  of  that  im- 
mense debt  which  had  been  contracted  for 


418 


HISTORI   OP   IRELAND. 


Rlaui^hteriiig  her  people  and  purchasing  her 
Pailiainent.  Mr.  Foster,  in  the  same  speech 
iueuLioned — that,  although  it  had  been 
acknowledged  that  the  expenses  of  the 
current  year  would  be  considerably  less 
than  they  had  been  in  the  preceding  y«ar, 
yet  a  million  more  was  borrowed  for  the 
present  than  for  the  last  year.  The  infer- 
ence to  be  drawn  from  that  measure,  (for 
various  Union  purposes,)  was  too  obvious  to 
mention.  The  revenue  was  then  collected  at 
a  much  lighter  rate  of  expense,  than  it  had 
been  in  1182,  when  it  was  at  £11  125.  id. 
per  cent.  The  revenues  of  the  Post  Office 
were,  at  the  time  be  was  speaking,  collected 
at  the  enormous  expenditure  of  .£224  per 
cent.  In  ISOO,  the  amount  of  grants, 
pensions,  <tc.,  on  that  score,  was  £34,000  ; 
in  1802,  £51,000  ;  and  this  is  what  he 
called  "a  falling  year."  Then  the  Catholics, 
whose  eyes  were  at  length  opened  to  the 
gross  deception  of  which  they  had  been 
victims,  felt  sore  and  disappointed  ;  es- 
pecially as  the  persecuting  Orange  Societies 
were  now  greatly  multiplied,  and  became 
each  day,  by  direct  encouragement  of  the 
Government  and  of  a  Royal  Duke,  more 
insolent  and  aggressive.  A  serious  riot 
took  place  in  Dublin.  The  anniversary  com- 
memoration of  the  battle  of  Aughrim,  on 
the  12th  of  July,  was  iu  1802  solemnized 
with  more  than  ordinary  pomp.  The  statue 
of  King  William,  in  College  Green,  was  most 
superbly  decorated  with  orange  colors,  and 
several  corps  of  yeomaury  paraded  round  it 
in  the  course  of  the  day.  In  the  evening, 
the  conduct  of  the  yeomanry,  aud  the  spirit 
of  this  ill-judged  and  mischievous  commemo- 
ration, so  worked  on  the  popular  feelings, 
that  the  most  serious  consequences  were  ap- 
prehended. Mr.  Alderman  Stamer,  failed 
in  his  endeavors  to  prevent  outrages  ;  some 
yeomen  were  beaten  to  the  ground.  Major 
8 wan  vvai  knocked  down  aud  severely  wouud- 
ed  :  nor  was  the  mob  dispersed,  until 
Alderman  Darley  arrived  with  a  large  party 
of  the  Castle  guard.  Some  of  the  populace 
were  taken  and  severely  punished.  At- 
tempts were  made  to  raise  this  expression  of 
popular  soreness  into  a  general  spirit  of  dis- 
affection, and  a  renovation  of  rebellion. 
Kothing,  however,  could  be  certainly  traced 
beyond    the   temp(;rary  and   local   outrage 


upon  the  popular  feeling,  from  this  senseless 
annual  ovation  of  the  Ascendancy,  lately 
rendered  more  poignantly  provoking  by  the 
ferocity  and  growing  power  of  the  Orange 
societies. 

On  the  whole,  therefore,  when  the  insidi- 
ous negotiations  of  the  English  Govern- 
ment, preparatory  to  the  violation  of  the 
treaty  of  Amiens,  were  going  forward  in 
London  and  Paris,  the  mass  of  the  Irish 
people  was  still  thorouglily  disaffected  ;  and 
persoiis  connected  with  the  Government  were 
of  opinion  that,  inmied lately  on  the  fresh 
outbreak  of  war  with  France,  a  new  French 
expedition,  and  on  a  larger  scale  than  that 
of  Hoche,  would  be  dispatched  to  Ireland  ; 
iu  which  case  there  was  no  doubt  of  a  gen- 
eral rising  iu  the  island. 

The  two  Emmets,  O'Connor,  and  many 
other  Irish  exiles,  were  then  on  the  Conti- 
nent ;  and  were  in  communication  with  the 
First  Consul,  provisionally,  with  a  view  to 
future  operations  in  case  of  the  renewal  of 
the  war,  which  then  seemed  higlily  probable. 
Robert  Emmet  was  then  about  twenty-four 
years  of  age.  He  had  seen  the  atrocities  of 
'98,  the  frauds  and  villanies  by  which  the 
Union  was  accomplished  :  he  saw  his  un- 
liappy  country  still  groaning  under  martial 
law — the  great  majority  of  his  compatriots 
shut  out  from  the  Constitution,  and  by 
means  of  packed  juries  and  Orange  mag- 
istrates effectually  deprived  of  the  protectiou 
of  law.  His  ardent  spirit  burned  to  re- 
dress these  wrongs,  and  to  do  at  least  what 
one  man  might,  to  rouse  the  people  for  one 
more  manly  effort.  The  purity  aud  elevation 
of  his  motives  have  never  been  questioned, 
even  by  his  enemies.  What  he  desired  and 
longed  for  with  all  the  intensity  of  his  pas- 
sionate nature,  was  simply  to  see  his  people 
invested  with  the  ordinary  civil  right  of 
human  beings,  leading  peaceful  and  honor- 
able lives  under  the  protecting  shelter  of  a 
native  Legislature,  aud  having  a  law  over 
them  which  they  might  reverence  and  obey, 
not  curse  aud  abhor.* 

*  Lord  Castlereagh,  a  young  man  like  Robert 
Emmet,  but  more  "  prudent,"  thus  describes  Emmet 
aud  his  insurrection,  after  the  danger  was  over,  in  a 
speech  in  Parliament:  "  In  place  of  a  formidable  con- 
spiracj'  fraught  with  danger  to  the  existing  (iovern- 
meut,  it  was  only  tlie  wild  and  contemptible  project 
of  Mr.  Emmet,  u  young  man,  of  a  luxated  and  enthu- 


THE   TWO   EMMETS,  MAC   NEVEN,    AND   O  CONNER,    IN    DUBLIN. 


419 


Robert  Emmet  passed  several  months  of 
the  years  1800  and  1801  on  the  Continent 
and  Peninsula,  the  greater  part  of  that  time 
on  the  tour  in  which  he  visited  the  south  of 
France,  Switzerland,  and  some  parts  of 
Spain.  On  his  return  from  this  tonr,  he 
visited  Amsterdam  and  Brussels,  where  his 
brother,  T.  A.  Emmet,  had  been  sojourning 
since  his  liberation  from  Fort  George,  and 
banishment,  in  June,  1802. 

It  was  impossible  for  Irishmen  to  be  in 
France  or  Belgium  in  that  year  without 
perceiving  the  evident  symptoms  of  a  new 
and  formidable  struggle  approaching.  The 
English  Minister  had  already  refused  to  give 
up  Malta ;  and  formidable  military  and 
naval  preparations  were  rapidly  advancing 
both  in  France  and  in  England.  Equally 
impossible  was  it  for  the  exiled  United  Irish- 
men not  to  turn  with  anxious  hope  to  this 
new  conjuncture  of  affairs.  Doctor  Mac- 
K'even  was  then  in  France,  as  well  as  Tone's 
friend  Thomas  Russell.  With  whom  the  idea 
originated  of  entering  upon  a  negotiation 
with  the  French  Government  does  not  seem 
clear  ;  but  certain  it  is  that  Robert  Emmet, 
in  tiie  summer  of  1802,  had  interviews  both 
with  Buonaparte  and  Talleyrand. 

His  design 'was,  then,  based  on  the  ex- 
pectation of  a  speedy  rupture  of  the  amica- 
ble relations  between  Great  Britain  and 
France,  on  a  knowledge  of  extensive  naval 
preparations  in  the  northern  seaports  of 
France,  and  the  impression  left  on  his  mind, 
by  his  interview  with  Buonaparte,  and  his 
frequent  communications  with  Talleyrand, 
that  those  preparations  were  for  an  invasion 
of  England,  which  was  likely  to  be  at- 
tempted in  August,  1808  ;  on  the  knowledge, 
communicated  to  him  by  Dowdall,  of  a  move- 
ment being  determined  on  by  the  Secret 
Society   of    England,    with   which   Colonel 

siastic  imagmation,  who  inheriting  a  property  of 
£3,000  from  his  fatlier,  which  was  entirely  at  his  own 
disposal,  though  he  could  not  dispose  of  it  to  more 
advantage,  than  in  an  attempt  to  overturn  the  Gov- 
ernment of  his  country." 

What  a  contrast  between  these  two  Irishmen  ! 
Castlereagh  certainly  was  not  of  "  a  heated  and  en- 
thusiastic imagination."  He  did  not  invest  his  patri- 
mony in  pikes.  The  one  sold  his  country  to  her 
enemies,  and  was  laden  with  riches  and  honors. 
The  other,  who  spent  all  he  possessed,  in  an  effort  to 
redeem  that  country,  perished  on  a  gibbet,  and  the 
dogi  of  Thomas  street  lapped  his  blood. 


Despard  was  connected  ;  on  the  assurance 
of  support  and  pecuniary  assistance  from 
very  influential  persons  in  Ireland  ;  and, 
lastly,  on  the  concurrence  of  several  of  the 
Irish  leaders  in  Paris. 

The  late  Lord  Cloncnrry  informed  Doctor 
Madden  that  he  dined  in  company  with 
Robert  Emmet  and  Surgeon  Lawless,  the 
day  before  the  departure  of  the  former  for 
Ireland.  "  Emmet  spoke  of  his  plans  with 
extreme  enthusiasm  ;  his  features  glowed 
with  excitement,  the  perspiration  burst 
through  the  pores,  and  ran  down  his  fore- 
head." Lawless  was  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  his  intentions,  and  thought  favorably 
of  them  ;  but  Lord  Cloncnrry  considered  the 
plans  impracticable,  and  was  opposed  to 
them.  Doctor  MacNeven,  Hugh  Wilscoji, 
Russell,  Byrne,  William  and  Thomas  Corbett, 
Hamilton,  and  Sweeney,  were  intimate  and 
confidential  friend  of  Robert  Emmet,  as 
well  as  of  his  brother — several  of  them, 
there  is  positive  proof,  concurred  in  the  at- 
tempt. All  of  them,  it  may  be  suppo.sed, 
were  cognizant  of  it.  All  their  surviving 
friends  are  agreed  on  one  point,  that  the 
project  did  not  .originate  with  Robert 
Emmet. 

The  letters  of  T.  A.  Emmet,  at  this  period, 
establish  the  fact  that,  in  the  autumn  and 
winter  of  1802,  the  leading  United  Irish- 
men then  on  the  Continent,  in  the  event  of 
a  rupture  between  France  and  England, 
were  bent  on  renewing  their  eflforts,  and  that 
they  looked  upon  the  struggle  in  Ireland  as 
suspended,  but  not  relinquished. 

That  this  also  was  the  opinion  of  ti>e 
English  Government,  is  equally  certain. 
A.fter  the  declaration  of  war,  a  number  of 
intercepted  letters,  found  on  board  the  East 
Indiaman,  Admiral  Aplin,  captured  by  the 
French,  and  published  in  the  Monif.eur,  by 
the  Government,  afford  abundant  proof  of 
the  panic  which  prevailed  in  England,  and 
of  the  expectation  of  invasion  that  was 
general  at  that  period.  Very  serious  ap- 
prehensions were  expressed  in  those  letters 
of  the  results  of  an  invasion  in  Ireland  It 
was  stated,  in  a  letter  of  Lord  Chai-les  Ben- 
linckto  his  brother,  Lord  William  Bentinck, 
Governor  of  Madras:  "If  Ireland  be  not 
attended  to,  it  will  be  lost  ;  these  rascals, 
(^an   endearhig,  familiar,  geutlcraanlike-way 


420 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


of  describing  the  people  of  Ireland,)  "  are  as 
ripe  as  ever  for  rebellion." 

In  an  extract  of  a  letter  to  General  Clin- 
ton, of  the  2d  of  June,  we  find  the  follow- 
ing passage  :  "  I  have  learned  from  them, 
(Irish  people  in  England,)  with  regret,  that 
the  lower  classes  of  the  men  in  Ireland  were 
more  disaffected  than  ever,  even  more  than 
during  the  last  rebellion,  and  that  if  the 
French  could  escape  from  our  fleet,  and 
land  their  troops  in  the  north  of  Ireland, 
they  would  be  received  with  satisfaction, 
and  joined  by  a  great  number." 

In  a  letter  of  Lord  Grenville  to  the  Mar- 
quis of  Wellesley,  dated  the  12th  of  July, 
1803,  we  find  the  following  passage  :  "I 
am  not  certain  whether  the  event  of  the 
war,  which  our  wise  Ministers  have  at  last 
declared,  may  not  have  induced  them  to  beg 
you  to  continue  your  stay  in  India  some  time 
longer.  I  hope  nothing,  however,  will  pre- 
vent me  from  having  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
you  next  year,  supposing  at  that  period  that 
you  have  still  a  country  to  revisit." 

Letter  from  Mr.  Finers  to  General  Lake, 
July  14th  :  "  The  invasion,  which  has  been 
so  long  the  favorite  project  of  the  First  Con- 
sul, will  certainly  take  place." 

Letter  from  one  of  the  Directors  of  the 
East  India  Company,  Thomas  Faulder,  to 
Mr.  J.  Ferguson  Smith,  Calcutta,  August 
3d  :  "I  have  heard  from  the  first  authority, 
that  if  the  French  can  land  in  Ireland  with 
some  troops,  they  will  be  immediately  joined 
by  one  hundred  thousand  Irish."  * 

Robert  Emmet  set  out  for  Ireland  in  the 
beginning  of  October,  1802,  and  arrived  in 
Dublin  in  the  course  of  the  same  month. 
His  brother,  Thomas  Addis,  was  then  in 
Brussels.  His  father,  the  worthy  Doctor 
Emmet,  and  his  mother  were  then  residing 
at  Casino,  near  Milltown  ;  and  here  Robert 
remained  some  weeks  in  seclusion.  Gradu- 
ally and  cautiously  he  put  himself  in  com- 
munication with  those  whom  he  knew  to  be 
favorable  to  his  enterprise — especially  the  old 
United  Irishmen  of  '98.  The  principal  per- 
sons concerned  with  him  were — Thomas  Rus- 
sell, formerly  Lieutenant  of  the  Sixty  fourth 
Regiment  of  footj  John  Allen,  of  the  firm 
of  Allen  &  HicksoD,  woolen-drapers.  Dame 

•  The  above  extracts  are  given  by  Dr.  Madden. — 
U.  I.     Third  Series,  p.  315. 


street,  Dublin  ;  Philip  Long,  a  general  raer« 
chant;  residing  at  No.  4  Crow  street ;  Henry 
William  Hamilton,  (married  to  Russell's 
niece,)  of  Enniskillen,  barrister-at-law  ;  Wil- 
liam Dowdall,  of  Mullingar,  (natural  soa 
of  Hussey  Burgh,  (formerly  Secretary  to  the 
Dublin  Whig  Club  ;)  Miles  Byrne,  of  Wex- 
ford ;  Colonel  Lumm,  of  the  County  Kil- 

dare  ;  Carthy,   a   gentleman   farmer, 

of  Kildare  ;  Malachy  Delany,  the  son  of  a 
landed  proprietor.  County  Wicklow  ;  the 
Messrs.  Perrot,  farmers.  County  Kildare  ; 
Thomas  Wylde,  cotton  manufacturer,  Cork 
street ;  Thomas  Lenahan,  a  farmer,  of  Crew 
Hill,  County  Kildare  ;  John  Hevey,  a  tobac- 
conist, of  Thomas  street  ;    Denis  Lambert 

Redmond,  a  coal  factor,  of  Dublin  ;  

Branagan,  of  Irishtown,  timber  merchant  ; 
Joseph  Aliburn,  of  Kilmacud,  Windy  Har- 
bor, a  small  landholder  ;  Thomas  Frayne, 
a  farmer,  of  Boven,  County  of  Kildare  ; 
Nicholas  Gray,  of  Wexford. f 

Some  other  persons  of  more  humble  rank, 
tradesmen,  whose  services  would  be  required 
in  the  preparations,  are  enumerated  by  Doctur 
Madden  :  James  Hope,  of  County  Antrim  ; 
Michael  Quigley,  a  master  bricklayer,  of 
Rathcoffy,  in  the  County  Kildare  ;  Henry 
Howley,  a  master  carpenter,  who  had  been 
engaged  in  the  former  rebellion  ;  Felix 
Rourke,  of  Rathcoole,  a  clerk  in  a  brewery 
in  Dublin,  who  had  been  engaged  in  the 
former  rebellion  ;  Nicholas  Stafford,  a  baker, 
of  James  street ;  Bernard  Duggan,  a  work- 
ing cotton  manufacturer,  of  the  County 
Tyrone,  who  had  been  engaged  in  the  for- 
mer rebellion ;  Michael  Dwyer,  the  well- 
known  Wicklow  insurgent,  who,  along  with 
Holt  and  Miles  Byrne,  had  kept  up  their 
resistance  amidst  the  glens  and  mountains 
of  Wicklow. 

The  plan  of  Robert  Emmet's  insurrection 
was,  while  agents  were  quietly  organizing 
both  the  city  and  county,  to  make  secret 
preparations  in  the  city  of  Dublin  itself ; — 
then,  when  all  was  ready,  to  make  one 
spring  at  the  Castle,  to  seize  upon  the 
authorities,  and  give  the  signal  for  a  general 
insurrec'.ion  from  Dublin  Castle.  There  is 
good  military  auiliority  for  approving  this 

t  Dr  Madden  adds  the  names  of  Lord  Wycombe 
and  John  Keogh,  as  favorable  to  the  enterprise,  not 
actually  concerned  in  it. 


BOBERT   EMMET   COMES   FROM   FRANCE   TO    IRELAND. 


421 


plan  of  a  rising  iu  Ireland  ;  and  it  certainly 
iniglit  well  have  succeeded,  but  for  one  fatal 
accident.  The  gallant  Miles  Byrne,  after 
many  a  campaign,  as  a  French  officer,  in 
every  quarter  of  Europe,  deliberately,  in  his 
latter  days,  avowed  his  preference  for  Em- 
met's scheme  to  every  other  that  could  be 
devised  in  the  circumstances  of  Ireland. 
lie  says,  in  closing  his  owu  nartative  of  that 
part  of  his  career  : — 

"  I  shall  ever  feel  proud  of  the  part  I 
took  with  the  lamented  Robert  Emmet.  I 
have  often  asked  myself,  how  could  I  have 
acted  otherwise,  seeing  all  his  views  and 
plans  for  the  independence  of  my  country 
so  much  superior  to  anything  ever  imagined 
before  on  the  subject?  They  were  only 
frustrated  by  accident,  and  the  explosion  of 
a  depot,  and,  as  I  have  always  said,  when- 
ever Irishmen  think  of  obtaining  freedom, 
Robert  Emmet's  plans  will  be  their  best 
guide.  First,  to  take  the  capital,  and  then 
the  provinces  will  burst  out  and  raise  the 
same  standard  immediately."  * 

Miles  Byrne  himself,  after  being  much 
sought  after  by  the  Government,  on  account 
of  his  part  in  the  Wexford  insurrection,  and 
after  many  escapes,  was,  in  1^02,  under  a 
feigned  name^  employing  himself  as  a  mea- 
surer of  timber,  in  the  timber-yard  of  his 
step-brother,  Kennedy  ;  but  still  keeping  up 
his  connections  with  the  remrumt  of  Wex- 
ford rebels,  and  hoping  for  better  times. 
Here,  while  he  was  one  day  measuring  logs, 
news  came  of  the  Peace  of  Amiens.  "  I 
felt,"  he  says,  "  unnerved  and  disappointed 
at  the  news  of  the  peace.  I  had  been  liv- 
ing iu  hopes  that  ere  the  war  terminated, 
something  good  would  be  done  for  poor 
Ireland." 

Soon  after  the  arrival  of  Robert  Emmet, 
we  find  him  in  close  communication  with 
Mr.  Byrne. 

In  reporting  their  first  conversation,  Mr. 
Byrne  gives  his  unimpeachable  testimony 
with  regard  to  the  real  views  of  Emmet, 
and  his  motives  for  engaging  in  the  enter- 
prise, and  his  anxious  care  to  avcjid  French 
domination  as  well  as  to  abolish  that  of 
England,     The  Memoir  says  : — 

"Mr,  Emmet  soon  told  rae  his  plans;  he 

*  Memoirs  of  Miles  Byrne.    Paris. 


said  he  wished  to  be  acquainted  with  all 
those  who  had  escaped  in  the  war  of '98,  and 
who  continued  still  to  enjoy  the  conlidencre 
of  the  people  ;  that  he  had  been  inquiring 
since  his  return,  and  even  at  Paris  ;  he 
was  pleased  to  add  that  he  had  heard  my 
name  mentioned  amongst  them,  &c.  lie 
entered  into  many  details  of  what  Ireland 
had  to  expect  from  France,  in  the  way  of 
assistance,  now  that  that  country  was  so 
energetically  governed  by  the  First  Consul, 
Buonaparte,  who  feared  (he,  Buonaparte,) 
that  the  Irish  people  might  be  changed,  and 
careless  about  their  independence,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  union  with  England.  It  be- 
came ohvious,  therefore,  that  this  impression 
should  be  removed  as  soon  as  possible.  Ro- 
bert Emmet  told  me  the  station  his  brother 
held  in  Paris,  and  that  the  different  mem- 
bers of  the  Government  there  frequently 
consulted  him  ;  all  of  them  were  of  opinion 
that  a  demonstration  should  be  made  by  the 
Irish  patriots  to  prove  that  they  were  as 
ready  as  ever  to  shake  off  the  English  yoke. 
To  which  Mr.  Thomas  Addis  Emmet  re- 
plied, it  would  be  cruel  to  commit  the  poor 
Irish  people  again,  and  to  drive  them  into 
another  rebellion  before  they  received  assist- 
ance from  France,  but  at  the  same  time,  he 
could  assure  the  French  Governmeut,  that  a 
secret  organization  was  then  going  on 
throughout  Ireland,  but  more  particularly 
in  the  city  of  Dublin,  where  large  depots 
of  arms,  and  of  every  kind  of  ammunition 
were  preparing  with  the  greatest  secrecy, 
as  none  but  the  tried  men  of  1198  were 
intrusted  with  the  management  of  those 
stores  and  depots. 

"  After  giving  me  this  explanation,  Mr. 
Robert  Emmet  added,  '  if  the  brave  and 
unfortunate  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  and 
his  associates  felt  themselves  justified  in 
seeking  to  redress  Ireland's  grievances  by 
taking  the  field,  what  must  not  be  our  just- 
ification, now  that  not  a  vestige  of  self- 
government  exists,  in  consequence  of  t4ie 
accursed  Union  ;  that  until  this  most  bar- 
barous, fraudulent  transaction  took  place, 
from  time  to  time,  in  spite  of  corruption,  use- 
ful local  laws  were  enacted  for  Ireland. 
Now,  seven-eighths  of  the  population  have 
no  right  to  send  a  member  of  their  body  to 
represent   them,   even  in  a  foreign   parlies 


i22 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


rnent,  and  the  other  ei<j;hth  part  of  the  popu- 
lation are  the  tools  and  task-masters,  aciitig- 
for  the  cruel  English  Government  and  its 
Irish  Ascendancy  ; — a  monster  still  worse,  if 
possible,  than  foreign  tyranny.' 

"  Mr.  Emmet  mentioned  again  the  prom- 
ises obtained  from  the  chief  of  the  French 
Government,  given  to  himself,  his  brother, 
and  other  leaders,  that,  in  the  event  of  a 
French  army  landing  in  Ireland,  it  should 
be  considered  as  an  auxiliary  one,  and  re- 
ceived on  the  same  principle  as  General  Ro- 
chambeau  and  his  army  were  received  by 
the  American  people,  when  lighting  for  their 
independence.  He  added  :  '  that  though 
no  one  could  abhor  more  than  he  did  the 
means  by  which  the  First  Consul  came  to 
be  at  the  head  of  the  French  nation,  still  he 
was  convinced,  that  this  great  military  chief 
would  find  it  his  interest  to  deal  fairly  by  the 
Irish  nation,  as  the  best  and  surest  way  to 
obtain  his  ends  with  England  ;  he,  therefore, 
thought  the  country  should  be  onganized 
and  prepared  for  those  great  events,  wliicli 
were  now  inevitable.  That,  as  for  himself, 
he  was  resolved  to  risk  his  life,  and  to  stake 
the  little  fortune  he  possessed,  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  those  preparations  so  necessary 
for  the  redemption  of  our  unfortunate  coun- 
try from  the  hands  of  a  cruel  enemy.'" 

It  was  while  Mr.  Emmet  was  making  his 
preparations  in  Dublin,  that  an  English  rev- 
olutionary conspiracy  was  detected  and 
broken  up  in  London.  A  certain  Colonel 
Despard  and  thirty  other  persons  were  ar- 
rested, on  a  charge  of  high  treason,  at  a 
public  house  in  Lambeth,  the  15th  of  No- 
vember, 1802.  By  some  of  the  witnesses,  it 
appeared  that  Government  was  cognizant  of 
the  treasonable  proceedings  of  Despard  and 
his  associates  six  months  previous  to  their 
arrest ;  that  spies  were  set  on  them,  and 
tiuggested  acts  in  some  cases  to  them  which 
were  adopted  ;  that  they  had  printed  pages 
to  the  following  effect  :  "  Constitution,  the 
independence  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  ; 
an  equalization  of  civil,  political,  and  reli- 
gious rights  ;  an  ample  provision  for  the 
families  of  the  heroes  who  shall  fall  in  the 
contest ;  a  liberal  reward  for  distinguished 
merit.  These  are  the  objects  for  which  we 
contend.  We  swear  to  be  united  in  the 
ttwful  presence  of  God." 


February  1,  1803,  Colonel  Despard  was 
tried  at  tlie  Surrey  Assizes,  before  Lord 
EUenborougii,  on  a  charge  of  high  treason, 
conspiring  to  assassinate  the  King,  &c.  Of 
this  last  charge  there  was  no  evidence,  but 
it  plainly  appeared  that  Despard,  as  well  as 
Robert  Emmet,  had  been  encouraged  to 
make  his  attempt  by  the  French  Govern- 
ment ;  which  very  naturally  desired  to  cre- 
ate for  the  English  Government  as  much 
embarrassment  as  possible  at  home.  Des- 
paid  was  convicted  and  hung. 

In  the  meantime,  Emmet  was  quietly 
collecting  arms  and  forming  depots  of  them 
at  several  points  in  Dublin.  In  January, 
1803,  his  good  father.  Doctor  Robert  Em- 
met, died,  and  was  buried  in  the  churchyard 
of  St.  Peter's,  Aungier  street.  Robert 
could  not  even  attend  his  father's  funeral  ; 
because  his  presence  in  Dublin  was  intend- 
ed to  be  a  secret  ;  and  he  knew  there 
was  a  warrant  for  his  apprehension  in  the 
hands  of  Major  Sirr,  since  early  in  the  year 
1800.*  He  was  proceeding  actively  with 
his  preparations.  Miles  Byrne  and  others 
were  busy  in  getting  pikes,  pistols,  and 
blunderbusses,  manufactured  and  amrauui- 
tion  laid  in.  Emmet  invented  a  species  of 
explosive  machines,  consisting  of  beams  of 
wood  bored  by  a  pump  augur,  and  filled 
with  powder  and  small  stones,  intended  to 
be  exploded  in  the  face  of  advancing  troops 
at  tlie  moment  of  action.  Large  quantities 
of  pikes  were  forged  and  mounted,  and 
curried  from  their  places  of  manufacture  to 
the  depots  in  hollow  logs  prepared  for  tiieir 
reception,  and  which  were  drawn  through 
the  streets  like  ordinary  lumber. 

It  is  not  a  little  strange  that  the  Irish  Go>  • 
ernmeut,  usually  so  vigilant  and  suspicious, 
seems  to  have  had  no  knowledge  of  tliese  for- 
midable arrangement.  This  was  not  for  want 
of  warnings,  and  reports  of  spies  ;  but  the 
Government  did  not  believe  them.  And  it  is 
no  wonder  that  the  executive  was  so  incredu- 
lous^ because  there  had  not,  probably,  beea 
one  week,  for  the  past  half  century  when  the 
Government  had  not  received  some  alarming 
intelligence  of  tliis  nature.  Plainly,  also,  tlie 
information  was  not  so  precise  as  to  indicate 
persons  and  places  ;  so  that  no  interruption 

*  Madden  discovers  this  fact  in  "  Sirr's  Papers," 
deposited  in  Trimty  College  Library. 


EXPLOSION   IN   PATRICK   STREET. 


423 


was  given  to  the  arrangements  ;  and  the 
23d  of  July,  1803,  was  fixed  for  the  out- 
break. 

Before  that  day  arrived  a  circumstance 
occurred  which  threatened  to  ruin  all  : — 

On  *he  Saturday  night  week  previous  to 
the  turnout,  an  explos-ion  of  son;e  combusti- 
bles took  place  in  the  depot  of  Patrick 
street,  which  gave  some  alarm  in  the  neigh- 
borhood. Major  Sirr  came  to  examine  the 
house — previous  to  his  coming,  some  one 
removed  the  remaining  powder,  arms,  &c., 
and  all  matters  which  were  movable  in  the 
place,  notwithstanding  some  obstruction 
given  by  the  watchman.  Other  arms  were 
secreted  on  the  premises,  and  were  not  dis- 
covered until  some  time  afterwards.  It  was 
concluded  that  the  aflfair  was  only  some 
chemical  process,  which  bad  accidently 
caused  the  explosion. 

The  accident  does  not  seem  to  have  placed 
any  serious  obstacle  in  tlie  way  of  the  enter- 
prise.    Miles  Byrne  says  : — 

"  Now  the  final  plan  to  be  executed,  con- 
sisted principally  in  taking  the  Castle,  whilst 
the  Pigeon  House,  Island  Bridge,  the  Royal 
Barracks,  and  the  old  Custom  House  Bar- 
racks were  to  be  attacked,  and  if  not  sur- 
prised and  taken,  they  were  to  be  blockaded, 
and  intrenchments  thrown  up  before  them. 
Obstacles  of  every  kind  to  be  created 
through  the  streets,  to  prevent  tiie  English 
cavalry  from  charging.  Tiie  Castle  once 
taken,  undaunted  men,  materials,  implements 
of  every  description,  would  be  easily  found  in 
all  the  streets  in  the  city,  not  only  to  impede 
the  cavalry,  but  to  prevent  infantry  from 
passing  through  them. 

"  As  I  was  to  be  one  of  these  persons  de- 
signed to  cooperate  with  Robert  Emmet  in 
taking  the  Castle  of  Dublin,  I  shall  here  re- 
late precisely,  the  part  which  was  allotted  to 
me  in  this  daring  enterprise  :  I  was  to 
have  assembled  early  in  the  evening  of  Satur- 
day, the  23d  of  July,  1803,  at  the  house  of 
Denis  Lambert  Redmond,  on  the  Coal  Quay, 
the  Wexford  and  Wicklow  men,  to  whom  I 
was  to  distribute  pikes,  arms  and  ammunition, 
and  then  a  little  before  dusk,  I  was  to  send 
one  of  the  men,  well  known  to  Mr,  Emmet, 
to  toll  him  that  we  were  at  our  post, 
armed  and  ready  to  follow  him  ;  men  were 
placed  iu  the  house  in  Ship  street,  ready  \u 


seize  on  the  entrance  to  the  Castle  on  that 
side,  at  the  same  moment  the  princi[)al  gate 
would  be  taken. 

"Mr.  Emmet  was  to  leave  the  depot  at 
Thomas  street  at  dusk,  with  six  hackney 
coaches,  in  each  of  which,  six  men  were  to 
be  placed,  armed  with  jointed  pikes  and 
blunderbusses,  concealed  under  their  coats. 
The  moment  the  last  of  these  coaches  had 
passed  Redmond's  house  where  we  were  to  be 
assembled,  we  were  to  sally  forth  and  follow 
them  quickly  Into  the  Castle  courtyard, 
and  there  to  seize  and  disarm  all  the  sentries, 
and  to  replace  them  instantly  with  our  own 
men,  &c. 

Emmet,  after  the  explosion  iu  Patrick 
street,  took  up  his  abode  in  the  depot  in 
Marshalsea  lane.  There  he  lay  at  night  on 
a  mattrass,  surrounded  by  all  the  implements 
of  death,  devising  plans,  turning  over  in  his 
mind  all  the  fearful  chances  of  the  intended 
struggle,  well  knowing  that  his  life  was  at 
the  mercy  of  upwards  of  forty  individuals, 
who  had  been,  or  still  were  employed  in  the 
depots  ;  yet  confident  of  success,  exaggerat- 
ing its  prospects,  extenuating  the  difficulties 
which  beset  him,  judging  of  others  by  him- 
self, thinking  associates  honest  who  seemed 
to  be  so,  confiding  in  their  promises,  and 
animated,  or  rather  inflamed  by  a  burning 
sense  of  the  wrongs  of  his  country,  and  an 
enthusiasm  in  his  devotion  to  what  he  con- 
sidered its  rightful  cause 

The  morning  of  the  23d  of  July,  found 
Emmet  and  the  leaders  in  whom  he  confided 
not  of  one  mind  ;  there  was  division  in  their 
councils,  confusion  in  the  depots,  consterna- 
tion among  the  citizens  who  were  cognizant 
of  what  was  going  on,  and  treachery  track- 
ing Robert  Emmet's  footsteps,  dogging  him  ■ 
from  place  to  place,  unseen,  unsuspected, 
but  perfidy  nevertheless,  embodied  in  the 
form  of  patriotism,  employed  in  deluding  its 
victim,  making  the  most  of  its  foul  means  of 
betraying  its  unwary  victims,  and  counting 
already  on  the  ultimate  rewards  of  its 
treachery.  Portion  after  portion  of  each 
plan  of  Robert  Emmet  was  defeated,  as  he 
imagined,  by  accident,  or  ignorance,  or  neg- 
lect, on  the  part  of  his  agents.  "  But  it 
never  occurred  to  him,"  says  Madden,  "  that 
he  was  betrayed,  that  every  design  of  his 
was  frustrated,  every  project  neutralized,  aa 


424 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


pffoctiiiilly  as  if  an  enemy  liud   stolen   into 
ibe  oarap.'" 

There  is,  however,  no  sutisfiictory  evi- 
dence of  treason,  on  the  part  of  iiny  of  those 
whom  he  trusted.  The  rest  of  this  sad  tale 
is  soon  told  : — 

Yarions  consultations  were  held  on  the 
23d,  at  the  depot,  in  Thomas  street,  at  Mr. 
Long's,  in  Crow  steeet,  and  Mr.  Allen's,  in 
College  Green,  and  great  niversity  of  opinion 
prevailed  with  respect  to  the  propriety  of  an 
immediate  rising,  or  a  postponement  of  the 
attempt.  Emmet  and  Allen  were  in  favor 
of  the  foi'mer,  and,  indeed,  in  the  posture  of 
iheir  affairs,  no  other  course  was  left,  except 
the  total  abandonment  of  their  project, 
which  it  is  only  surprising  had  not  been 
determined  on.  The  Wickhnv  men,  under 
Dwyer,  on  whom  great  dependence  was 
placed,  had  not  arrived  ;  the  man  who  bore 
the  order  to  him  from  Emmet  neglected  his 
duty,  and  remained  at  Ratlifarnham.  The 
Kiidiire  men  came  in,  and  were  informed, 
evidently  by  a  traitor,  that  Emmet  liad 
postponed  his  attempt,  and  they  went  back 
at  hve  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  The  Wex- 
ford men  came  in,  and,  to  tlie  number  of  two 
hundred  or  three  hundred,  remained  in  town 
the  early  part  of  the  night  to  take  the  part 
assigned  to  them,  but  they  received  no  orders. 
A  large  body  of  men  were  assembled  at  tiie 
Broadstone,  ready  to  act  when  the  rocket 
signal  agreed  upon  should  be  given,  but  no 
such  signal  was  made. 

It  was  evident  that  Emmet,  to  the  last, 
counted  on  large  bodies  of  men  at  his  dis- 
posal, and  that  he  was  deceived.  At  eiijht 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  he  had  eighty  men 
nominally  under  his  command,  collected  in 
the  depot  in  Marshalsea  lane. 

A  man  rushed  in  to  announce  that 
troops  were  at  that  moment  marching  upon 
them,  which  was  not  true ;  yet  it  seems  to 
liave  been  believed  by  Emmet  and  the  rest. 
It  was  then  he  resolved  to  sally  out,  with 
such  poor  following  as  he  had,  march  upon 
the  Castle,  and,  if  necessary,  meet  death  by 
the  way.  Even  this  happiness — of  dying 
witli  arms  in  his  hands — was  not  reserved 
for  tlie  unfortunate  gentleman. 

The  motley  assembly  of  armed  men,  some 
of  them  intoxicated,  marched  along  Thomas 
Street,  with  their   unhappy  leader  at  their 


liead,  who  was  endeavoi'ing  to  miiiiitain 
some  X)rder,  with  the  assistance  of  Stafford, 
a  mnn  who  remained  dose  by  hiin  through* 
out  tills  scene,  and  faithful  to  the  last.  It 
was  now  al)0ut  half-past  nine,  and  quite 
dark.  The  sequel  is  painful  to  tell  ;  yet  it 
must  be  told.     Doctor  Madden  says  : — 

"  The  stragglers  in  the  rear  soon  com- 
menced acts  of  pillage  and  assassination. 
The  first  murderous  attack  committed  in 
Thomas  street  was  not  that  made  on  Lord 
Kilwarden,  as  we  find  by  the  following  ac- 
count in  a  newspaper  of  the  day  : — 

"  '  A  Mr.  Leech,  of  the  Custom  House, 
was  passing  through  Thomas  street  in  a 
hackney  coach,  when  he  was  stoppi'd  by  the 
rabble  ;  they  dragged  him  out  of  the  coach, 
without  any  inquiry,  it  seemed  enough  that 
he  was  a  respectable  man  ;  he  fell  on  his 
knees,  implored  their  mercy,  but  all  in  vain  ; 
they  began  the  work  of  blood,  and  gave 
him  a  frightful  pike  #wound  in  the  groin. 
Their  attention  was  then  diverted  from  their 
humbler  victim  by  the  approach  of  Lord 
Kilwarden's  coach.  Mr.  Leech  then  suc- 
ceeded in  creeping  to  Vicar  street  watch- 
house,  where  he  lay  a  considerable  time  ap- 
parently dead  from  loss  of  blood,  but  hap- 
pily recovered  from  his  wound.'" 

Now,  of  all  the  judges,  and  other  high 
official  persons  in  Ireland,  in  those  days,  not 
one  was  so  estimable,  so  good,  and  humane, 
as  Lord  Kilwarden,  Chief  Justice  of  the 
King's  Bench.  He  had  often  stood  between 
an  innocent  prisoner  and  the  death  to  which 
his  enemies  had  already  doomed  him.  Most; 
unfortunately,  just  as  the  mad  mob  of  riot- 
ers had  got  beyond  the  control  of  their 
leader,  and  had  already  dipped  their  hands 
in  blood,  a  private  carriage  was  seen  moving 
along  tiiat  part  of  Thomas  street  which 
leads  to  Yicar  street.  It  was  stopp'^d  and 
attacked  ;  Lord  Kilwarden,  who  was  inside, 
with  his  daughter  and  his  nephew,  the  Rev. 
Richard  Wolfe,  cried  out :  "  It  is  I,  Kil- 
warden.  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench." 
A  man,  whose  name  is  said  to  have  beea 
Shannon,  rushed  forward,  jilunged  his  pike 
into  his  lordship,  crying  out :  "  You  are  the 
man  I  want."  A  portmanteau  was  then 
taken  out  of  the  carriage,  broken  open,  and 
rifled  of  its  contents  ;  then  his  lordship, 
mortally  wounded,  was  dragged  out  of  the 


BLOODY    RIOT MUEDER   OF   LORD   KILWARDEN. 


425 


carriage,  and  sevenil  additional  wounds  in- 
flicted on  him.  His  nephew  endf'iivored  to 
miike  his  esciipe,  hut  w;is  talccn,  jind  put.  to 
death.  The  nnrDrtuiiute  yonng  hidy  re- 
mnined  in  the  carriage,  till  one  of  the  lead- 
ers rushed  forward,  took  her  from  the  car- 
^  riage,  and  led  her  throngh  the  rabble  to  an 
adjoining  house;  and  it  is  worthy  of  observ- 
ation, that  in  the  raidst  of  this  scene  of 
sanguinary  tumult,  no  injury  or  insult  was 
oflered  to  her,  or  attempted  to  be  offered  to 
her,  by  the  infuriated  rabble.  Mv.  Fitzger- 
ald states  that  the  person  who  rescued  her 
from  her  dreadful  situation  was  Robert 
Emmet. 

^liss  Wolfe,  after  remaining  some  time  in 
the  ]>lace  of  refuge  she  was  placed  in,  pro- 
ceeded on  foot  to  the  Castle,  and  entered 
the  Secretary's  office,  in  a  distracted  state, 
and  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  bearer  of 
the  intelligence  of  her  father's  murder. 
Lord  Kihvarden  was*- found  lying  on  the 
pavement,  dreadfully  and  mortally  wounded. 
When  the  street  was  cleared  of  the  iu'-nr- 
gents  he  was  carried  almost  lifeless  to  the 
watch-house  in  Yicar  street. 

This  foul  murder  was  an  atrocity  really 
horrible.  Reasons  have  been  assigned  or 
suggested  for  it";  as  that  the  man  who  first 
attacked  him  had  had  a  relative  sentenced 
to  death  by  him  ;  that  he  was  mistaken  for 
Lord  Carleton,  a  very  different  kind  of  judge, 
&c.  ;  but  the  odious  deed  stands  out  in  all 
its  bloody  horror  ;  no  better — but  also  no 
worse — than  many  of  the  outrages  done  upon 
the  people  in  '98,  by  Orange  yeomanry  and 
Ascendancy  magistrates. 

Doctor  Madden  thus  narrates  th.e  close 
of  this  dreadful  affair  : — 

"Emmet  halted  his  party  at  the  market 
house,  with  the  view  of  restoring  order, 
but  tumult  and  insubordination  prevailed. 
During  his  ineffectual  efforts,  word  was 
brouglit  that  Lord  Kihvarden  was  murder- 
ed ;  he  retraced  his  steps,  procee<led  to- 
wards the  scene  of  the  barbarous  outrage, 
and  in  t!ie  course  of  a  few  minutes  returne<t 
to  his  party  ;  from  that  moment  he  gave  up 
all  hope  of  effecting  any  nulional  obji-et. 
He  saw  that  his  attempt  hail  merg'-d  info  a 
work  of  pillage  and  murder.  He  i'.nd  a 
few  of  the  leaders  who  were  about  him 
abandoned  their  project  and  their  followers. 
54 


A  detachment  of  the  military  made  its  ap- 
pearance at  the  corner  of  Cutpurse  row, 
and  commenced  firing  on  the  insurgents, 
who  immediately  fled  in  all  directions.  The 
rout  was  general  in  less  than  an  hour  from 
the  time  they  sallied  forth  from  the  depot. 
The  only  place  where  anything  like  resist- 
ance was  made  was  on  the  Coombe,  where 
Colonel  Brown  was  killed,  and  two  members 
of  the  Liberty  Rangers,  Messrs.  Edmon- 
ston  and  Paiker.  The  guard-house  of  the 
Coombe  had  been  unsuccessfully  attacked, 
thougli  witii  great  determination  ;  a  great 
many  dead  bodies  were  found  there." 

The  whole  affair  was  now  over,  and  all 
was  lost  ;  yet  during  this  night,  Miles 
Byrne,  with  his  two  hundred  picked  Wex- 
ford men,  was  in  the  house  on  Coal  Quay, 
anxiously  awaiting  the  orders  tliat  liad  been 
agreed  upon.  Dvvyer  was  ready  witli  anoth- 
er party  ;  and  the  Kildare  men  were  ex- 
pecting to  be  summoned  by  a  messenger. 
They  were  all  left  without  orilers. 

The  next  day  was,  of  course,  a  time  of 
arrests,  discoveries,  and  domiciliary  visits 
in  Dublin.  The  several  de|)6ts  were  exam- 
ined, and  quantities  of  uniforms,  tire-arms, 
and  several  thousand  pikes  were  found  ;  to- 
gether witli  eight  thousand  copies  of  two 
oroclamations  intended  for  distribution 
on  the  day  of  the  rising.  Tliese  docu- 
ments declare  that  the  object  of  the 
movement  is  an  Irish  Re|)ublic,  sepiU'ation 
from  England,  and  freedom  and  justice 
for  all.  (See  Appendix,  No.  IV.)  Em- 
met went  out  to  a  private  house  at  R^ith- 
faruham  Witlun  a  week  before  ins  sad 
failure,  he  had  sent  Russell  and  James 
Hope  to  the  North,  upon  whose  people  he 
placed  great  reliai;ce,  and  he  requested 
Miles  Byine  to  go  to  France  with  dis- 
patches for  his  brother,  Thomas  Addis 
Emmet,  which  Byrne,  after  many  adven- 
tures, accomplished.  Eaunet  hiiiiself  pro- 
ceeded from  llathfarnham  to  the  Wieklow 
mountains,  where  he  found  the  Wii-klow 
insurgents  bent  on  prosecuting  their  plans, 
and  making  an  imniediati;  attack  on  some  of 
the  princii>al  towns  in  that  county.  Euunet, 
to  his  credit,  being  then  convinced  of  the 
hopelessness  of  the  struggle,  had  deter- 
mined to  withhold  his  sanction  from  any 
further  effort  ;  convinced,  as  he  then  was, 


426 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


that  it  could  only  lead  to  the  effusion  of 
blood,  but  to  no  successful  issue.  His 
friends  pressed  him  to  take  immediate  mea- 
sures for  effecting  his  escape,  but  unfortu- 
natel}'  he  resisted  their  solicitations ;  he 
had  resolved  on  seeing'  one  person  before 
he  could  make  up  his  mind  to  leave  the 
countrjj  and  that  person  was  dearer  to  him 
than  life — Sarah  Curran,  the  youngest 
daughter  of  the  celebrated  advocate,  Jolin 
Philpot  Curran.  With  the  hope  of  obtaining 
an  interview  with  her,  if  possible,  before  his 
intended  departure — of  corresponding  with 
her — and  of  seeing  her  pass  by  Harold's 
Cross,  which  was  the  road  from  her  fath- 
er's country-house,  near  Rathfarnham,  to 
Dublin,  he  returned  to  his  old  lodgings 
at  Mrs.  Palmer's,  Harold's  Cross.  Here, 
pn  the  25th  of  August,  he  was  arrested,  at 
about  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  by  Major 
Sirr,  who,  according  to  the  newspaper  ac- 
counts, "  did  not  know  his  person  till  he 
was  brought  to  tlie  Castle,  where  he  was 
identified  by  a  gentleman  of  the  College.''^* 

On  Monday,  September  19,  1803,  at  a 
special  commission,  before  Lord  Is'orbury, 
Mr.  Baron  George,  and  Mr.  Baron  Daly, 
Robert  Emmet  was  put  on  his  trial,  on  a 
charge  of  high  treason,  under  25th  Edward 
III.  The  counsel  assigned  him  were  Messrs. 
Ball,  Burrowes,  and  M'Nally. 

Tlie  counsel  for  the  prosecution  were  Mr. 
Standish  O'Grady,  Attorney-General,  and 
William  Conyngham  Pluuket,  King's  Coun- 
sel. There  is  nothing  specially  worthy  of 
remark  on  the  trial,  except  the  very  bit- 
ter and  superfluous  speech  of  Mr.  Plunket. 
Mr.  Plunket  had  been  the  friend  of  Emmet's 
father.  It  was  the  political  doctrine  so 
loudly  announced  by  Mr.  Plunket  in  his 
Anti-Union  speeches — that  the  Union  would 
leave  Ireland  without  any  constitution  or 
law  which  men  wuuld  be  bound  to  obey — it 
was  this,  and  other  eloquent  denunciations, 
which  had  so  deeply  sunk  into  Emmet's 
mind,  that  heat  length  resolved  to  put  those 
doctrines  in  practice,  at  the  risk  of  his  life. 
This  could  only  be  done  by  expelling  the 
British  authorities  from  his  country. 

It  is  true  that  Mr.  Plunket,  if  he  prac- 
ticed his  profession    at    all,  was   bound    to 

*•  Madden  says  \liis  was  Doctor  Elrington,  Provost 
of  tho  College. 


take  the  brief  for  the  Crown  ;  but  he  was 
not  bound  to  display  a  furious  and  vindictive 
zeal  in  prosecuting  his  friend's  son,  especial- 
ly as  the  prisoner  made  no  defence.  When 
the  witnesses  for  the  prosecution  had  all 
been  examined,  Mr.  M'Nally  said,  as  Mr. 
Emmet  did  not  intend  to  call  any  witness, 
or  to  take  up  the  time  of  the  Court  by  his 
counsel  stating  any  case  or  making  any  ob- 
servations on  the  evidence,  he  presumed  the 
trial  was  now  closed  on  both  sides. 

Mr.  Plunket  declined  following  the  exam- 
ple of  the  prisoner's  counsel,  and  launched 
into  a  most  violent  and  needless  philippic, 
ending  with  this  passionate  imprecation  : — 
"  They  imbrue  their  hands  in  the  most 
sacred  blood  of  the  country,  and  yet  they 
call  upon  God  to  prosper  their  cause  as  it 
is  just  1  But  as  it  is  atrocious,  wicked,  and 
abominable,  I  must  devoutly  invoke  that 
God  to  confound  and  overwhelm  it." 

How  nobly  Emmet  asserted  himself  and 
his  cause,  in  his  last  speech,  is  known  to  all 
who  read  our  language.  There  e.xist  at  least 
ten  editions  of  that  speech,  some  of  thera 
varying  materially  from  others.  The  latest 
and  probably  most  correct  version  of  it,  is 
that  contained  in  Doctor  Madden's  "  Me- 
moir of  Emmet,"  in  the  Third  Series  of  his 
collections.  Tiiomas  Moore,  in  his  diary, 
February  15,  1831,  mentions  Burrowes 
having  remarked  to  him,  on  the  subject  of 
Plunket's  conduct  in  Emmet's  case,  "  Plun- 
ket could  not  have  refused  the  brief  of  Gov- 
ernment, though  he  might  have  avoided,  per- 
haps, speaking  to  evidence.  It  was  not  true, 
I  think  he  said,  that  Plunket  had  been  ac- 
quainted with  ycnng  Emmet.  The  passage 
iu  a  printed  speech  of  Emmet,  where  he  is 
made  to  call  Plunket  '  that  viper,'  &c., 
was  never  spoken  by  Emmet " 

On  the  20th  of  September,  he  was  exe- 
cuted. The  same  morning  the  death  of  his 
mother  was  announced  to  Wm  in  his  prison. 
Early  in  the  afternoon  he  was  removed,  at- 
tended by  a  strong  guard,  both  of  cavalry 
and  infantry,  to  Thomas  street,  where  a 
scaffold  and  gibbet  had  been  erected.  He 
died  with  the  utmost  calnmess  and  forti- 
tude. 

it  is  said  that  Robert  Emmet  had  beea 
made  acquainted  with  a  design  tiiat  was  ia 
contemplation  to  effect  his  escape  at  the  time 


'STIKINQ   TERROR 


-MARTIAL   LAW. 


427 


and  place  appointed  for  execution.  Of  that 
design,  Government  appears  to  have  had  in- 
forinatiou,  and  had  taken  precautionary  mea- 
sures, which  had  probably  led  to  its  being 
abandoned.  The  avowed  object  of  Thomas 
Ilussell's  going  to  Dublin,  after  his  failure  in 
the  North,  was  to  adopt  plans  for  this  pur- 
pose. 

Russell,  the  close  friend  and  associate 
both  of  Tone  and  Emmet,  was  himself 
soon  after  arrested,  and  executed  at  Down- 
patrick  ;  and  this  was  the  end  of  the  United 
Irishmen,  at  least  for  that  generation.  Rus- 
sell's burial  slab  is  to  be  seen  in  a  church- 
yard of  Downpatrick,  with  no  word  on  it 
but  the  simple  name  "  Thomas  Russell." 
Robert  Emmet's  tomb  is  still  uuinscribed. 


CHAPTER    XLT. 

1803—1804. 

Eeason  to  Believe  that  Government  was  all  the  time 
aware  of  the  Conspiracy — "  Striking  Terror  " — 
Martial  Law — Catholic  Address — Arrests — Inform- 
ers— Vigorous  Measures— In  Cork— In  Belfast- 
Hundreds  of  Men  Inipi-isoned  without  Charge — 
Brutal  Treatment  of  Prisoners — Special  Couimis- 
siuu — Eighteen  Persons  Hung— Debate  in  Parlia- 
ment— Irish  Exiles  in  France — First  Consul  Plans  a 
New  Expedition'  to  Ireland — Formation  of  the 
"  Irish  Legion  " — Irish  Legion  in  Bretagne — Official 
Eepl3^  of  the  First  Consul  to  T.  A.  Emmet— Designs 
of  the  French  Government — Buonaparte's  Mistake 
— French  Fleet  again  ordered  Elsewhere — The 
Legion  goes  to  the  Rhine,  and  to  Walcheren— End  of 
the  Addington  Ministry — Mr.  Pitt  Returns  to  Office- 
Condition  of  Ireland — Decay  of  Dublin — Decline 
of  Trade — Increase  of  Debt — Ruinous  Eflects  of  the 
Union — Presbyterian  Clergy  Pensioned,  and  the 
Eeason. 

A  LARGE  number  of  the  bravest  and 
purest  men  whom  Ireland  ever  produced, 
liaving  now  within  three  or  four  years 
been  either  hung  or  banished,  it  was 
hoped  that  the  Protestant  Ascendancy  and 
British  connection,  the  Tithes,  the  Oligar- 
chical Government,  the  packed  juries,  in 
short  our  Constitution  in  church  and  state, 
were  at  last  secure  against  "Jacobins,"  and 
ull  manner  of  French  principles. 

Although  the  government  of  Lord  Hard- 
wicke  had  seemed  to  shut  its  eyes  and  see 
nothing  of  the  preparations  for  Ennuet's 
insurrection,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
most  of  its  details  were  well  known  at  the 
Castle. 


In  the  collection  of  papers  of  Major  Sirr, 
in  the  volume  for  1803,  and  a  succeeding 
volume  containing  miscellaneous  letters,  of 
dates  from  1798  to  1803,  are  found  various 
letters  of  spies  and  informers,  of  the  old 
battalion  of  testimony  of  1798,  giving  infor- 
mation to  the  Major  of  treasonable  proceed- 
ings, meetings,  preparing  pikes,  &c.,  being  in 
existence  in  the  three  months  preceding  the 
outl)reak  of  the  insurrection  of  the  July  23, 
1803.  In  the  latter  volume  are  many 
similar  letters  from  a  Roman  Catholic 
gentleman  in  Monastereven,  suggesting  ar- 
rests to  the  Major,  and,  amongst  others, 
the  arrest  of  a  gentleman  of  some  standing 
in  society,  a  Brigadier-Major  Fitzgerald. 

It  is  also  plain  that  Government  knew  of 
Emmet's  having  come  from  France  to  Dub- 
lin, and  knew  his  errand,  and  at  least  some 
of  his  movements  ;  for  in  October,  1802, 
Robert  Emmet  dined  at  Mr.  John  Keogh's, 
of  Mount  Jerome,  shortly  after  his  arrival 
in  Dublin,  in  the  company  of  John  Philpot 
Curran.  The  conversation  turned  on  the 
political  state  of  the  country — on  the  di.>po- 
sition  of  the  people  with  respect  to  a  renewal 
of  the  struggle.  Piobert  Emmet  spoke  with 
great  vehemence  and  energy  in  favor  of  the 
probability  of  success,  in  the  event  of 
another  effort  being  made.  John  Keogh 
asked,  in  case  it  were,  how  many  counties 
did  he  think  would  rise  ?  The  question  was 
one  of  facts  and  iigures.  Robert  Emmet 
replied  that  nineteen  counties  could  be  relied 
on.  This  dinner  party  was  immediately 
known  to  Government  ;  and,  next  day,  a 
well-known  magistrate,  with  two  attendants, 
waited  on  Mr.  Keogh,  demanded  and  carried 
off  his  papers.* 

Mr.  Plowden  does  not  hesitate  to  speak 
of  the  Government  on  this  occasion  as  hav- 
ing "made  the  full  experiment  of  their 
favorite  tactic  of  not  urging  lh.e  rebels  to 
postpone  their  attempts  by  any  appearance  of 
too  muck  precaution  a7id  preparation  of  invit- 
ing rebellion,  in  order  to  ascei'taiu  its  extent, 
and  of  forcing  premature  explosion  for  the 
purpose  of  radiail  cure." 

After  the  danger  was  past,  however,  and 
after  it  was  known  how  very  wretched  and 
impotent  the  whole  attempt  had  turned  out, 

♦Madden.    Memoir  of  Eujuiet.     Ihircl  Series. 


428 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


Biiporabiiudant  precautions  were  taken  with 
the  tisual  ol>jects  of  "creating  alarm,"  and 
striking  terror.  A  Privy  Council  sat  for 
several  hours,  and  a  proclamation  was 
■prepared  and  issued  immediately,  order- 
ing tiic  army  to  disperse  all  assemblies 
of  ai'med  rebels,  and  to  do  military  execu- 
tion upon  all  such  found  in  arms.  Barriers 
were  erected  in  Dublin,  and  strong  detach- 
ments stationed  with  cannon  upon  the 
bridges,  and  in  the  most  frequented  avenues 
and  passes  in  the  city. 

On  the  28tli  of  July,  the  King  sent  a 
message  to  both  Houses  of  Parliament, 
asking  for  additional  powers  in  Ireland — 
that  is,  a  renewed  suspension  of  the  writ  of 
Habeas  Corpus.  The  act  was  passed  at 
once.  In  Ireland,  the  judges  went  circuit 
that  summer  with  strong  escorts  of  troops. 

We  now  again  find  the  Catholics  of  rank 
and  title  coming  forvt'ard  to  prufess  their 
loyalty  ;  and,  indeed,  the  brutal  murder  of 
the  excellent  Kilwarden,  and  others,  on  that 
ill-omened  night,  appeared  but  loo  well  to 
justify  good  citizens  in  treating  the  whole 
movement  as  a  mere  riot  for  pillage  and  as- 
sassination. On  the  4th  of  August,  an  ad- 
dress, signed  by  the  most  respectable  Roman 
Catholics  in  and  about  Dublin,  was  present- 
ed to  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  by  a  deputation 
consisting  of  the  Earl  of  Fingal  and  Lord 
Viscount  Gornianstown,  and  the  Catholic 
Archbishops  of  Armagh  and  DubHu.  It 
expiessed  their  utmost  horror  and  detestation 
of  the  late  atrocious  proceedings,  their  at- 
tachment to  the  King,  and  admiration  of 
the  Constitution.  It  contained  a  special 
declaration,  that,  however  ardent  their  wish 
might  1)6  to  participate  in  the  full  enjoyment 
of  its  benefits,  they  never  should  be  brought 
to  seek  for  such  participation  through  any 
other  medium  than  that  of  the  free,  unbias- 
sed determination  of  the  Legislature. 

In  Lord  Hardvvicke's  reply  he  made  not 
the  slightest  allusion  to  the  wish  those 
gentlemen  had  expressed,  that  they  might 
be  admitted  within  the  pale  of  that  Consti- 
tution they  so  much  admired. 

A  system  of  suspicious  repression  was 
now  once  more  enforced.  Even  before 
the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  act. 
Many  persons,  who  had  been  obnoxious 
to   Government,  or   to  the  agents   or   fa- 


vorites of  the  Castle,  were  apprehended, 
without  any  charge  or  ostensible  cause  of 
detention.*  And,  as  it  usually  happens, 
when  strong  measures  are  resorted  to  by  a 
weak  government,  the  subalterns,  who  advis- 
ed against  reason,  executed  the.se ■  measures 
without  discretion.  On  this  occasion,  most 
of  those  who,  upon  the  Secretary's  warrants, 
were  thrown  into  jail,  under  color  of  the 
suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus,  were  treat- 
ed with  a  rigorous  inhumanity,  which  the 
law  neither  intended  nor  warranted.  The 
system  of  espionage  was  extended,  and  the 
wages  of  information  raised. 

Not  only  rewards  of  £1,000  were  offered 
for  the  information  of  any  of  the  murderers 
of  Lord  Kilwarden,  or  his  nephew,  Mr. 
Wolfe,  and  for  the  apprehension  of  Mr. 
Russell,  but  a  reward  of  £r)0  for  each  of 
the  first  one  hundred  rebels,  who  might  be 
discovered,  that  were  of  the  number  who 
appeared  under  arms  in  Thomas  street,  on 
Saturday  night,  the  23d  of  July. 

The  whole  of  the  yeomanry  of  Ireland 
was  put  upon  permanent  duty,  at  the  en- 
ormous expense  of  £100,000  per  month. 
In  Cork,  too,  precautionary  measures  were 
adopted,  viz.,  that  no  one  should  quit  the 
county  without  a  passport,  and  that  every 
householder  should  affix  a  list  of  the  fam- 
ily and  inmates  on  their  doors,  by  order 
of  General  Myers,  who  conmianded  in  tliat 
district.  The  Sovereign  of  Belfast  issued 
an  order,  for  the  inhabitants  to  remain  with- 
in their  houses  after  eight  o'clock  iu  the 
evening,  and  for  several  other  regulations 
of  strict  observance.  In  Dul)liu,  the  magis- 
trates convened  a  meeting,  at  the  suggestion 
of  Government,  at  which  they  determined 
that  the  city  should  be  divided  into  forty- 
eight  sections,  each  section  to  be  divided 
by  a  chevaux  de  frise,  to  prevent  a  surprise 
from  the  pikemen,  which  would  not  at  the 
same  time  prevent  the  fire  of  the  musketry 
of  the  troops  and  yeomanry. 

From  the  moment  of  the  passage  of  mar- 
tial law,  the  arrests  became  much  more  nu- 
merous ;  and  any  one  pointed  out  as  suspic- 
ious, generally   by  a   personal  enemy,  was  at 

*  Some  of  these  were  William  ToddJones,  at  Cork, 
who  was  .irrested  on  the  20th  of  .luly,  and  altej-  him 
Messrs.  Drennan,  Donovan,  and  others  ;  Mr.  Hose 
M'Cann,  Bernard  Coile,  Mr.  James  Tandy,  and  others, 
at  Dublin. 


HUNDREDS    OF   PERSONS   IMPRISONED   WITHOUT    CHARGE. 


429 


once  thrown  into  a  dungeon.  The  horrors 
of  these  Irish  dungeons  came  out,  years 
afterwards,  on  an  inquiry  before  Parliament. 
Mr.  Plowden  cautiously  and  timidly  alludes 
to  them  in  this  manner  *  : — 

"  SensiJble,  that  general  charge  and  invec- 
tive come  not  within  the  province  of  the 
historian,  the  author  felt  it  his  duty  to  in- 
form the  reader,  that  at  this  time  commenc- 
ed a  new  system  of  gradual  inquisitorial  tor- 
ture in  pi'ison.  Suffice  it  here  to  observe,  that 
there  are  many  surviving  victims  of  these 
inhuman  and  unwarrantable  confinements, 
who,  without  having  been  charged  witii  any 
crime,  or  tried  for  any  offence,  have  from 
this  period,  undergone  years  of  confinement, 
and  incredible  afflictions  and  sufferings,  un- 
der the  full  conviction  that  they  were  in- 
flicted from  motives  of  personal  resentment, 
and  for  the  purpose  of  depriving  them  of 
life." 

In  fact,  although  only  eighty  men  bad 
turned  out  with  Robert  Emmet,  and  very 
few  of  these  were  ever  found,  the  jails  were, 
ia  the  autumn  of  this  year,  crowded  with 
many  hnmdreds  of  persons  ;  and  all  the  hor- 
rors of  the  Prevot  prison  were  repeated 
upon  their  unfortunate  victims.  Tiiis  was 
the  more  unaccountable  as  Emmet  never  al- 
lowed any  of  his  followers  to  be  sworn  in; 
there  was  no  pretext — as  in  '98 — fur  charg- 
ing suspected  persons  with  having  taken 
"  unlawful  oaths,"  nor  for  torturing  men  in 
order  to  wring  out  information  of  such  an 
offence  having  been  committed.  The  sys- 
tem of  Government,  then,  has  no  assignable 
motive,  save  one — to  strike  terror  and  wreak 
vengeance.  Every  house  in  the  city  and 
neigliborhood  of  Dublin  was  searched  for 
arms  ;  and  the  names  of  the  inmates  of 
each  house  were  once  more  required  to  be 
posted  on  the  outer  door. 

Thus  the  entire  system  of  Irish  coercion, 
to  which  our  country  is  so  well  accustomed, 
was  in  full  operation  within  a  few  days 
after  Emmet's  attempt. 

On  the  11th  of  August,  the  day  before 
Parliament  was  prorogued,  Mr.  Hutchinson 
made  one  effort  to  draw  attention  to  these 
atrocities.  He  moved  an  address  to  the 
King,  praying  to  have  papers  laid  before 
the  House  preparatory  to   an   inquiry   into 

•  Plowden.    History  of  Ireland  suice  the  Union. 


the  state  of  Ireland.  The  motion  was  op- 
posed by  Ministers  on  the  ground,  that  it 
was  more  than  useless  to  demand  informa- 
tion from  Government  upon  the  state  of  Ire- 
land, without  having  proposed  any  specific 
measure  to  be  based  upon  such  informa- 
tion when  received,  and  that  on  the  very 
eve  of  a  prorogation.  They  roundly  as- 
serted that  the  Irish  Government  had  not 
been  surprised  on  the  2-3d  of  July,  and  that 
the  prevention  of  what  did  happen  would  have 
taught  wisdom  and  given  strength  to  the 
rebel  cause.  The  motion  was  negatived 
without  a  division. 

At  the  "special  commission"  which  tried 
Emmet,  twenty  persons  were  tried  for  their 
lives.  Of  these,  one  was  acquitted  and  one 
respited  ;  the  rest  were  hung. 

Parliament  met  again  on  the  22d  of 
November.  Charles  James  Fox  originated 
a  short  debate  on  the  state  of  Ireland.  He 
charged  the  Government  with  want  of  can- 
dor, in  endeavoring  to  convey  an  idea  that 
it  was  the  intention  of  the  rebels  in  Ireland 
to  put  that  country  into  the  hands  of 
France,  when  such  a  design  had  been  so 
strongly  disavowed  by  their  leaders.  "  It 
was  not,"  he  added,  "  to  be  hoped  or  ex- 
pected, that  as  long  as  grievances  existed, 
Ireland  could  become  loyal,  and  he  sincerely 
hoped  that  the  House  would  not,  by  confid- 
ing in  words,  leave  her  exposed  to  a  re[)e- 
tition  of  those  sctiies  that  had  lately  oc- 
curred. 

Mr.  Addington  insisted  that  some  leaders 
of  the  United  Irishmen  "were  really  dispos- 
ed to  subserve  tlie  purposes  of  Prance. 
From  the  close  intercourse  now  carried  on 
between  the  two  countries,  he  concluded 
that  the  people  of  Ireland  would  be  led  to 
compare  tlie  different  principles  of  the  two 
governments,  by  which  they  vvould  learn  to 
appreciate  Ike  blessings  of  their  own  Consti- 
lution,  and  to  foresee  the  miseries  which 
any  change  would  bi'ing  upon  them."  Fur- 
ther, Mr.  Addington  and  Mr.  Yorke  vehe- 
mently urged  tlie  House  to  give  them  cretlit 
in  assuring  them,  that  thongii  the  leaders 
of  the  late  insurrection  were  not  immediately 
connected  with  tlie  French  Government, 
they  were  yet  connected  with  Irish  traitors 
abroad,  who  held  immediate  intercourse 
with  that  Government. 


430 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


This  last  statomciit  was  true  at  any  rate 
— omitting  the  word  "  traitors."  Tliomas 
Addis  Emmet,  Doctor  MacNeven,  and  Ar- 
tlmr  O'Connor,  were  then  in  close  communi- 
cation with  the  French  Government,  and 
eagerly  awaiting  the  determinations  of  Buo- 
naparte with  regard .  to  a  descent  upon  Ire- 
land. Miles  Byrne  had  safely  arrived  at 
Paris,  and  ooramunicated  with  Thomas  Ad- 
dis Emmet ;  but  almost  immediately  news 
came  of  Robert's  capture,  of  the  certainty  of 
his  execution,  and  of  the  total  prostration  of 
Ireland  under  the  iron  heel  of  military  pow- 
er. There  was  then  in  France  a  large 
number  of  Irish  exiles  ;  and  Mr.  Emmet  in- 
formed the  First  Consul  that  they  were 
ready  to  go  as  volunteers  in  any  expedition 
■which  had  for  its  oliject  the  emancipation 
of  their  country.  It  was  in  the  month  of 
November,  180.3,  that  the  decree  was  issued 
for  the  formation  of  the  Irish  Legion. 

Miles  Byrne,  who  was  himself  afterwards 
a  distinguished  officer  of  the  Legion,  gives 
this  account  of  its  origin  :  "  The  First  Con- 
sul eagerly  entered  into  all  the  details  re- 
lated in  the  report  on  the  state  of  Ireland, 
given  to  him  by  Mr.  Thomas  Addis  Emmet, 
on  the  arrival  at  Paris  of  the  confidential 
agent  sent  from  Dublin  in  August,  1803  ; 
and,  in  consequence,  it  was  stipulated  that  a 
French  army  should  be  sent  to  assist  the 
Irish  to  get  rid  of  the  English  yoke  ;  the 
First  Consul  understanding  from  Mr.  Em- 
met that  Augereau  was  a  favorite  with  the 
Irish  nation,  had  him  appointed  General-in- 
Chief  to  command  the  expedition  ;  and  im- 
mediately ordered  the  formation  of  an  Ii'ish 
Legion  in  the  service  of  France.  He  gave 
to  all  those,  who  volunteered  to  enter  the 
Irish  Legion,  commission  as  French  offi- 
cers, so  that  in  the  event  of  their  fall- 
ing into  the  hands  of  the  English  they  should 
be  protected  ;  or,  should  any  violence  be 
offered  them,  he  should  have  the  right  to  re- 
taliate on  the  English  prisoners  in  France. 

"The  decree  of  the  First  Consul  for  the 
formation  of  this  Irish  Legion  was  dated 
November,  1803  ;  by  it,  the  officers  were 
all  to  be  Irishmen,  or  Irishmen's  sons  born 
ill  France.  Tne  pay  was  to  be  the  same  as 
that  given  to  officers  and  soldiers  of  the 
line  of  the  French  army.  No  rank  was 
to  be   given   higiier  than  capiaiii  till  they 


should  land  with  the  expedition  in  Ireland." 

"  It  was,  however,  stipulated  that  on  leav- 
Brest,  a  certain  number  of  captains  were  to 
get  the  rank  of  colonel,  and  also  a  certain 
number  of  lieutenants  that  of  lieutenant- 
colonel  ;  which  rank  was  to  be  confirmed 
to  them  even  in  the  event  of  the  expedi- 
tion failing,  and  their  getting  back  to 
France.  In  naming  these  captains  and 
lieutenants,  the  preference  was  to  be  given 
to  those  who  had  been  obliged  to  expatriate 
themselves  for  their  exertions  in  Ireland  to 
effect  its  independence." 

Adjutant-General  MacSheehy,  an  Irish- 
man by  birth,  but  in  the  French  service,  was 
charged  with  the  organization  of  the  legion, 
and  for  that  purpose  was  commanded  to  re- 
pair to  Morlaix  vrhere  the  Irish  exiles  were 
assembled. 

Adjutant-General  MacSheehy,  received 
unlimited  powers  at  Morlaix  to  propose 
officers  for  advancement  up  to  the  rank  of 
captain  ;  all  he  named  were  confirmed  by 
the  Minister  of  War,  General  Berthier. 

The  greatest  exertions  were  made  to  have 
the  officers  splendidly  equipped  and  ready 
for  sailing.  They  received  tlie  same  outfit 
given  to  French  officers  entering  on  cam- 
paign ;  no  expense  being  spared  by  the 
French  Government. 

Three  months  later.  General  Augereau 
was  at  Brest  ;  having  attached  to  his  staff 
Arthur  O'Connor,  then  made  a  General  of 
Division  in  the  service  of  France. 

Morlaix  is  a  seaport  town  in  Bretagne, 
not  far  from  Brest,  but  more  to  the  north, 
and  looking  straight  over  towards  Cork  and 
Waterford  harbors.  It  was  here  that  a 
large  number  of  gallant  and  generous  young 
Irishmen,  many  of  thera  of  good  position  in 
society  and  great  accomplishments,  were 
flocking  together  in  those  days,  full  of  spirit 
and  hardihood,  and  eagerly  gazing  over  the 
blue  water,  as  if  they  could  already  see  the 
crests  of  the  Cummeragh  mountains. 
Amongst  these  men  we  find  many  names  of 
officers  who  afterwards  distinguished  them- 
selves in  Germany,  in  Holland,  and  in  Spain. 
O'Reilly,  Allen,  Corbet,  Burgess,  O'Morin, 
O'Mara,  Ware,  Barker,  Fitzhenry,  Master- 
son,  St.  I/eger,  Murray,  and  MacMahon. 
"  We  were  haj)py  and  united,"  says  Miles 
Bvrne, 


DESIGNS    OF    THE    FRENCH    GOVERNMENT. 


431 


"  Tlie  Legiou  assembled  at  Morhiix  was 
marched  to  Qnimper  ia  March,  1804,  where 
all  those  officers  who  had  been  proposed  for 
advancement  by  Adjutant-General  Mac- 
sheehy  received  their  brevets.  From  Qnim- 
per the  Legion  was  ordered  to  Carhai.x,  in 
Fiiiistere,  a  small  town  (the  native  place  of 
Latonr  d'  Anvergue,  premier  grenadier  de 
France),  which  from  being  more  inland  and 
less  frequented,  was  better  suited  for  manoeu- 
vring, and  where  the  best  results  were  ob- 
tained. Two  officers.  Captain  Tennant  and 
Captain  William  Corbet,  were  deputed  from 
thence  by  the  Legion  to  go  to  Paris,  to  be 
present  at  the  coronation  of  the  Emperor, 
(May,  1804,)  who  on  that  occasion  present- 
ed it,  as  well  as  the  French  regiments,  with 
colors  and  an  eagle.  On  one  side  of  the 
colors  was  written  '  Napoleon  I,  Empereur 
des  Frangois,  a  la  legion  Irlandaise  ;'  on  the 
reverse  was,  a  harj)  (without  a  crown),  with 
the  inscription  :  '  L'inddpendance  d'Irlande.' 

The  Irish  Legion  was  the  only  foreign 
corps  in  the  French  service  to  whom  Napo- 
leon ever  intrusted  an  eagle. 

Rejoicings  took  place  at  Carhaix,  as  in  the 
other  towns  of  France,  in  honor  of  the 
coronation,  by  order  of  the  authorities. 

It  was  while  ^tlie  Legion  was  yet  at  Mor- 
laix,  that  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  who  had 
remained  in  Paris,  obtained  from  the  First 
Consul,  what  seemed  a  definitive  and  posi- 
tive assurance,  both  as  to  the  certainty  of 
the  expedition  parting  for  Ireland,  and  as  to 
the  fair  terms  to  be  observed  with  that 
country  in  leaving  to  it  its  cherished  inde- 
pendence. In  this  document,  Buonaparte, 
(not  yet  Emperor,)  assures  the  Irish  Envoy, 
that  his  intention  is  to  assure  the  independ- 
ence of  Ireland,  and  to  give  suffii'ient  pro- 
tection to  such  as  may  join  the  French 
army  ;  that  in  case  of  being  joined  by  a 
considerable  corps  of  Irish,  he  will  never 
make  a  peace  with  England  without  stipulat- 
ing for  Ireland's  independence  ;  that  Ireland 
hihall  be  treated  in  all  respects  as  America 
was  in  the  last  war  ;  that  every  one  emljark- 
iiig  with  the  French  army,  shall  be  considered 
a  French  soldier ;  and  if  any  of  these  be  ar- 
rested and  not  treated  as  a  prisoner  of  war, 
retaliation  shall  follow  ;  that  every  corps  of 
United  Irishmen  shall  be  considered  a  part 
of  the  French  army  ;  and  that  in  case  of  the 


expedition  being  unsuccessful,  France  will 
keep  on  foot,  a  number  of  Irish  Brigades, 
on  the  same  footing  as  French  troops.  The 
First  Consul  sngesgts  the  formation  of  a 
committee,  to  frame  proclamations  and  to 
prepare  narratives  of  English  oppressions  in 
Ireland,  to  be  published  in  the  Monileiir* 
This  official  paper,  not  only  proves  what  ex- 
cellent foundation  then  existed  for  the  sangu- 
ine hope  of  the  exiles  that  something  effec- 
tual was  at  last  to  be  done  for  Ireland,  but 
proves  also  how  carefully  those  exiles  stipu- 
lated, always  that   the   interposition   of   a 

*  Here  is  the  original,  which  was  instantly  commu- 
nicated by  Emmet  to  MacNeven,  then  at  Morlaix  : — 

"  COPY  OP  THE  FIRST  CONSUL'S  ANSWER  TO  MY  ME- 
MOIRE  OF  13th  NIVOSE,  DELIVERED  TO  ME  27tH  NI- 
VOSE  : — 

"  Le  Premier  Consul  a  lu  avec  la  plus  grande  at- 
tention, la  memoire  qui  lui  a  ete  addressee  par  M. 
Emmet  le  13  Nivose. 

"  II  desire  que  les  Irlandais  Unis  soyent  bien  con- 
vaiucus  que  son  intention  est  d'assurer  l"iudepeudence 
de  riiiaude,  et  de  donner  protection  eutiere  et  effi- 
cace  a.  tons  ceux  d'entre  eux,  qui  prendront  part  a 
I'expedition,  ou  qui  se  joindront  aux  armees  Fran- 
gaises. 

"  Le  Gouvernement  Fran^ais  ne  pent  faire  ancnne 
proclamation  avant  d'avoir  touche  le  territoire  Irland- 
ais. Mais  le  general  qui  comraandera  I'expefiition  sera 
muni  de  lettres  scellces,  par  lesquelles  le  Premier  Con- 
sul declarera  qu'il  ne  fera  point  la  paix  avec  1' Angle- 
terre,  sans  stipuler  pour  I'independance  de  I'Irlande, 
dans  le  cas,  cependant,  ou  I'armee  aurait  ete  joiute 
par  un  corps  considerable  d'Irlandais  Unis. 

"  L'Irlande  sera  en  tout  traitee,  comma  I'a  ete 
I'Amerique,  dans  la  guerre  passee. 

"  Tout  individu  qui  s'embarquera  avec  Parmee 
Frangaise  destinee  pour  I'expedition,  sera  commis- 
sione  comme  FranQais :  s'il  etait  arrete,  et  qu'il  ne 
fut  pas  traite  comme  prisounier  de  guerre  la  repre- 
saille  s'exercera  sur  les  prisonniers  Anglais. 

"  Tout  corps  forme  au  nom  des  Irlandais  Unis  sera 
considere  coaime  faisant  partie  de  I'armee  Fran^aise 
Enfin,  si  I'expedition  ne  reussissait  pas  et  que  les 
Irlandais  fussent  obliges  de  revenir  en  France,  la 
France  entretiendra  un  certain  nombre  de  brigades 
Jrlandaises,  et  fera  des  pensions,  a  tout  individu  qui 
aurait  fait  partie  du  gouvernement  ou  des  autoriies 
du  pays. 

"Les  pensions  pourraient  ete  assimilees  a  celles 
qui  sont  accordees  en  France  aux  titulaires  de  grade 
ou  d'emploi  correspoudaut,  qui  ne  sout  pas  en  ac- 
tivite. 

"  Le  Premier  Consul  desire  qu'il  se  forme  un  com- 
ite  d'Irlandais  Unis.  II  ne  voit  pas  d'inconveuant,  a 
ce  que  les  membres  de  ce  coniite  fassent  des  procla- 
mations, et  instruissent  leurs  compatriotes  de  i'etat 
de  choses. 

"  Ces  proclamations  seront  inserees  dans  L'' Argun 
et  dans  les  differens  journaux  de  I'Europe,  a  fin 
d'eclairer  les  irlandais,  sur  la  parti  qu"ils  ont  a  suivre, 
et  sur  les  esi)erances  qu'ils  doivcnt  con^evoir  Si  la 
comite  veut  faire  uiie  relation  des  actes  de  tyrannic 
exercees  contre  I'Irlande  par  la  Gouvernement  .Ang- 
lais, on  I'inserera  dans  Le  Moniteur.'" 


4B2 


HISTORY    OP    UiELAND. 


French  army  should  be  onl}'^  on  the  footinj^ 
of  anxiharies,  like  that  of  Rochnmbean  in 
America.  It  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  those 
constant  accusations  made  in  Enii;land,  that 
Irish  revolutionists  sought  to  throw  their 
country  under  the  dominion  of  France. 
And  it  must  be  said,  once  for  all,  in  the  nego- 
tiations :ind  projectsTor  French  aid,  whether 
with  Tone,  Lewis,  or  Emmet,  there  was  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  the  single  o'yect  of  tlie 
successive  French  Governments  was  to  aid 
Ireland,  in  good  faith,  to  win  a  real  inde- 
pendence— not,  perhaps,  so  much  from  a  love 
and  sympathy  for  Ireland,  as  from  a  desire 
to  weaken  England,  whose  intrigues  and 
subsidies  were  stirring  up  the  whole  conti- 
nent to  effect  the  ruin  of  France. 

Yet,  after  all,  those  enthusiastic  Irish- 
men of  the  Legion,  were  not  destined  to  see 
Ireland.  Other  urgent  necessities  arose  ; 
and  most  of  the  fleet  at  Brest  was  with- 
drawn for  different  destinations.  It  was  the 
greatest  mistake  that  Buonaj)arte  ever  made, 
and  the  noblest  opportunity  lost.  The 
Legion  was  ordered  to  the  Rhine,  and  from 
thence  to  Holland  where  they  had  at  least 
the  satisfaction  of  meeting  their  enemies  at 
Walcheren,  and  aiding  in  the  destruction  of 
that  imposing  armament  of  England.  Thomas 
Addis  Emmet,  despairing  of  effecting  any- 
thing through  French  agency,  emigrated  at 
last  to  America,  where  he  took  the  first  rank 
at  the  bar  of  New  York,  and  lived  long  hon- 
ored and  beloved. 

Meanwhile,  the  imbecile  administration  of 
Mr.  Addington  came  to  an  end.  Mr.  Pitt 
had  put  him  into  office  to  serve  a  temporary 
purpose,  and  was  now  ready  to  resume  the 
reins  himself.  It  has  already  been  stated,  by 
anticipation,  that  on  returning  to  power,  this 
treacherous  Minister  made  no  condition  in 
favor  of  Catholic  relief,  which  is  in  itself  a 
sufficient  proof  that  his  former  resignation, 
ostensibly  on  that  question,  had  been  made 
on  a  false  pretext.  In  the  new  administra- 
tion (gazetted  May  14,  1804,)  he  was  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer  and  First  Lord  of 
the  Treasury.  The  Secretary  of  War  was 
Lord  Camden — a  name  associated  in  Ireland 
with  torture  and  "free-quarters."  Tiie 
President  of  the  Board  of  Control,  was 
Lord  Castlereagh.  No  Government  more 
hostile  to  Ireland  ever  ruled  in  the  Three 


Kingdoms.  The  King's  mental  malady  had 
grown  more  alarming  about  the  time  of  Mr. 
Pitt's  return  ;  and  his  advisers  could  by  no 
means  tliink  of  troubling  the  conscience  of 
the  invalid  by  any  suggestion  tending  to 
emancipation  of  Catholics,  and  "  breach  of 
his  Coronation  oath." 

Ireland  had  now  had  more  than  three 
years'  experience  of  Legislative  Union  ;  and 
already  began  to  experience  the  wasting 
and  draining  effects  of  that  odious  and  fatal 
t  ransaction.  Trade  was  declining,  debt  and 
taxes  increasing  ;  but  the  debt  much  faster 
than  the  produce  of  the  taxes.  The  absen- 
teeism of  proprietors,  as  had  been  expected, 
and  indeed  intended,  occasioned  year  by  year 
a  greater  and  greater  depletion  of  wealth. 
The  fine  country-seats  of  wealthy  proprietors 
were  generally  deserted,  and  their  estates 
were  managed  by  agents.  Dublin,  which  in 
the  eighteen  years  of  independence  (even  such 
partial  independence  as  it  was)  had  grown 
to  the  rank  of  a  fine  metropolitan  city,  had 
been  adorned  by  many  sumptuous  palaces  of 
a  resident  nol)ility,  and  enriclied  by  the  ex 
penditure  of  a  luxurious  society,  was  now 
sunk  into  a  provincial  town.  The  centre  of 
political  interest,  of  intellectual  activity  and 
of  fashionable  life,  had  been  transferred  to 
London.  The  fine  mansions  of  Irish  Peers 
and  wealthy  Commoners,  after  laying  long  va- 
cant, were  gradually  turned  to  otlier  uses.* 
It  is  true  that  Ireland  might  well  afford  to 
do  without  those  great  Peers  and  feudal  pro- 
prietors, as  France  has  done  ;  but  the  differ- 
ence is,  that  in  Ireland's  case,  they  still  draw 
away  in  rent,  the  produce  of  the  laud  ;  they 
are  sponges,  which  are  filled  in  Ireland  to  be 
squeezed  in  England  ;  they  are  clouds, 
formed  by  sucking  up  all  the  juices  of  our 
island,  and  which  then  float  off,  "  to  rain 
down  in  London  or  dissipate  at  Chelten- 
ham." Thus  it  was  found,  very  soou  after 
Union,  that  the  exports  of  Ireland  greatly 
increased  ;  but  they  were  exports  of  corn, 
cattle,  and  raw  material  for  manufactures, 
to  pay  the  absentee  rent;  while  our  imports 
were  chiefly  of  manufactured  articles  and 
colonial   produce,  from   England — England 

*  The  Duke  of  Leinster's  palace,  accomodates  a 
museum  of  Natural  Histor}';  Powevscourt  House  is 
a  warehouse  of  lineu  drapers.  The  mansiou  of  the 
Earls  of  Tyrone  is  a  school  house  ;  Belvedere  House 
is  a  convent ;  Aldborough  House  is  a  barrack,  to. 


ETJINOUS   EFFECTS    OF   THE   UXION. 


433 


thus  deriving  the  profit  both  from  our 
exports  and  from  our  imports.  Tiien  there 
was  the  enormous  cost  of  the  war  in  Europe, 
to  put  down  French  principles,  to  which  ex- 
pense Ireland  was  made  to  contribute  in  a 
much  greater  ratio  than  England.  Mr 
Foster,  in  a  speech  in  Parliament,  on  the 
Irish  budget,  immediately  after  Pitt's  return 
to  office,  said  he  lamented  to  find  tlie  predic- 
tions, which  he  had  ventured  to  urge  on  the 
probable  state  of  Ireland,  during  the  dis- 
cussions upon  the  Union,  but  too  forcibly 
verified  by  the  then  deplorable  state  of  her 
finances,  as  compared  with  her  public  debt 
and  expenditure.  Within  the  last  ten  years, 
the  public  debt  of  Ireland  had  made  an 
alarming  progress.  It  stood  in  1193,  at 
£2,400,000,  hi  1800,  at  £25,400,000.  On 
January  5,  1804,  at  £43,000,000,  and  in 
that  year  there  had  then  added  to  it  no  less 
a  sum  than  £9,500,000.  This  formed  a  quota 
far  exceeding  the  ratio  establislied  by  the 
Union  compact  to  be  paid  by  Ireland.  This 
ruinous  race,  in  which  Ireland  was  so  far  ex- 
ceeding her  means  by  her  expenditure, 
would  shortly  equalize  her  debt  in  proportion 
to  that  of  England,  and  entitle  England  to 
call  for  a  Parliamentary  decision,  and  con- 
solidation of  accounts  and  equalization  of 
taxes.  He  then  stated  to  the  House  the 
corresponding  produce  of  the  Irish  revenue. 
In  the  year  1800,  which  immediately  preced- 
ed the  Union,  the  net  produce  of  the  reve- 
nue was  £2,800,000,  when  she  owed  £25,- 
000,000,  in  the  last  year  it  was  only  £2,- 
189,000,  whilst  the  debt  amounted  to  £53,- 
000,000.  There  was  every  reason  to  believe, 
that  for  the  running  year,  the  produce  of  the 
Irish  revenue  would  not  yield  one  shilling 
towards  Ireland's  quota  in  the  common  ex- 
penditure of  the  empire.  Such  was  the 
situation  of  Ireland  in  the  summer  of  1801, 
as  depicted  by  Mr.  Foster,  with  an  enor- 
mous and  growing  increase  of  debt,  a  rapid 
falling  off  of  revenue,  and  a  decay  in  com- 
merce and  manufactures. 

It  may,  of  course,  be  alleged,  that  as  the 
Act  of  Union  places,  or  purports  to  place, 
the  two  countries  on  a  footing  of  perfect 
equality  a-nd  reciprocity,  in  respect  to  trade 
and  commerce,  there  has  been  nothing  to 
prevent  Ireland,  if  its  inhabitants  had  energy 

and  enterprize,  like  Englishmen,  to  manufac- 
65 


ttire  for  themselves  and  so  keep  at  home  a 
great  portiun  of  the  wealth  which  is  annually 
drained  from  them.  The  fallacy  of  this  sug- 
gestion is  now  well  understood  ;  it  is  true, 
the  laws  regulating  trade  are  the  same  in 
the  two  islands  ;  Ireland  may  export  even 
woollen  cloth  to  England  ;  she  may  import, 
in  her  own  ships,  tea  from  China,  and  sugar 
from  Barbadoes  ;  the  laws  which  made  those 
acts  penal  offences  no  longer  exist,  they  are 
no  longer  needed  ;  England  is  fully  in  pos- 
session ;  and  by  the  operation  of  those  old 
laws  Ireland  was  utterly  ruined.  England 
has  the  commercial  marine — Ireland  lias  it 
to  create.  England  has  the  manufacturing 
machinery  and  skill,  of  v/hich  Ireland  was 
deprived,  by  express  laws  for  that  pm'pose. 
England  has  the  current  of  trade  establish- 
ed, setting  strongly  in  her  own  channel  ; 
while  Ireland  is  left  dry.  To  create  or  re- 
cover at  this  day  these  great  industrial  and 
commercial  resources,  and  that  in  the  face 
of  wealthy  rivals  already  in  full  possession, 
is  manifestly  impossible,  without  one  or 
other  of  these  two  conditions — either  im- 
mense command  of  capital,  or  effectual  pro- 
tective duties.  But  by  the  Union  our  capi- 
tal is  drained  away  to  England  ;  and  by 
the  Union  we  are  deprived  of  the  power  of 
imposing  protective  duties.  It  was  to  this 
very  end  that  the  Union  was  forced  upon 
Ireland,  through  "  intolerance  of  Irish  pros- 
perity." "  Do  not  unite  with  us,  sir,"  said 
Samuel  Johnson  ;  "icc  shall  rob  you." 

It  was  in  the  year  I'^Oo,  that  the  British 
Government  bethought  itself  of  making  the 
Presbyterians  of  Ulster  more  "  loyal,"  and 
weaning  them  the  better  from  "French  prin- 
ciples," by  largely  increasing  the  scanty  means 
of  the  Dissenting  clergy.  The  Ministers  had 
been  previously  aided,  in  a  very  grudging 
and  shabby  manner,  by  a  sort  of  bribe,  the 
Regium  Donnm,  or  royal  gift,  first  granted 
in  1672,  by  Cliarles  II,  who  gave  £600  of 
"  Secret  Service  money  "  to  be  distributed 
in  equal  portions  among  them  annually. 
The  grant  was  discontinued  towards  the 
close  of  his  reign,  and  during  that  of  James 
II,  but  was  renewed  by  William  III,  who 
augmented  it  to  £1,200  a  year.  In  1784, 
the  amount  was  increased  to  £2,200  ;  iu 
1792,  to  £5,000.  Still  this  was  a  most 
paltry  pittance  for  so  large  a  body  of  clergy- 


434 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


men,  and  rather  degraded  than  enriched 
tliose  who  received  it  ;  while  the  Anglican 
Church,  with  a  smaller  proportion  of  the 
population,  was  so  munificently  endowed 
with  lauds  and  tithes. 

The  Government  toolc  alarm  on  finding 
that  the  Presbyterians  of  Ulster,  both  clergy 
and  laity,  had  been  generally  Republicans 
and  United  Irishmen  in  1798.  Overtures 
were  soon  after  made  to  them  through  their 
must  influential  pastors,  especially  Doctor 
Black,  of  Londonderry,  giving  them  a  pros- 
pect of  great  increase  to  their  grant,  if  they 
would  not  oppose  the  Union.  This  Doctor 
Black  had  been  a  delegate  to  the  Dungan- 
uon  Convention,  in  1772,  and  had  appeared 
amongst  the  other  delegates  in  his  uniform, 
as  a  volunteer  officer. 

These  overtures  had  the  desired  success  ; 
and,  therefore,  in  1803,  the  Rcgium  Donum 
was  quintupled.  The  total  yearly  grant 
to  nori-confurming  Ministers  in  Ireland 
amounted,  in  1852,  to  £38,561.  {Thomas 
Ojjidal  Directory.) 

Doctor  Black  had  a  good  place  ;  he  was 
agent  and  distributor  of  this  disgraceful 
Donum,  and  some  years  afterwards  ho  very 
naturally,  (like  Castlereagh,)  committed  sui- 
cide, by  throwing  himself  otf  the  bridge  of 
Derry  into  the  River  Foyle. 


CHAPTER    XLYI. 

1S04— 1805, 

Mr.  Pitt  in  OflRce— Royal  Speech — No  Mention  of  Ire- 
laud — Alarm  about  Invasion — Martello  Towers — 
Reliance  of  the  Irish  Catholics  on  Mr.  Pitt — Treat- 
ment of  the  Prisoners  —  Mr.  James  Tandy — Mr. 
Pitt  Raises  a  Storm  against  the  Catholics— Catholic 
Meeting  in  Dublin — Habeas  Corpus  Act  again  Sus- 
pended—  Ireland  "  Loyal "— Duplicity  of  Lord 
Hardwicke — Catholic  Deputies  go  to  Mr.  Pitt — A 
"Sincere  Friend" — Mr.  Pitt  Refuses  to  Present 
Catholic  Petition— Declares  he  will  Resist  Emanci- 
pation—Lord Grenville  and  Mr.  Fox  Present  it — 
Debate  in  the  Lords — In  the  Commons — Speeches 
of  Fox,  Doctor  Duigenan,  Grattan— Perceval,  Pitt, 
Sir  John  Newport — Emancipation  Refused,  both  by 
Lords  and  Commons — Great  Majorities. 

When  Mr.  Pitt  returned  to  office  in  1804, 
he  did  not  find  himself  so  omnipotent  in  the 
country,  as  he  had  been  during  his  former 
administration,  or  even  during  that  of  his 
locum-tenem.  Although  Mr.  Addington 
had  affected  not  to  control  the  late  elections 


by  any  treasury  influence,  he  now  exerted 
his  personal  influence  upon  all  the  members, 
who  owed  their  seats  to  his  patronage  or  fa- 
vor, to  join  him  in  opposing  Mr.  Pitt. 
Though  he  could  brook  the  injury  of  being 
displaced,  in  order  to  readmit  Mr.  Pitt  to 
power,  he  could  neither  forgive  nor  forget 
the  insult  of  being  expelled  for  incapacity 
and  weakness.  Mr.  Pitt  expected  to  regain 
more  of  his  lost  power  by  negotiation  during 
the  recess,  than  by  his  oratory  in  the  Senate  ; 
but  was  reluctantly  constrained  to  prolong 
the  session  to  the  31st  of  July.  Under  the 
combination  of  great  external  and  internal 
difficulties,  it  became  an  object  of  peculiar 
anxiety  with  the  Minister  to  give  the  nation 
some  open  and  unequivocal  proof  of  the 
complete  recovery  of  His  Majesty's  health. 
When  the  King  went  to  prorogue  the  Par- 
liament, the  House  of  Peers  was  attended 
l3y  an  unusual  crowd,  and  particularly  by 
the  few  foreign  Ministers  then  resident  in 
London.  In  no  part  of  the  speech  was 
there  even  an  indirect  reference  to  Ireland. 

Ireland,  indeed,  was  completely  removed 
into  the  back-ground  by  the  Union  ;  and 
while  the  Government  felt  it  had  her  safe 
under  the  coercion  of  a  great  army,  and  the 
exhaustion  and  terrorism,  which  now  formed 
the  single  British  policy  for  that  island. 
Ministers  evidently  thought  the  less  said 
about  Ireland  the  better. 

The  apparent  alarm  about  invasion  was 
carefully  kept  up  during  the  whole  summer. 
The  Government  prints  sedulously  warned 
the  public  against  the  machinations  of  the 
French  party,  which  then  prevailed  through- 
out the  country.  Upon  this  assumption 
they  inveighed  against  French  tyranny  and  in- 
justice, and  decried  the  loyalty  of  the  native 
Irish.  Thus  they  justified  the  expense  of 
their  public  measures  of  defence,  and  affec- 
ted to  sanction  the  necessity  of  internal 
coercion.  The  encampment  of  fifteen  thousand 
men  near  the  Curragh  of  Kildare,  consisted 
of  regular  militia,  artillery,  British  horse 
artillery,  and  a  vast  commissariat  and 
driver's  corps.  Everything  bore  the  appear 
ance  of  active  service.  The  Martello  Towers 
and  other  defensive  works  on  the  coast,  were 
forwarded  with  unusual  energy.  Many  ad- 
ditional persons  were  taken  into  custody  under 
the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus,  and  the 


ALARM   ABOUT   INVASION, 


435 


rigorous  treatment  of  the  state  prisoners, 
who  had  been  for  several  months  in  confine- 
ment, was  sharpened  without  any  visible  or 
'  known  cause.* 

The  Catholics,  whom  Pitt  had  insidiously 
deluded  by  prospects  of  emancipation,  were 
BOW  so  simple  as  to  anticipate  on  his  return 
to  place,  some  efficient  steps  for  carrying  that 
object,  for  which  he  professed  to  have  aban- 
doned his  official  situation.  They  now 
publicly  rejoiced  in  the  hencfit  of  having  so 
many  characters  of  eminence  pledged  not  to 
embark  in  the  service  of  Government,  except  on 
the  terms  of  Catholic  privileges  heing  ob- 
tained." Frequent  Catholic  meetings  were 
holden  in  Dublin,  in  which  the  general 
sense  of  the  body  to  petition  Parliament  for 
their  total  emancipation,  was  unanimously 
resolved.  Mr.  Pitt  dreaded  nothing  so 
much,  as  to  have  the  sincerity  of  his  pledges 
brought  under  discussion.  As  Lord  Fingal 
from  his  rank  in  life,  and  more  from  the 
amiable  qualities  of  his  mind,  was  known 
to  possess  the  confidence  of  many  of  his 
Catholic  countrymen.  Sir  Evan  Ncpean  was 
directed   to   attempt    through    his   lordship 

*  Mr.  James  Tandy,  and  thirteen  other  of  the  prin- 
cipal state  prisoners  of  the  first  class,  as  they  were 
Btiled  at  the  Castle,  petitioned  the  Lord-Lieutenant 
Julj'  11,  1804 ;  and  after  having  specified  many  of  the 
acts  of  barbarous  cruelty  inflicted  upon  them,  as 
Bworn  to  in  the  King's  Bench,  they  concluded  in 
these  words :  In  short  we  experience  a  treatment 
rather  calculated  for  untamed  beasts,  than  men. 
They  assured  his  excellency,  that  to  the  pressing 
and  repeated  remonstrances,  which  they  bad  present- 
ed to  Doctor  Trevor,  (the  inspector  of  the  prisons,) 
against  the  harshness  of  their  treatment,  they  had  re- 
ceived a  formal  answer ;  that  it  had  not  only  the 
sanction,  but  its  origin  in  the  express  directions  of 
Lord  Hardwicke's  government.  The  first  petition 
having  not  been  attended  to,  was  followed  by  a 
second  on  August  I'ith,  which  again  complained,  that 
Doctor  Trevor  executed  his  oflBce  in  a  manner  at 
once  mean  and  malicious :  and  pleaded  orders  from 
Government  for  their  rigorous  treatment.  They  com- 
plained, that  they  were  so  reduced  by  their  sufferings 
(uot  merited  by  them,  nor  necessary  for  sale  custo- 
dy',) that  their  lives  were  become  of  no  value  and 
literally  a  burden  to  them,  and  that;  there  was  not 
one  of  the  petitioners,  who  from  many  concurring 
circumstances,  could  not  on  oath  declare  a  firm 
belief  of  an  intention  to  deprive  them  of  life  by  un- 
derhand means. 

These  appeals  recived  not  the  smallest  attention, 
and  great  numbers  of  the  prisoners,  without  a 
charge  against  them,  were  kept  in  various  prisons 
for  years.  Mr.  J.  Tandy,  indeed,  was  liberated  before 
the  end  of  the  year;  having  first  promised  not  to 
Bog  Mr.  S<;cretary  Marsden,  as  he  saya  he  had 
threatened  to  do. 


every  means  to  hold  back  the  petition.  He 
was  invited  to  dinner,  frequently  closeted  at 
the  Castle,  and  more  sedulously  courted, 
thnn  on  any  former  occasion.  However,  his 
lordship  may  have  been  personally  disposed 
to  hold  back,  few  or  none  of  the  body  could 
be  induced  to  postpone  their  petition. 

In  proportion  to  the  failure  of  the  Minis- 
ter's Continental  plans,  did  the  Catholic 
body  of  Ireland  feel  their  own  weight  in  the 
Imperial  scale.  The  aggrandizement  of 
Napoleon  had  been  the  unvarying  result  of 
Mr.  Pitt's  vehement  exertions  to  crush  him. 
He  was  quietly  and  solemnly  crowned  Em- 
peror of  the  French  at  Paris  by  Po])e  Pius 
the  Yll  ;  a  circumstance,  which  Mr.  Pitt 
with  his  usual  craft  attempted  to  convert 
iuto  an  engine  of  obloquy  on  the  Catholic 
body,  and  an  opportune  and  plausible  ob- 
jection to  their  petition,  which  in  spite  of 
his  secret  manoeuvres,  through  Sir  Evan 
Nepean,  he  now  forsaw  would  be  brought 
forward.  The  Government  papers  industri- 
ously published,  and  severely  commented 
upon  a  memorial,  said  to  have  been  written 
by  MacXeven  at  Paris,  addressed  to  the 
Irish  officers  of  the  several  Continental 
Powers,  particularly  to  those  in  the  Austrian 
service,  encouraging  them  to  join  in  the  then 
intended  attempts  to  liberate  Ireland  from 
the  thraldom  of  England  ;  and  promJsing 
to  give  them  timely  notice  of  the  sailing  of 
the  expedition. 

These  Ministerial  journals  vied  also  with 
one  another  in  republishing  and  commenting 
on  the  Papal  allocution,  addressed  by  His 
Holiness  to  a  secret  consistory  at  Rome,  on 
October  28,  1804,  immediately  before  his  de- 
parture for  Paris  to  perform  the  ceremony 
of  the  Iniperinl  coronation.  It  referred  to 
the  gratitude  due  to  Napaleon  for  having  re- 
established the  Catholic  reliiiion  in  France 
by  the  concordat ;  since  whicli  lie  had  put 
forth  all  his  authority  to  cause  it  to  be  fr^'cly 
professed  and  publicly  exercised  throughout 
that  renowned  nation,  and  had  again  re- 
cently shown  himself  most  anxious  for  the 
prosperity  of  that  religion.  It  also  con- 
tained confident  assurance  that  a  personal 
interview  with  the  Emperor,  would  be  for 
the  good  of  the  Catholic  Church,  which 
is  the  only  ark  of  salvation. 

Here    was   a   dreadful    thing  !    they  ex- 


436 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


claimed ;  as  if  all  the  world  had  uot  known 
before  that  Catholics  believed  their  Church 
to  be  the  only  ark  of  salvation.  Editors, 
preachers,  and  pamphleteers,  shrieked  out  in 
all  the  tones  of  alarm  and  horror,  that  this 
meant  burning  heretics.  Here  was  ex- 
treme danger,  they  insisted,  to  a  "  Protestant 
state  ;"— in  this  ominous  reconciliation  of  the 
Emperor  with  the  Church  ;  as  it  would  give 
him  greater  influence  in  Ireland  when  he 
should  land  there  to  overthrow  Church  and 
State,  throne  and  altar.  These  topics  were 
enlarged  on  with  so  much  apparent  sincerity 
of  terroR,  that  an  enlightened  public  really 
began  to  fancy  the  dungeons  of  the  Inqui- 
sition were  already  yawning  before  them. 
Tiiose  scribes,  indeed,  did  not  mention  the 
fact,  that  along  with  the  Catholic  Church, 
the  Emperor  had  also  reestablished  the 
Protestant  Church  in  France.  They  forgot 
to  state,  that  in  France,  the  Protestants  had 
long  been  eviancipated  ;  and  stood,  then  and 
thenceforth,  on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality 
with  their  Catholic  neighbors. 

The  Irish  Catholics  did  uot  yet  know  the 
meaning  of  this  new  outbreak  of  foaming 
rage  against  them  and  their  religion  ;  and 
at  any  rate  thought  Mr.  Pitt  must  be  above 
all  the  storm  of  stupid  malice  which  they 
saw  ragii»g  ;  as,  in  fact,  he  was,  but  he  was 
not  above  exciting  it  and  directing  it  to  his 
own  ends. 

The  leading  part  of  the  Irish  Catholics, 
most  of  whom  had  supported  the  Union  in 
plenary  confidence  of  the  professions  made  by 
Mr.  Pitt  and  Lord  Cornwallis  that  emanci- 
pation would  immediately  follow  it,  held 
frequent  meetings  in  Dublin,  in  order  to 
concert  the  most  efficient  means  of  render- 
ing available  Mr.  Pitt's  disposition  to  favor 
their  cause,  which  they  fondly  assumed  had 
returned  with  him  into  power.  The  general 
precipitancy  of  the  body  to  bring  the  Minis- 
terial sincerity  to  the  test,  was  with  difficulty 
repressed  by  those,  who  were  considered  to  be 
most  directly  under  the  influence  of  the  Castle. 
Au  adjournment  was  carried  from  December 
31st  to  February  16th. 

Parliament  met  again  January  15,  1805  ; 
and  again  His  Majesty's  speech  contained 
not  one  word  in  reference  to  Ireland. 
It  mentioned  the  prompt  and  decisive  steps 
which  he  had  been  obliged  to  take  in  order 


to  guard  against  the  effects  of  hostility  from 
Spain;*  The  speech  also  denounced  the 
"  violence  and  outrage "  of  the  French 
Government,  and  spoke  vaguely  of  the 
European  coalition  against  France  which 
Mr.  Pitt  was  engaged  in  negotiating. 

Several  interesting  debates  passed  in  the 
Commons  upon  Sir  Evan  Nepeau's  motion 
for  suspending  the  Habeas  Corpus  act  in 
Ireland,  which  he  proposed  to  extend  to  six 
weeks  after  the  commencement  of  the  next 
session  of  Parliament.  He  and  Mr.  Pitt 
urged  as  the  grounds  for  that  harsh  mea- 
sure, that  there  were  then  at  Paris  com- 
mittees of  United  Irishmen,  who  communi- 
cated vrith  traitors  in  Ireland  upon  the  most 
efficient  means  of  effecting  the  invasion  of 
that  country ;  and  when  the  House  con- 
sidered the  humane  and  just  diarader  of 
Lord  Hardwidie,  they  would  with  plenitude 
of  confidence  deposit  that  extraordinary 
power  in  his  hands.  Mr.  Fox,  on  the  other 
hand,  warmly  replied,  that  the  character  of 
the  Lord-Lieutenant  was  immaterial.  The 
Constitution  taught  him  to  be  jealous  of 
granting  extraordinary  powers  to  any  man  ; 
and  if  there  were  a  possibility  of  their  being 
abused,  the  mild  character  of  the  man,  in 
whom  they  were  to  be  vested  was  the  worst 
of  arguments.  fif  the  powers  were  not 
necessary,  they  ought  not  to  be  granted  ; 
and  if  necessary,  and  the  Lord-Lieutenant 
were  not  fit  to  be  entrusted  with  them,  he 
ought  to  be  removed.  Mr.  Fox  added 
that  it  was  universally  admitted  that  Ire- 
land was  at  that  moment  as  tranquil  as 
any  county  in  England  ;  why  not  as  well, 
then,  propose  to  suspend  the  Constitution  in 
England  ?  But  the  bill  passed — out  of 
two  hundred  and  thirteen  members,  only 
fifty-four  voted  against  it. 

A  respectable  Catholic  writerf  speaking 
of  this  debate  says,  "  Ireland  in  the  mean- 
time was  loyal  and  tranquil,  in  spite  of  the 
aspersions  and  calumnies  of  the  hired  writers, 
and  the  unsupported  charges  of  some  of  the 
Ministerialists   in    Parliament."     Now    Ice- 

*  This  meant  the  sudden  attack  upon  a  Spanish 
fleet  in  harbor,  previous  to  a  declaration  of  war ; 
one  of  those  feats  of  arms  (like  the  seizure  of  the 
Danish  fleet  under  similar  circumstances,)  by  which 
Great  Britain  at  length  was  enabled  to  boast  that  she 
"ruled  the  seas." 

t  Plowden's  Post-Union  History. 


DUPLICITY    OF   LOED    HARDWICKE. 


437 


land  was,  indeed,  "  tranquil "  at  that  uiomeut, 
but  not  "loyal,"  if  loyalty  means  attacli- 
niont  to  the  Kini^  of  England.  Irish  Catho- 
lics of  that  day  who  could  be  loyal,  must  have 
beeu  something  more,  or  a  good  deal  less, 
than  men.  Tranquil  they  were  ;  but  had 
never  been  better  disposed  to  rise  around 
the  standards  of  a  French  army  ;  and, 
indeed,  the  English  Government  knew  then, 
as  they  know  now,  that  tranquillity  is  a  bad 
omen  for  loyalty  ;  and  that  the  Irish  people 
are  never  so  eager  to  shake  off  the  British 
yoke,  as  when  sheriffs  present  judges  with 
white  gloves. 

On  the  16th  of  February,  pursuant  to 
adjournment,  a  numerous  meeting  of  Catho- 
lic noblemen,  gentlemen,  and  merchants,  was 
held  in  Dublin,  at  which  they  unanimously 
entered  into  the  following  resolutions  :  First. 
That  the  Earl  of  Fingal,  the  Honorable 
Sir  Thomas  (now  Lord)  French,  Sir  Ed- 
ward Bellew,  Counselor  Denys  Scully,  and 
Mr.  Ryan,  should  be  appointed  as  a  deputa- 
tion, to  carry  into  effect  the  under-mentioned 
instructions  ;  and  that  the  other  Roman 
Catholic  Peers,  (of  whom  Lords  Gormans- 
town  and  Southwell  were  then  present,) 
sliould  be  requested  to  accede  to  the  depu- 
tation. Second.  That  the  petition  prepared 
by  the  Catholic  committee,  and  reported  by 
Lord  Fingal  to  that  meeting,  should  be 
then  signed  by  Lord  Fingal  and  the  other 
Catholic  gentlemen,  a.nd  that  the  above- 
mentioned  deputies  should  present  it  to  Mr. 
Pitt,  with  a  request,  that  he  would  bring  it 
into  Parliament. 

Now  was  seen  the  excessive  duplicity  of 
Lord  Hardwicke.  He  had  been  selected 
from  the  mass  of  peerage,  as  the  best  quali- 
fied to  resist  the  emancipation  of  Ireland, 
under  the  insidious  mission  of  reconciling 
her  to  thraldom.  The  ordinary  manoeuvres 
of  the  Castle  upon  Lord  Fingal,  and  other 
leading  men  of  the  Catholic  body,  to  induce 
them  to  hold  back  their  petition  had  failed. 
His  lordship  could  not  consistently  with  his 
duty  to  his  employers  back,  countenance,  or 
recommend  their  petition,  however  just  the 
claims,  however  worthy  the  claimants.  But 
now,  under  the  British  Minister's  assuranve 
of  a  decided  majority  against  the  question,  the 
Irish  Viceroy  affected  to  favor  the  Catho- 
lics' application  by  discountenancing  counter- 


petitions,  as  encroaching  upon  the  freedom 
of  Parliamentary  debate.  He  even  did  one 
act,  which  was  intended  as  a  proof  of  his 
sincerity  :  he  dismissed  the  notorious  Mr. 
John  GifTard  from  a  lucrative  post  for  having 
proposed  and  carried,  in  the  Dublin  corpora- 
tion, some  violent  resolutions  against  Catho- 
lic Emancipation.  He  thought  the  sacrifice 
of  one  man  was  a  trifle  ;  and  so  punished 
Giffard  for  opposing  a  measure  which  he 
himself  was  doubly  pledged  to  resist. 

The  Catholic  Deputies  proceeded  to  Lon- 
don, and  had  their  conference  with  Mr.  Pitt, 
on  the  12th  of  Marcli.  Eight  deputies 
attended  the  conference,  viz.,  the  Earl  of 
Shrewsbury,  (Watcrford  and  We.xford  in 
Ireland,)  Earl  of  Fingal,  Viscount  Gor- 
manstown,  Lord  Southwell,  Lord  Trimbles- 
town,  Sir  Edward  Bellew,  Counselor  Denys 
Scully,  and  Mr.  Ryan.  They  told  Mr.  Pitt 
they  regarded  him  as  their  "  sincere  friend  ;" 
that  they  hoped  everything  from  his  liberality 
and  justice,  and  so  urged  him  to  present 
their  petition  to  Parliament. 

Mr.  Pitt  declared  "  that  the  confidence 
of  so  very  respectable  a  body  as  the  CaMio- 
lics  of  Ireland  was  highly  gratifying  to  iiim  ;" 
but  he  added  that  the  time  had  not  come  ; 
there  were  obstacles  ;  that,  in  short,  he  would 
not  present  their  petition  at  all.  After  many 
arguments  and  much  urgency,  they  at  last 
entreated  him  only  to  lay  it  on  the  table  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  they  would  autlio- 
rize  him  to  state  to  the  House,  that  they  did 
not  press  the  immediate  adojdion  of  the  viea- 
sure  frayed  for. 

Mr.  Plowdeu,  who  had  the  best  means  of 
knowing  what  passed  at  this  conference,  says, 
with  asperity,  that  Mr.  Pitt  "drily  repeated 
his  negative  ;"  and  then  adds  :  "He  neither 
threw  out  a  suggestion  for  their  applying  to 
any  other  channel,  nor  gave  any  ground  for 
presuming,  that  the  introduction  of  the 
petition  through  any  Mini.'^terial  member 
would  be  likely  to  soften  his  opposition. 
For  he  very  explicitly  declared,  that  he 
should  feelit  his  duty  to  resist  it.  The  only 
advice  he  condescended  to  offer,  was  to 
withdraw  their  petition  altogether,  or  at  all 
events  to  postpone  it."  * 

*  Mr    Pitt  might  on  this  occasion  have  candidly 

aclvuowlci^eJ  what  Lcird  Hawlvcsbury  publicly  and 
officially  declared  in  the  House   of  Lords,  March  26, 


438 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


The  "  leading  Catholics"  foimd  tiiemselves 
now  completely  in  the  position  of  dupes  ; 
aud  they  richly  deserved  it,  for  having  as- 
sented to  the  destruction  of  their  country's 
national  independence,  seduced  by  the  pro- 
fessions of  an  English  Minister.  At  .all 
events,  the  time  was  not  yet  come  ;  nor  the 
man.  But  a  more  vigorous  race  of  Catho- 
lics was  growing  up  ;  and  in  especial  one 
bold,  blue-eyed  yoUng  man,  who  was  then 
carrying  his  bag  in  the  hall  of  the  Four 
Courts — destined  one  day  to  hold  the  great 
leading  brief  in  the  mighty  cause  of  six 
millions  of  his  countrymen.  O'Connell  was 
not  yet  a  leading  Catholic  ;  but  was  fast 
becoming  well  known  in  his  own  profession  ; 
and  an  Orange  judge,  in  a  party  case,  pre- 
ferred to  see  any  other  advocate  pleading 
before  him. 

The  Catholic  Delegates  next  applied  to 
Mr.  Fox  and  Lord  Grenville,  who  agreed 
to  present  the  petition — one  in  the  Lords, 
the  other  in  the  Commons.  This  was  done 
on  the  25th  of  March.  When  Lord  Gren- 
ville moved  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that  it 
should  lie  on  the  table,  Lord  Auckland  rose 
with  precipitancy,  and  observed  with  some 
warmth,  that  as  far  as  his  ears  could  catch 
the  tenor  of  it,  it  went  to  overthrow  the 
whole  system  of  Church  and  State  ;  and  if 
the  prayer  of  it  were  to  be  granted,  he 
should  soon  see  a  Protestant  Church  without 
ii  Protestant  congregation,  and  a  Protestant 
King  with  a  Popish  Legislature.  He  ex- 
pressed great  anxiety,  that  the  question 
should  be  calmly  and  fully  discussed,  sum- 
moned the  Reverend  Bench  to  arm  them- 
selves for  the  combat,  &c.  The  venerable 
Lord  Eldon,  objected  even  to  the  formal 
motion,  that  the  petition  should  be  printed. 
After  Mr.  Fox  presented  it  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  the  matter  stood  over  for  early 
days  in  May,  in  both  Houses  of  Parliament. 
Petitions  against  it  were  presented  from 
the  IJniversities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
from  the  cities  of  London  and  Dublin,  the 
County  Fermanagh,  and  other  corporations 
and  public  bodies. 

1807,  in  debating  the  grounds  of  the  Grenville  ad- 
rainistratiou's  retiring  from  office  ;  that,  although  Mr. 
i^itt  had  in  ISO  I  gone  out  of  office  ou  that  queotiou, 
yet  on  iiis  returnlie  toluntarilij  eu-jagedytltat  he  )u't:er 
xcoald  again  bri/ig  the  sabjeci  under  the  considera- 
tion of  Ilia  Majesty. 


Lord  Fitzwilliam,  who  was  still  a  friend 
to  the  .Catholics,  and  well  remembered  how 
Mr.  Pitt  had  cheated  him  also  upon  that 
question,  conceived  the  idea  of  bringing  Mr, 
Grattan  hito  the  debate  ;  and,  accordingly, 
induced  the  Honorable  C.  L.  Dundas  to  va- 
cate his  seat  for  the  borough  of  Malton, 
aud  Mr.  Grattan  was  returned  for  it. 

On  the  appointed  day,  the  discussion  in 
the  Lords  arose,  on  motion  to  commit 
the  bill.  After  some  other  Peers  had  been 
heard,  His  Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  (an  Orangeman,)  gave  his  de- 
cided opposition  to  the  motion  before  the 
House,  and  urged  every  resistance  in  his 
power  to  a  "  measure  subversive  of  all  the 
principles  which  placed  the  House  of  Bruns- 
wick upon  the  throne  of  these  realms." 

Lord  Camden  found  full  reason  for  op- 
posing the  motion  in  the  grounds  upon  which 
the  Irish  Parliament  had  negatived  the 
question,  whilst  he  had  the  honor  of  being 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  Irish  Govern- 
ment. 

The  Bishop  of  Durham,  the  wealthiest 
prelate  in  Europe,  and  who  naturally  valued 
that  Constitution  in  Church  and  State  which 
had  made  him  so,  urged  that  the  motion  could 
not  be  acceded  to  without  danger  to  the 
Church  and  State.  It  would  be  a  direct 
surrender  of  the  security  of  the  best  consti- 
tution in  the  world. 

Lord  Redesdale  made  a  very  violent  speech 
against  the  motion.  He  said,  "  to  pass 
such  a  measure  would  be  to  take  the  titles 
and  lands  from  the  Protestant  hierarchy, 
and  give  them  to  the  Catholic  Bishops." 
He  said,  further,  "  If  the  Catholic  hier- 
archy were  abolished,  something  might  be 
done  to  conciliate  the  Catholic  body  ;  and 
to  the  generality  of  that  body,  he  was  con- 
fident, the  abolition  of  the  hierarchy  would 
be  extremely  grateful." 

Lord  Caiieton,  an  Irish  judge,  ran  over  all 
the  usual  Protestant  phrases,  about  the  faith- 
lessness and  crtielty  of  Catholics.  He  laid 
much  stress  upon  certain  "  maps  of  the  for- 
feited estates,"  which,  he  said,  had  been 
prepared,  in  order  to  guide  the  proceedings 
oVresumplion*      Lord   Carleton   added   a 

*  His   lordship  thus  described  a  map  of  Ireland, 
prepared  by  the  antiquary,  Mr.  Charles    O'Conor, 

of  Uulanagare,  showing  the  situation  of  the  tribc-hindij 
of  the  aujicut  clans  before  the  reigu  of  Elizabeih. 


DEBATE   rN    THE   HOUSE   OF   LORDS IN    THE   COMMOISB. 


439 


singular  leg^al  opinion  :  "  That  the  spiritual 
su|)remaL'y  of  the  Church  was  by  the  law 
of  this  country  vested  in  the  Crown  ;  and 
surely  it  was  a  piece  of  the  highest  contu- 
macy in  a  sect  of  His  Majesty's  subjects  to 
deny  that  supremacy,  and  to  vest  the  control 
in  a  foreign  potentate." 

Lord  Buekinghamsliire,  like  all  other  op- 
posers  of  the  motion,  spoke  much  of  his 
own  disposition  to  liberality  and  concilia- 
tion ;  denied  that  any  such  pledge  for  eman- 
cipation, as  had  been  alluded  to,  was  or 
conld  have  been  given,  and  deemed  it  most 
inflammatory  to  allege,  that  the  Catholics 
would  be  sore  or  irritated  at  the  refusal  of 
the  prayer  of  the  petition. 

After  an  astonishing  mass  of  benighted 
spite  and  bigotry  had  been  vented  all  night, 
at  six  in  the  morning  a  division  was  had. 
The  motion  to  commit  was  rejected  by  a 
majority  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  ; 
and  so  ended  Emancipation  in  the  Lords  for 
that  time. 

In  the  Commons,  JMr.  Fox  introduced  the 
same  subject  in  a  long  and  able  speech.  He 
gave  a  history  of  the  Penal  Code,  and  of 
its  successive  relaxations  ;  pointed  out  how 
useless  and,  at  the  same  time,  how  irritating 
were  the  remuijiing  links  in  the  chain,  which 
it  was  theu  proposed  to  strike  off ;  proved 
that  the  Catholics  had  received  assurances, 
on  the  part  of  Mr.  Pitt,  which  induced 
them,  as  a  body,  to  remain  passive  at  the 
time  of  the  Union  ;  and  that  now  those 
pledges  ought  to  be  redeemed.  Mr.  Fox 
concluded  an  excellent  address,  by  saying  : 
"He  relied  on  the  affection  and  loyalty  of 
the  Pioman  Catholics  of  Ireland  ;  but  he 
would  not  press  them  too  far  ;  he  would  not 
draw  the  cord  too  tight.  It  was  surely  too 
much  to  expect,  that  they  would  always 
fight  for  a  constitution,  in  the  benefits  of 
which  they  were  assured,  they  never  should 
participate  equally  with  their  fellow-subjects. 
"Whatever  was  to  be  the  fate  of  the  peti- 
tion, he  rejoiced  at  having  had  an  opportun- 
ity of  bringing  it  under  their  consideration, 
and  moved  to  refer  it  to  a  committee  of 
the  whole  House." 

The  famous  Doctor  Duigenan  had  the 
courage  to  reply  to  Mr.  Fox  ;  although  he 
saw  G  rattan  oppo.site,  who  already  tlireat- 
eued  him  with  his  eye.     He  oppo.sed  the  mo 


tion  in  a  long  speech,  which  lasted  above 
three  hours  ;  the  general  spirit  and  sub- 
stance of  which  was  to  prove,  that  by  the 
ancient  councils  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
and  her  invariable  doctrine,  no  Catholic 
could  take  an  oath,  from  the  obligations  of 
which  he  could  not  at  the  will  of  the  priest 
be  released  ;  that  the  Catholics  maintained 
no  faith  was  to  be  kept  with  heretics,  and 
such  they  con.sidered  every  denomination 
of  Christians  but  themselves  ;  and  that  it 
was  impossible  for  a  Catholic  to  be  truly 
loyal  to  a  Protestant  King.  He  contended 
that  the  ninety-one  persons  who  had  signed 
the  Catholic  petition,  did  not  by  any  means 
represent  the  body  of  the  Irish  Catholics  ; 
he  assumed,  that  none  of  the  clergy  had 
signed,  because  they  still  maintained  the 
obnoxious  doctrines  which  the  best  in- 
formed   of  the   laity    wished    to    renounce. 

He  contended  that  the  oath  of  supremacy 
(swearing  that  the  King  is  head  of  the 
Church,)  was  a  mere  sivifte  oath  of  allegiance, 
and  that  it  imported  neither  exclusion  nor 
restriction  to  any  but  traitors.  He  com- 
mented largely  upon  the  oath  of  canoni- 
cal obedience  to  the  Pope  taken  by  the 
Catholic  15ishops  ;  inveighed  fiercely  against 
Doctor  Hussey,  the  late  Catholic  Bishop  of 
Watcrford,  for  forbidding  his  flock  to  send 
their  children  to  Protestant  schools  for  educa- 
tion, and  he  drew  the  conclusion  from  Doctor 
Hussey's  remark — that  the  lo.ss  or  abandon- 
ment of  his  religion  by  the  Catholic  soldier 
might  be  felt  in  the  day  of  battle,  that  zw 
plain  English,  the  Romish  soldier  might  then 
turn  upon  and  assassinate  his  officer  or  desert 
to  the  enemy.  This  measure  would  let  in  an  uni- 
versal deluge  of  atheism,  infidelity,  and  anar- 
chy. It  would  admit  the  Pope's  supremacy 
over  the  Church  of  these  realms  ;  it  would 
violate  the  conditions  of  both  Unions,  with 
Scotland  and  with  Ireland  ;  and  to  tender  to 
His  Majesty  a  bill  of  that  import  for  his  royal 
signature,  would  be  to  insult  him,  by  supposing 
him  capable  of  violating  his  Coronation  oath. 

Mr.  Grattan  rose,  and  his  rising  was 
greeted  with  breathless  attention.  He  had 
never  appeared  in  that  House  before  ;  and 
his  fame  as  a  noble  orator,  and  incorruptible 
patriot,  impressed  the  English  legislators 
more  than  they  would  have  liked  to  own  to 
tliemseives. 


440 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


Mr.  G rattan  said  he  rose  to  defend  the 
Catholics  from  Doctor  Duigenan's  attack, 
and  the  Protestants  from  his  defence.  The 
question  for  their  consideration,  was  not,  as 
the  learned  member  had  stated,  whether 
they  should  now  qualify  or  still  keep  dis- 
qualified some  few  Roman  Catholic  gentle- 
men for  seats  in  Parliament,  or  certain 
officers  in  the  state  ;  but  whether,  they 
would  impart  to  a  fifth  portion  of  the  popu- 
lation of  their  European  empire  a  commu- 
nity in  that,  which  was  their  vital  principle 
and  strength,  and  thus  confirm  the  integrity, 
and  augment  the  power  of  the  empire. 
That  learned  member  had  emphatically  said, 
that  the  people  of  Ireland  to  be  good 
Catholics  must  be  bad  subjects  ;  that  the 
Irish  Catholic  is  not,  never  was,  and  never 
can  be,  a  faithful  subject  to  a  Protestant 
English  King.  Thus  has  he  pronounced 
against  his  countrymen  three  curses — eternal 
war  with  each  other  ;  eternal  war  with  Eng- 
land; eternal  peace  with  France.  He  fully  an- 
swered the  doctrinal  parts  of  Doctor  Duige- 
fian's  speech,  and  concluded,  that  as  the 
Catholic  religion  was  professed  by  above 
two-thirds  of  all  Christendom,  it  would 
follow,  that  Christianity  was  in  general  a 
curse  ;  but  of  his  own  countrymen  he  had 
added,  that  they  were  depraved  by  religion, 
and  rendered  perverse  by  nativity  ;  that  is 
to  say,  according  to  him,  blasted  by  their 
Creator,  and  damned  by  their  Redeemer. 
Mr.  G rattan  closed  an  animated  detail  of  the 
evils  of  the  proscriptive  system  with  observ- 
ing, that  if  they  wished  to  strip  rebellion  of 
its  hopes,  and  Prance  of  her  expectations, 
they  should  reform  their  policy  ;  they  would 
gain  a  conquest  over  their  enemies  when 
they  had  gained  a  victory  over  themselves. 

The  Speaker  entered  into  long  detail,  of 
all  the  dealings  of  the  Irish  Government 
v.'ith  the  Catholics  on  this  question  ;  but  it 
would  be  in  vain  with  our  limits  to  attempt 
even  a  full  abstract  of  this  remarkable 
speech.  When  the  Parliament  of  Ireland 
(he  said)  rejected  the  Catholic  petition, 
and  assented  to  the  calumnies  uttered  against 
the  Catholic  body,  on  that  day  she  voted  the 
Union  ;  and  should  they  adopt  a  similar 
conduct,  on  that  day  they  would  vote  the 
separation.  lie  was  surprised  to  see  them 
running   about    like   growii-'-.p   children  in 


search  of  old  prejudices,  preferring  to  buy 
foreign  allies  by  subsidies,  rather  than  to 
subsidize  fellow-sul)jfcts  by  privileges.  He 
figured  them  then  drawn  up,  sixteen  against 
thirty-six  millions,  and  paralyzing  one-fifth 
of  their  own  numbers,  by  excluding  them 
from  some  of  the  principal  benefits  of  their 
constitution,  at  the  very  time  they  said,  all 
their  numbers  were  inadequate,  unless  in- 
spired by  those  very  privileges.  Such  a 
system  could  not  last  ;  if  the  two  islands  re- 
nounced all  national  prejudices,  they  would 
form  a  strong  empire  in  the  west  to  check, 
and  ultimately  to  confound  the  ambition  of 
the  enemy. 

Mr.  Perceval,  a  pious  man,  and  one  Of 
the  first  of  the  race  of  "saints,"  (he  was 
then  Attorney-General,)  opposed  the  motion, 
for  the  sort  of  reasons,  and  in  the  precise 
style  of  some  conventicle  preacher.  "But," 
he  said,  "  he  remarked  the  indisposition  of 
the  House  to  listen  to  him  ;  which  he  was 
not  surprised  at  ;  for  he  was  conscious  that, 
after  the  blaze  of  Mr.  Grattan's  eloquence, 
everything  that  fell  from  him  must  appear 
vapid  and  uninteresting.  Had  he  been  in 
the  Irish  Parliament,  he  never  would  have 
consented  to  grant  the  elective  franchise, 
nor  the  establishment  of  Maynooth  for  edu- 
cating the  Catholic." 

Mr.  Perceval  knew  that  he  could  safely 
pay  a  tribute  to  Mr.  Grattan's  eloquence, 
and  disparage  himself  with  all  the  humility 
of  a  "  saint."  He  felt  that  the  grand  cause 
of  Ascendancy  was  safe  in  that  House,  and 
that  though  G  rattan  spoke  with  the  tongue 
of  men  and  angels,  he  conld  not  prevent  or 
reverse  the  inevitable  decision. 

The  motion  was  supported  by  some  lib- 
eral Englishmen,  (for  there  is  always  a  small 
minority  of  liberal  Englishmen,)  and  warmly 
advocated  by  George  Ponsonby  ;  when  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  Mr.  Pitt, 
aiose.  His  speech  was  highly  characteris- 
tic.    He  said  : — 

"  He  was  favorably  disposed  to  the  gener- 
al •principle  of  the  question,  but  differing  in 
many  points  from  those  who  had  introduced 
or  supported  the  motion,  he  thought  fit  to 
observe,  that  he  had  never  considered  the 
question,  as  involving  any  claim  of  right. 
Right  was  totally  independent  of  circum- 
stances  ;  expcditncy  included  the  cousiderar 


EMANCIPATION   KEFUSED,    BOTH   BY   LORDS   AND    COMMONS. 


441 


tion  of  circumstances,  and  was  wliolly  depend- 
ent npon  tliem.  Upon  the  principle  of  ex- 
pediency he  felt  that,  entertaining  as  he  did, 
a  wish  for  the  repeal  of  the  whole  penal 
code,  and  a  regret  that  it  had  not  been 
;,:  abolished,  he  felt,  that  in  no  possible  case 
"^  TDefore  the  Union,  could  those  privileges 
have  been  granted  to  the  Catholics  with 
safety  to  the  existing  Protestant  establish- 
ment in  Church  and  State.  After  that 
measure,  he  saw  the  matter  in  a  different 
light  ;  though  certainly  no  pledge  was  ever 
given  to  the  Catholics  that  their  claims 
should  be  granted  ;  [nobody  had  ever  said 
such  a  pledge  had  been  given  ;  the  pledge 
h(.  had  given  was,  that  lie,  Mr.  Pitt,  would 
support  the  measure,  and  would  never  hold 
ofEce  without  making  it  a  Ministerial  ques- 
tion.] But  he  said  there  were  irresistible 
obstacles  [which  he  had  taken  care  to  raise 
up,]  and  .should  the  question  not  be  carried, 
and  he  saw  no  probability  that  it  would,  the 
only  effect  of  agitating  it  would  be  to  excite 
hopes  that  would  never  be  gratified,  and  to 
give  rise  to  expectations  which  were  sure  to 
terminate  in  disappointment." 

He  next  took  another  line  of  argument. 
They  were  anxious  to  conciliate  the  Cath- 
olics ;  but  let  tiiem  not,  in  so  doing,  irritate 
a  nmch  larger  portion  of  their  fellovv-sub- 
jects.  Whilst  they  drew  together  the  bonds 
which  united  one  class  of  the  population, 
let  them  not  give  offence  to  another  part  of 
it,  whose  loyalty  and  attachment  [to  their 
own  interests]  had  long  been  undoubted. 
He  should  disguise  the  truth,  if  he  did  not 
say  the  prevailing  opinion  against  the  peti- 
tion was  strong  and  rooted.  He  should, 
therefore,  act  contrary  to  all  sense  of  his 
duty,  and  inconsistently  with  the  original 
line  he  had  marked  for  his  conduct,  were 
he  to  countenance  that  petition  in  any 
shape,  or  to  withhold  giving  his  negative  to 
the  proposition  for  going  into  the  committee." 
Sir  John  Newport,  of  Waterford,  rose 
with  the  special  object  of  rebutting  the  as- 
sertions contained  in  the  petition  from  the 
io-uorant  Orange  Corporation  of  Dublin. 
The  corporators  had  asserted,  (in  utter  ig- 
norance,) that  the  Irish  Catholics  were 
placed  on  a  footing  of  political  power,  not 
enjoyed  by  any  other  dissenters  from  an  es- 
tablished Church  in  Europe.  Sir  John  Xew- 
56 


port  said  he  would  give  one  instance  to  the 
contrary — he  might  have  given  many  : — 

"The  States  of  Hungary,"  he  said,  "re- 
sembled our  Constitution  more  closely  than 
any  other  Continental  establishment.  They 
formed  a  population  of  above  seven  millions, 
and  had  for  centuries  suffered  all  the  evils 
of  being  divided  by  religion,  distracted  V)y 
the  difference  of  their  tenets,  and  restric- 
tions on  account  of  them.  At  length,  in 
n91,  at  the  most  violent  crisis  of  disturb- 
ance, a  Diet  was  convened,  at  which  a  de- 
cree was  passed,  by  which  full  freedom  of 
religious  faith,  worship,  and  education,  was 
secured  to  every  sect,  without  exception. 
The  tests  and  oaths  were  rendered  unobjec- 
tionable to  any  native  Hungarian,  be  his 
religion  what  it  would  ;  and  then  came  the 
clause  which  gave  them  precisely  what  these 
petitioners  have  in  contemplation.  Tliat 
'  the  public  offices  and  honors,  whether  high 
or  low,  great  or  small,  should  be  given  to 
natural-born  Hungarians,  who  had  deserved 
well  of  their  country,  and  possessed  the 
other  requisite  qualifications,  without  any  re- 
sjped  to  their  religion.'  The  Diet  consisted 
of  nearly  four  hundred  members,  with  a 
splendid  civil  establishment  for  the  Komaa 
Catholic  religion.  The  measure  was  adopt- 
ed in  a  most  critical  moment,  and  it  had  suc- 
cessfully passed  an  ordeal  of  fourteen  revo- 
lutionary years,  equal,  in  fact,  to  the  trial 
of  a  century  less  disturbed  and  agitated." 

Mr.  Maurice  Fitzgerald  supported  the 
motion,  and  solemnly  declared,  that  when 
he  voted  for  Union  in  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment, it  was  in  view  and  contemplation  of 
that  measure,  for  no  man  could  deny,  that 
the  impression  then  made  on  the  Catliolic 
mind  was,  that  Ministers,  as  well  as  oppo- 
sition, were  in  favor  of  their  claims.  They 
expected,  of  course,  that  much  more  attention 
would  be  paid  to  them  now. 

Colonel  Archdall  (a  North  of  Ireland 
Orangeman,)  asserted,  that  the  bulk  of  the 
Roman  Catholics  were  not  anxious  about 
the  result  of  the  question  ;  if  the  cause 
were  a  good  one,  it  had  been  very  ill-con- 
ducted ;  aud  he  gave  the  motion  his  decided 
negative. 

Sir  John  Cox  Hippesley  supported  the 
motion  to  commit  the  bill  ;  and  in  order,  as 
he  said,  to  obviate  the  o'jections  of  those 


442 


HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 


who  apprehended  tlie  supremacy  of  the  Pope 
over  Irish  Catliolics,  he  suggested  that  the 
Catholic  Church  in  Ireland,  should  be  put 
upon  the  footing  of  the  Galilean  Church  ;  in 
other  words,  that  the  Crown  should  have  a 
veto  upon  the  appointment  of  Bishops  by  the 
Pope.  This  was  the  first  distinct  mention 
of  the  veto  in  Parliament  ;  a  question  which 
afterwards  led  to  much  grave  dissension  in 
Ireland.* 

Honorable  H.  Augustus  Dillon  denied, 
that  the  question  involved  a  party  measure. 
It  affected  the  safety  of  Ireland,  and  the 
vitality  of  the  empire.  The  hearts  of  the 
Irish  people  had  been  alienated  by  martial 
law,  and  the  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus 
act,  and  by  other  severities  and  oppressions. 
Were  that  measure  allowed  to  pass,  such 
expedients  would  cease  to  be  necessary,  and 
the  mass  of  brave  and  grateful  people  would 
present  a  firm,  an  iron  bulwark  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  country  against  the  designs  of 
-  the  enemy. 

On  the  whole,  it  was   apparent  in  this 
famous  debate,  that  all  the   lofty  intellect, 

*  But  this  was  not  the  origin  of  the  veto.  It  bad 
been  a  favorite  scheme  of  Mr.  Pitt's  since  1799.  In 
that  year,  au  insidious  proposal  had  been  made  to 
give  a  state  endowment  to  Catholic  Bishops  in  Ire- 
land, on  certain  conditions,  amounting  in  principle  to 
the  veto.  Mr.  Piowdcn  relates  that  the  prelates  did 
not  then  fully  appreciate  the  object  of  this  proposal ; 
which  was  no  less  than  to  buy  them  up,  and  make 
them  a  species  of  ecclesiastical  police.  Plowden 
tells  us : — 

"  It  was  admitted  by  a  large  number  of  the  pre- 
lates, then  convened  in  Dublin,  that  it  ought  to  by 
thankfully  accepted. 

"  They  went  a  step  further,  and  signed  the  following 
resolution  :  '  That  in  the  appointment  of  the  prelates 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  to  vacant  sees  within 
the  kingdom,  such  interference  by  the  Government,  as 
may  enable  it  to  be  satisfied  with  the  loyalty  of  the 
person  appointed,  is  just,  and  ought  to  be  agreed  to.' 
And  for  the  purpose  of  giving  it  effect,  they  further 
resolved, '  that  after  the  usual  canonical  election,  the 
president  should  transmit  the  name  of  the  elected  to 
Government,  which  in  one  month  after  such  transmiss- 
ion, should  return  the  name  of  the  elected,  (if  unob- 
jectionable,) that  he  might  be  confirmed  by  the  Holy 
See.  If  he  should  be  objected  to  by  Government,  the 
president  on  such  communication,  should,  after  the 
month,  convene  the  electors,  in  order  to  choose  some 
other  candidate.'  Mr.  Pitt  uever  lost  sight  of  this 
insidious  negotiation,  into  which  he  had  seduced  a 
certain  number  of  the  unsuspecting  prelntes.  This 
was  the  foundation-stone  of  that  deep-laid  plan  of 
Mr.  Pitt  and  his  associates,  to  seduce  or  force  the 
Iri.sh  Catholics' into  the  same  state  of  schism  from  the 
Church  of  Rome,  as  that  which  took  place  in  En,"-- 
land  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  This  was  the  origin 
of  that  vital  question  of  ■ueto."  ■  "     , 


and  all  the  honest  principles  in  the  British 
Parliament  were  in  favor  of  the  measure  of 
Catholic  Emancipation.  But  that  was  a 
contemptible  minority.  The  question,  upon 
the  motion  of  Mr.  Fox,  was  negatived 
—ayes,  124  ;  nays,  336  ;  majority,  212. 

So  Catholic  Emancipation  was  set  at  rest 
in  both  Houses  of  the  British  Parliament ; 
and  the  "Protestant  Interest,"  and  the 
Constitution  in  Church  and  State,  were 
saved,  it  was  hoped,  forever. 


CHAPTER    XLYII. 

1804—1806. 

Prosecution  of  Judge  Fox — His  Offence,  Enforcing 
Law  on  Orangemen — Prosecution  of  Judge  John- 
sou — His  Offence,  Censuring  the  Irish  Government 
—  Decline  of  Pitt's  Power— Castlereagh  Defeated 
in  Down  County — Successes  of  Buonaparte— Cry 
for  Peace— Death  of  Mr.  Pitt— Whig  Ministry— Mr. 
Fox — His  Opinion  of  the  Union — First  Whisper  of 
"Repeal'' — Release  of  State  Prisoners — Dismissal 
of  Lord  Redesdale  as  Chancellor — Duke  of  Bedford 
Viceroy — The  Catholics  Cheated  Again — Equivo- 
cation of  the  Viceroy — Ponsonby — Curran's  Pro- 
motion— The  Armagh  Orangemen — Mr.  Wilson  the 
Magistrate. 

Some  very  extraordinary  proceedings  took 
place  in  this  and  subsequent  sessions  of 
Parliament,  with  respect  to  two  of  the  most 
irreproachable  of  the  Irish  judges — Mr, 
Justice  Fox  and  Mr.  Justice  Johnson. 

In  the  summer  of  1803,  Judge  Fox  had 
gone  the  Northwest  Circuit,  a  region 
which  was  then  predominated  over  by  a 
few  great  Orange  magnates,  and  magistrates 
wlio  were  their  very  humble  servants,  and 
the  savage  tyrants  of  the  poor  country 
people,  who  were  principally  Catholics.  As 
senior  judge  it  was  Judge  Fox's  duty  to 
charge  the  Grand  Juries  ;  and  in  Longford, 
at  Enniskillen,  and  Lifford,  he  made  them 
very  paternal  and  loyal  addresses  ;  intended, 
as  usual,  for  the  whole  of  the  people  of 
tliose  counties.  Endeavoring  to  awaken 
them  to  a  high  sense  of  the  dangers,  which 
hovered  over  them  from  external  and  inter- 
nal foes,  he  called  upon  the  exertion  of  their 
best  energies.  He  reminded  them  of  the 
recent  horrors  of  the  23d  of  July,  and 
warned  them  of  the  dangers  of  the  leaders 
of  that   rebellion   still  remaining  at   large. 


PROSECUTION    OF   JUDGE   FOX HIS    OFFENCE. 


un 


He  strougly  commented  on  t!ie  nature  and 
extent  of  that  insurrection,  aud  on  the 
origin  and  motives  of  the  persons  engaged 
iu  it.  He  exhorted  them  to  ^cnion  amongst 
themselves — to  forget  their  religious  animosi- 
ties, by  which  the  country  had  been  so  long 
wealxned  and  divided,  aud  to  join  in  present- 
ing a  dutiful  aud  loyal  address  to  the  throne, 
praying  His  Majesty  to  strengthen  the  exe- 
cutive government  of  the  country,  &c. 

"Now,  if  Judge  Fox  had  done  nothing 
more  than  utter  iu  the  ears  of  an  Orange 
Grand  Jury  the  words  above  printed  in 
italics,  he  could  never  have  been  forgiven. 
But  he  did  worse.  When  he  came  to  Ennis- 
killen,  and  proceeded  as  his  duty  was  to 
deliver  the  jail  there,  the  names  of  two 
prisoners  were  returned  to  him  by  the  jailer, 
who  had  been  committed  by  the  Earl  of 
Enuiskilleu,  as  a  magistrate  ;  but  without 
any  offence  being  charged  against  them. 
Their  names  were  Breslin  and  Maguire. 
Tlie  committals  were  called  for  and  pro- 
duced— they  specified  no  offence  ;  but  iu 
one  of  them  was  an  order  to  keep  poor 
Breslin  iu  solitary  confinement.  The  judge, 
thereupon,  ordered  the  prisoners  to  be 
brought  to  the  bar,  iu  order  to  inquire  of 
them,  the  facts  iiUeged  against  them.  The 
jailer  then  informed  the  judge,  that  those 
two  prisoners  were  taken  out  of  his  custody 
on  the  18th  of  August,  (that  is  during  the 
assizes,)  by  a  military  guard  sent  for  the 
purpose.*  The  judge  felt  this  to  be  a  high 
indignity  offered  to  His  Majesty's  commis- 
sion ;  aud  inquired,  if  Lord  Enuiskilleu 
were  iu  town.  Ou  learning  that  he  was  at 
bis  countiy  seat,  (Florence  Court,)  he  de- 
sired a  friend  of  his  lordship's  to  go  over 
to  him  with  full  instructions  to  relate  the 
whole  faithfully,  make  his  compliments,  and 
entreat  his  lordship's  attendance  in  court  on 
the  next  day,  which  was  the  last  day  of  the 
assizes.  The  judge  having  waited  iu  court 
to  as  late  an  hour  as  he  could,  for  the  ap- 
pearance of  Lord  Enuiskilleu  ;  and  having 

*  Maguire  never  was  heard  of  more.  Breslin  was 
hurried  off' by  soldiers  to  a  rnilitar}'  prison,  where  he 
■was  kept  a  longtime  ;  then  tried  by  court-martial  on 
the  charge  of  trying  to  seduce  a  soldier  to  desert, 
convicted,  and  sentenced  to  be  hung.  He  cut  his 
throat  to  avoid  the  execution  of  the  sentence,  but 
the  wound  was  not  mortal;  and  he  was  hung  near 
Enniskillen,  with  the  rope  forced  into  the  bleeding 
gash. 


repeatedly  inquired  for  him,  he  found  it  his 
duty  upon  his  lordship's  non-appearance  to 
fine  him  iu  each  of  those  cases  £100 — 
<£200  iu  all.  But  the  audacity  of  the  judge 
iu  looking  into  the  doings  of  Orange  magis- 
trates did  not  stop  here.  In  the  same 
county,  Fermanngh,  Mr.  Stewart  was  fined 
£50  for  committing  one  Neale  Ford  to  the 
jail  of  Enniskillen  without  any  charge  on 
oath  having  been  made  against  him,  and 
releasing  him  on  the  eve  of  the  assizes 
without  taking  bail  for  his  appearance.  Mr. 
Pallas  was  fined  JE20  as  well  as  Mr.  Web- 
ster for  releasing  without  bail  a  prisoner 
chai'ged  with  a  caj)ital  offence.  But  the 
prisoner  was  of  the  religiou  of  Mr.  Pallas. 

When  the  judge  came  to  Lifford,  in  Don- 
egal, amongst  the  presentments  tendered 
by  the  Grand  Jury  to  the  judge  for  his  Jiat 
was  one  for  a  very  large  sum  to  be  levied 
upon  occupiers  of  land,  under  pretence  of 
repaying  Government  for  money  advanced 
to  pay  bounties  to  three  hundred  and  fifty 
men,  the  quota  of  that  county  under  the 
"  Army  of  Reserve  act."  But  not  ono 
man  of  that  force  had  been  recruited  ; 
although  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Marquis 
of  Abercorn,  as  governor  of  the  county,  to 
have  caused  that  recruiting  to  be  effected. 
The  presentment  of  the  Grand  Jury  then 
was  a  fraud  upon  the  public.  Judge  John- 
son refused  to  put  his^a^  on  it,  and  publicly 
censured  Lord  Abercc^rn  for  neglect  of  duty 
— Lord  Abercorn,  the  great  patron  aud 
favorite  of  the  Orange  Society  of  that 
region.  Such  a  judge  as  this,  it  was  evi- 
dent, was  somehow  to  be  got  rid  of. 

Many  months  after  the  occurrences  above- 
mentioned,  the  Marquis  of  Abercorn,  in  a 
most  malignant  and  vindictive  speecli  iu  the 
House  of  Lords,  brought  the  conduct  of 
Judge  Fox  before  their  lordships.  He  said, 
"  that  he  had  grave  and  serious  matters  of 
complaint  to  bring  before  their  lordships 
iigainst  one  of  His  Majesty's  judges,  in 
which  the  administration  of  justice  was 
deeply  concerned." 

There  ensued  one  of  the  most  extraor- 
dinary state  prosecutions  ever  seen  in  any 
country — the  House  of  Lords  which  had 
no  original  jurisdiction,  undertaking  to  make 
itself  a  court  to  try  a  judge  on  a  criminal 
charge.     The  distinct  charges  were  uumer- 


444 


HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 


ous,  including  many  cases  of  "  unjust  fines," 
"  excessive "  fines,  partiality,  seeking  to 
bring  Lord  Abercorn  into  contempt,  casting 
censure  on  Lord  Enniskillen,  impeding  the 
course  of  justice,  and  the  like  ;  and  the  Pro- 
testant interest  of  the  North  of  Ireland  was 
filled  with  anxiety  for  the  result.  Lord 
Abercorn  pressed  these  prosecutions  with 
wonderful  virulence  ;  Lord  Hardwicke  and 
the  L'ish  Government  aided  it.*  The  pub- 
lic purse  was  opened  to  pay  for  it.  A  great 
mass  of  evidence,  (all  ex-parte,)  was  pro- 
duced. The  proceedings  lasted  three  years  ; 
and  the  excellent  judge  was  ruined  in  health 
and  fortune.  At  last,  on  motion  of  Lord 
Grenville,  the  House  of  Lords  voted,  by  a 
small  majority,  that  the  proceedings  should 
he.  quashed.  The  cost  to  the  public  in  the 
prosecution  of  this  case  amounted  to  i£30,- 
000. 

On  the  division  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
the  old  Lord  Thurlow  voted  for  getting  rid 
of  the  whole  matter,  as  unconstitutional  and 
vexatious.  He  said  it  was  a  proceeding  "to 
gratify  the  malignant  resentments  of  indi- 
viduals who  fancied  themselves  insulted  and 
exposed  by  any  instance  of  virtuous  inde- 
pendence upon  the  Bench." 

Lord  Eldon  voted  for  continuing  the  pro- 
secution to  the  end  ;  and  the  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland, (Queen  Victoria's  uncle,)  an  Or- 
angeman, and  special  friend  of  Lord  Aber- 
corn, strongly  opposed  Lord  Grenville's  mo- 
tion. "  He  trusted,"  he  said,  "  and  expected, 
that  the  matter  would  not  be  put  off  sine 
die."  His  Royal  Highness  was  naturally 
of  opinion  that  no  justice  could  be  done  in 
Ireland  if  there  were  to  be  judges  going- 
round  checking  the  wholesome  severities  of 
the  very  masters  of  lodges. 

It  is  but  justice  towards  the  British  House 
of  Lords  to  admit,  that  after  spending  the  pub- 
lic time  and  the  public  money  for  three  years, 
in  prosecuting  a  virtuous  judge,  because  he 
was  a  virtuous  judge,  did  at  last  grow 
ashamed  of  the  foul  transaction,  and  by  a 
small  majority,  thrust  it  out  of  Court. 

The  case  of  Mr.  Justice  Johnson,  one  of 
the   Justices   of   the    Common   Pleas,   was 

*■  The  Marquis  read,  as  a  part  of  his  speech  be- 
fore the  Lords,  a  letter  from  the  Lord-Lieutenant  of 
Ireland  to  the  British  Minister,  in  which  the  judicial 
conduct  of  Mr.  Justice  Fox,  on  the  Northwest  Cir- 
cuit, was  arraigned  iu  terms  of  marked  reprobatiou. 


even  more  extraordintiry.  Some  anonymous 
Irishman,  signing  himself  "  Juvernn.,"  had, 
in  November  of  1803,  immediately  after 
Robert  Emmet  was  executed,  published  a 
series  of  letters  in  Cobbett's  Political  Regis- 
ter, containing  severe  animadversions  upon 
Lord  Redesdale,  Lord  Hardwicke  and  his 
government,  upon  the  public  proceedings  of 
Secretaries  Wickham  and  Marsden,  upon 
a  charge  delivered  by  Mr.  Justice  Osborne, 
and  other  matters.  No  government  in  Ire- 
land ever  before  had  the  press  so  thoroughly 
corrupted  or  intimidated  as  that  of  Lord 
Hardwicke  ;  and  the  first  of  the  "Juveni/i" 
letters  was  sent  to  Mr.  Cobbett  avowedly 
because  every  printer  in  Dublin  had  refused 
to  publish  it.  The  sturdy  William  Cobbett, 
(who  was  then,  and  for  many  years  after,  a 
sharp  thorn  in  the  side  of  Pitt  and  Castle- 
reagh,)  admitted  the  letter  at  once  to  his 
Register;  and  then  several  others.  The.se 
letters  excited  much  attention,  and  extreme- 
ly exasperated  the  Government,  because  they 
were  evidently  the  production  of  some  per- 
sonage highly  placed,  who  knew  the  secret 
machinations  of  the  Irish  officials  against 
the  people. 

Great  efforts  were  made  to  discover  the 
audacious  "  Jibverna  ;  "  but,  in  the  meantime, 
as  the  next  best  thing,  the  Attorney-Gener- 
al prosecuted  Cobbett  himself  for  publish- 
ing the  "  libels."  His  trial  took  place  on 
May  24,  1S04. 

Cobbett  had  an  interval  of  repose  from 
persecution  of  two  days  allowed  him,  when, 
at  the  suit  of  the  Right  Honorable  W.  C. 
Plunket,  Solicitor-General  of  Ireland,  he 
was  again  called  on  to  sustain  an  action  for 
libels  contained  in  letters  signed  "  Jitvenia," 
published  in  the  Register,  reflecting  on  Mr. 
Plunket's  conduct  on  the  occasion  of  Robert 
Emmet's  trial.  Cobbett  was  again  con- 
victed, and  damages  were  awarded  to  the 
plaintiff  to  the  amount  of  £:)00. 

It  was  believed,  by  the  Irish  Government, 
that  the  letters  in  question,  had  been  written 
by  Judge  Johnson.  On  the  second  trial 
of  Mr.  Cobbett,  the  manuscript  of  the  letter 
relating  to  Lord  Plunket,  was  produced  ; 
and  witnesses  were  easily  found  to  swear 
that  it  was  in  the  handwriting  of  the  Judge. 
The  Government,  therefore,  determined  to 
prosecute  him  also,  and  to  bring  him  over  to 


DECLINE   OF   PITT  S   POWER. 


445 


Londou  for  trial,  as  the  publication  had 
been  in  the  Conuty  Middlesex.  But  there 
was  a  difficulty  in  the  way  ;  there  was  no 
law  then,  no  law  in  existence,  givinj?  power 
to  remove  offenders  from  Ireland  to  England, 
or  vica  versa,  for  trial.  But  Tarliament  was 
in  session,  and  a  new  law  was  quickly  pro- 
cured, the  two  principal  persons  on  the 
committee  which  framed  it,  being  Mr.  Per- 
ceval, brother-in-law  of  Lord  Redesdale,  and 
Mr.  Yorke,  brother  of  Lord  Hardwicke, 
who  were  two  of  the  persons  complaining  of 
being  libelled. 

A  warrant  was  issued  to  bring  the  judge 
to  London,  and  he  was  arrested  at  his  house 
near  Dublin.  Thus  he  was  taken  under  an 
ex-jpost  facto  act,  which  his  counsel  contended 
could  not  operate  retrospectively. 

Tiie  matter  was  discussed,  during  six  days, 
in  the  King's  Bench  in  L'eland,  in  Janu- 
ary, 1805.  The  legality  of  the  warrant 
was  confirmed.  In  the  meantime,  the  jperst- 
cuted  judge  procured  a  writ  of  Habeas  Cor- 
pus from  the  Court  of  Exchequer,  where  the 
case  was  argued  February  4th  and  Vth,  and, 
subsequently,  in  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  ; 
and  in  both  courts,  the  arrest  was  held  good. 
The  judge  was  then  brought  over  to  Lon- 
don, and  put  OQ.  his  trial  before  Lord  EUeu- 
borough,  November  23,  1806. 

Lord  Ellenborough,  staunch  and  consis- 
tent— always  ready  to  lend  the  weight  of 
his  judicial  character  and  position  to  the 
Government  on  any  seditious  libel  case  prose- 
cution, unjustly  on  this  occasion  threw  dis- 
credit on  the  respectable  witnesses  produced 
by  Judge  Johnson,  to  prove  that  the  MSS. 
ot  the  libel  prosecuted,  was  not  in  the  hand- 
writing of  the  defendant.  But  the  jury, 
misdirected  by  Lord  Ellenborough,  brought 
in  a  verdict  of  "  guilty ;"  the  Attorney- 
General,  however,  never  applied  for  judg- 
ment. 

It  was  true,  indeed,  that  Judge  Johnson 
was  the  author  of  the  letters  of  ''Juverua  ;  " 
which  were  a  very  just,  necessary,  and  well- 
merited  castigationof  the  Irish  Government ; 
yet  he  was  found  guilty  on  bad  evidence,  for 
the  manuscript  was  not  his.* 

*  "  Tlie  libel  above-mentioned  I  know  (on  the 
authority  of  liord  Cloncurry),  though  the  production 
of  Judge  Johnson,  was  sent  to  Cobbett  in  the  hand- 
writing of  the  judge's  daughter." — Maddeiu 


The  matter,  however,  was  pressed  no 
further.  It  was  judged  sufficient  to  dis- 
grace a  judge  of  the  land  by  a  criminal  con- 
viction, to  ruin  him  by  heavy  expenses  in- 
curred in  his  defence,  and  to  render  the  jus- 
tice of  "Westminster  Hall  auxiliary  to  the 
police  of  Dublin.  But  the  prosecution  had 
caused  great/  scandal  by  its  unusual  features  ; 
and  in  order  to  put  as  quiet  a  close  to  the 
matter  as  possible,  the  Attorney-General  was 
directed,  and  he,  accordingly,  did  enter  a  nolle 
prosequi  on  the  record,  as  of  Trinity  Term 
1806.  The  learned  judge,  whose  health  was 
much  on  the  decline,  was  allowed  to  retire 
upon  a  pension  for  his  life.f 

The  treatment  of  these  two  honest  judges 
was  a  significant  warning  to  the  judges  of 
Ireland,  first  that  they  were  not  to  embarrass 
Orange  justice  with  t/ieir  justice,  and  second, 
that  they  were  not  to  presume  to  say  that  a 
Lord-Lieutenant,  or  Chancellor,  or  Secre- 
tary, could  do  wrong. 

In  this  year,  Mr.  Pitt's  political  power 
began  to  decline  ;  and  many  of  his  pariizans 
fell  from  him.  Lord  Sid  mouth  deserted 
him  on  the  occasion  of  the  impeachment  of 
Lord  Melville.  Mr.  Foster,  the  Irish 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  had  tendered 
his  resignation  ;  and  it  was  known  that 
Lord  Hardwicke  was  resolved  to  tender  his. 
The  star  of  the  great  Minister  was  growing 
pale  ;  his  Continental  combinations  against 
Buonaparte,  were  all  failures  ;  and  men  were 
already  beginning  to  speculate  upon  their 
chances  under  Mr.  Pitt's  successor,  about 
the  time  when  Parliament  was  suddenly 
prorogued  on  July  12th. 

The  defection  of  Lord  Sidmouth,  the  im- 
peachment of  Lord  Melville  and  consequent 
shifiicgs  in  the  Cabinet,  created  the  necessity 
of  Lord  Castlereagh's  vacating  his  seat  for 
the  County  Down,  in  order  to  accept  the 
office  of  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colo- 
nies and  War  Department.  He  souglit  a  re- 
election for  Down  ;  but  in  that  county,  there 
was  a  very  strong  feeling  against  him,  on  ac- 
count of  the  outrage  put  upon  the  Marquis 

t  This  excellent  judge,  afterwards  in  his  retirement 
in  France,  wrote  a  very  excellent  treatise  on  the 
"Military  Defence  of  Ireland,"  under  the  name  of 
Captain  Philip  Roche  Fermoy.  This  work  has  speci- 
ally in  view,  a  defence  of  the  country  by  the  inhabi- 
tants of  it,  against  the  English  ;  and  has  been  much 
studied  since  that  thue. 


44^ 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


of  Dowiisliire,  by  tlie  Irish  Government 
(when  Castlereagh  was  Secretary)  in  dis- 
missing him  from  the  command  of  his  regi- 
ment, and  from  the  rank  of  Lord-Lieutenant 
of  the  country,  because  he  liad  recommended 
petitions  against  the  Union.  Lord  Castle- 
reagh,  most  unexpected!}',  found  himself  at 
the  foot  of  the  polls,  through  the  Dowushire 
influence  ;  and  had  to  return  to  London 
and  accept  a  seat  for  one  of  the  "  pocket- 
boroughs"  of  the  Government.  This  defeat 
by  Castlereagh  is  said  to  have  been  felt  as  a 
severe  blow  by  Mr.  Pitt  in  his  already  fail- 
ing fortunes.  Mr.  Plowden  says  it  was  a 
"  triumph  over  political  profligacy  which  was 
hailed  by  the  nation  at  large  ;"  but  in  truth, 
the  event  had  a  much  narrower  significance; 
it  was  simply  a  triumph  of  the  Downshire 
interest  over  the  rival  Stewart  interest  in  the 
County  Down.  Political  profligacy  remained 
as  before.  But  what  really  broke  down  Mr. 
Pitt,  was  the  success  of  the  French  armies 
in  Germany. 

The  total  failure  of  all  his  plans  on  the  Con- 
tinent, and  the  vast  ascendancy  which  Na- 
poleon had  acquired  by  his  late  conquest 
and  treaty,  had  filled  the  unbiassed  part  of 
the  British  nation  with  dissatisfaction  and 
dismay. 

The  campaign  was  only  opened  in  Sep- 
tember, and  Napoleon,  with  the  velocity  of 
the  eagle,  marched  into  the  heart  of  Ger- 
many and  took  an  Austrian  army,  under 
General  Mack,  prisoners,  at  Ulm.  On  the 
2d  of  December,  he  gained  the  renowned 
victory  of  Austerlitz,  which  was  followed  by 
the  treaty  of  Presburg,  signed  on  the  26th 
of  the  same  month  j  this  dissolved  the  new 
confederacy,  and  blasted  Mr.  Pitt's  last 
hopes  on  the  Continent. 

All  England  cried  out  for  peace,  and  for 
an  administratiou  which  would  give  her 
peace.  Austria  was  dismembered,  Russia 
debilitated,  Prussia  neutralized,  if  not  treach- 
erously gone  over  to  the  enemy  ;  Hanover 
lost  to  the  King  of  England,  and  the  Brit- 
ish forces  were  too  late  in  the  field  even  to 
make  any  important  diversion  against  the 
triumphant  legions  of  France,  Lord  Mel- 
ville, (the  former  Secretary  Dundas,)  was 
pleading  to  an  impeachment  before  the 
House  of  Lords  ;  Lord  Castlereagh  had  re- 
turned from  his  own  country,  baffled  and  dis- 


credited. All  these  things  together  preyed  on 
Mr.  Pitt's  mind,  and  ruined  his  already-frail 
health.  Parliament  met  on  the  20th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1806  ;  and  three  days  after,  William 
Pitt  died.  His  last  words  were  :  "  Oh !  my 
country''^ — meaning  England  alone  ;  to  Ire- 
land he  had  ever  been  a  bitter,  and  at  last, 
a  mortal  enemy. 

Lord  Hawkesbury  was  at  first  named 
First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  merely  to  sup- 
ply tl>e  vacancy,  without  any  change  of 
Ministry.  His  lordsnip  held  that  ofBce  only 
long  enough  to  hurry  through  the  necessary 
forms  of  office  to  grant  to  himself  the  lucra- 
tive place  of  Warden  of  the  Cinque  Ports, 
and  then  resigned.  At  last,  after  some 
days'  delay,  and  much  reluctance  on  the 
part  of  the  King,  was  formed  the  new 
Grenville-Fox  Ministry,  Lord  Grenville  be- 
ing First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  and  Mr, 
Fox  Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs.  The 
Duke  of  Bedford  was  to  be  Lord-Lieuten- 
ant of  Ireland,  with  the  Right  Honorable 
William  Elliott,  as  Chief  Secretary.  Right 
Honorable  George  Ponsonby,  as  Lord  Chan- 
cellor ;  Mr.  Pluuket,  as  Attorney-General  ; 
and  Mr.  Bushe,  as  Solicitor-General.  In 
short,  it  was  not  only  a  Whig,  but  was  sup- 
posed to  be  also  an  Anti-  Union  administra- 
tion. Reform,  Emancipation,  Repeal  of  the 
Union  even,  anything  in  satisfaction  of 
Ireland's  just  claims,  was  at  first  imagined 
to  be  possible  under  such  a  government. 

Amongst  the  earliest  Parliamentary  pro- 
ceedings on  the  change  of  the  Ministry, 
which  in  any  way  related  to  Ireland,  must 
be  noticed  jNIr.  O'Hara's  spirited  objection  to 
Lord  Castlereagh's  vote  for  monumental  hon- 
ors to  Marquis  Cornwallis,  who  died  iu  India. 
He  opposed  the  motion,  because  he  could 
not  with  consistency  vote  funeral  honors  to 
a  man  who  had  brought  about  the  Union 
between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  ;  with 
regard  to  which,  he  trusted  that,  some  time 
or  other,  it  would  come  under  the  consid- 
eration of  that  House  j  and  if  it  were  not, 
as  he  hoped  it  would  be,  utterly  rescinded, 
it  would,  at  all  events,  be  considerably  mod- 
ified, and,  if  possible,  ameliorated.  Upon 
this  interesting  subject  Mr.  Fox  declared, 
that  he  concurred  with  the  motion  ;  for  that 
the  words  iu  which  it  was  expressed  did  not, 
in  imitation  of  a  late  precedent,  assert  that 


DEATH    OF   ME.    PITT WHIG   MIOTSTRT MR.  FOX. 


44T 


the  object  of  it  was  an  excdknt  statesman. 
Altlioiigh,  however,  he  supported  the  mo- 
tion, yet  he  agreed  with  Mr.  O'Hara  in 
cliaractcrizing  the  Union  as  one  of  the  most 
disgraceful  transactions  in  which  the  Govern- 
ment of  any  country  had  heen  invoiced. 

In  consonance  with  this  marked  reproba- 
tion of  that  fatal  measure  of  Union  by  the 
most  enlightened  and  irreproachable  member 
of  the  new  administration,  several  of  the  Cor- 
porations of  Dublin  formed  meetings  to  pre- 
pare petitions  to  the  Legislature  for  the  Re- 
peal of  the  Union.  Of  these,  the  Com- 
pany of  Stationers,  at  their  hall  in  Capel 
street,  gave  the  example,  by  appointing  a 
respectable  committee  of  nine  to  draw  up  a 
petition.  At  a  siil)scquent  meeting,  how- 
ever, they  resolved  not  at  that  moment  to 
embarrass  Ministers  with  their  claims. 

A  few  days  later,  Mr.  Fox  was  called 
upon  in  Parliament  by  Mr.  Alexander,  for  an 
explanation  of  his  words  relative  to  the  Union. 

^Ir.  Fox  conceived  he  had  spoken  very 
intelligibly  ;  but  he  never  refused  explana- 
tion. He  adhered  to  every  syllable  he  had 
uttered  relative  to  the  Union,  upon  the  mo- 
tion for  funeral  honors  to  Lord  Cornwallis. 
But  when  he  had  reprobated  a  thing 
done,  he  said  nothing  prospectively.  How- 
ever bad  the  measure  had  been,  an  at- 
tempt to  repeal  it  without  the  most  urgent 
solicitation  from  the  parties  interested  should 
not  be  made,  and  hitherto  none  such  had 
come  within  his  knowledge. 

"  The  parties  interested"  are  the  English, 
the  Scottish,  and  the  Irish  people  ;  so  that 
in  the  apparently-explicit  reply  of  Mr.  Fox, 
there  is  a  breadth  of  application  sufficient 
to  enable  a  prudent  statesman  to  do  as  he 
pleases  afterwards.  Even  so  early  did  it 
i)ecorae  apparent  that  neither  English  Tory 
nor  English  Whig  would  ever  listen  to  any 
proposal  for  the  undoing  of  that  shameful 
deed.  Gradually,  as  time  has  worn  on, 
men  of  all  parties  in  England  have  become 
willing  to  admit  that  the  Union  was  a  foul 
act,  foully  accomphshed  ;  yet  no  British 
Minister,  of  any  party,  would  dare,  for  his 
head,  to  propose  that  it  be  undone.  It  was 
thus,  in  1806,  on  the  accession  of  Mr.  Fox 
to  office,  that  the  first  whisper  was  heard  of 
that  demand,  which  afterwards  rang  so 
loud — the  Repeal  of  the  Union. 


Two  or  three  agreeable  incidents  at  the 
same  time  happened  in  Ireland  :  The  act 
for  suspending  the  Habeas  Corpus  had  been 
permitted  to  expire  without  any  attempt  by 
Government  to  continue  or  revive  it.  There- 
upon, the  several  jails  in  Ireland  were  clear- 
ed of  all  those  state  prisoners  who  could  bear 
the  expenses  of  Habeas  Corpus,  and  who 
had  been  confined  there  for  two  or  three 
years.  The  restoration  to  society  of  many 
respectable  and  popular  characters,  digni- 
fied by  unmerited  sufferings,  spread  a  sym- 
pathetic glow  of  exultation  through  the 
people,  which  broke  out  into  an  eagerness 
to  hail  the  new  Governor  as  their  deliverer, 
and  stifled  all  efforts  to  procure  valedictory 
addresses  to  the  departing  Viceroy,  who 
had  so  long  kept  them  in  bondage.  The  in- 
stantaneous removal  of  Lord  Redesdale 
from  his  situation,  even  before  his  successor 
had  arrived  in  Ireland,  created  much  satis- 
faction throughout  every  rank  of  the  Catho- 
lic population,  which  he  had  so  coarsely  and 
unfoundedly  insulted  and  traduced.  This 
early,  and  marked  removal  of  Lord  Redes- 
dale was  a  seasonable  atonement  to  the  in- 
sulted feelings  of  the  Irish  Cat  holies,  and 
was  received  by  them  as  an  earnest  of  the 
new  Minister's  adopting  a  new  system  of 
measures,  calculated  to  secure  the  internal 
peace,  welfare,  and  prosperity  of  Ireland. 

As  for  Lord  Hardwicke,  after  his  five 
years'  administration,  not  even  the  efforts 
of  his  paid  press  could  succeed  in  procuring 
him  those  customary  addresses  of  courtesy 
which  are  given  to  departing  Yiceroys, 
The  attendance  even  of  his  favored  yeo- 
manry of  Dublin  was  solicited  to  perfonu 
the  last  honor  to  the  ex-Governor,  and  was 
refused  in  the  first  instance.  Out  of  all 
Ireland,  addresses  on  his  departure  came 
only  from  Dublin,  the  County  Mayo,  and 
the  loyal  Crossmolina  Cavalry.  He  sailed 
from  the  Pigeon  House  on  the  31st  of 
March,  1806  ;  and  many  a  curse  went  after 
him. 

The  Duke  of  Bedford  came  to  Ireland, 
as  was  firmly  and  fondly  believed,  to  carry 
out  the  liberal  principles  which  Mr.  Fox 
had  always  supported  for  the  government 
of  the  country.  But  Mr.  Fox  had  more 
important  business  to  attend  to,  in  his  own 
estimation,  tlian  the  affairs  of  Irt'laiid,  which 


448 


HISTORY   OF   IBELAND. 


was,  as  usual,  placed  in  the  back-ground. 
He  had  upon  his  hands  the  difficult  business 
of  negotiating  a  peace  with  France  ;  and 
his  fast-failing  health  did  not  permit  him  to 
go  into  the  details  of  Irish  appointments 
and  Irish  grievances. 

Yet,  Charles  James  Fox  was  of  a  char- 
acter noble,  open,  and  generous  ;  as  oppo- 
site to  Mr.  Pitt,  in  personal  qualities,  as  he 
was  in  his  place  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
If  he  had,  at  this  juncture,  accepted  the  po- 
sition of  Viceroy — if  he  had  seen  with  his 
own  eyes  the  insolent  and  audacious  cruelty 
of  the  Orange  magistracy,  which  was  now 
strong  enough  to  brave  both  law  and  Gov- 
ernment— the  too-patient  suffering  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  people,  and  the  decaying 
trade  and  industry  of  the  towns — it  would 
have  been  impossible  to  repress  indignation 
in  such  a  nature  as  his.  But  he  had 
been  specially  brought  into  power  for  the 
purpose  of  negotiating  a  peace  with  France  ; 
and  this  was  enough  for  his  diminished  en- 
ergies. Lord  Grenville,  the  Premier  Min- 
ister, who  had  been  an  active  agent  in 
carrying  the  Union,  was  by  no  means  so 
favorable  to  Ireland  as  the  Foreign  Secre- 
tary. Lord  Sidmouth  was  the  boasted  and 
pledged  opponent  to  Catholic  concession,  un- 
der every  possible  variation  of  political  occur- 
rence. The  friends  and  cooperators  of  Lord 
Redesdale,  the  Attorney  and  Solicitor-Gen- 
eral, retained  their  situations  and  confi- 
dence ;  Mr.  Alexander  Marsden,  the  secret 
adviser  and  machinist  of  the  late  adminis- 
trations, was  not  displaced.  The  whole  of 
the  Orange  magistracy  remained  undisturb- 
ed in  the  commission  of  the  peace.  Even 
Major  Sirr  was  still  seen,  as  the  tutelary 
guardian  of  the  Castle-yard.  No  floating 
patronage  was  removed  from  any  promoter 
of  the  late,  to  countenance  or  encourage  the 
supporters  of  the  new,  system.  The  name 
of  Grattan,  the  friend  and  father  of  Irish 
liberty,  was  not  seen  on  the  list  of  changes, 
and  Mr.  Curran,  the  unwavering  asserter 
of  Ireland's  rights  and  freedom,  remained 
nearly  five  months  unpromoted. 

As  for  the  Catholics,  they  were  deluded 
again.  They  soon  found  that  there  was  no  dis- 
position to  disquiet  the  United  Kingdom  with 
an  importunate  insistanee  upon  any  claims 
of  theirs.     But  at  the  first  moment  of  the ; 


change  of  Viceroys,  they  were  so  confident 
of  their  affairs  being  now  in  good  hands, 
that  they  resolved  not  to  press  the  matter 
too  keenly.  A  newly-constituted  Catholic 
Committee  met  in  March,  before  the  Duke 
of  Bedford  had  yet  arrived,  at  Mr.  M'Don- 
nell's  house,  in  Allen  Court,  and  there  re- 
solved, with  the  exception  of  two  dissent- 
ing voices,  that  it  was  inexpedient  to 
press  a  discussion  of  the  Catholic  question, 
during  the  present  session  of  Parliament  ; 
and  that  it  would  be  proper  to  present  an 
address,  on  belialf  of  the  Catholics,  to  the 
Duke  of  Bedford,  congratulating  him  on  his 
appointment  to  the  chief  government  of 
Ireland,  and  expressing  their  confidence  in 
the  wisdom  and  abilities  of  the  illustrious 
personages  who  composed  the  present  ad- 
ministration. 

Indeed,  nothing  can  well  be  conceived 
more  helpless  than  the  management  of  the 
Catholic  cause  during  the  whole  of  the  Bed- 
ford administration.  A  Mr.  Ryan,  a  mer- 
chant, who  had  a  large  house  in  Marlborough 
street,  threw  his  house  open  to  informal 
meetings  of  active  members  of  the  Commit- 
tee, and  entered  into  correspondence  with 
Mr.  Fox,  as  an  authorized  agent,  or  rather 
leader,  amongst  the  Catholics.  This  pro- 
duced jealousies  and  discontents  ;  other  meet- 
ings were  held  in  various  places  ;  where  con- 
siderable diversity  of  opinion  made  itself 
manifest,  chiefly  on  this  question — should 
they  press  for  emancipation  at  once,  or  await 
a  more  convenient  season  ?  Many  gather- 
ings of  Catholic  gentlemen  and  merchants 
took  place  in  some  of  the  counties,  and 
strong  resolutions  were  passed.  It  was 
manifest  that  a  good  share  of  public  spirit 
had  been  roused  amongst  them  ;  but  they 
lacked  organization,  and  sage  and  bold 
counsel.  The  new  Viceroy  received  their 
ultra-loyal  and  rather  mealy-mouthed  ad- 
dresses with  courtesy  ;  but  answered  them 
with  equivocation,  For  example,  one  ad- 
dress, from  the  Catholics  of  Dublin,  signed 
by  Lords  Fingal,  Southwell,  Kenmare, 
Gormanstown,  &c.,  was  presented  at  tiie 
Castle  on  the  29th  of  April,  1806.  It 
closes  in  this  humble  style  : — 

"  May  your  Grace  permit  us  to  conclude 
with  the  expression  of  those  sentiments,  in 
which  all  Irish  Catholics  can  have  but  one 


EQinVOCATION    OF   THE   VICEROY. 


449 


voice.  Bound  as  we  are  to  the  fortunes  of 
the  empire,  hy  a  remembrance  of  what  is  -past, 
and  the  hope  of  future  benefits,  by  our  pre- 
ference and  by  our  oaths,  should  the  wise 
generosity  of  our  lawgivers  vouchsafe  to 
crown  that  hope  which  their  justice  inspires, 
it  would  no  longer  be  our  duty  alone,  but 
our  pride,  to  appear  the  foremost  against 
approaching  danger  ;  and,  if  necessary,  to 
remunerate  our  benefactors  by  the  sacrifice 
of  our  lives." 

And  the  gracious  reply  ends  with  these 
words ;  an  admirable  sample  of  the  phrase- 
ology with  which  the  Catholics  were  enter- 
tained for  many  years  : — 

"  In  the  high  situation  in  which  His  Ma- 
jesty has  been  graciously  pleased  to  place 
me,  it  is  ray  first  wish,  as  it  is  my  first  duty, 
to  secure  to  all  classes  and  descriptions  of 
His  Majesty's  subjects  in  this  part  of  the 
TJnited  Kingdom,  the  advantages  of  a  mild 
and  beneficent  administration  of  the  law. 
With  this  important  object  in  view,  I  enter- 
tain no  doubt  that  the  Roman  Catholic  in- 
habitants of  the  city  of  Dublin  will,  by 
their  loyalty  to  the  King,  their  attachment 
to  the  Constitution,  and  their  affection  for 
their  fellow-subjects,  afford  the  strongest  re- 
commendation t©  a  favorable  consideration 
of  their  interestsP 

His  Grace  takes  care  to  say  their  "  in- 
terests ;"  but  it  was  not  their  interests  they 
were  pleading  for  ;  it  was  their  rights  ;  and 
of  rights  he  said  not  a  word. 

But  while  rival  aspirants  for  leadership 
of  the  Catholics  were  addressing  excited 
meetings,  their  dissensions  were  suddenly 
somewhat  allayed  by  ostentatious  warnings 
contained  in  tlie  Government  newspapers, 
that  they  were  in  danger  of  bringing  them- 
selves within  the  penalties  of  the  Con- 
vention act.  It  was  a  sore  and  embar- 
rassing suggestion  for  the  struggling  Cath- 
olics. 

Tlie  Convention  act,  which  passed  in 
1  793,  was  one  of  the  baleful  measures  of  the 
Pitt  system,  to  muzzle  the  victim  before  the 
infliction  of  torture  ;  to  render  the  voice  of 
the  subject  equally  poweiless  for  preven- 
tion and  redress  ;  and,  in  truth,  this  formid- 
able act  has  remained  ever  since  one  of  the 
surest  safeguards  of  British  domination  in  Ire- 
laud,  as  well  as  one  of  the  conspicuous 
57 


badges   of    provincialism  ;    for  there    is   no 
such  law  in  England. 

Lord  Chancellor  Ponsonby,  in  whose 
hands  was  most  of  the  patronage  of  Ireland, 
was  not  found  to  e.xercise  that  patronage  as 
had  been  expected  by  his  friends  ;  nor  is  it 
interesting,  at  this  time,  to  enter  into  those 
personal  and  political  claims  which  were 
either  admitted  or  rejected.  Yet  there  is 
one  case  which  interests  every  reader,  even 
at  this  late  day,  because  it  is  the  case  of  the 
illustrious  John  Pliilpot  Curran.  lie  had 
been  promised,  and  did  expect,  on  a  change 
of  Ministry,  a  legal  position  commensurate 
with  his  services  and  standing  at  the  bar. 
The  new  Lord-Chancellor  neglected  him  for 
five  months,  and  then  offered  him  the  place 
of  Master  of  the  Rolls,  the  second  Judge 
in  Equity.  It  was  not  satisfactory  to  Cur 
ran,  for  several  reasons  ;  his  practice  had 
been  more  in  law  than  in  equity  ;  and,  be- 
sides, this  place  carried  with  it  no  political 
influence.  In  his  letter  to  Grattan,  on  this 
sul)ject,  he  says:  "When  the  party  with 
which  I  had  acted  so  fairly  had,  after  so 
long  a  proscription,  come  at  hist  to  theii-  na- 
tural place,  I  did  not  expect  to  have  been 
stuck  up  into  a  window,  a  spectator  of  the 
procession."  He  took  the  place,  however, 
for  the  sake  of  unanimity  in  the  party.  A  sin- 
gular demonstration  of  party  malignity  was 
made  on  this  occasion  by  some  of  Mr.  Cur- 
ran's  professional  brethren,  at  a  very  numer- 
ous bar-meeting,  convened  to  take  into  con- 
sideration an  address  to  his  honor  on  his 
late  promotion.  His  talents  were  too  trans- 
cendent, his  spirit  too  independent,  his  prin- 
ciples too  Irish,  not  to  have  enemies,  who 
would  openly  oppo.se  this  just  tribute  to  his 
splendid  genius  and  unrivaled  fame.  The 
notice  of  the  intended  meeting  had  no  sooner 
been  published,  than  the  prominent  support- 
ers of  the  Ascendancy  set  every  engine  to 
work  to  prevent,  embarrass,  and  defeat  so 
critical  an  appeal  to  the  virtue  and  inde- 
pendence of  the  Iriish  bar  upon  the  brightest 
ornament  of  tlieir  profession,  and  the  staunch 
and  incorruptible^  friend  of  tiieir  country. 
On  the  7th  of  July,  the  meeting  took  ])lace, 
consisting  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  gentle- 
men of  the  bar,  of  wliom  one  hundred  and 
eighty  only  chose  to  divide.  Of  these, 
one  hundred  and  forty -six  voted  for  the  ad- 


450 


HISTORY   or    IRELAND. 


dress  ;  thirty-four  opposed  it.  The  question 
was  wai'mly  debated  for  several  hours.  In 
opposition  to,  and  defiance  of  the  professional 
powers  and  political  influence  of  Messrs. 
Saurin  and  Bushe,  the  spirited  independence 
of  the  bar  was  honorably  asserted,  and  the 
talent,  integrity,  and  virtue  of  the  country 
triumphed  over  the  jealousies  and  intrigues 
of  the  system  and  its  abettors. 

Wiiile  the  Catholics  found  themselves 
once  more  thrust  back  from  the  threshold 
of  that  Constitution  which  they  so  much 
longed  to  euter,  the  Xortliern  Orangemen, 
on  their  side,  (who  had  been  a  little  nervous 
at  first  about  the  advent  of  these  Whigs,) 
soon  found  that  they  had  no  cause  for  alarui. 
A  very  singular  correspondence  passed 
tliis  summer  between  Secretary  Elliott  and 
Mr.  Wilson,  a  Tyrone  magistrate,  touching 
certain  outrages  perpetrated  on  Catholics  in 
his  neighborhood,  and  particularly,  the  burn- 
ing down  the  house  of  a  man  named  O'Xeill, 
a  hatter.  Tliis  outrage  was  done  by  night, 
without  any  provocation  ;  and  was  alleged 
to  have  been  perpetrated  in  mere  wanton- 
ness by  a  mob  of  Orangemen  coming  out  of 
a  lodge,  and  headed  by  two  sons  of  Mr. 
Venier,  a  magistrate,  and  liimself  a  famous 
Orangeman.  Mr.  Vv^ilson's  representations 
were  so  earnest,  demanding  inquiry  and  re- 
dress, that  Mr.  Sergeant  Moore  was  sent 
down  to  the  neighborhood,  accompanied  by 
a  Crown  Solicitor,  to  investigate  tlie  facts. 
Mr.  Plowdeu  affirms,  on  the  authority  of 
Mr.  Wilson,  probably,  that  Sergeant  Moore, 
on  his  arrival,  put  himself  in  communication 
with  the  Messrs.  Verner,  the  accused  house- 
burners,  to  procure  him  evidence  of  what 
took  place.  "  Tlie  evidences  were  brought 
forward  by  the  young  Messrs.  Ycrner  ;  but 
he  could  not  get  anything  out  of  them, 
(after  the  most  strict  examination,)  which 
could  tend  towards  the  crimination  of  these 
gcutiemen.  Tiie  house  certainly  was  burn- 
ed ;  but  the  incendiaries  could  not  be  iden- 
tified. It  was  true,  the  two  young  Messrs. 
Veruer  were  there,  but  only  as  spectators, 
after  the  house  was  destroyed  ;  but  nothing 
appeared  to  justify  an  opinion  that  either 
of  those  gentlemen  was  concerned  in  the 
outrage."  Of  course,  the  learned  Sergeant 
returned  as  wi.se  as  he  came. 

Some  days  after  Mr.   Wilson  was  sum- 


moned to  Dublin,  and  had  an  interview  with 
Lord-Chancellor  Ponsonby,  who  questioned 
him  as  to  the  outrage,  and  as  to  the  in- 
quiry, Mr.  Wilson  attempted  to  make  some 
comment  upon  the  way  which  the  Sergeant 
had  taken  for  arriving  at  the  Axcts — the 
Chancellor  twice  interrupted  him  with  great 
energy  to  declare,  that  Mr.  Sergeant  Bloore's 
conduct  entitled  him  to,  and  possessed  the 
warmest  approbation  of  Government.  Mr. 
Wilson  made  some  observations  on  the  state 
of  the  magistracy  in  his  part  of  the  country, 
and  the  Chancellor  asked,  how  he  proposed 
to  remedy  the  evil  ?  Mr.  Wilson  replied, 
that  the  only  effectual  mode  would  be,  by 
issuing  a  general  new  commission.  This 
would  not  give  any  partial  offence  ;  and 
care  afterw^ards  should  be  taken  not  to  ad- 
mit any  improper  persons  into  it.  His 
lordship  replied  by  a  smile.  This  ended 
his  personal  communications  with  Grovern- 
ment ;  but  not  his  correspondence.  He 
wrote  several  times  again  on  the  subject ; 
but  without  effect.  He  applied  to  have  his 
own  commission,  as  a  magistrate,  extended 
from  Tyrone  into  Armagh,  (as  he  dwelt  on 
the  border,)  in  order  that  he  might  have 
some  power  to  protect  the  poor  Catholics, 
who  lived  in  daily  and  nightly  terror  under 
the  shadow  of  the  original  Orange  Lodge, 
and  in  that  very  neighborhood  which  had 
been  the  scene  of  the  "  Hell-or-Connaught" 
exterminations,  ten  years  earlier  ;  but  Mr. 
Wilson's  application  was  refused.  This  af- 
fair would  be  in  itself  too  trifling  to  occupy 
space  in  a  general  narrative  like  the  present, 
but  that  it  is,  unfortunately,  only  one  ex- 
ample of  very  much  of  the  same  kind  of 
wanton  oppression  and  official  connivance 
wliich  made  the  North  of  Ireland  itself  a 
hell  for  the  Catholic  people,  during  many  a 
year  since — and  which  is  by  no  means  over 
at  this  day. 

Poor  Mr.  Wilson,  who  w%as  so  Quixotic 
as  to  interest  himself  for  the  oppressed 
Catholics  of  Tyrone  and  Armagh,  after  the 
refusal  of  an  Armagh  commission  to  that 
gentleman  came  to  be  known,  was  himself 
subjected  to  the  outrages  of  the  Protestant 
"  wreckers."  His  range  of  offices,  filled 
with  hay,  was  burned  down  one  night ;  and 
as  he  still  contiinied  to  impoilune  the  Secre- 
tary and  the  Chancellor  with  applications  ou 


KEVENXJE    AND   DEBT    OF   IRELAND. 


451 


behalf,  not  of  himself,  but  of  his  persecuted 
neighbors,  he  was  finally  (3d  of  July,  1807,) 
deprived  of  the  commission  of  the  peace  for 
Tyrone,  by  a  regular  writ  of  Supersedeas. 


CHAPTEK    XT.YIII. 

180G— 1807. 

Eevenue  and  Debt  of  Ireland— Enpid  Increase  of 
Debt— Drain  of  Wealth  from  Ireland— Character 
of  the  Imports  and  Exports — Rackrents,  Tithes, 
<S:c.— Distress  of  the  People— The  "Threshers" — 
Threshers  Hung  —  Catholic  Meetings — Increase 
of  Marnooth  Grant — From  Apprehension  of  the 
Irish  College  in  France — Catholic  OflBcers'  Bill — To 
Promote  Depopulation — Bill  Abandoned — Change 
of  Jlinistr}-  —  The  King  Demands  a  No-Popery 
Pledge— Duke  of  Cumberland — Perceval  Adminis- 
tration—Camden  and  Castlereagh  in  Office— No- 
Popery — Recruiting  in  Ireland — John  Keogh  on 
Catholic  Officers'  Bill--0'Cnnnell— Too-Easy  Grati- 
tude of  tlje  Irish  towards  Whigs — Populace  Draw 
the  Duke  of  Bedford's  Coach. 

InELAxn,  until  the  period  of  the  consoli- 
dation of  the  National  Debts,  had  a  separ- 
ate Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  ;  and  the 
actual  Chancellor,  Sir  John  Newport,  in 
bringing  forward  his  Irish  Budget,  in  this 
session  of  1806,  made  as  favorable  a  repre- 
sentation of  the  finances  of  the  country  as 
possible,  according  to  the  usual  custom  of 
Finance  Ministers.  Everything,  according 
to  him  "  afforded  proofs  of  the  increase  of 
prosperity  and  covfidence  in  the  Government.''^ 
The  revenue  of  Ireland  for  the  year  he  pro- 
posed to  increase,  from  i£3,360,000  to  £3,- 
800,000,  by  means  of  several  new  taxes  ; 
but  later  in  the  session  Sir  John  Newport 
brought  in  a  bill  "  for  relief  of  the  Irish 
poor."  On  his  financial  statement,  Mr.  Parnell 
drew  the  attention  of  the  House  to  the  general 
financial  situation  of  the  country,  as  repre- 
sented by  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
liimself.  He  calculated,  that  were  the  debt 
of  Ireland  to  increase  with  the  same  rapid- 
ity as  at  present  for  fifteen  years,  it  would 
at  that  period  amount  to  £120,000,000. 
He,  therefore,  called  upon  Ministers  to  adopt 
some  efficient  measures  for  restraining  the 
progress  of  so  alarming  an  evil. 

Mr.  Parnell  either  did  not  know,  or  pi'e- 
tended  not  to  know,  that  Ministers  did  not 
regard  this  as  an  alarming  evil  at  all,  and 
that  it  was  precisely  for  this,  amongst  other 


great  objects,  the  Union  had  been  effectuat- 
ed. Mr.  Parnell  also  fell  short  in  his  esti- 
mate of  the  rate  of  future  increase  of  our 
debt  : — "  So  well  have  British  book-keepers 
worked  our  account,  that,  within  c/tTe?i  years 
(in  1817)  our  debt  was  found  to  amount,  not 
to  1 20,000,000,  but  to  JEI  30,561, 037,  and  so 
brought  Ireland  up  to  the  condition  of  in- 
debtedness which  entitled  her  to  share  equal- 
ly in  all  the  public  liabilities  of  England." 

The  truth  is,  that  although  from  the 
increase  of  population,  and,  therefore,  of  con- 
sumption, the  actual  amount  of  taxes  now 
ground  out  of  the  Irish  people  was  increasing 
year  by  year,  those  taxes  were  becoming 
more  and  more  difficult  to  pay,  and  were 
reducing  great  numbers  of  people  continually 
to  abject  poverty  ;  so  that  at  the  very  mo- 
ment when  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
was  felicitating  Parliament  upon  Ireland's 
financial  prosperity,  he  had  also  to  bring  in 
a  bill  for  relief  of  the  poor.  The  system  of 
drainage  of  Ireland  for  imperial  ptirposes 
was  even  then  in  full  operation,  altlnjugh  not 
so  highly  developed  as  we  have  seen  it  since 
that  day.  There  were  some  circumstances 
then  existing,  which  in  part  counteracted 
that  imperial  policy — in  the  first  place,  the 
enfranchisement  of  Catholics  as  voters,  in 
1793,  had  considerably  promoted  and  in- 
creased the  practice  of  giving  leases  of  small 
farms  ;  so  as  to  create  freeholders  to  support 
their  landlords'  interests  at  county  elections  ; 
and  next,  the  war  in  Europe,  though  occas- 
ionally interrupted  by  short  seasons  of  armed 
peace,  maintained  a  good  price  for  all  kinds 
of  agricultural  produce  ;  because  the  British 
Government  was  constantly  obliged  to  victual 
great  fleets  and  garrisons  in  all  quarters  of 
tlie  world  ;  arid  as  such  large  numbers  of  the 
cultivators  of  the  land  had  leases,  their  in- 
creased profits  could  not  be  immeiliately 
appropriated  by  their  landlords  in  the  shape 
of  increased  rents,  and  so  carried  off  to  Eng- 
land to  be  spent  ;  an  inconvenience  and  lo.«s 
to  the  "  sister-kingdom "  which  was  after- 
wards fully  repaired  by  the  al)olition  of  ihe 
"  forty-shilling  freeholders,"  as  will  be  seen 
furthet  on. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  the  war  cer- 
taiiily  enhanced  the  profits  of  Irish  agricul- 
ture ;  and  although  that  increase  was  not 
ahugether  for   behoof  of  the  people  them- 


452 


HISTORY   OF   ICELAND. 


selves,  (for  much  of  it  could  be  carried  off 
by  taxation,  as  we  have  seen,  to  pay  the 
charges  of  an  unjust  debt,)  yet  they  were  not 
then  by  any  means  so  cunningly  plundered, 
KO  scientifically  stripped  bare,  (for  want  of  the 
requisite  machinery,)  as  they  have  been  since, 
and  are  now.  Population,  therefore,  was 
rapidly  increasing  during  all  these  years  of 
war,  although  thousands  of  young  Irishmen 
were  each  year  recruited  for  the  British  ar- 
my, to  fight  against  Jacobinism,  French 
principles,  and  the  rights  of  man. 

The  imports  and  exports  of  Ireland  con- 
tinued to  increase  after  the  Union,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  increasing  population  ;  but  by 
no  means  at  so  rapid  a  rate  as  during  the 
eighteen  years  of  national  independence, 
when  the  country  had  the  fostering  care  of 
a  native  legislature,  bad  and  corrupt  as  that 
legislature  was.  But  it  is  very  material  to 
observe  the  character  of  those  imports  and 
exports.  The  imports  con.sisted  more  and 
more  of  British  manufactures,  and  of  foreign 
and  colonial  produce  purchased  in  England, 
and  imported  thence :  the  exports  more  and 
more  of  cattle,  meat  and  grain,  raw  agricul- 
tural produce — and  of  spirits  made  from 
grain.  There  is  an  exception  in  the  single 
article  of  linen  cloth  ;  yet  the  increase  in 
that  trade  did  not  keep  pace  with  the  in- 
crease of  population.  *  In  the  table  given 
below  of  the  official  returns  of  the  exports 
and  imports  for  ten  years  before,  and  ten 
years  after,  the  Union,  (assuming  those  offi- 
cial returns  to  be  correct,)  this  very  material 
difference  may  be  studied  and  appreciated  : 
but  Mr.  Marmion,  in  his  Ilislory  of  the  Mar- 
itime Ports  of  Ireland,  observes  of  this  Ta- 
ble :  "These  returns  were  no  doubt  furnished 
to  support  the  opinions  of  certain  advocates 
for  the  Legislative  Union,  as  wine — the  con- 
sumption of  which  was  likely  to  show  the 
means  of  the  country,  if  progressing,  as  cor- 
rectly as  any  other  article — has  been  exclud- 
ed altogether.  The  import  of  wine,  in  1799, 
was  one  million  two  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
thousand  five  hundred  and  twelve  gallons  ; 
and  it  has  gradually  decreased  since  then  to 
five  hundred  and  twelve  thousand  three  hun- 
dred and  nineteen  gallons  in  1848,  about 
which  quantity  still  continues  to  be  consum- 
ed annually." 

*  See  auDexed  table. 


Drapery yds 

Sugar,  raw  ....  cwts. 
Do.,  refined     .    .    .  cwts. 

Tea lbs. 

Coals tons 

Iron cwts. 

Fla.\-seed     ....  hhds. 
Cotton  Wool    .     .    .  cwts. 
Tobacco      ....      lbs. 

Timber tons. 

Hats No. 

Hides,  undressed     .     No. 

Hops cwts. 

Hosiery  ....    pieces. 
Oak  Bark    ....  bales. 
Barilla cwts. 

1 

o 
f 

H 

O 

w 

d 
o 

t 

W 
< 
0 

d 

JO 

> 

k! 

> 

m 
d 
W 

> 

"^ 
0 

f 

0 
w 

!z! 
H 
0 

3 

> 
2! 

23,833,381 

3.796,285 

149,513 

22,711,224 

6,413,.557 

3,917,882 

837,746 

199,751 

99,402,762 

4,.551,336 

298,981 

152,366 

84,287 

295,234 

3,606,074 

2,224,6.55 

2,122,932 

00 

O    g 

00  " 
O 

o 

49,692,058 

6,089,175 

490,315 

66,847,251 

10,897,970 

6,530,682 

934,049 

538,542 

116,112,836 

19,995,350 

490,245 

1,387,209 

450,031 

400,701 

7,995,640 

2,550,853 

2,182,060 

CO 

o 

0 

0 

W 

Linen  Cloth    . 
Butter  .    .    . 
Pork     .     .    .    . 
Wheat  .     .     . 
Barley  .     .     .    . 
Meal  and  Flour 
Candles      .     .     . 
Pigs.     .     .     . 
Oats.    .    .    . 
Bacon    .     .     .     . 
Horned  Cattle 
Spirits  .     .     .     . 
Lard      .     .     . 
Soap      .     .     . 
Copper  Ore    . 

Kelp      .    .    . 

o 

CO 

O 
G. 

!Z1 

H 

O 

w 
d 

I-H 

O 
54 

> 
W 
t» 

hi 

W 

% 

1— « 

0 

d 

JO 

> 
0 

> 

CO 
CD 

d 
a 

CO 

> 

M 

i 

w 

"A 

0 

w 

H 

.    yds. 

.  lbs 
barrels, 
bushels, 
bushels 

.  cwts. 

.  cwts. 

.  No. 
barrels, 
flitches. 

.      No. 

.  galls. 

.  cwts. 

.  cwts. 

.   tons. 

.  cwts. 
.     .  tons. 

678,798,721 

5,777,566 

2,164,608 

1,3,34,.567 

1,027,323 

747,674 

117,276 

70,272 

7,650,359 

1,013,552 

802,287 

79,892 

80,974 

92,616 

9,923 

28,107 

31,224 

00 

O   V 
00  "" 

o 
o 

0 

> 

a 
0 

a! 

832,403,860 

7,915,949 

2,565,403 

4,223,782 

1,842,993 

1,686,943 

205,958 

687,569 

16,112,142 

6,248,527 

747,815 

10,34!),752 

313,867 

219,506 

30,243 

106,307 

64,731 

00 

o 

1    o  » 
t— 1  "^ 

1     05"" 

1    \^ 

The  high  "  war  prices,"  then,  for  agricul- 
tural produce,  helped  to  establish  a  strong 
current  of  exportation  in  all  that  species  of 
commodities,  out  of  Ireland  into  England  ; 
while  at  the  same  time  the  increasing  ab- 
senteeism of  Peers  and  landed-proprietors 
(who  now  preferred  to  drink  their  wine  in 
England,)  carried  off  also  to  that  country 
more  and  more  of  the  prices  received  in  Ire- 
land for  those  commodities.  Thus  England 
was  already  gaining  every  way  by  the  Union, 
and  Ireland  losing  every  way. 

Yet  the  system  was  not  yet  by  any  means 
perfect  ;  so  long  as  voters  for  counties  had 
to  be  created  by  small  freeholds,  there  were 
large  and  increasing  numbers  of  working 
farmers  not  wholly  at  the  mercy  of  their 
landlords,  nor  liable  to  be  turned  out  at  the 
end  of  any  six  months.  These  people  could 
live,    and  could  even  employ  labor  in  im- 


DISTRESS    OF   THE   PEOPLE THE    "  THRESHERS. 


453 


proveiiieiits  ;  so  tliat  there  was  a  certain 
comparative  prosperity  ;  although  raaimfac- 
tiires  (except  linen)  still  continued  to  de- 
cline ;  and  the  market  was  flooded  with 
English  fabrics.  It  was  not  till  the  peace 
brought  low  prices  that  the  series  of  Irish 
famines  recommenced  ;  and  after  that,  the 
abolition  of  the  "forty-shilling  freeholders" 
— then  the  systematic  refusal  of  leases — 
then  the  universal  "  tenancy-at-will" — and 
finally  the  Poor  law,  rendered  the  British 
.system  as  nearly  perfect  as  any  system  of 
human  invention  can  be,  for  reaping  the  full 
fruits  of  the  Legislative  Union. 

It  was  under  great  difficulties  and  oppres- 
sions that  Irish  farmers,  at  the  period  we 
have  now  arrived  at,  made  out  life  even  so 
well  as  they  did.  Their  chief  troubles 
arose  from  middlemen,  rack-rents,  titlies, 
church-rates,  and  the  monstrous  Grand  Jury 
jobs  by  which  gentlemen  accommodated  one 
another,  at  the  expense  of  the  county  with 
roads  and  bridges,  which  were  not  useful  to 
the  county,  but  were  convenient  or  ornamen- 
tal to  the  demesnes  of  those  gentlemen  them- 
selves. Those  who  knew  Ireland  in  the 
'  early  years  of  this  century  can  well  remem- 
ber the  many  cases  of  exasperating  oppres- 
sion, the  scenes  of  misery  and  despair  wiiich 
were  caused  by  each  one  of  the  plagues  above 
enumerated.  In  some  counties  during  this 
very  year,  1806,  the  too-long  suffering  coun- 
try people  were  goaded  into  secret  combina- 
tions and  violent  local  resistance. 

In  consequence  of  recent  exactions  by  the 
tithe  proctors  in  the  counties  of  Mayo,  Sligo, 
Leitrim,  and  parts  of  Roscommon,  formerly 
notable  for  their  pacific  and  orderly  demeanor, 
a  body  of  people,  styling  themselves  Thresh- 
ers {i.  e.  of  tithe  proctors'  corn)  had  ap- 
peared in  a  sort  of  public  confederacy.  Up 
to  that  time,  they  had  punctiliously  confined 
their  outrages  and  depredations  to  the  col- 
lectors of  tithes  and  their  underlings.  They 
frankly  averred  their  reasons  for  their  con- 
duct, viz.,  that  from  the  late  unprecedented 
rise  in  the  tithes,  beyond  what  had  before 
been  insisted  upon,  the  profits  of  their  crops 
centered  almost  entirely  in  the  tithe  proctor. 
They  sent  letters,  signed  Captain  Thresher,  to 
the  growers  of  flax  and  oats,  warning  them, 
under  severe  pains,  to  leave  their  tithes  in 
kind  on  the  fields,  but  on  no  account  to  pay 


any  moniod  composition  to  their  rectors  and 
vicars,  or  their  lessees  or  proctors.  Had  the 
managers  of  the  Bedford  administration  in 
all  things  minutely  followed  the  example  of 
their  predecessors,  those  counties  would  have 
been  proclaimed,  and  probably  a  more  gen- 
eral insurrection  have  existed  in  Ireland, 
than  in  the  year  1798.  Many  of  the  task- 
drivers  under  the  former  Government  (all 
found  in  place  were  retained,  except  Lord' 
Redesdale  and  Mr  Foster,  discharged  by 
Mr.  Fox,)  urged  the  Government  to  procliiim 
the  disturbed  counties,  and  recommence  tlie 
discipline  and  goadings  of  1798. 

But  there  was  then  no  motive  for  resort- 
ing to  the  system  of  Camden  and  Carhani})- 
tou  ;  there  was  no  need  now  of  provoking  au 
insurrection,  because  the  Union  had  been 
carried,  and  all  was  safe.  Accordingly,  it 
was  resolved  to  meet  the  case  of  the  poor 
"Threshers"  by  the  usual  Constitutional  mea- 
sures, assizes,  special  commissions,  packed 
juries,  and  the  gallows.  During  the  whole 
of  the  Bedford  administration,  not  a  single 
measure  was  adopted  nor  attempted  for  tlie 
redress  or  abatement  of  this  curse  of  titlies  ; 
the  people  were  left  at  the  mercy  of  the  grind- 
ing proctors  and  rectors,  *  and  if  they  com- 
mitted "  outrage,"  they  were  hung.  Twelve 
Threshers  were  executed  in  the  autumn  of 
this  year  in  Mayo  County  alone  ;  and  others 
suffered  death  in  Gahvay,  Roscommon,  and 
Longford.  There  was  not  the  smallest  evi- 
dence that  they  had  any  political  views  ;  or 
French  principles.  They  were  simply  White- 
Boys  under  another  name. 

During  this  summer,  the  anxious  negotia- 

*  Grinding  was  not  the  worst  of  it.  Rectors  dis- 
covered a  practice  of  swindling  farmers  in  the  follow- 
ing manner :  In  order  to  encourage  the  labor  and 
industry  of  husbandmen  in  improving  their  land*, 
many  clergymen  granted  leases  of  tithes  to  the  ten- 
ants during  their  incumbencies.  The  lessee  specula- 
ting upon  the  life  of  the  incumbent,  would  make  ex- 
penditures in  the  improvement  of  his  lauds  propor- 
tionate to  the  probability  of  his  own  enjoymeut  of 
the  fruits  of  his  improvements.  When  the  improved 
lands  began  to  yield  increased  crops,  in  order  that 
the  church  should  not  lose  the  advantage  of  them 
(decima  uhei-iores),  the  incumbent  would  effectuate 
au  exchange  of  livings  (often  preconcerted),  with 
some  other  lessor  of  his  tithes  for  his  incumbency; 
thus  letting  each  other  ciratis  into  the  full  benefit  of 
the  tenant's  labor  and  expenditure,  upon  the  specu- 
lation of  a  life  interest,  at  least,  in  his  improvenienls. 
In  some  instances,  this  fructifying  process  has  beeu 
known  in  two  or  three  years  to  have  doubled,  and  iu 
others  to  have  trebled  the  v  «lue  of  the  living. 


454 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


tions  for  peace  with  France,  conducted  by 
Lord  Lauderdale  failed  ;  and  his  lordship 
returned  to  Loudon.  Tliis  was  the  death  of 
Charles  James  Fox — he  died  on  the  13th  of 
September,  and  relieved  the  admiuistratioD 
of  tlie  embarrassment  of  the  presence  of  one 
honest  man.  Tlie  death  of  Mr.  Fox  caused 
no  alteration  in  the  L'ish  Government.  In 
En<j:land,  Lord  llowick  quitted  the  Admi- 
ralty, and  went  to  the  Foreign  OfBce. 

Cathulic  meetings  were  held  from  time  to 
time  during-  the  winter  of  1806-7,  mostly  at 
the  Star  and  Garter  in  Essex  street.  At 
one  of  these  a  committee  of  twenty-one  was 
appointed  to  prepare  a  petition  for  Catholic 
Relief  ;  and  amongst  the  twenty-one  we  find 
the  names  of  John  Keogli,  the  old  and  faith- 
ful leader  of  the  Catholics,  Daniel  O'Cou- 
nell,  the  young  and  ultimately  victorious 
leader,  Purcell  O'Gorman,  Doctor  Drom- 
goule,  Thomas  Wyse,  and  others,  whose, 
names  were  afterwards  household  words  in 
every  Catholic  home  during  the  long  strug- 
gle for  emancipation.  A  petition  was 
framed,  adopted,  and  committed  to  Heury 
Grattau  for  presentation. 

On  the  4  th  of  March,  1801,  on  the  Re- 
port of  the  Committee  of  Supply  being 
brought  up  in  Parliament,  it  appeared  that 
the  committee  estimated  the  grant  to  May- 
nooth  College  at  i2 13,000  instead  of  iES, 000. 
This  increase  was,  of  course,  opposed  by  Mr. 
Rerceval,  who  always  showed  himself  the 
most  zealous  Protestant  in  Parliament.  Tiie 
iucreased  grant,  however,  was  carried  ;  not 
llirongh  any  feeling  of  liberality  towards  the 
Catholics  ;  but  for  the  reasons  set  forth  by 
Lord  Howick  in  supporting  the  grant.  He 
said  lie  did  so  on  the  large  principle  of  con- 
necting the  Irish  Catholic  with  the  state.  It 
was  then  particularly  necessary  to  promote 
the  domestic  education  of  the  Catholic 
clergy,  as  an  institution  of  great  extent  had 
been  formed  at  Paris,  at  the  head  of  which 
was  a  Dr.  Walsh,  a  person  of  considerable 
notoriety,  with  a  view  to  reestablish  the 
practice  of  Irish  Catholic  education  at  that 
place,  and  to  make  that  education  the  chan- 
nel of  introducing  and  extending  tlie  political 
influence  of  tlie  French  Government  in  Ire- 
land.* 

*  "  In  the  latt.T  pr.cl  of  n.ntiimn,  1"06,  so;no  printed 
copies  of   au  aiTct,  or  decree,  signed  '  Napoleon,  I 


English  governments,  after  having  so 
long  pi'ohibited  by  penal  laws  the  education 
of  Catholic  youths  at  home,  and  having  thus 
driven  them  abroad  for  education,  wei'e  now 
almost  willing  to  bribe  them  to  stay  at  home 
and  receive  that  education  which  within  the 
memory  of  men  then  living,  would  have 
merited  transportation  or  death.  Yet  there 
was  nothing  inconsistent  in  these  two  modes 
of  treatment,  A  century  before,  the  great 
object  of  law  and  government  had  been  to 
get  and  keep  possession  of  Catholic  lands 
and  goods — and  for  tliat  purpose  to  debase 
Catholics  to  the  condition  of  brutes  for  want 
of  education — but  in  1  SOT,  the  great  need  and 
absorbing  passion  of  the  Government  was  to 
crush  France,  and  keep  out  French  princi- 
ples ;  and  it  was  desirable  to  keep  young 
divinity  students  away  from  Paris,  where 
they  might  learn  matters  not  expedient  to 
be  known  in  Ireland  ;  might  learn,  for  in- 
stance, that  it  is  not  so  very  miserable  a 
case  for  each  man  to  be  his  own  landlord  ; 
that  country-people  can  be  pretty  comfort- 
able even  without  paying  tithes — that  peo- 
ple of  all  religions  in  France  are  equal  be- 
fore the  law — that  the  French  are  not  a  race 
of  creatures  altogether  abandoned  to  crime, 
debauchery  and  atheism,  for  want  of  noble 
lanulords  ;  and  many  other  things  of  this 
nature.  Therefore,  when  the  Government  at 
one  time  drove  young  Irishmen  abroad  for 
education,  and  at  another  time  induced  them 
to  stay  at  home  for  education,  it  knew  very 
well  each  tinje  what  it  was  doing,  and  acted 
in  both  cases  upon  the  invariable  principle 
that  all  Irish  life,  activity  and  industry, 
physical  and  intellectual,  lay  and  clerical,  be- 

Hugh  B.  Maret,  Champagny,  and  Walsh,  Administra- 

teur  General,'  dated  Milan,  2Sth  Floreal,  An.  xiii., 
uniting  the  English,  Irish,  and  Scotch  Ecclesiastical 
Establishment,  in  the  French  dominions,  under  the 
general  administration  of  the  Reverend  Dr.  Walsii, 
late  Superior  of  tlie  Irish  College  at  Paris,  were 
sent  from  thence  via  Hamburg,  to  England  and  Ire- 
land. At  the  same  time  Dr.  Walsh  invited  the  stu- 
dents of  St.  Patrick's  Irish  College  at  Lisbon,  to  re- 
pair to  Paris,  to  prosecute  their  studies,  and  encour- 
aged them  to  undertake  the  journe}^  by  promising 
that  the  expenses  of  it  would  be  defrayed.  The 
Roman  Catholic  Archbishops  and  other  Prelates, 
Trustees  of  Maynooth  College,  having  met  in  Dublin 
on  business  concerning  it  in  January,  1S07,  availed 
themselves  of  the  occasion,  to  express  their 
Uisapprobatiou  of  the  iuvitatipn  from  Paris,  in  a 
letter  to  the  Rev.  Doctor  Crotty,  Sector  of  the  Irish 
Colie-'-i''  nt  Li-'i'in.  a  cony  of  wliich  was  sent  to  Mr. 
Secretary  Elliott,  and  also  to  Lord  Howick. 


THE    KING    DEMANDS   A   NO-POPERT   PLEDGE. 


455 


\on<j;  to  England,  and  are  to  be  re,!j;ulated 
and  disposed  of,  displac£d,  transferred,  en- 
couraged, and  prohibited,  as  British  policy 
and  interest  shall  from  time  to  time  require. 

Upon  the  very  same  invariable  principle,  the 
Government  in  this  session  introduced  what 
was  called  the  "Catholic  Officers' bill,"  to 
enable  Catholics  to  hold  commissions  in  the 
army  or  navy.  This  measure  was  intended 
by  ^Ministers  for  two  purposes  ;  first,  to  stop 
by  a  small  concession,  the  threatening  agita- 
tion of  the  Catholics  for  their  complete  re- 
lief; and  secondly,  by  commissioning  some 
Catholic  ofScers,  to  make  the  British  service 
more  popular  with  the  people,  and  thus  pro- 
mote enlistment.  On  this  latter  point,  the 
words  of  Lord  Ilowick,  who  introduced  the 
bill,  are  worth  preserving  : — 

"  On  the  Commonalty  of  Ireland  the 
measure  must  have  a  powerful  effect,  by  af- 
fording a  salutary  chick  to  the  increasing  su- 
perabundant population  of  that  country ; 
as  it  would  induce  numbers  to  enter  into  the 
service  of  His  Majesty,  even  of  those,  who 
by  their  own  discontents,  and  by  the  artifi- 
ces of  others,  had  so  lately  been  urged  into 
insurrection  and  rebellion." 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  measure  also 
was  resisted  by-the  model  Protestant,  Perce- 
val.  "  He  greatly  feared,"  he  said,  "  that 
this  was  but  the  beginning  of  a  system, 
which  would  in  its  consequences,  when  fully 
disclosed,  be  highly  dangerous  to  the  Con- 
stitution and  Protestant  establishment.  He 
perceived,  that  step  by  step,  and  from  day 
to  day,  they  were  bringing  forward  measures, 
which  he  thought  must  end  in  the  total  re- 
peal OF  THE  Test  act."  Mr.  Perceval  was 
himself,  he  declared,  "  as  great  a  friend  to 
toleration  as  any  man,"  but  he  could  not  see 
how  the  Constitution  in  Church  and  State 
was  to  stand,  if  persons  were  allowed  to 
command  the  King's  troops  who  believed  in 
Seven  Sacraments.  The  bill  was  read  a  first 
time  ;  and  immediately  arose  a  violent  fer- 
ment, both  in  England  and  amongst  the 
"  Ascendancy  "  in  Ireland.  The  University 
of  Oxford  petitioned  against  the  measure  ; 
so  did  the  Corporation  of  Dublin.  The 
Dukes  of  York  and  Cumberland,  Lord  Eldou 
and  Lord  Hawkesbury,  had  frequent  access 
to  the  King,  whose  mental  disorder  was  tlien, 
iudccd,  so    much   aggravated,  that    he  had 


need  of  advisers,  if  those  advisers  had  been 
honest.  George  III.  was  at  that  time 
an  idiot ;  sometimes  a  helpless  and  moping 
idiot  ;  sometimes  a  talking  and  busy  idiot  ; 
and,  unfortunately,  he  was  in  the  latter  spe- 
cies of  paroxysm.  Mr.  Perceval  adverti.sed 
in  the  public  papers  that  "the  Cliurch  was 
in  danger  ; "  and  a  great  cry  of  ''  No-Po- 
pery ! "  arose  over  all  England.  The  events 
that  followed  are  clearly  set  forth  in  the  ex- 
planations given  by  Lord  Grcnville  and  Lord 
Howick  in  the  two  Houses,  of  the  causes 
which  led  to  the  sudden  change  of  MinV.try. 
It  appears  that  the  Ministers  had  had  sev- 
eral interviews  with  the  King,  who  seemed  at 
first  satisfied  with  their  statements  of  the 
expediency  of  the  measure  proposed  ;  but 
the  unhappy  patient  had  evidently  not  un- 
derstood their  statements.  He  asked  Lord 
Howick  one  day,  "  Wliat  was  going  on  in 
the  House  of  Commons  ?'  On  being  told  that 
the  Catholic  Officers'  bill  was  to  come  on, 
he  expressed  his  general  dislike. 

"The  next  day  (said  Lord  Howick)  His 
Majesty,  in  the  same  gracious  manner  that 
we  have  been  accustomed  to  experience  from 
him,  informed  us,  that  he  must  look  out  for 
new  servants.  Two  days  afterwards,  I  was 
authorized  to  state  this  circumstances  to  the 
House,  and  on  Tuesday  last.  His  Majesty 
signified  his  pleasure  that  we  should  resign 
our  offices  next  day."  Ministers  then  pro- 
posed to  drop  the  bill  altogether  ;  but  this 
was  not  enough  for  the  King,  in  the  condi- 
tion of  nervous  irritation  to  which  he  had 
been  worked  up  by  Lord  Eldon  and  their 
Royal  Highnesses,  his  two  sons,  the  Dukes 
of  York  and  Cumberland.  He  required 
from  them  a  pledge  that  they  would  never 
more  bring  forward  any  measure  whatever 
respecting  Papists — in  other  words,  would 
never  advise  His  Majesty  to  do  any  act  of 
justice  towards  one-fourth  part  of  his  sub- 
jects. This  was  two  much.  The  Miuisters 
had  no  idea  of  emancipating  the  Catholics  ; 
it  was  to  stave  off  that  question  of  emanci- 
pation that  they  had  proposed  tlie  trifling 
concession  in  question  ;  but  to  give  such  a 
pledge  as  he  required  (a  pledge  which  had, 
however,  been  given  him  by  Mr.  Pitt,)  would 
have  been  contrary  to  tlieir  duty  as  Minis- 
ters of  State,  and  to  their  oath  as  Privy- 
CoLUiciilois,  v.ho  swear  "  failhuiUy  and  truly 


456 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


to  (It'clare  their  mind  and  opinion,  according 
to  tlieir  hearts  and  consciences,  in  all  things 
to  be  moved,  treated,  and  debated  in  coun- 
cil." Before  the  resignation,  however,  seve- 
ral debates  took  place.  In  one  of  these. 
Mr.  Plunket,  making  his  first  speech  in  a 
united  Parliament,  brought  under  the  no- 
lice  of  the  House  the  singular  proceeding 
of   the  Duke  of   Cumberland.     He  said  :  — 

"Not  satisfied  with  their  placards,  &c., 
an  attempt  has  beeu  made  by  the  Chancellor 
of  the  University  of  Dublin  (the  Duke  of 
Cumberland)  to  disturb  the  peace  of  that 
University,  by  endeavoring  to  procure  a  pe- 
tition against  the  Catholic  bill.  Finding 
(to  the  honor  of  that  learned  body)  the 
first  application  unsuccessful,  a  second  had 
been  sent,  in  which  it  was  intimated,  that 
the  only  way  to  preserve  the  favor  of  the 
royal  Duke,  was  by  signing  such  a  petition. 
He  was  not  aware,  whether  the  latter  ap- 
plication took  place  after  the  measure  had 
beeu  abandoned  in  Parliament,  or  before. 
If  after,  it  was  apolitical  scheme  to  support 
the"  new  administration — if,  while  the  bill 
was  pending,  it  was  an  unconstitutional  and 
unwarrantable  interferenee." 

The  matter  ended  with  the  resignation  of 
Ministers  ;  and  the  installation  of  the  fa- 
mous "No-Popery"  Cabinet,  with  the  pious 
Perceval  at  its  head  as  Ciiancellor  of  the 
Exchequer.  Lord  Castlereagh,  who  had 
become  indispensable  to  the  councils  of  his 
sovereign,  was  Secretary  for  the  Colonies 
and  the  War  Department ;  Lord  Camden 
was  President  of  the  Privy-Council ;  and 
George  Canning  Secretary  for  Foreign  Af- 
fairs. Lord  Eldon  was  Lord-Chancellor  of 
England  ;  the  Duke  of  Richmond  Lord- 
Lieutenant  of  Ireland  ;  and  the  Chief  Secre- 
tary of  that  country  was  to  be  the  victor  of 
'Assaye,  and  conqueror  of  the  Mahrattas, 
who  had  just  returned  after  his  brilliant  cam- 
paign iu  India,  The  Barou  Sutton  was 
created  Lord  Manners,  and  appointed  Chan- 
cellor of  Ireland. 

The  occasion  or  pretext  for  this  change 
of  Ministry  was  so  absurd,  and  gave  such 
an  impression  of  craziness,  that  many  mem- 
bers of  both  Houses  of  Parliament  were 
unwilling  to  resign  themselves,  and  the  coun- 
try to  be  governed  by  the  fitful  caprices  of 
au  idiot  J  and  several  efforts  were  made  by 


offering  resolutions  against  the  principle  of 
the  required  fledge  to  keep  Ministers  in  their 
places.  Of  the  Parliamentary  debates  on 
these  resolutions,  it  is  only  material  in  this 
place  to  notice  such  passages  as  throw  any 
light  on  Irish  affairs.  Mr.  Tighe,  an  Irish 
member,  said  the  tranquillity  of  Ireland 
would,  he  feared,  be  affected  by  the  remov- 
al of  the  Duke  of  Bedford.  He  did  not, 
however,  see  any  ground  for  apprehending 
any  alarming  disturbance,  because  the  peo- 
ple of  Ireland  had  been  accustomed  to  view 
with  cold,  determined  apathy,  all  changes  in 
administration  here,  as  none  of  tliose  changes 
were  attended  with  any  benefit  to  them. 
Few  recruits  were  to  be  had  in  the  South, 
or  in  the  West,  because  there  was  no  secu- 
rity for  the  free  exercise  of  religion.  Some 
years  ago,  a  gentleman  had  got  some  men  in 
his  neighborhood,  upon  his  own  pledge,  and 
the  pledge  of  a  magistrate,  that  they  should 
always  be  allowed  the  free  exercise  of  their 
religion  ;  but  when  they  arrived  at  their  quar- 
ters in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  they  were  com- 
pelled to  attend  the  Protestant  worship,  and 
forbidden  ever  to  attend  a  neighboring  chapel 
of  their  own,  under  pain  of  military  punish- 
ment. Consequently,  the  recruiting  pro- 
ceeded but  slowly  in  Ireland,  though  the 
country  was  poor,  and  the  bounties  offered 
extravagantly  high.  Since  the  Union,  Ire- 
land had  felt  no  community  of  rights,  no 
community  of  commerce  ;  the  only  conmiu- 
nity  it  felt,  was  tliat  of  having  one  hundred 
assessors  in  the  British  Parliament,  who 
were  to  give  ineffectual  votes  for  the  interest 
of  their  country,  as  he  might  do  that  night. 

Mr.  Tighe's  estimate  of  the  value  of  Irish 
representation  at  Westminster  remains  true 
at  this  day. 

Sir  John  Newport  (as  he  and  his  friends 
were  going  out,  and  were  not  to  be  respon- 
sible for  pledges,)  showed  in  his  speech  a 
sacred  regard  for  "  pledges."  He  said  : 
"Ireland  would  force  itself  upon  the  consid- 
eration of  the  House  and  of  the  empire,  of 
which  it  was  a  vital  part  ;  it  was  in  vain  to 
overlook  the  wants  and  interests,  the  expect- 
ations and  the  rights  of  Ireland  ;  it  was  iu 
vain  to  trifle  with  the  pledges  given  ;  Ire- 
land must  have  its  weight,  for  it  must  be 
felt,  that  the  common  enemy  could  not  be 
resisted  without  Ireland.     The  pledge,  giveu 


DUKE   OF   RICHMOND   VICEROY. 


457 


under  tlio  authority  of  the  noble  Tiord  oppo- 
site, could  not  be  evaded,  though  the  noble 
Lord  may  not  act  as  it  required  him.  The 
noble  Duke  at  the  head  of  the  present  gov- 
ernment had  given  a  still  stronger  pledge. 
«■■  He  hail  written  two  letters  to  two  officers 
-f  X>f  the  Irish  brigades,  inviting  them  to  enter 
into  the  service  of  this  country,  on  the  prom- 
ise of  making  the  Irish  act  of  1793  general, 
and  farther,  of  opening  the  whole  military 
career  to  them. 

In  Ireland,  these  Ministerial  clianges  caus- 
ed a  great  commotion  among  the  Catholics. 
Their  committee  had  drawn  up  their  petition 
for  complete  emancipation  ;  and  had  sent  it 
to  Mr.  G rattan  for  presentation.  He  had 
consulted  with  the  friends  of  their  cause  in 
London,  particularly  with  Sheridan,  and 
wrote  to  the  committee  that  they  had  better 
withhold  it.  A  Catholic  meeting  was  then 
held,  at  which  the  venerable  John  Keogh 
moved  the  postponement — not  abandonment 
— of  further  proceedings  upon  their  petition. 
As  to  the  paltry  measure  of  conciliation 
which  had  been  proposed  by  Govern- 
ment, and  which  the  Catholics  had  not  pe- 
titioned for  at  all,  Mr.  Keogh  thus  truly 
desci'ibed  it :  "  The  English  Ministers  re- 
solved to  encoupage  our  Catholic  gentlemen 
to  enter  into  the  array  and  navy,  and 
through  their  influence  to  induce  our  peas- 
antry to  enter  the  service  in  great  imml)ers. 
One  of  tiieir  objects,  they  admit  to  be,  to 
lessen  our  ■population,  and,  on  the  whole,  to 
change  disorder  and  weakae.ss  into  subordi- 
nation and  strength.  But  candor  must  com- 
pel us  to  allow,  that  this  bill  would  not  have 
given  them  any  great  claim  for  gratitude 
from  the  Catholics  ;  to  relieve  them  teas  not 
the  object  of  the  hill ;  it  did  not  profess  to 
admit  them  to  the  privileges  of  their  coun- 
try. It  has  been  called  a  boon  to  the  Cath- 
olics ;  but,  in  truth,  had  it  been  carried 
into  efifect,  it  would  have  been  a  boon  given 
by  the  Catholics  ;  the  boon  of  their  blood, 
to  defend  a  constitution  from  which  they, 
and  they  only,  were  cautiously  excluded." 

Yet  Mr.  Keogh  jirai-ed  warmly  the  Min- 
istry who  had  attempted  to  grant  even  this 
"boon  ;"  and  proposed  that  from  respect 
to  them,  and  in  deference  to  the  advice  of 
Mr.  Grattan  and  other  friends,  their  petition 

for    emaneipalion  should   not  then  be   pre- 
58 


sen  ted.  Tliis  motion  was  opposed  by  Mr. 
O'Gorman,  but  sustained  by  the  potent 
voice  of  Daniel  O'Connell,  who  spoke  on  this 
occasion  with  a  warm  and  filial  regard  of 
the  veteran  Catholic  agitator,  John  Keogh, 
and  his  long  services  to  the  cause.  The  res- 
olution to  jiostpone  was  carried  ;  the  com- 
mittee was  dissolved  ;  and  Lord  Fingal  was 
deputed  to  present  a  respectful  address  to 
the  Duke  of  Bedford  ;  although,  how  his 
grace  merited  any  confidence  or  gratitude 
from  the  Irish  Catholics  it  would  now  be 
difficult  to  explain.  The  whole  policy  of 
his  administration  had  been  directed  to  keep 
back  their  claim  for  emancipation,  and  to 
preserve  the  Orange  Ascendancy  in  its  op- 
pressive domination. 

Yet  the  Duke  seemed  to  be  removed  from 
office  upon  a  question  which  touched  the 
Catholics,  though  never  so  little.  The  Or- 
ange men  were  excited  against  him  ;  party 
spirit  had  been  roused  ;  and  such  zealous 
partisans  are  the  Irish  populace,  and  so 
grateful  for  any  presumed  kind  intention, 
that  the  Dublin  mob,  absolutely  took  out 
the  horses  from  the  Duke's  carriage,  and 
from  the  Duchess'  carriage,  yoked  some  of 
themselves  to  the  carriages,  and  drew  thera 
to  the  water  side,  where  they  embarked  for 
England  on  the  21st  of  A^vW,  1807. 


CHAPTER    XLIX. 

1807—1808. 

Dulce  of  Pviclimond  Viceroy — Sir  A.  Wellesley,  Secre- 
tary—Their System — Depression  of  Catholics — In- 
solence of  Orangemen — Government  Interference 
in  Elections — Ireland  Gets  a  New  Insurrection  Act 
— And  an  Arms  Act — Grattan  Advocates  Coercion 
Acts — Sheridan  Opposes  Them — Acts  Passed— Tlie 
Bishop  of  Quimper — Means  Used  to  Create  Exas- 
peration against  Catholics—"  Shanavests"  and 
"  Caravats  " — "  Church  in  Danger  " — Catholic  Pe- 
tition —  Influence  of  O'Connell  —  Lore!  Fingal — 
Growing  Liberality  amongst  Protestants — May- 
nooth  Grant  Curtailed — Doctor  Duigenan  Privy- 
Councillor  —  Catholic  Petition  Presented  —  The 
"  Feto"  Offered — Mr.  Ponsonby  and  Mr.  (irattao 
— They  Urge  the  Veto  as  a  Security — Petition  Re- 
jected— Controversies  on  the  T'eto— Bishops'  Reso- 
lutions—No Catholics  in  Bank  of  Ireland — Dublin 
Police. 

The  Duke  of  Richmond  had  arrived  ia 
Dublin,  as  Lord-Lieutenant,  a  few  days  be- 
fore his  predecessor  left  it. 


458 


HISTORY    OF   lEELAND. 


As  the  new  administration  had  accepted 
office  immediately  after  the  King  had  re- 
quired a  pledge  from  his  Ministers  that  no 
Catholic  claims,  or  rights,  or  wrongs,  should 
ever  be  mentioned  to  him  again,  this  accept- 
ance of  office  was  itself  a  pledge  to  that  ef- 
fect by  the  new  advisers  of  the  Crown  ;  and, 
so  fiir  as  they  were  concerned,  they  certainly 
redeemed  the  pledge.  They  were  profess- 
edly a  "  No-Popery  "  Cabinet ;  and  the 
first  principle  of  their  policy  was  resist- 
ance to  all-  reform,  and  especially  to  all 
concession  to  Catholics.  Such  being  their 
merits,  the  Viceroy  and  his  Secretary,  Sir 
Arthur  Wellesley,  were  at  once  presented 
by  the  Dublin  Corporation  with  the  free- 
dom of  the  city  in  a  gold  and  in  a  silver 
box,  respectively.  The  vote  was  accom- 
panied by  an  enthusiastic  speech  of  the  no- 
torious Mr.  John  Giflfard,  who  said,  this 
was  not  the  mere  compliment  of  custom,  but 
a  special  recognition  of  their  known  deter- 
minalion  "to  maintain  the  Constitution  in 
Church  and  State  " — that  is,  the  Protestant 
Ascendancy,  and  the  exclusion  and  debase- 
ment of  Catholics. 

It  may  well  be  understood  that  this  event 
aggravated  the  insolence  of  Orange  magis- 
trates and  squires,  all  over  the  island,  mak- 
ing the  lot  of  the  Catholic  country-people 
still  more  bitter  than  before  ;  and  that  it 
caused  despondency,  irritation,  and  some  de- 
gree of  disorganization  amongst  the  Catlio- 
lic  leaders,  who  were  striving  in  such  hope- 
less circumstances  for  the  civil  rights  of  their 
countrymen.  It  would  be  difficult  to  con- 
ceive any  political  prospect  more  gloomy 
than  that  of  the  Catholic  body  at  that  mo- 
ment ;  dreading  the  rigor  of  the  new  ad- 
ministration, with  its  ferocious  Orange  sup- 
porters, and  reduced  to  be  thankful  to  the 
out-going  Ministers  for  attempting  a  paltry 
army-reform,  avowedly  intended  to  diminish 
the  Catholic  population.  Tliis  is  the  first 
time — seven  years  after  the  Union — that  we 
first  find  British  Ministers  urging  the  depop- 
ulation of  the  island  ;  a  policy  which  has 
since  been  prosecuted  with  such  eminent 
success. 

The  new  Parliament  opened  in  June.  In 
the  elections  which  preceded  it,  the  Govern- 
ment made  unusual  exertions  to  secure  a 
large  niiijority.     Of  the  nature  of  the  influ- 


ences employed  in  Ireland  for  this  purpose, 
one  example  may  suffice  :  Soon  after  the 
House  met,  Mr.  Wliitbread  stated,  from 
a  paper  which  he  produced,  to  the  House, 
that  Mr.  Ormsby,  the  Solicitor  for  the  For- 
feited Estates  in  Ireland,  went  down  to  the 
election  for  Wexford  County,  and  person- 
ally waited  on  Mr.  James  Grogan,  for  the 
purpose  of  influencing  him  to  support  ths 
Ministerial  candidates,  by  a  promise  of  a 
restoration  to  the  family  of  all  the  estates 
of  his  late  brother,  Cornelius  Grogan,  which 
had  been  forfeited  Ministers  neither  de- 
nied nor  blamed,  nor  offered  to  investigate 
the  fact,  or  punish  the  delinquent.  Mr. 
Perceval  assured  Lord  Howick,  that  he  had 
never  before  heard  of  it  ;  and  Sir  Arthur 
Wellesley  declared,  that  the  Government  of 
Ireland  had  given  no  instructions  to  Mr. 
Ormsby  on  the  subject  ;  and  any  improper 
use  of  such  influence  was  unknown  to  Gov- 
ernment. Tlie  actual  abuse  of  the  Govern- 
ment influence,  the  overt  negotiation  of 
their  confidential  servant,  and  his  subse- 
quent impunity,  tell  the  whole  story  plainly 
enough. 

Tlie  first  act  passed  for  Ireland  in  this 
Parliament  was  a  new  "  Insurrection  act." 
The  second  was  an  "  Arms  act."  Tliey 
were  brought  in  by  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  j 
and  it  appeared  on  the  debates  that  they 
had  been  actually  framed  by  the  late  Gren- 
ville  administration,  but  there  had  not  been 
time  to  pass  them.  The  Duke  of  Bedford 
and  Mr.  Secretary  Elliott  had  recommended, 
and  now  supported  them  ; — yet,  the  Dublin 
people  had  harnessed  themselves  to  Lord 
Bedford's  carriage  !  So  easily  won  by  even 
pretended  kindness  are  our  generous-hearted 
countrymen — and  so  minute  is  the  difference 
between  Whigs  and  Tories. 

The  "  Insurrection  act "  renewed  the  pow- 
er of  the  Lord-Lieutenant  to  proclaim  dis- 
turbed counties,  and  the  authority  of  the 
magistrates  to  arrest  persons  who  should  be 
found  out  of  their  dwellings  between  sun- 
setting  and  sunrising.  There  was  a  clause 
enacting,  "  that  magistrates  might  have  the 
power  to  enter  any  houses,  or  authorize  any 
persons,  by  warrant,  to  do  so,  at  any  time 

from  after  sunset,  to  sunrise,  from 

which  they  should  suspect  the  inhabitants, 
or  auy  of  them  to  be  tlien  absent,  and  cause 


GRATTAN   ADVOCATES    COERCION   ACTS SHERIDAN    OPPOSES   THEM. 


459 


absent  persons  to  be  apprehended,  and  deem- 
ed idle  uud  disorderly,  nnless  tliey  could 
prove  they  were  absent  upon  their  lawful 
occasions." 

Many  persons  thought  it  singular  to  find 
Mr.  G  rat  tan,  then  member  for  Dublin,  sup- 
porting this  coercion  law  ;  but  in  truth,  it  was 
quite  consistent  with  his  former  course  ;  he 
had  supported  the  former  Insurrection  act, 
and  Gunpowder  act,  in  the  Irish  Parliament. 
Nobody  could  have  a  greater  horror  of  re- 
volutionary movements,  and  of  French  prin- 
ciples than  Grattan  ;  and  Mr.  Elliott,  the 
late  Secretary,  assured  him  that  the  poor 
"  Threshers  "  were  at  bottom  no  other  than 
Jacobins.     He  said,  on  this  occasion  : — 

"  He  understood  from  his  Right  Honor- 
able friend  beside  him,  (Mr.  Elliott,)  that 
there  icere  secret  meetings  of  a  dark  and  dan- 
gerous description  in  Ireland.  This  formed 
a  ground  for  the  bill.  He  was  afraid  of  a 
French  interest  in  Ireland,  and  he  wished  that 
Government  should  be  furnished  with  the 
means  not  merely  of  resisting,  but  of  extir- 
pating that  interest,  wherever  and  whenever 
it  should  appear," 

But  his  support  of  so  cruel  a  measure 
greatly  alienated  his  friends  in  Ireland.  To 
do  him  justice,  Jie  vehemently  objected  to 
the  clause  authorizing  magistrates  to  enter 
houses  by  night,  on  suspicion,  or  to  give  a 
warrant  for  that  purpose  to  any  one  who 
might  say  he  had  a  suspicion.  "  Cut  who," 
he  exclaimed,  "  were  the  persons  to  be  vest- 
ed with  the  power  ?  Perhaps  some  lawless 
miscreant — some  vagabond.  Perhaps,  the 
discretion  of  that  reasonable  time  was  to  be 
lodged  in  the  bosom  of  some  convenient 
menial,  some  postillion,  coachman,  host- 
ler, or  ploughboy,  who,  under  the  sanction  of 
the  law,  was  to  judge  wlien  it  would  be  a  rea- 
sonable time  for  him  to  rush  into  the  apart- 
ment of  a  female,  while  she  was  hastily 
throwing  on  her  clothes,  to  open  the  door  to 
this  midnight  visitor.  Tliis  would  give  a 
woiuid  that  would  be  felt  long." 

Richard  Brinsley  Slieridan,  to  his  honor 
be  it  said,  went  against  his  friend  and  most 
of  his  party  upon  this  question.  "  His  Right 
Honorable  friend  had  said,  that  the  mea- 
sure could  only  be  justified  by  an  imperious 
necessity  ;  now  it  was  that  necessity  which 
he  wi:bLied  lo  have  cleavly  made  out  Lu  exist, 


before  the  measure  was  resorted  to.  It  was 
no  answer  to  liim,  that  the  measure  had 
been  prepared  by  his  friends.  If  it  had,  the 
Tlireshers  were  then  engaged  in  their  dis- 
turbances, and  administering  unlawful  oaths. 
Ireland  was  now  as  loyally  tranquil  as  any 
part  of  the  empire.  Would  they  state  in 
the  preamble  of  the  bill,  "Whereas,  a  very 
small  part  of  Ireland  was  some  time  ago 
disturbed  by  the  Threshers,  and  whereas,  that 
disturbance  has  been  completely  put  down 
by  the  ordinary  course  of  the  law,  and  Ire- 
land is  now  completely  tranquil,  be  it,  there- 
fore, enacted,  &;c.  That  most  extraordinary 
powers,  &c." 

The  bill  passed  into  law,  however,  with 
all  its  clauses  ;  and  by  continual  renewals 
(for  it  is  always  temporary,  like  the  Mutiny 
act,)  it  has  been  substantially  the  law  of 
Ireland  even  to  this  day. 

Next  came  the  Arms  bill.  It  was  the 
needful  complement  of  the  other  ;  for  if  the 
people  were  not  very  carefully  deprived  of 
arms,  it  was  known  that  they  would  not 
submit  to  the  daily  and  nightly  outrages 
which  were  intended  to  be  perpetrated  upon 
them  under  the  "  Insurrection  act."  But 
while  the  latter  was  to  be  contingent  upon 
the  Yiceroy's  proclamation,  the  Arms  act 
was  universal  and  was  to  operate  at  once. 

Mr.  Sheridan  opposed  this  measure  also. 
He  said  that  if  the  former  bill  seemed  odious 
in  its  form  and  substance,  this  was  ten  tliou- 
sand  times  more  so  ;  it  was  really  abomina- 
ble. But  at  the  same  time,  as  if  it  were 
meant  to  make  the  measure  both  odious  and 
ridiculous,  it  was  so  constructed,  as  that  it 
would  plunder  the  people  of  their  arms,  and 
put  down  the  trade  of  a  blacksmith.  Noth- 
ing like  a  blacksmith  was  to  exist  in  Irehind, 
lest  he  might  possibly  form  something  like  a 
pike.  If  ever  there  were  an  instance,  in 
which  the  liberties  of  a  loyal  people  were 
taken  from  them,  and  they  were  thereby 
tempted  to  become  disloyal,  it  M'as  the  pres- 
ent. Indeed,  from  the  general  spirit,  with 
which  the  bill  was  framed,  he  thought  there 
only  wanted  a  clause  to  make  it  high  trea- 
son for  any  man  to  communicate  either  of 
these  bills  to  Napoleon  Buonaparte,  Emperor 
of  the  French,  lest  he  should  conceive  them 
to  be  direct  invitations  to  hfm  to  visit  that 
part  of  His  Miijesly's  empire. 


460 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


On  the  14th  of  August,  Mr.  Sheridan 
moved  for  a  serious  Parliamentary  inquiry 
into  the  state  of  IrcU\nd.  Mr.  Perceval 
eagerly  opposed  the  motion  ;  earnestly  de- 
precated "  the  time  and  the  spirit  "  of  Mr. 
Sheridan's  motion  ;  and  got  rid  of  it  by  the 
"  previous  question." 

Thus,  at  the  moment  when  Catholics  were 
told  to  despair  of  ever  being  admitted  to  the 
privileges  of  the  Constitution,  they  were  to 
be  disarmed  and  coerced  on  suspicion  and 
hearsay  ;  and  all  inquiry  into  the  causes  of 
their  discontent  was  refused,  because  the 
right  time  had  not  come.  And,  in  fact,  it 
has  never  come.  We  have  said  the  Catho- 
lics were  to  be  disarmed  and  coerced  ;  for 
although  no  religious  distinction  is  made  in 
the  acts,  yet  every  one  knew  then,  as  now, 
that  such  laws  are  never  enforced  against  a 
Protestant,  unless  it  be,  perhaps,  some  Pro- 
testant like  Mr.  Wilson,  the  Tyrone  mag- 
istrate, who  makes  himself  olnioxious  by 
standing  up  for  liis  Catholic  neighbors. 

The  stern  and  eternal  negative  put  upon 
Catholic  claims  soon  reached  France.  A 
certain  Bishop  of  Quimper,  in  a  pastoral  to 
his  flock,  very  naturally  drew  a  striking  con- 
trast between  the  intolerance  of  England 
and  the  regard  for  religion  and  absolute  tol- 
eration shown  by  the  Emperor's  Govern- 
ment.* These  remarks  were,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  English  Government,  a  development  of 
the  most  infamous  French  principles,  or 
rather  a  proof  of  a  Franco-Irish  conspiracy. 
Indeed,  nothing  ever  has  so  bitterly  provok- 

*  The  good  Bishop  of  Quimper  says  amongst  other 
things  :  "  He  (the  Emperor)  shall  hear  the  acclama- 
tions of  your  gratitude  and  your  love.  They  will 
prove  to  the  eternal  enemy  of  the  glory  and  prosper- 
ity of  France  that  all  her  perhdious  intrigues  will 
never  be  able  to  alienate  from  him  your  religious  and 
faithful  hearts.  For  a  moment  she  had  seduced  you — 
at  that  unhappy  epoch  when  anarchy  ravaged  this 
desolated  laud,  and  when  its  impious  furies  overturned 
your  temples  and  profaned  your  altars.  She  only  af- 
fected concern  for  the  reestablishment  of  your  holy 
religion  in  order  to  rend  and  ravage  your  country. 
See  the  sufferings  which  England  inflicts  upon  Ire- 
land, which  is  Catholic  like  you,  and  subject  to  her 
dominion.  The  three  last  ages  present  only  the  af- 
fecting picture  of  a  people  robbed  of  all  their  relig- 
ious and  civil  rights.  In  vaiu  the  most  enlightened 
men  of  that  nation  have  protested  against  the  tyran- 
nical oppression.  A  new  persecution  has  ravished 
from  them  even  the  hope  of  seeing  an  eud  to  their 
calamities.  An  inflamed  and  misled  (the  English) 
people,  dares  applaud  such  injustice.  It  insults  with 
Bectarian  fanaticism  the  Catholic  religion,  and  its 
venerable  chief;  and  it  is  that  Government,  which 


ed  the  British  public  and  its  Government, 
as  when  the  eloquent  tongue  of  some  illus- 
trious French  prelate  proclaims  aloud  the 
shocking  truth  about  Irish  rule,  and  pours 
forth  the  hot  torrent  of  sacred  indignation 
upon  the  deliberate,  cold-blooded  atrocities 
of  England. t 

Upon  the  slender  foundation  of  the  Bish- 
op of  Quimper's  Pastoral,  Government  un- 
derlings engrafted  a  most  base  fabrication, 
for  the  double  purpose  of  raising  indignation 
against  the  French,  and  of  throwing  odium 
upon  the  body  of  the  Irish  Catholics.  The 
Government  prints  gave  out,  that  a  very 
important  document,  pregnant  with  danger 
to  this  country,  signed  by  Napoleon  and 
Talleyrand,  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  his 
Majesty's  Ministers,  together  with  a  docu- 
ment of  still  more  importance  to  the  Catho- 
lic cause  in  Ireland,  asserted  to  have  been 
solemnly  issued  from  the  Vatican.  It  was 
falsely  asserted,  that  the  Pope  had  lately 
issued  a  Bull,  addressed  to  the  titular  bish- 
ops of  Ireland,  exhorting  them  in  the  most 
forcible  terms  to  excite  in  the  minds  of  all 
people  of  the  Roman  Catholic  persuasion 
under  tlieir  influence  and  direction,  an  ar- 
dent devotion  to  the  views  and  objects  of 
Buonaparte,  and  an  expectation,  that  by  his 
assistance  and  protection  they  might  eventu- 
ally obtain  an  uncontrolled  exercise  of  their 
rights,  religious  and  political.  It  was  also 
stated,  that  this  address  from  the  lloman 
Pontiff,  was  accompanied  by  another  paper 
containing  a  solenui  declaration  on  the  part 
of  the  French  ruler,  that  it  was  his  firm  de- 
knows  not  how  to  be  just  towards  its  own  subjects, 
and  dares  to  calumniate  this,  which  has  given  us  se- 
curity and  honor.  Whilst  the  Irish  Catholics  groan 
beneath  laws  so  oppressive,  our  august  Phnperor  does 
not  confine  himself  to  the  protection  and  establish- 
ment of  that  religion  in  his  own  states.  He  demand- 
ed in  his  treaty  with  Saxouy,  that  it  should  there  en- 
joy the  same  liberty  as  other  modes  of  worship." 

fltis  buta  very  few  years  since  Monsieur  Dupanloup, 
the  eloquent  bishop  of  Orleans,  having  given  out  that 
he  was  about  to  preach  a  charity  sermon,  for  the  re- 
lief of  the  exterminated  Irish,  Lord  Plunket,  bishop 
of  Tuam,  wrote  to  Monsieuer  d'Orleans  that  he 
knew  he  was  going  to  libel  ]dm,  and  fling  foul  sland- 
ers upon  him.  Efforts  were  even  made  through  the 
English  Embassy  to  induce  the  Emperor  to  forbid 
the  sermon.  It  was  preached,  however,  to  a  va.st  as- 
semblage, and  though  his  grace  of  Tuam  was  not 
slandered  nor  named  in  the  discourse,  yet  it  was  a 
most  scathing  and  touching  expose  of  the  whole 
course  of  British  policy  in  Ireland.  The  English 
press  was  bitterly  indignant. 


SHANA VESTS   AND  "  CARAVATS  "  CHURCH  IN  DANGER. 


461 


termination    to   give    the   Roman   Catholic 
religion  the  ascendancy  in  Ireland. 

By  foul  means  snch  as  these  the  "  No-Po- 
pery "  cry  was  stimulated  to  its  most  savage 
pitch  of  blood-thirsty  ferocity.  Even  the 
rural  organizations,  calling  themselves 
"  Shanavests,"  and  "  Caravats,"  which  arose 
this  year  in  Tipperary,  and  who  were  noth- 
ing in  the  world  but  White-Boys  and  Thresh- 
ers, under  local  names,  were  carefully  given 
out  to  be  secret  political  societies,  which 
were  going  to  bring  in  the  French.  In 
truth,  those  unhappy  people  had  their 
thoughts  much  more  occupied  about  the 
tithe-proctor  than  about  the  Emperor  Na- 
poleon ;  and  knew  more  about  County-cess 
than  about  French  principles.  Unfortuna- 
tely, however,  the  Shanavests  and  Caravats 
were  not  07ie  agrarian  faction,  but  two  ;  and 
sometimes,  when  they  ought  to  have  been 
threshing  the  tithe-corn,  they  threshed  each 
other  at  fair  and  market.  Mr.  Plowden 
says  : — 

"Both  parties  seemed  to  be  indiscrimina- 
tely sore  at  the  payment  of  tithes  ;  both 
complained  of  the  exorbitancy  of  the  ad- 
vanced demands  of  rack-rents  for  lands  out 
of  lease.  Both  manifested  symptoms  of  a 
natural  and  interested  attachment  to  the 
soil  they  had  occupied,  by  their  undisguised 
hostility  to  every  competitor  for  the  farms 
of  the  old  occupiers.  They  had  not  then 
begun  (as  they  were  afterwards  charged,) 
to  fix  a  general  rate  of  tithe  and  rent,  and 
to  enforce  the  observance  of  it  by  threats  of 
visiting  those  who  should  dare  to  exceed  it. 
They  assumed  no  appellation  expressive  of, 
or  tippropriate  to,  any  of  those  objects  which 
they  have  since  pursued  to  the  disgrace  and 
disturbance  of  the  country.  When  the  In- 
surrection and  Arms  bills  passed  into  laws, 
it  is  no  less  true,  than  singular,  that  in  all  the 
counties,  then  said  to  be  disturbed,  not  a 
xingle  charge  was  to  be  found  on  the  calen- 
dar, of  sedition  or  insurgency,  at  the  preced 
ing  assizes.  Widely  as  the  Threshers  had 
extended  their  outrages,  they  had  been  com- 
pletely put  down  and  tranquillized  by  the 
arm  of  the  common  law,  without  recourse 
to  the  violent  measure  of  suspending  the 
Constitution.  The  objects  of  their  outrages 
had  been  ascertained  by  the  judges,  who 
bad  gone  into  the  disturbed   parts  on  the 


late  special  commission  ;  and  not  even  a 
spurious  whisper  had  reached  their  ears,  that 
there  was  amongst  them  anything  describa* 
ble  as  an  existing  French  farty^ 

These  miserable  writhings  of  a  crushed 
peasantry,  under  the  heel  of  local  tyrants, 
were,  however,  eagerly  seized  and  dwelt 
upon,  as  both  justifying  the  coercion  bills, 
and  exhibiting  the  unchangeable,  ineradica- 
ble wickedness  of  Papists ;  so  that  when 
Parliament  met,  on  the  21st  of  January, 
1808,  No-Pofcry!  and  Church  in  Danger! 
rung  fiercely  through  the  Three  Kingdoms. 

Two  days  before  Parliament  assembled, 
there  was  a  large  meeting  of  Catholics  in 
Dublin,  Lord  Fingal  in  the  Chair.  On  mo- 
tion of  Count  Dalton,  it  was  resolved  to 
petition  Parliament  for  the  repeal  of  the  re- 
maining Penal  laws.  Some  gentlemen,  as 
Mr.  O'Conor,  of  Belanagare,  moved  an 
adjournment  of  the  meeting,  as  they  de- 
spaired of  any  success,  under  the  existing 
regime  ;  but  O'Counell,  who  now  constantly 
attended  these  meetings,  and  took  a  leading 
part  in  them,  had  already  adopted  his  well- 
known  maxim  —  Agitate  !  Agitate  !  He 
supported  the  resolution  to  petition  ;  so  did 
John  Byrne,  of  Mullinahack.  The  resolu- 
tion of  adjournment  was  withdrawn,  and 
that  for  a  petition  unanimously  passed. 
O'Connell's  influence  was,  even  thus  early, 
very  powerful  in  softening  down  irritation, 
soothing  jealousies,  and  inspiring  self-abne- 
gation, for  the  sake  of  the  common  cause. 
It  was  this  great  quality,  not  less  than  his 
commanding  ability,  which  made  him,  soon 
afterwards,  the  acknowledged  head  of  the 
Catholic  cause. 

The  petition  was  intrusted  to  Lord  Fin- 
gal, who  went  to  London  and  asked  Lord 
Grenville  and  Mr.  G rattan,  to  present  it, 
after  the  Duke  of  Portland,  to  whom  it 
was  first  offered,  had  coldly  refused  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  it.  And  humiliating 
enough  it  must  have  been,  to  that  Peer  of 
ancient  race,  to  be  obliged  to  hawk  roui'd 
among  "Liberal"  members  of  both  Mouses 
the  humble  petition  of  himself  and  his  conn- 
ti-ymen,  to  be  admitted  to  tlie  common  civil 
rights  of  human  beings,  and  to  see  the  re- 
presentative of  one  of  King  William's  Dutch- 
men turn  his  back  upon  the  importunity  of 
the  Irish    Papist.      Nothing   came  of  this 


462 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


petition.  It  was  hiid  on  tlie  table  of  the 
Lui-(is ;  but  wlien  Mr.  Grattan  offered  it  in 
tlie  Comraon.s,  the  sharp  eyes  of  Canning 
and  Perceval  detected  an  informality — seve- 
ral of  the  names  appeared  to  be  written  in 
the  same  handwriting- — a  fatal  objection,  as 
they  insisted,  and  the  2:)etition  was  not  re- 
ceived. Evidently,  the  right  way  had  not 
yet  been  discovered,  to  command  the  atten- 
tion of  that  House  to  Catholic  claims  ;  and 
it  was  not  till  twenty-one  years  later  that 
the  right  way  was  suddenly  found  out  by 
O'Connell. 

It  is  agreeable  to  have  here  to  record, 
that  the  furious  bigotry  of  the  Ministry  and 
the  studied  excitations  to  religious  animos- 
ity, were  not  responded  to  by  the  Irish  Pro- 
testants altogether  as  had  been  expected. 
The  Duke  of  Cumberland  had  entirely  failed 
to  induce  or  intimidate  the  University  of 
Dublin  into  petitioning  against  the  Catholic 
claims,  as  Oxford  had  done.  The  Protest- 
ant'inhabitants  of  many  of  the  counties  in 
Ireland  presented  petitions  in  favor  of  the 
claims  of  the  Catholics.  There  were  nine 
counties  that  had  shown  the  noble  example 
of  lil)erality  and  sound  policy.  The  Counties 
of  Clare  and  Galvvay  had,  at  meetings  con- 
vened by  the  sheriff,  expressed  their  ardent 
wish  for  admitting  their  Catholic  brethren 
to  the  benefits  of  the  Constitution.  In  the 
Counties  of  Tipperary,  Kilkenny,  Roscom- 
mon, Waterford,  and  Meath,  and  in  the 
town  of  !Nevvry,  resolutions  to  the  same  ef- 
fect were  entered  into,  as  well  by  the  Pro- 
testant gentry  and  inhabitants,  as  by  the 
great  bulk  of  Protestant  proprietors  of 
land.  That  recommendation  was  owing 
partly  to  the  growing  influence  of  liberality 
and  confidence,  partly  to  the  absence  of  all 
suspicion  of  any  real  intention  to  invade  the 
landed  property  of  the  county  on  a  conve- 
nient occasion,  but  more  particularly  to  the 
strong  and  immediate  feeling  of  danger 
which  a  divided  country  would  have  to  en- 
counter in  case  of  hostile  invasion.  On  that 
principle  did  wise  Protestants  deprecate  the 
terrible  privilege  of  an  exclusive  monopoly 
of  Constit\itional  right  and  political  power. 

The  Duke  of  Cumberland,  indeed,  had 
the  gratification  of  presenting  to  the  House 
of  Lords  one  petition  from  the  Orange  Cor- 
poration of  Dublin  against  the  Catholics; 


but  the  example  was  not  generally  followed. 
One -reflection  arises  upon  these  facts: — 
That  the  most  potent  and  unrelenting  enemy 
to  the  Irish  Catholics,  at  all  times,  was  not 
the  Irish  Protestants,  but  the  British  imperi- 
al system.  It  was  the  English  Parliament,  in 
King  William's  time,  then  assuming  to  bind 
Ireland  by  its  own  acts,  which  first  violated 
the  treaty  of  Limerick,  by  excluding  Cath- 
olic Peers  and  Commoners  from  Parliament. 
It  was  while  the  English  Parliament  com- 
pletely controlled  the  action  of  that  of  Ire- 
land, (by  requiring  the  heads  of  bills  to  be 
sent  over,)  that  the  dreadful  Penal  Code 
was  successively  elaborated  and  maintained 
in  force.  But  it  was  Ireland's  frez  Parlia- 
ment which,  in  1793,  gave  the  grand  shock 
to  that  infamous  code,  admitting  Catholics 
to  the  bar,  to  the  corporations,  to  the  juries, 
allowing  them  to  go  to  school,  and  to  teach 
school,  to  bear  arms,  to  own  horses,  to  hold 
lands  in  fee,  to  take  degrees  in  the  Univer- 
sity ; — in  short,  it  was  the  Irish  Protestant 
Parliament,  once  free,  that  swept  away,  in 
one  day,  five-sixths  of  the  oppressions,  pen- 
alties, and  disabilities,  accumulated  and  piled 
upon  the  Catholics,  during  a  whole  century, 
by  the  unappeasable  hate  of  England. 

This  accounts  for  O'ConnelFs  frequent 
declaration,  that,  rather  than  remain  in  the 
Union,  he  would  gladly  take  back  the  Irish 
Protestant  Parliament — consent  to  repeal 
of  Catholic  Emancipation,  and  take  his 
chance  with  his  Irish  fellow-countrymen. 
And  O'Connell  was  right. 

Two  of  the  first  things  recommended  for 
Ireland  by  the  Duke  of  Richmond  were, 
the  curtailment  of  the  Maynooth  Grant,  and 
the  appointment  of  Doctor  Duigenan  to  a 
seat  on  the  Irish  Privy-Council.  The  whole 
spirit  of  the  Perceval  administration  is  ap- 
parent in  these  two  examples.  Doctor 
Duigenan  had  devoted  his  life  to  raking  up 
all  the  vile,  forgotten  slanders  that  had  ever 
been  heaped  upon  Catholics  since  the  days 
of  Calvin  ;  and  was  never  so  much  in  his 
element  as  when  pouring  forth  his  foul  col- 
lection, by  the  hour,  in  a  full-foaming  stream 
of  ribald  abuse.  The  appointment  of  such 
a  man  to  such  a  place,  was  a  public  affront 
and  a  significant  warning  to  Catholics,  show- 
ing them  in  what  estimation  they  and  theii 
claims  were  held  by  the  new  Government. 


DOCTOR   DUIGENAN   PEIVY-COUNCrLLOR. 


463 


Tlie  other  pitiful  niaiiifestation  of  No- 
Piipcry  spite  was  cutting  down  the  appro- 
priation fur  jMayuooth  College.  This  was 
evidently  a  sulyect  of  difference  and  discus- 
sion in  tlie  Cabinet.  iNIr.  Foster,  Chancel- 
lor of  the  Irish  E.xcliequer,  in  Committee  on 
I'le  Snpj)Iies,  stated,  that  additional  build- 
ings were  in  progress  at  Maynooth  ;  that 
the  establishment  was  capable  of  accommo- 
dating two  hundred  and  fifty  students  ;  and 
that  it  was  his  intention  to  move  that  the 
Kinn  of  ^9,250  should  be  granted  to  that 
institution  for  the  current  year.  Sir  John 
Newport  moved  that  it  should  be  £13,000, 
whicli  was  the  annual  grant  fixed  by  tlie 
late  administration,  as  v.'ill  be  remembered, 
in  their  alarm  lest  the  Irish  College  of 
Paris  should  again  attract  Irish  pupils.  A 
warm  debate  ensued.  Mr.  Perceval,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  opposed  the  larger  grant, 
upon  strictly  evangelical  principles  ;  so  did 
William  Wilberforce,  (a  gentleman  whose 
pyui[)atliies  were  strongly  excited  by  the  de- 
gradation of  oppressed  people,  provided  they 
were  of  a  black  color.)  General  Mathew, 
a  good  and  generous  Irishman,  earnestly 
sup|)orted  the  proposal  to  grant  the  larger 
sum. 

He  had  been;  within  the  last  ten  days,  at 
Maynooth,  and  he  could  assure  the  House, 
that,  unless  the  whole  of  the  last  year's  grant 
should  be  voted,  the  buildings  upon  which 
former  grants  had  been  expended,  w^ould 
fall.  There  was  no  lead  on  the  roofs,  and 
the  rain  penetrated  through  them.  He  al- 
luded to  tlie  offer  made  by  order  of  Napo- 
leon, to  induce  Irish  students  to  go  for  edu- 
cation to  France  frum  Lisbon  and  Ireland, 
upon  a  promise  of  the  restoration  of  all  the 
Insh  Bourses  ;  and  read  an  extract  from  the 
answer  of  the  Irish  Catholic  Bishops,  stating 
their  gratitude  to  the  Government  for  the 
liberal  support  of  Maynooth,  and  denouncing 
8usj)ension  against  any  functionaries,  and 
exclusion  from  preferment  in  Ireland  against 
any  students,  who  should  accept  the  offers 
of  the  enemy  of  their  own  country.  Would 
any  one  say  after  that,  that  the  Catholics 
were  not  to  be  confided  in  ?  If  they  were 
not  to  be  trusted,  why  not  dismiss  them  from 
the  army  and  navy  ?  Why  allow  them  to 
vote  at  elections  ? 

But  this  was  not  the  act  of  Ministers. 


He  was  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  allude  to  the 
conduct  of  any  of  the  Royal  family.  But, 
however,  it  was  rumored,  that  even  Minis- 
ters were  disposed  to  agree  to  the  grant,  till 
they  went  to  St.  James'  Palace,  and  were 
closeted  for  several  hours  with  a  Royal 
Duke,  after  which  they  resorted  to  the  pres- 
ent reductioi\.  That  Royal  Duke  was  the 
Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Dublin  ;  he 
was  Chancellor  of  a  Protestant  school,  and 
might  wish  to  put  down  the  education  of  the 
Catholics  ;  but  no  man,  who  knew  or  valued 
Ireland,  as  he  did  himself,  could  countenance 
such  a  project. 

Ministers,  however,  had  a  sure  majority, 
and  succeeded  in  cutting  down  the  proposed 
grant  to  Maynooth.  One  can  only  wonder 
that  the  Catholic  body,  clergy  and  laity, 
persisted  in  such  an  obstinate  "  loyalty  "  to 
the  British  Government,  and  did  not  turn  to 
France,  and  hearken  to  the  liberal  invitation 
of  tlie  Emperor  Napoleon. 

Amongst  the  bitter  opponents  of  the  May- 
nooth Grant  was  I)octor  Duigenan,  the  new 
Privy-Councillor,  who  was  member  for  an 
Irish  Borough.  He  vented  some  of  the  ven- 
om, of  which  he  had  plenty,  upon  his  Cath- 
olic countrymen  ;  said  they  were  always  trai- 
tors in  theory,  and  wanted  but  the  opportu- 
dity  to  be  traitors  in  action.  This  gave  nse 
to  some  sharp  debating. 

Mr.  Barham  could  not  contain  his  execra- 
tion of  such  scandalous  and  wicked  senti- 
ments. This  drew  from  Mr.  Tierney  the 
question  to  Mr.  Perceval,  whether  the  offi- 
cial order  for  making  Doctor  Duigenan  a 
Privy-Councillor  had  been  sent  over  to  Ire- 
land. On  a  negative  answer  from  the  Chan- 
cellor of  tlie  Exchequer,  Sir  A.  Wellesley 
apprised  the  House,  that  the  Right  Honor- 
able and  learned  gentleman  had  been  speci- 
ally recommended  by  the  Lord-Lienteiiant 
to  be  a  Privy-Councillor,  as  from  his  knowl- 
edge of  ecclesiastical  bu.siness  he  could  be 
of  great  service  in  Ireland  in  that  situation. 
This  induced  Mr.  Barham  on  a  subsequent 
day  to  move  the  House,  that  an  humble  ad- 
dress be  presented  to  His  Majesty,  praying 
that  he  would  order  to  be  laid  before  the 
House,  copies  of  the  extracts  of  the  corres- 
pondence, which  passed  between  the  Lord- 
Lieutenant  of  Ireland  and  the  Government 
of  England,  as  to  the  appointment  of  iKx-tor 


464 


HISTOKT    OF   IRELAND. 


Patrick  Duigeaaii  to  a  seat  iu  the  Privy- 
Coniic'il  of  Ireland,  The  question  being  put, 
Mr.  W.  Wynne  said  he  was  anxious  to  hear 
a  vindication  of  so  extraordinary  an  appoint- 
ment, and  one  which  was  so  much  hiraented. 
He  then  alluded  to  the  dismissal  and  subse- 
quent advancement  of  Mr.  Giffard,  and  con- 
sidered the  present  only  as  a  fresh  endeavor 
to  irritate  the  feelings  of  the  Catholics  of 
Ireland.  Sir  A.  Wellesley  repeated,  that 
applications  had  been  made  to  Government 
here,  to  grant  to  the  learned  Doctor  as 
Judge  of  the  Prerogative  Court,  the  office 
of  member  of  the  Privy-Council.  Till  the 
time  of  his  predecessor  this  had  been  the 
uniform  custom,  and  it  was  now  resorted  to 
again  as  a  matter  of  convenience.  He  be- 
lieved, that  the  present  session  was  the  first 
time  it  had  been  attempted  to  be  argued, 
that  because  a  man  was  friendly  to  the 
Church,  he  ought  not  to  be  trusted.  If  the 
Honorable  and  learned  Doctor  had  been 
indiscreet  iu  his  language,  why  was  it  not 
taken  down  at  the  time,  and  complaint 
made  to  that  House  ?  He  did  not  care  of 
what  religion  a  man  was.  If  he  could  be 
useful  in  any  line,  in  that  line,  he  was  of 
opinion,  he  ought  to  be  employed. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Sir  Arthur  Wel- 
lesley was  quite  sincere  in  these  declarations  ; 
he  did  not  care  of  what  religion  a  man  was  ; 
he  was  always  a  practical  person  ;  he  de- 
sired, in  a  privy-councillor,  as  in  a  staff-offi- 
cer or  a  commissary,  precisely  such  quali- 
ties as  were  serviceable  for  the  business  in 
hand  ;  and  as  the  business  in  hand  at  that 
moment  was  to  trample  down  and  humiliate 
the  Catholics,  he  approved  of  Doctor  Duig- 
enan  for  Privy-Councillor. 

The  Catholic  petition  which  had  been  re- 
jected by  the  House  of  Commons,  on  a 
point  of  form,  had  been  sent  back  to  Ire- 
land to  be  signed  anew.  In  the  meantime, 
Lord  Fingal  remained  in  London,  and  had 
frequent  interviews  with  the  friends  of  the 
Catholics,  particularly  with  Mr.  Ponsouby. 
It  was  now  that  the  delicate  subject  of  the 
veto  first  took  a  tangible  shape.  Lord  Fin- 
gal was  an  amiable,  high-minded,  and  un- 
suspicious man  ;  but  a  weak  one.  The 
success  of  the  petition,  he  was  assured  by 
the  friends  of  the  Catholic  cause,  would  be 
greatly  forwarded  by  an  admission  of  the 


royal  veto  in  the  nomination  of  the  Irish 
prelacy.  This  negotiation,  which  has  since 
produced  effects  of  great  national  import- 
ance, tiiough  then  iniforseen,  was  of  a  pri- 
vate nature  ;  and  the  particulars  of  it  would 
not  have  reached  the  public,  had  not  subse- 
quent events  induced  the  parties  to  it  to 
make  them  public.  Never  was  a  point  of 
polifico-t/ieological  controversy  so  fiercely  con- 
tested, and,  consequently,  so  misconceived 
and  misrepresented  as  this  question  of  veto. 
Lord  Fingal  had  certainly  received  no  spe- 
cific instruction  concerning  it  from  the  Cath- 
olic meeting,  which  voted  him  the  sole  dele- 
gate, guardian,  and  manager,  of  their  peti- 
tion ;  and  the  subject  of  a  veto  was  not  in 
contemplation  of  that  meeting. 

The  history  of  this  affair  proves,  in  a 
most  striking  manner,  how  dangerous  it  is 
for  any  national  Church,  in  matters  affecting 
its  discipline,  government,  and  independence, 
to  take  counsel  of  any  one  outside  of  itself. 
In  the  present  case,  Lord  Fingal,  only 
anxious  for  the  emancipation  of  his  coun- 
trymen, and  credulous  enough  to  believe  that 
the  English  Parliament  would  grant  it  upon 
fair  terms,  without  the  strongest  coercion, 
acted  by  the  advice  of  Doctor  Milner,  an 
English  Vicar-Apostolic,  and  author  of  a 
learned  controversial  work  ;  and  as  Doctor 
Milner  was  a  kind  of  agent  in  England  for 
the  Irish  Bishops,  though  not  with  any  such 
purpose  as. this,  the  two  together  took  it 
upon  them  to  authorize  Mr.  Ponsonby  and 
Mr.  Grattan  (as  both  those  gentlemen  af- 
firmed,) to  reinforce  the  prayer  of  tlie 
Catholic  petition,  by  offering  the  veto  power 
to  the  Crown. 

The  petition  having  returned  from  Ire- 
land, duly  signed,  was  presented  by  Mr. 
Grattan,  on  the  25th  of  May.  The  only 
remarkable  passage  in  his  speech,  is  that  in 
which  he  proposes  the  veto.     He  said  :— 

"Tlie  influence  of  the  Pope  so  far  was 
purely  spiritual,  and  did  not  extend  even  to 
the  appointment  of  the  members  of  his  Cath- 
olic hierarchy.  They  nominated  themselves, 
and  looked  to  the  Pope,  but  for  his  spirituid 
sanction  of  such  nomination.  But  if  it 
should  be  supposed,  that  there  was  the 
smallest  danger  in  this  course,  he  had  a 
proposition  to  suggest,  which  he  had  autho- 
rity to  state,  which,  indeed,  he  was  instructed 


CATHOLIC   PETITION   PRESENTED. 


465 


to  make  ;  namely,  that  Ilis  Majesty  may 
interfere  upon  any  such  occasion  witli  liis 
negative.  This  would  have  the  effect  of 
preventing  any  Catholic  ecclesiastic  being 
advanced  to  the  government  of  that  Church 
in  Ireland,  who  was  not  politically  approved 
of  by  the  Government  of  that  country." 

Mr.  Ponsonby,  in  supporting  the  petition, 
made  the  same  proposal  ;  and  said  he  did 
so  upon  the  authority  of  Doctor  Milner,  who 
was  a  Catholic  Bishop  in  England,  and 
who  was  authorized  by  the  Catholic  Bishops 
of  Ireland  to  niako  the  proposition,  in  case 
the  measure  of  Catholic  Emancipation  should 
be  acceded  to.  The  proposition,  he  said, 
was  this :  That  the  person  to  be  nominated 
to  a  vacant  Bishopric  should  be  submitted 
to  the  King's  approbation  ;  and  that,  if  the 
approbation  were  refused,  another  person 
should  be  proposed,  and  so  on,  in  succession, 
nntil  His  Majesty's  approbation  should  be 
obtained,  so  that  the  appointment  should 
finally  rest  with  the  King. 

Mr.  Perceval,  as  might  have  been  expect- 
ed, earnestly  and  prayerfully  opposed  Mr. 
Grattan's  motion,  and  all  other  possible  con- 
cessioti  to  Papists,  whether  on  the  condition 
of  veto,  or  any  other  condition.  Not  that 
lie  would  be  averse,  he  said,  from  giving 
contentment  to  bis  Catholic  brethren,  whom 
he  loved  as  a  Christian,  as  much  as  any 
man  ;  and  "should  not  conceive  himself 
precluded  from  supporting  their  claims  un- 
der different  circumstances,  in  tlie  event,  for 
instance,  of  a  chaynge  taking  place  in  the. 
Catholic  relig7,on  itself. ^^  On  the  division 
upon  Mr.  Grattan's  motion,  the  Minister 
had  a  majority  of  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
three — one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  having 
voted  for  going  into  committee,  and  two 
hundred  and  eighty-one  against  it. 

Lord  Grenville  presented  the  same  peti- 
tion in  the  Lords  ;  made  the  same  offer  of 
the  veto,  and  the  petition  met  the  same  fate 
as  in  the  Commons. 

These  debates  at  once  raised  an  immense 
controversy  both  in  England  and  in  Ireland  ; 
which  lasted  many  years,  and  produced  iu- 
nnmerable  books  and  pamphlets  ;  discuss- 
ing the  limits  between  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral power  ;  the  meaning  of  loyalty,  and 
of  the  oath  of  supremacy,  and  the  "  liber- 
tius  of  Uie  Galilean  Church  " — which  ought 

an 


rather  to  be  termed  the  "  Slavery  of  the 
Galliean  Church,"  because  it  means  the 
subordination  of  the  government  of  that 
Church  to  the  civil  power.  That  civil 
power,  indeed,  is  native  and  not  foreign  ;  but 
when  it  comes  to  be  a  question  of  subordin- 
ating the  government  of  the  Catholic  Ciun-ch 
in  Ireland  to  a  Protestant  King  of  Eng- 
land, one  must  only  wonder  that  even  the 
eagerness  for  civil  emancipation  could  ever 
have  made  any  Irish  Catholic  entertain  such 
an  idea  for  a  moment.  Into  the  merits  of 
the  question  we  do  not  here  enter  ;  but  it  is 
matter  of  history  that  when  Mr.  Pitt  and 
Lord  Castlereagh  were  intriguing  for  sup- 
port to  the  Union,  in  1799,  they  had  deluded 
certain  Irish  Bishops  into  accepting  the 
principle  of  the  veto,  by  holding  out  to  them 
the  bait  of  immediate  emancipation  cfter 
the  Union.* 

The  alarm  and  indignation  excited  in  Ire- 
land, both  amongst  clergy  and  laity^  by 
the  veto  project,  were  quite  vehement.  Che 
conscientious  Catholic  historian,  Plow  den, 
says : — 

"  The  prospective  view  of  a  national  re 
ligion,  preserved  with  a  virtuous  hierarchy, 
without  any  civil  establishment  or  state  in- 
terference, through  three  centuries  of  op- 
pression and  persecution,  produced  alarm  in 

*  The  Rev.  Mr.  Brenan,  in  his  Ecdesiar.fical  Eut  )rg 
of  Ireland,  narrates  the  circumstances  thus: — 

"  During  the  course  of  that  year,  ten  of  the  Irish 
Bishops,  constituting  the  Board  of  Maynooth  Col- 
lege, happened  to  be  convened  in  Dublin,  on  the  ar- 
rangement of  some  ecclesiastical  business,  when 
Lord  Castlereagh,  then  Secretary  for  Ireland,  availed 
himself  of  their  presence,  and  submitted  for  their 
adoption  two  vitally  momentous  measures,  originate 
ing  from  the  British  Ministry.* 

"  By  the  first  of  these  it  was  proposed,  that  His 
Majesty  should  be  invested  with  the  power  of  a  veto 
in  all  future  ecclesiastical  promotions  within  this 
kingdom,  and  agreeably  to  the  second,  the  Catholic 
clergy  of  Ireland  were  to  receive  a  pension  out  of 
the  treasury;  at  the  same  time,  assurances  were  sol- 
emnly pledged  by  Government,  that  on  the  acquies- 
cence of  the  Irisli  hierarchy  in  these  state  measure.% 
the  fate  of  that  great  national  question,  Catholic 
Emancipation,  entirely  depended  Thus  beset  by 
tke  protiers  of  the  Minister  on  the  one  hand,  and  by 
the  alarming  posture  of  the  country  on  the  other, 
the  Bishops  already  alluded  to  agreed,  'that  in  the 

*  The  prelates  composing  the  board  were  as  follows  : — 
Richard  O'Keilly,  K.  C  A.  B..  Armagh  ;  J.  T.  Troy,  K.  0. 
A  B  ,  Dublin  ;  l^dward  Dilluu,  R.  C  A.  B  ,  Tuam  ;  Thomas 
Bray,  R.  0.  A  B  ,  dshtl  ;  P.  J  Plunliett,  K.  C  I) ,  Meath; 
F.  Moylan,  R.  C.  B.,  Cork  ;  Dani-l  Delaney,  R  C.  B.,  Kil- 
dare  ;  Kdmund  French,  U.  C  B. .  Elphin  ;  James  CanJ- 
field.  B.  C.  B.,  Ferns  ;  Johij  Cruise,  R.  C.  B..  Aruairli. 


4GG 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND, 


evfiy  reflecting  mind.  The  proposed  inno- 
vation of  introducing  Royal  and  Protestant 
connection,  influence,  and  power  into  the 
convStitution  and  perpetuation  of  a  Cathohc 
hierarcliy,  to  tlie  utter  exclusion  of  which 
tlie  Irish  Catholics  ascribed  that  almost  mi- 
I'aculous  preservation,  threw  the  public  mind 
into  unusual  agitation.  The  laity  abhorred 
the  idea  of  the  ministers  of  their  religion 
becoming  open  to  Court  influence  and  in- 
trigue, and  shuddered  at  the  prospect  of 
prostituting  the  sacred  function  of  that 
apostolic  mission  and  jurisdiction,  to  which 
they  had  hitherto  submitted  as  of  divine  in- 
stitution, to  its  revilers,  persecutors,  and 
sworn  enemies.  At  the  same  time,  the  whole 
Catholic  clergy  of  Ireland  were  driven  by  a 
common  electric  impulse  into  more  than  or- 
dinary reflection  upon  the  stupenduons  efS- 
cacy  of  that  evangelical  purity  and  inde- 
pendence by  which  the  spiritual  pastors  had 
so  long,  and  under  such  temptations  and  dif- 
ficulties, preserved  their  flocks  in  the  relig- 
ion of  their  Christian  ancestors. 

"The  general  voice  of  the  people  crying 
out  against  religious  reform,  was  an  awful 
warning  to  the  clergy  ;  and  although  the  in- 
sidious concordat  of  1799,  was  still  clothed 
in  darkness,  the  Irish  Catholic  prelates  met 

appointment  of  Roman  Catholic  prelates  to  vacant 
8ees  within  the  kingdom,  such  interference  of  Gov- 
ernment as  may  enable  it  to  be  satisiied  of  the  loy- 
alty of  the  person  appointed  is  just,  and  ought  to  be 
agreed  to  ; '  this  statement  was  accompanied  with  an 
admission,  '  that  a  provision,  through  Government, 
for  the  Konian  Catholic  clergy  of  this  kingdom,  com- 
petent and  secured,  ought  to  be  thankfully  ac- 
cepted.' " 

This  transaction  remained  a  secret  for  many  years. 
Mr.  Plowden  speaks  of  "  the  long  and  mysterious 
suppression  from  the  knowledge  of  the  Catholic  body, 
of  the  resolutions  of  the  Clerical  Trustees  of  May- 
uooth  College  in  1799,  which  never  came  fully  to  light 
till  IblO.  It  is  notsiirprising,"  he  adds, "  that  respect- 
able prelates  should  wish  to  conceal  them  from  the 
eyes  of  the  public,  and  particularly  of  such  of  their 
friends  as  they  wished  to  engage  in  their  cause,  and 
whose  esteem  and  confidence  they  subsequently 
courted.  They  were  the  base  offspring  of  their  un- 
guarded connection  with  Mr.  Pitt,  whilst  he  was 
niedit;iting  the  Union;  which  they  have  been  sorely 
lamenting  from  the  hour  they  found  themselves 
swindled  out  of  the  stipulated  price  of  their  seduc- 
tion." 

It  should  be  stated,  in  justice  to  Doctor  Milner,  that, 
after  the  use  of  his  name  in  Parliament,  as  authoriz- 
ing the  offer  of  a  veXo,  he  published  a  statement  that 
he  had  no  authority  to  sanction  such  an  offer;  and 
that  he  had  been  misquoted.  After  the  Irish  Bishops 
passed  their  Synodical  resolutions,  there  was  no 
more  ardent  opponent  of  the  xeio  than  Doctor  Milner. 


in  regular  National  Synod  on  the  14th  and 
15th  of  September,  1808,  in  Dublin,  and 
came  to  the  following  resolutions  : — 

"  It  is  the  decided  opinion  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Prelates  of  Ireland,  that  it  is  inex- 
pedient to  introduce  any  alteration  in  the 
canonical  mode  hitherto  observed  in  the 
nomination  of  the  Irish  Roman  Catholic 
Bishops,  which  mode,  long  experience,  has 
proved  to  be  unexceptionable,  wise,  and 
salutary. 

"  That  the  Roman  Catholic  prelates 
pledge  themselves  to  adhere  to  the  rules  by 
which  they  have  been  hitherto  uniformly 
guided  ;  namely,  to  recommend  to  His  Ho- 
liness only  such  persons  as  are  of  unimpeach- 
able loyalty  and  peaceable  conduct."  These 
Synodical  resolutions  were  signed  by  twenty- 
three  prelates.  Three  only  (they  were 
three  of  those  who  had  signed  the  resolu- 
tions of  1799,)  dissented."* 

Immediately  were  held  many  meetings  of 
Catholics  throughout  Ireland,  who,  by  their 
resolutions  and  addresses,  protested  vehe- 
mently against  the  whole  project  of  veto, 
and  thanked  the  Bishops  for  their  Arm  reso- 
lutions. When  the  real  nature  of  the  pro- 
posal was  explained,  and  fully  known,  the 
Catholics  of  Ireland  indignantly  resolved 
rather  to  remain  uneraancipated,  than  suffer 
their  Church  to  be  enthralled.  O'Connell 
was  a  strong  opponent  of  the  veto  from  the 
first  ;  the  more  active  arxd  educated  of  the 
laity  repulsed  the  plan  with  scorn  ;  the  press 
teemed  with  pamphlets,  of  which  none  made 
so  much  impression  as  the  republication  of 
Burke's  letter  to  a  peer  in  Ireland,  in  which 
he  treats  of  a  similar  project,  of  giving  the 
Crown  a  voice  in  the  nomination  of  Catho- 
lic Bishops.f 

*  Plowden.  Post-  Union  History,  p.  395,  ei  seq, 
t  Edmund  Burke,  who  was  as  warm  a  friend  to  his 
Catholic  countrymen  as  Grattan,  and  a  much  wiser 
friend,  says,  in  his  letter  to  a  Peer:  "  Never  were 
the  members  of  one  religious  sect  fit  to  appoint  pas- 
tors to  another.  Those,  who  have  no  regard  for 
their  welfare,  reputation,  or  internal  quiet,  will  not 
appoint  such  as  are  proper.  The  Seraglio  of  Con- 
stantinople is  as  equitable  as  we  are,  whether  Catho- 
Ucs  or  Protestant;  and  where  their  own  sect  is 
concerned,  full  as  religious;  but  the  sport  which 
they  make  of  the  miserable  dignities  of  the  Greek 
Church,  the  factions  of  the  Harem,  to  which  they 
make  them  subservient,  the  continual  sale  to  which 
they  expose  and  reexpose  the  same  dignity,  and  by 
which  they  squeeze  all  the  inferior  orders  of  iha 
clergy  is  nearly  equal  to  all  the  other  oppressions  to 


THE    DUKE    OF   KICHMOKD  S    ANTI-CATHOLIC    POLICY. 


40'/ 


The  project  of  enslaving  the  Irish  Catho- 
lic Church  to  the  English  Protestant  State, 
Iwas  for  that  time  defeated  ;  but  it  was 
l)rought  forward  again  and  again,  during  the 
struggle  for  emancipation,  and  for  many 
years,  greatly  agitated  the  Catholic  public. 

In  the  course  of  this  session,  Lord  Gren- 
ville  made  his  motion  to  make  Catholic  mer- 
chants admissible  as  Governor  and  Directors 
of  the  Bank  of  Ireland.  Lord  Westraore- 
hmd  opposed  the  motion,  on  the  general 
ground  that  no  fur/her  concessions  whatever 
should,  under  the  present  circumstances,  be 
granted  to  the  Catholics.  But  to  this  not 
very  intelligent  argument,  his  lordship  added 
a  sensible  observation.  He  said  "  he  was 
surprised  to  see  such  motions  so  often 
brought  forward  by  those  who,  when  they 
were  themselves  in  power,  employed  every 
exertion  to  deprecate  and  prevent  such  dis- 
cussions." This  was  true.  Ireland  and  her 
grievances,  the  Catholics  and  their  wrongs, 
bad  become,  in  the  Imperial  Parliament,  a 
stock-in-trade  for  Whigs  out  of  place  ;  and 
have  so  remained  ever  since.  When  these 
politicians  are  in  power,  they  still  "  depre- 
cate such  discussions."  Lord  Redesdale, 
late  Chancellor  of  Ireland,  was  alarmed  at 
the  danger  to  the  Protestant  interest  which 
would  arise,  from  allowing  Catholics  to  be 
Bank  Directors.  He  said  he  had  only  to  re- 
peat his  former  objections  to  such  claims 
"The  more  you  were  ready  to  grant  them, 
the  more  power  and  pretensions  you  gave  to 
the  Catholics  to  come  forward  with  fresh 
claims,  and  perhaps  to  insist  upon  them.  His 
lordship  then  launched  out  into  a  general 
invective  against  the  CathoUcs,  and  particu- 
larly the  priests." 

gether,  exercised  by  Musselmen  over  the  unhappy 
liieiiibers  of  the  Oriental  Church.  It  is  a  great  deal 
to  suppose,  that  the  present  Castle  would  nominate 
Bishops  for  the  Roman  Church  of  Ireland,  with  a  re- 
licjious  regard  for  its  welfare.  Perhaps  they  cannot, 
perhaps  dare  not  do  it."  And  in  another  letter  to 
l)octor  Hussey,  the  Catholic  Bishop  of  Waterford, 
he  said:  ''If  j'ou  (the  Catholic  Bishops,)  have  not 
wisdom  enough  to  make  common  cause,  they  will  cut 
you  off.  one  by  one.  I  am  sure,  that  the  constant 
meddling  of  j'our  Bishops  and  Clergy  with  the  Castle, 
atid  the  Caytle  vnth  ihem,  will  infallibly  set  them  ill 
with  their  own  body.  All  the  weight,  which  the 
clergy  have  hitherto  had  to  keep  the  people  quiet 
wll  be  wholly  lost,  if  this  once  should  happen  At 
best  you  will  have  a  marked  schism,  and  more  than 
one  kind,  and  I  am  greatly  mistaken  if  this  is  not  in- 
tended, and  diligently  and  systematically  pursued." 


This  debate  about  the  Bank  of  Irelimd, 
is  not,  by  any  means,  worth  recording  (for 
the  motion  was  rejected,  as  its  mover  knew 
it  would  be, )  save  to  illustrate  the  party 
tactics  of  the  Whigs,  and  the  cool  and  stu- 
pid insolence  of  the  "Ascendancy." 

The  Dublin  Police  bill  was  carried,  crea- 
ting eighteen  new  places  for  police  magis- 
trates ;  and  Parliament  was  prorogued  ou 
the  8th  of  July,  1808. 


CHAPTER    L. 

1S08— 1809. 

The  Duke  of  Richmond's  Anti-Catholic  Policy — The 
Orangemen  Flourish — Their  Outrages  and  Murders 
— Castlereagh  and  Perceval  Charged  with  Selling 
Seats — Corruption — Sir  Arthur  Wellesley — Tithes — 
Catholic  Committee  Reorganized — John  Keogh  on 
Petitioning  Parliament — O'Connell  and  the  Con- 
vention Act — Orangemen  also  Reorganized — Or- 
ange Convention-— More  Murders  by  Orangemen — 
Crooked  Policy  of  the  Castle  —  Defection  of  the 
Bandon  Orangemen — Success  of  the  Castle  Policj 
in  Preventing  Union  with  Irishmen. 

The  administration  of  the  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond showed  a  venomous  determination  to 
keep  down  the  Catholic  people,  and  to  rule 
the  island  most  strictly  through  the  Orange 
Ascendancy,  and  for  its  profit. 

The  legislative  rejection  of  the  Catholic 
petition  had  been  aggravated  by  the  resto- 
ration of  a  certain  Mr.  Jacob,  a  notorious 
Orangeman,  to  the  magistracy,  the  appoint- 
ment of  Mr.  Giffiird  to  a  more  valuable  sit- 
uation than  that  from  which  he  had  been 
displaced,  the  admission  of  Doctor  Duigenan 
to  the  Privy-Council,  and  the  curtailed  gnint 
to  Maynooth  College.  A  fostering  counte- 
nance was  given  to  the  Orangemen,  that 
tended  more  to  foment  and  encourage,  than 
to  put  down  or  punish  their  atrocities. 

It  is  certainly  not  an  agreeable  part  of 
our  duty  to  narrate  and  to  dwell  u})on  the.e 
Orange  outrages  ;  because  this  helps,  more 
or  less,  to  keep  alive  the  religious  animosities 
between  the  two  religious  sects  ;  which  wms 
the  very  object  of  the  English  Government 
in  encouraging  those  outrages.  Much  more 
pleasing  would  it  be  to  draw  a  veil  of  obliv- 
ion over  them,  and  to  think  of  them  no  more. 
But  for  two  reasons  this  cannot  be  :  first, 
the  modern  history  of  Ireland  would  be  al 


468 


HISTORY   OF   lEELANI). 


most  a  blank  page  without  the  vilhinies  of 
Orange  persecution,  the  complicity  of  Gov- 
ernment in  those  vilhinies,  and  their  conse- 
quences upon  the  general  well-being  of  the 
inland  ;  next,  because  however  well-inclined 
to  forget  those  horrors,  we  have  not  been 
permitted  to  do  so  for  a  moment  down  to 
the  present  day.  It  was  as  late  as  1848 
that  Lord  Clarendon  secretly  supplied  the 
Orange  Lodges  with  arras  ;  as  late  as  '49, 
tliat  a  magistrate  of  Down  County  led  a  band 
of  Orangemen  and  policemen  to  the  wreck- 
ing and  slaughter  of  a  Catholic  townland.* 
Later  still,  the  records  of  assizes  in  the 
northern  circuits  show  us  the  frequent  pic- 
ture of  an  Orange  murderer  shielded  from 
justice  by  his  twelve  brethren  who  have 
been  carefully  packed  into  the  jury-box  by 
a  sheriff  who  is  an  officer  of  the  Crown.  All 
this  odious  condition  of  society  being  a  direct 
product  of  British  policy,  and  now  flourish- 
ing and  still  bearing  its  poisonous  fruit,  a 
student  of  Irish  history  is  bound  to  look  at, 
and  to  study,  the  wretched  details. 
i  On  the  evening  of  the  23d  of  June,  1808, 
a  considerable  number  of  men,  women,  and 
children,  were  assembled  round  a  bonfire  at 
Corinshiga,  within  one  mile  and  a  half  of 
the  town  of  Newry.  They  had  a  garland, 
and  were  amusing  themselves,  some  dancing, 
others  sitting  at  the  fire,  perfectly  unappre- 
hensive of  danger,  when  in  the  midst  of  their 
mirth,  eighteen  yeomen,  fully  armed  and  ac- 
coutred, approached  the  place,  where  they 
were  drawn  up  by  their  sergeant,  who  gave 
them  the  word  of  command  to  "  present  and 
fire,"  which  they  did  several  times,  leveling 
at  the  crowd.  One  person  was  killed  ;  many 
were  grievously  wounded.  The  magis- 
trates of  Newry,  although  far  from  being 
friendly  to  the  Catholic  people,  were  scan- 
dalized at  this  atrocity.  They  offered  a 
reward  for  the  discovery  of  the  perpetrators  ; 
inclosed  a  copy  of  their  publication  to  the 
Duke  of  Richmond,  and  prayed  him  to  take 
some  measures  for  the  protection  of  the 
Catholics,  who  they  said  were  all  unarmed, 
while  the  very  lowest  class  of  Protestants 
were  well  provided   with   fire-arms.      The 

♦  It  is  true  that  the  magistrate  was  dismissed  from 
the  Commission.  He  had  somewhat  exceeded  the 
intentions  of  the  Castle  in  getting  up  a  "  loyal  de- 
monstration." Yet  the  arras  of  that  banditti  had 
been  furnished  out  of  the  Castle  vaults. 


Duke  made  a  civil,  but  unmeaning,  reply, 
expressing  his  "regret"  at  the  sad  circum- 
stance. Some  weeks  elapsed  ;  and  still  no 
measures  were  adopted.  In  the  meantime, 
one  of  the  persons  concerned  in  the  outrage 
was  apprehended,  but  was  allowed  to  escape 
by  the  yeomen,  to  whose  custody  Lord  Gos- 
ford  had  intrusted  him  ;  and  a  number  of 
the  same  corps,  to  which  the  murderers  be- 
longed, so  far  from  showing  any  shame  or 
regret  at  the  conduct  of  their  comrades,  one 
day  returning  from  parade,  fired  a  volley  (by 
way  of  bravado)  over  the  house  of  M'Keown, 
(father of  the  deceased,)  the  report  of  which 
threw  his  wife  into  convulsions. 

Several  inhabitants  of  the  townland  of 
Corinshiga,- came  to  the  magistrates  and 
ma;de  depositions  as  to  the  continual  terror 
and  danger  of  themselves  and  their  families, 
and  the  atrocious  threats  of  the  Orange 
yeomen  who  lived  near  them.  Mr.  Waring, 
one  of  the  magistrates,  who  appears  to  have 
exerted  himself  earnestly  in  this  affair,  sent 
to  the  Castle  copies  of  these  depositions, 
ai«i  entreated  the  Government  to  issue  a 
proclamation,  offering  a  reward  for  the  as- 
sassins, and  to  take  some  measures  of  repress- 
ing open  outrage. 

Mr.  Secretary  Traill  replied,  coldly,  that 
the  Government  declined  to  do  anything  in 
the  matter.  Mr.  Waring  again  wrote,  still 
more  earnestly,  "  that  the  magistrates  had 
expected  that  Government  would  have  is- 
sued a  proclamation  offering  a  reward  for 
prosecution,  and  pardon  to  some  concern- 
ed for  evidence  against  the  others  ;  that  if 
this  had  not  the  desired  effect,  still  much 
good  might  be  expected  to  arise  from  the 
marked  disapprobation  of  Government  of 
an  outrage  of  so  dangerous  and  alarming  a 
tendency  ;  that  it  might  appear  not  un- 
worthy the  consideration  of  his  grace, 
whether  such  a  measure  might  not  even 
then  (the  3d  of  August,  1808,)  be  adopt- 
ed with  propriety,  and  that  this  procedure 
so  far  from  having  a  tendency  to  supersede 
the  exertions  of  the  local  magistracy,  could 
not  but  prove  an  efficient  aid  to  them." 
This  last  letter  was  not  answered,  and  so 
the  business  dropped.*  The  advertisement 
or  proclamation  of  the  Newry  magistrates 

♦  See  abstract  of  the  whole   correspondence  in 
Plowden's  (Volume  III,)  Post-  Union  History, 


CASTLEEEAGH   AND   PERCEVAL    CHAKGED   WITH    SELLING    SEATS. 


469 


was  sent  to  the  Hue  and  Cry,  but  was  not 
Inserted.  Not  the  least  notice  was  taken  of 
it,  or  tlie  letter  accompanying  it.  Such  was 
the  unbhisliing  tenderness  of  the  Duke  of 
Richmond  for  the  band  of  eighteen  Orange- 
men, each  and  every  one  of  whom  was 
guilty  of  open  murder.  Not  one  of  them 
was  ever  brought  to  justice  ;  and  to  this 
day  the  inhabitants  of  that  and  many  another 
Catholic  neighborhood  in  Ulster,  when  the 
anniversaries  of  the  1st  and  12th  of  July 
come  round,  either  bar  themselves  up  in 
their  houses  and  put  out  all  lights,  or  else 
prepare  for  defensive  battle. 
.  The  foregoing  incident  is  related  in  detail, 
because  it  is  a  characteristic  example  of 
many  similar  cases  ;  save,  indeed,  that  the 
local  magistrates,  instead  of  seeking  to 
bring  offenders  to  justice,  as  in  this  case, 
have  generally  sought  to  screen  them.  If 
an  atrocity  like  this  had  been  at  any  time 
done  by  Catholics,  troops  would  immediately 
have  been  sent  down  to  quarter  themselves 
upon  their  houses,  and  a  special  commission 
would  have  issued  to  hang  at  least  eighteen, 
guilty  or  innocent. 

It  was  not  merely  in  the  way  of  direct 
encouragement  to  lawless  Orangeism,  that 
Lord  Richmond's  administration  showed  its 
settled  design  of  trampling  down  the  Catho- 
lics. We  have  seen  that  in  Dublin,  the 
wealthiest  and  most  respectable  merchants 
were  insultingly  kept  out  of  the  Bank  Di- 
rection, because  they  were  Catholics.  In 
the  counties,  Catholic  gentlemen,  whose  pro- 
perty and  position  entitled  them  to  be  called 
upon  the  Grand  Juries,  were  studiously  ex- 
cluded. If  any  High  Sheriff  of  a  county 
was  not  a  supporter  of  the  Ministerial  policy, 
or  was  known  to  be  favorable  to  his  Catho- 
lic neighbors,  his  name  was  carefully  ex- 
cluded from  the  next  list.  And  in  all  these 
measures.  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  was  unusu- 
ally active  and  rigorous.  The  time,  indeed, 
had  almost  come,  when  his  services  would 
be  required  in  the  Spanish  Peninsula  ;  and 
his  native  country  could  well  spare  him. 

During  this  year,  (1808,)  corruption  seems 
to  have  been  almost  as  rife  in  Ireland  as 
it  had  been  immediately  before  the  Union  ; 
and  seats  in  Parliament  were  bought  and 
sold.  Early  in  the  session  of  1809,  Mr, 
Maddox  brought  forward  a  specific  charge 


of  this  sort  of  corruption,  criminating  Lord 
Castlereagh  and  Mr,  Spencer  Perceval, 
stating,  amongst  other  things,  that  at  the 
last  general  election,  a  sura  of  money  was 
paid  by  Mr.  Quintin  Dick  to  Lord  Castle- 
reagh, through  means  of  the  Honorable 
Ilein'y  Wellesley  ;  and  that  gentleman  (Mr. 
Dick)  was  thereby  returned  member  for 
Cashel,  and  Mr,  Spencer  Perceval  was  also 
a  party  to  the  transaction.  Upon  occasion 
of  the  late  investigation  as  to  the  Duke  of 
York,  Mr.  Quintin  Dick  waited  upon  Lord 
Castlereagh,  and  informed  him  of  the  vote 
he  meant  to  give,  and  the  noble  lord  not 
approving  of  that  mode  of  voting,  suggest- 
ed to  him  the  propriety  of  relinquishing  hia 
seat  in  Parliament, 

Mr.  Perceval,  indeed,  refused  to  plead  to 
the  charge  ;  said  it  was  an  insidious  plan  to 
lay  the  foundation  for  a  measure  of  Parlia- 
mentary reform — which  it  certainly  was — 
and  so  bowed  to  the  Speaker,  and  went  out. 
Lord  Castlereagh  followed  his  example  ;  but 
it  is  quite  evident  the  charge  must  have 
been  true,  otherwise,  there  would  not  have 
been,  in  a  House  of  six  hundred  and  fifteen, 
in  the  teeth  of  all  Ministerial  influence,  the 
large  minority  of  three  hundred  and  ten  for 
amotion  to  inquire.  There  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley,  dur- 
ing his  Secretaryship,  took  the  largest  share 
in  all  this  traffic  for  seats  and  votes  and  in- 
fluence. He  had  a  mind  of  the  cliaracti-r 
usually  termed  "eminently  practical  ;"  and 
thought  he  had  a  right,  as  he  declared  long 
after,  speaking  of  his  administration  in  Ire- 
land, "to  turn  the  moral  weakness  of  indi- 
viduals to  good  account  ; "  that  is,  to  the 
account  of  his  party. 

In  the  session  of  Parliament,  in  1809, 
little  or  no  attention  was  given  to  the  af- 
fairs of  Ireland.  An  attempt  was  made  by 
Mr.  Parnell,  to  carry  a  motion  for  inquiry 
into  the  mode  of  collecting  tithes  in  this 
country.  The  grievances  and  oppressions 
connected  with  the  Church  establishment, 
and  the  irritating  spoliation  of  the  people, 
for  support  of  clergymen  whose  ministrations 
were  of  no  use  to  them,  were  but  too  well 
known  already,  and  needed  no  Committee 
of  Inquiry  at  all.  On  this  very  ground,  the 
motion  was  opposed  by  Ministers,  who,  hav- 
ing no  idea  whatever  of  giving  any  relief,  or 


470 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


redress,  naturally  enough  refused  the  empty 
formality  of  an  inquiry.  The  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  "  did  not  think  that  the 
House  was  in  ignorance,  with  respect  to  the 
subject  of  tithes  in  Ireland,  but  that  the 
difficulty  was,  how  to  find  out  a  practical 
mode  of  securing  the  property  of  the 
Church.  He  could  not  be  persuaded,  that 
any  inquiry,  either  by  commissiou  or  com- 
mittee, would  do  any  good  ;  for  they  did  not 
want  information.'" 

In  tlie  short  debate  on  this  motion,  Sir 
John  Newport  observed,  that  he  thought 
Lord  Castlereagh  bound,  by  his  former  pro- 
fessions at  the  Union,  to  find  out  some  mod- 
ifications to  lighten  the  burdens  of  the  poor, 
oppressed  people  of  Ireland.  Instead  of 
doing  so,  that  noble  Lord  appeared  to  for- 
get all  his  pledges  for  the  public  good,  and 
merely  to  attend  to  those  that  went  to  pro- 
vide for  individuals,  whom  he  had  taken  care 
to  seduce  to  his  own  standard.  Lord  Cas- 
tlereagh arrogantly  asserted,  that  he  knew 
of  no  pledge  made,  either  by  Mr.  Pitt  or 
himself,  upon  the  subject  of  tithes,  or  the 
Catholic  question.  He  most  distinctly  denied, 
that  he  had  ever  made  any  pledge  whatever  as 
to  Ireland.  Mr.  C.  Hutchinson  deprecated 
the  conduct  of  Lord  Castlereagh  as  to  Ire- 
land. He  was  the  parent  of  the  Union, 
and,  in  order  to  effect  it,  he  had  made  many 
promises  ;  but  whenever  any  question  as  to 
the  araehoration  of  the  situation  of  Ireland 
came  to  be  agitated,  he  either  put  a  nega- 
tive upon  it,  or  moved  the  previous  question. 
And,  in  fact,  by  the  "  previous  question," 
the  whole  question  was  put  aside  upon  this 
occasion  also. 

On  the24tb  of  May,  was  held  in  Dublin 
a  numerous  meeting  of  the  Catholics,  to 
consider  what  step  they  should  take  to  fur- 
ther their  claims.  The  requisition  convening 
the  meeting  was  signed  by  Lord  Netter- 
ville.  Sir  Francis  Goold,  Daniel  O'Connell, 
Richard  O'Gorinan,  Edward  Hay,  Denis 
Scully,  Doctor  Dromgoole,  and  many  others, 
whose  names  hav«  since  been  familiar,  in 
connection  with  the  Catholic  cause.  Mr. 
O'Gorraan  opened  the  proceedings  with  a 
speech,  in  which  he  proposed  to  petition 
Parliament.  This  was  opposed  by  the  vete- 
ran John  Keogh,  who  spoke  with  great  bit- 
terness of  the  treachery  practiced  towards 


the  Catholics  in  the  matter  of  the  Union, 
and  deprecated  petitioning  altogether,  at 
least  while  the  existing  Ministry  remained 
in  power.  Mr.  Keogh  observed,  that,  with 
respect  to  the  existence  and  oppressiveness 
of  their  grievances,  they  were  unanimous  5 
and  differed  only  as  to  the  means  most  likely 
to  remove  them.  He  was  ready,  on  his 
part,  to  sacrifice,  to  burn,  with  his  own 
hands,  the  resolution,  which  he  was  about 
to  propose  to  the  meeting,  if  any  man  could 
show  him  what  was  likely  to  be  more  effec- 
tual to  promote  the  object  of  all  their  wish- 
es. A  petition  at  the  present  moment, 
must,  if  presented,  be  presented  to  decided 
enemies,  or  lukewarm  friends  ;  upon  neither 
of  whom  could  be  placed  any  reliance  for 
success.  Mr.  Perceval  and  his  colleagues 
were  admitted  into  office,  upon  the  express 
condition  of  excluding  the  Catholic  ckiims 
from  the  relief  of  the  Legislature ;  and 
their  predecessors  had  very  willingly  con- 
sented to  give  up  a  bill,  nominally  only  in 
favor  of  the  Catholics,  rather  than  resign 
their  places.  Mr.  Keogh  adverted  in  strong 
and  pointed  terms,  to  the  double  imposition 
practiced  upon  the  Catholics  at  the  time  of 
the  Union.  He  insisted,  that  the  proposals 
for  their  support  from  the  Unionists  and  the 
Anti-Unionists,  were  equally  hollow,  and 
equally  insidious.  Had  it  been  otherwise ; 
had  the  Catholics  been  liberally  treated  by 
their  Parliament,  they  would  have  raised  a 
cry  in  its  defence  that  would  have  been 
heard,  and  would  have  shaken  the  plan  of 
Union  to  atoms.  No  man  had  a  right  to 
suppose,  that  he  wished  to  relinquish  the 
Catholic  claims.  With  his  dying  breath, 
with  his  last  words,  as  a  testamentary  be- 
quest to  his  countrymen,  he  would  recom- 
mend to  them  never  to  relinquish,  never 
even  to  relax,  in  the  pursuit  of  their  un- 
doubted rights.  No  man  could  expect  suc- 
cess to  the  petition.  Without  that  expec- 
tation, he  saw  nothing  likely  to  accrue  from 
the  measure  but  mischievous  and  injurious 
consequences.  He  resisted  the  measure,  not 
for  the  purpose  of  retarding,  but  of  for- 
warding the  Catholic  claims. 

Mr.  Keogh,  therefore,  moved  a  resolution 
in  accordance  with  these  views,  which  waa 
passed  ;  but  the  meeting  then  proceeded  to 
organize  a  new  Catholic  Committee,  consist* 


O'CONNELL   AKD    THE   CONVENTION   ACT. 


411 


insc  of  the  Catholic  Peers,  and  the  survivors 
of  the  Ciitholic  Delegates  of  1793,  together 
with  certaiu  gentlemen  who  had  been  lately 
appointed  by  the  Catholics  of  Dublin  to 
prepare  an  address.  It  was  resolved  that 
these  persons  "  do  possess  the  confidence  of 
the  Catholic  body." 

This  new  committee  was  to  be  permanent  ; 
and  was  to  consider  the  expediency  of  pre- 
paring a  petition,  not  to  tlie  then  sitting,  but 
to  the  next  session  of  Parliament.  The 
committee,  undoubtedly,  was  capable  of  be- 
ing regarded  as  a  virtual  representation  of 
the  Irish  Catholics,  and,  therefore,  as  com- 
ing under  the  penalties  of  the  "  Convention 
act ; "  for  which  reason  Mr.  O'Connell,  who 
knew  that  the  Government  was  watching 
their  proceedings  with  a  jealous  eye,  endea- 
vored to  guard  against  this  legal  peril  by 
introducing  a  resolution  which  was  carried 
unanimously  :  "  That  the  noblemen  and  gen- 
tlemen aforesaid  are  not  representatives  of 
the  Catholic  body,  or  any  portion  thereof  ; 
nor  shall  they  assume  or  pretend  to  be  rei> 
resentatives  of  the  Catholic  body,  or  any 
portion  thereof." 

We  thus  find  Mr.  O'Connell,  from  the 
first  of  his  long  series  of  agitations,  always 
anxiously  steering  clear  of  the  rocks  and 
shoals  of  law  ;  and  find,  also,  that  the  most 
dangerous  of  those  rocks  and  shoals  was  al- 
ways the  same  "  Convention  act."  It  em- 
barrassed the  Catholic  Committee  in  1809  ; 
it  stopped  the  "  Council  of  Three  Hundred," 
in  1845 — and,  in  fact,  it  had  been  passed  for 
the  very  purpose  of  preventing  all  organized 
deliberation,  and  all  effectual  action,  by 
Catholics  for  the  attainment  of  their  rights. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Government 
might  at  any  time  have  prosecuted  to  con- 
viction the  members  of  this  Catholic  Com- 
mittee as  delegates,  (notwithstanding  their 
disclaimer,)  by  means  of  a  well-packed 
Castle  jury  ;  but,  in  the  meantime,  the  af- 
fairs of  the  Catholics  seemed  to  acquire 
some  consistency  and  strength  from  the 
permanent  organization  of  the  committee 
and  the  respectability  of  its  members.  Of 
course,  this  circumstance  alarmed  and  in- 
furiated the  Orangemen  ;  who  are  generally 
believed  to  have  at  the  same  time  remodeled 
and  improved  their  societies.  It  is  not  easy 
to  arrive  at  the  exact  truth  regarding  all 


the  secret  tests  and  oaths  and  "  degrees " 
of  this  mischievous  body — tiie  precise  foruiH 
have  been  from  time  to  time  altered  ;  and 
their  "Grand  Masters"  and  their  organs  at 
the  press  have  boldly  denied  what  is  alleged 
against  the  Society,  although  such  allegation 
had  been  true  very  shortly  before,  and  was 
substantially  true  when  denied,  even  if  some 
trifling  form  may  have  been  altered,  to  jus- 
tify the  denial. 

Mr.  Plowden,  writing  in  1810,  says,  very 
distinctly,  that  "a  renovation  of  the  system 
(of  Orangeism)  actually  prevailed  in  the 
year  1809,"  and  that  new  oaths  were  intro- 
duced.    He  says,  further  : — 

"  It  was  reported,  believed,  and  not  con- 
tradicted, that  about  the  time,  at  which  the 
Catholic  Bishops  of  Ireland  were  assembled 
in  National  Synod  to  oppose  the  veto,  the 
Orange  associations  met  by  deputation  iu 
Dawson  street,  Dublin,  in  order,  as  may  be 
naturally  presumed,  to  counteract  the  pre- 
sumed resolutions  of  that  Episcopal  Synod, 
and  to  make  head  generally  against  the 
alarming  growth  of  Popery.  A  deputy 
from  the  seventy-two  English  (almost  all 
Lancastrian)  Lodges  came  over  iu  unusual 
pomp  of  accredited  diplomacy  to  the  Irish 
Societies.  Through  the  gloom  of  Orange 
darkness  it  would  be  presumption  to  ascer- 
tain the  points  of  debate  within  their  strict- 
ly-guarded sanctuary  in  Dawson  street." 
The  same  writer  observes  : — 

"  So  much  undeniable  truth  has  lately 
been  brought  before  the  public  concerning 
the  Orange  institution,  so  glaringly  has  the 
illegality  and  mischief  of  the  system  been  ex- 
posed, such  weighty  and  fatal  objections 
urged  against  it,  that  it  has  become  fashion- 
able with  many  Orangemen,  of  education 
and  fortune,  to  affect  to  disclaim  everything 
objectionable  in  the  system,  and  to  throw 
it  exclusively  upon  the  incorrigible  ignorance 
and  bigotry  of  the  rabble,  wiio  are  alike  in 
every  country,  and  of  every  persuasion. 
This  was  base  artifice  to  disguise  or  conceal 
the  countenance  and  support  which  the  Or- 
ange societies  have  uniformly  and  unceasing- 
ly received  from  Government.  If  the  obli- 
gations and  oaths  of  Oi'angemen  were  of 
a  virtuous  and  beneficial  tendency,  why  not 
proclaim  them  aloud  ?  If  illegal  and  dan- 
gerous, why  criminally  conceal  them?  Whilst 


472 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


the  Orange  aristocracy  thus  affects  to  dis- 
claim tlieir  own  institute,  in  detail,  tlieir 
activity  in  keeping  the  evil  on  foot  is  super- 
eminently criminal.  Nor  can  they  redeem 
their  guilt  without  revealing  in  detail  the 
whole  mischief  of  the  system,  by  enabling 
others,  or  cooperating  effectually  themselves, 
fas  far  as  they  possess  power,)  to  expose 
and  effectually  extinguish  it." 

Upon  the  subject  of  the  new  and  alarm- 
ing development  of  the  Orange  system 
which  took  place  at  this  date,  we  may  fur- 
ther cite  the  language  of  O'Connell,  at  an 
aggregate  meeting,  in  May,  1811.     He  said  : 

"  From  most  respectable  authority  I 
have  it,  that  Orange  Lodges  are  increas- 
ing in  different  parts  of  the  country,  with 
the  knowledge  of  those  whose  duty  it  is 
to  suppress  them.  If  I  have  been  raisin- 
formed,  I  would  wish  that  what  I  now  say 
may  be  replied  to  by  any  one  able  to  show 
that  I  am  wrong.  I  hold  in  ray  hand  the 
certificate  of  an  Orange  purple  man,  (which 
he  produced,)  who  was  advanced  to  that 
degree  as  lately  as  the  24th  of  April,  1811, 
in  a  Lodge  in  Dublin.  I  have  adduced 
this  fact  to  show  you,  that  this  dreadful  and 
abominable  conspiracy  is  still  in  existence  ; 
and  I  am  well  informed,  and  l)elieve  it  to  be 
the  fact,  that  the  King's  Ministry  are  well 
acquainted  with  this  circumstance.  I  have 
been  also  assured,  that  the  associations  in 
the  North  are  reorganized,  and  that  a  com- 
mittee of  these  delegates,  in  Belfast,  have 
printed  and  distributed  five  hundred  copies 
of  their  new  constitution.  This  I  have  heard 
from  excellent  authority  ;  and  I  should  not 
be  surprised  if  the  Attorney-General  knows 
it.  Yet  there  has  been  no  attempt  to  dis- 
turb these  conspirators  ;  no  attempt  to  visit 
them  with  magisterial  authority  ;  no  attempt 
to  rout  this  infamous  banditti." 

In  truth,  the  "  banditti "  were  so  useful 
and  indispensable  an  agency  of  British  domi- 
nation in  Ireland,  that  they  were  perfectly 
safe  from  the  law  and  the  Attorney-General  ; 
and  that  functionary  was  not  in  the  least 
obliged  to  O'Connell  for  his  information. 
It  was  against  Catholics  only  that  penal  sta- 
tutes were  made.  Thus,  altliough  the  Con- 
vention act  makes  no  distinctions  between 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  the  Orange  Lodges 
were  never  at  all  embarrassed  about  sendino: 


delegates  to  a  meeting  in  Dublin.  And  al- 
though the  acts  against  administering  secret 
oaths,  especially  apply  to  the  oaths  of  Or- 
angemen, no  Orangemen  was  ever  prosecut- 
ed by  the  Crown  under  those  laws.  The 
oath  which  Government  punished,  was  not 
an  oath  to  extirpate  one's  neiglibors,  but 
an  oath  to  promote  the  union  of  Irishmen. 

It  would  be  easy  to  accumulate  examples 
of  Orange  outrages  at  this  time  in  many 
parts  of  the  country  ;  but  these  incidents 
have  a  wearisome  sameness.  On  the  12th 
of  August,  1808,  fifty  unarmed  men  of  the 
King's  County  militia,  who  had  volunteered 
into  the  line,  marched  from  Strabane  into 
Omagh,  in  Tyrone  County,  where  fifty  of 
their  comrades  occupied  the  barracks.  As 
they  came  into  the  town,  it  happened  that 
three  hundred  Orange  yeomen  had  assem- 
bled, and  were  celebrating  the  battle  of 
Aughrim.  A  yeoman  began  operations  by 
knocking  off  and  trampling  upon  the  cap  of 
one  of  the  militiaraen,  because  it  was  bound 
wiih  green,  wiiich,  though  regimental,  was 
not  considered  "loyal"  enough  for  that  oc- 
casion. The  militiaman  resented  the  out- 
rage by  a  blow.  A  general  assault  was 
made  by  the  whole  body  of  yeomanry  upon 
the  fifty  unarmed  men  ;  they  retreated  in 
good  order  to  the  barrack,  where  they  were 
attacked  again  ;  but  as  they  were  now  sup- 
plied with  arms,  they  defended  theraselves 
to  some  purpose,  and  killed  four  of  their  as- 
sailants. Thomas  Hogan,  a  corporal  of  the 
King's  County  militia,  was  tried  for  the , 
mtirder  of  those  four  men,  and  was  actually 
found  guilty  of  manslaughter. 

Again,  at  Mountrath,  the  annual  return 
of  the  Orange  festival,  in  July,  1808,  had 
been  disgraced  by  the  most  atrocious  mur- 
der of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Duane,  the  Catholic 
priest  of  that  parish  ;  and  it  was  followed 
up  in  the  succeeding  year  by  the  no  less  bar- 
barous murder  of  a  Catholic  of  the  name 
of  Kavanagh,  into  whose  house  the  armed 
yeomen  rushed,  and  barbarously  fractured 
his  skull,  in  the  presence  of  his  wife  and 
four  infant  children.  On  the  first  day  of 
this  same  July,  at  Bailieborough,  in  the 
County  Cavan,  the  Orange  armed  yeoman 
went  in  a  body  to  the  house  of  the  parish 
priest,  at  whom  they  fired  several  shots, 
and  left  him  for  dead.     They  then  wrecked 


BTJKB  OF  RI0HM0ND8    "CONCILIATION. 


473 


t!ie  chiipel,  and  wounded  and  insulted  every 
Catholic  they  met. 

None  of  the  persons  guilty  of  these  out- 
rages, either  at  Mountrath  or  Bailieborough, 
was  ever  punished,  or  even  questioned. 

But  while  the  government  of  the  Duke 
of  Richmond  thus  encouraged  Orange  out- 
rage, and  screened  the  perpetrators,  his 
grace  sometimes  affected  to  deprecate  vio- 
lent demonstrations  of  the  Society,  at  least 
in  his  own  presence.  For  example,  he  made 
a  tour  throngli  Munster  in  the  summer  of 
this  year,  1809  ;  and  as  the  object  of  his 
excursion  was  chiefly  to  conciliate  the  Cath- 
olics of  that  province,  (many  of  whom  were 
wealthy  and  influential,)  and  so  to  prevent 
them  from  joining  in  the  agitation  for  their 
own  rights,  he  issued  orders  that  no  distinct- 
ively Orange  displays  should  take  place  on 
his  line  of  route.  The  town  of  Bandon  was 
in  tliose  days  a  great  stronghold  of  Orange- 
ism,  in  the  South,  and  possessed  a  "  legion  " 
of  six  hundred  yeomanry,  all  brethren  of 
the  Order.  On  the  first  of  July,  the  yeo- 
manry being  assembled,  according  to  cus- 
tom, to  celebrate  the  battle  of  the  Boyne, 
and  to  flaunt  before  the  eyes  of  the  op- 
pressed Catholics  the  emblems  of  their 
defeat,  they  were  astonished  at  being  ad- 
dressed by  their  Commander  and  Grand- 
Master,  Lord  Bandon,  in  a  very  unusual 
strain  :  He  said,  "  those  Orange  emblems 
were  calculated  to  keep  up  animosities,  and 
his  grace  the  Lord-Lieutenant  did  not 
wish  anything  of  the  sort  on  ike  present  oc- 
casion." The  men  suddenly  dispersed  in  high 
indignation.  The  next  parade-day  was  the 
6th,  and  they  again  assembled  ;  but  to  show 
how  they  valued  the  homily  of  Lord  Ban- 
don, every  man  of  them  appeared  decorated 
with  Orange  lilies. 

The  Earl  of  Bandon  and  Colonel  Oriel, 
the  inspecting  officer  of  the  district,  observ- 
ed, tliat  if  they  wished  to  be  considered 
really  obedient  and  loyal,  they  would  at- 
tend to  the  orders  of  their  officers,  as  Gov- 
ernment seemed  particularly  anxious  to  pre- 
vent the  further  wearing  of  any  emblem  of 
this  kind.  They  then  ordered  them,  either 
to  fake  these  marks  of  distinction  down,  or 
else  to  ground  their  arms.  The  corps  for 
some  time  remained  undecisive,  when  at 
length,  with  the  exception  of  twenty-five, 

60 


they  indignantly  threw  down  their  arms  and 
accoutrements,  sooner  than  obey  the  com- 
mand of  Government,  delivered  through 
their  ofiScer.  The  whole  yeomanry  of  Ban- 
don amounted  to  about  six  hundred  men. 
On  the  24th  of  July,  1809,  the  members 
composing  the  Boyne,  Union,  and  True- 
Blues  corps  of  yeomanry,  under  the  denomi- 
nation of  the  Loyal  Bandon  Legion,  openly 
declared  the  cause  for  which  they  laid  down 
their  arms.* 

This  "defection  of  the  Bandon  Orange- 
men," as  it  was  called,  made  the  Govern- 
ment very  cautious  for  long  afterwards  how 
it  showed  tlie  least  displeasure  against  these 
"loyal"  displays,  or  the  outrages  which 
nearly  always  attended  them.  Indeed,  Grand 
Masters  and  Ascendancy  jgurnals  often  cool- 
ly reminded  the  successive  Chief-Governors 
of  Ireland  that  English  dominion  could  not 
be  maintained  one  day  in  Ireland  without  the 
Lodges,  which  was  true  ;  so  that  Lords- 
Lieutenant  and  Ministers,  while  feeling  them- 
selves bound  in  common  decency  to  aflfi^ct,  at 
least,  to  deprecate  violence,  and  hypocritic- 
ally to  advise  concord  and  good  feeling,  have 
been  exceedingly  tender  of  wounding  the 
sensibilities  of  those  people,  who  were,  and 
are,  their  only  support  in  the  country. 

So  well  had  the  Castle  succeeded,  during 
the  administration  of  the  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond, in  undoing  all  that  the  volunteers 
and  United  Irishmen  had  done,  and  in  mak- 
ing impossible  that  union  of  Irishmen,  which 
was  the  only  thing  the  Castle  feared  in  the 
world. 


CHAPTER    LL 

1810—1812. 

Duke  of  Richmond's  "Conciliation"  —  Orange  Op- 
pression—  Treatment  of  Catholic  Soldiers  —  The 
Veto  again  —  Debate  on  Veto  iu  Parliaments- 
Catholic  Petition  Presented  by  Grattan — Rejected 
— 0"Connell's  Leadership — New  Organization  of 
Catholics — Repeal  of  the  Union  First  Agitated — In- 
sanity of  the  King — Treacliery  of  the  Regentr— 
Prosecution  of  tlie  Catliolic  Committee — Conven- 
tion Act  —  Suppression  of  tlie  Committee — New 
Measures  of  O'Connell  —  5Ir.  Curran  at  Newry 
Election— Effects  of  the  Union. 

The  Duke  of  Richmond  was  one  of  our 
"  conciliatory  "  Viceroys.   In  his  tour  through 

*  For  a  fuller  account  of  these  transactions  at  Ban- 
don, see  Plowden,  Vol.  Ill,  of  Post-Union  History, 


474 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


the  South,  he  rendered  himself  more  than 
usually  affable  and  urbane  ;  and  having  a 
frank  and  gracious  manner,  he  was  not  with- 
out some  success  in  soothing  the  Catholics, 
whom  long  oppression  had  rendered  too 
credulously  impressible  by  a  few  words  of 
hollow  and  hypocritical  kindness.  At  a  mo- 
ment when  it  was  notorious  that  he  was 
acting  as  the  zealous  agent  of  a  No-Popery 
administration  ;  that  he  was  excluding  Cath 
olic  gentlemen  from  the  Grand  Juries,  Cath- 
olic merchants  from  the  bank,  that  Catholic 
soldiers  were  regularly  punished  by  their 
officers  for  going  to  Mass,  and  that  his 
grace's  Orange  banditti  were  killing  and 
maiming  their  Catholic  neighbors  with  a 
perfect  certainty  of  impunity,  we  find  that 
at  the  entertainment  given  by  the  Corpora- 
tion of  Waterford  to  the  Lord-Lieutenant, 
his  grace's  affability  and  attention  to  all 
were  conspicuous.  He  took  an  opportunity 
of  addressing  Doctor  Pou^r,  the  Catholic 
Bishop  of  Waterford,  whom  in  a  gracious 
and  cordial  style  he  thanked,  for  his  and  his 
flock's  conduct  in  putting  down  the  disturb- 
ances in  their  county.  He  openly  and  dis- 
tinctly assured  him,  that  he  had  it  in  special 
instructions  from  His  Majesty,  to  make  no  dis- 
tinction between  Protestant  and  Catholic, 
which  injunction  he  emphatically  declared 
he  had  punctiliously  complied  with,  ever 
since  he  had  undertaken  the  government  of 
the  country,  as  far  as  the  laws  would  allow 
of.  Those  laws,  he  lamented,  it  was  not  in 
liis  power  to  deviate  from.  Such  was  the 
traveling  style  of  the  Vice-regal  Court. 
At  the  dinner  given  to  his  grace  by  the 
Mayor  and  Corporation  of  Cork,  at  the  Man- 
sion House,  amongst  the  regular  Corpora- 
tion toasts,  was  announced,  in  its  order,  the 
Protestant  Ascendancy  of  Ireland,  on  which 
his  grace  arose  and  declared,  he  wished  to 
see  no  ascendancy  in  Ireland  but  that  of 
loyalty  ;  and  strongly  recommended  the  same 
line  of  conduct  to  be  pursued  by  all  good 
subjects. 

At  another  dinner  in  Cork,  given  by  the  mer- 
chants, traders,  and  bankers,  his  excellency 
had  even  the  sanctimonious  audacity  to  ex- 
press his  wonder,  that  religion  being  only 
occupied  with  a  great  object  of  eternal  con- 
cern, men  should  be  excited  to  rancorous 
enmity  because  they  sought  the  same  great 


end  by  paths  somewhat  different.  This  kind 
of  language,  which  has  been  the  common 
style  of  Irish  Viceroys  ever  since,  was  first 
brought  into  vogue  by  the  No-Popery  Duke 
of  Richmond  ;  and  what  is  very  remark- 
able, it  so  far  imposed  upon  many  simple- 
minded  Catholics,  that  they  were  afterwards 
but  slow  and  reluctant  in  even  coming  for- 
ward to  petition  for  their  withheld  rights 
and  franchises. 

In  the  meantime,  the  daily  and  continual 
oppressions  and  humiliations  which  were  in- 
flicted upon  the  Catholics,  not  only  by  Or- 
ange magistrates  and  yeomen,  but  by  the 
Government  itself,  were  too  notorious  and 
too  galling  to  be  soothed  away  by  the  fair 
words  of  a  conciliatory  Viceroy.  The 
treatment  of  Catholic  soldiers  in  the  array 
(of  which  they  already  constituted  nearly 
one-half,)  excited  the  Strongest  and  bitterest 
feelings  of  discontent.  At  Enuiskillen,  a 
Lieutenant  Walsh  turned  a  soldier's  coat,  in 
order  to  disgrace  him,  for  refusing  to  attend 
the  Protestant  service  ;  others  were  effectu- 
ally prevented  from  attending  the  service  of 
their  own  church,  by  an  order  not  to  quit 
the  barracks  till  two  o'clock  on  the  Sunday, 
when  the  Catholic  service  was  over,  as  at 
Newry.  The  case  which  acquired  the  most 
publicity,  and  produced  the  strongest  effect 
upon  Ireland,  was  that  of  Patrick  Spence,  a 
private  in  the  County  Dublin  militia,  who 
had  been  required  (though  known  to  be  a 
Catholic,)  to  attend  the  divine  service  of  the 
Established  Church,  and  upon  refusal,  was 
thrown  into  the  Black  Hole.  During  his 
imprisonment,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Major 
White,  his  commanding  oBBcer,  urging,  that 
in  obeying  the  paramount  dictates  of  con- 
science, he  had  in  no  manner  broken  in  upon 
military  discipline.  He  was  shortly  after 
brought  to  a  court-martial,  upon  a  charge 
that  his  letter  was  disrespectful,  and  had  a 
mutinous  tendency.  He  was  convicted,  and 
sentenced  to  receive  nine  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  lashes.  Upon  being  brought  out 
to  undergo  that  punishment,  an  offer  was 
made  to  him  to  commute  it  for  an  engage- 
ment to  enlist  in  a  corps  constantly  serving 
abroad  ;  this  he  accepted,  and  was  transmit- 
ted to  the  Isle  of  Wight,  in  order  to  be 
sent  out  of  the  kingdom.  The  case  having 
been  represented  to  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  by 


TREATMENT    OF    CATHOLIC    SOLDIERS THE    "VETO        AGATX. 


475 


roelor  Troy,  the  titular  Archbishop  of 
Dublin,  Mr.  W.  Pole  wrote  him  a  letter, 
wliich  stated,  that  the  sentence  had  been 
passed  upon  Spence  for  writing  the  disre- 
spectful letter ;  not  denying  (therefore  ad- 
mitting,) that  the  committal  to  the  "Black 
Hole "  was  for  the  refusal  to  attend  the 
Protestant  Church  ;  but  that,  under  all  the 
circumstances,  the  Commander-iu-Chief  had 
considered  the  punishment  excessive,  and 
had  ordered  the  man  to  be  liberated,  and  to 
join  his  regiment.  When  Spence  arrived  in 
Dublin,  he  was  confined  several  days,  and 
then  discharged  altogether  from  the  army. 
The  copy  of  Spence's  letter,  which  he 
vouched  to  be  authentic,  contained  nothing 
in  it  either  disrespectful  or  mutinous.  The 
original  letter  was  often  called  for,  and  al- 
ways refused  by  those  who  had  it  in  their 
possession,  and  might,  consequently,  by  its 
production  determine  the  justice  of  the  sen- 
tence of  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine 
lashes. 

Many  other  examples  of  this  kind  of  pet- 
ty tyranny  occurred  about  the  same  time ; 
and  as  no  officer  was  ever  punished  or  repri- 
manded for  any  of  them,  they  are  sufficient 
to  indicate  the  real  feelings  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  how  much  sincerity  there  was  in  the 
after-dinner  liberality  of  the  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond. In  short,  it  was  the  settled  design 
of  the  British  Government,  not  only  to 
break  the  promises  made  for  carrying  the 
Union  (as  it  had  formerly  broken  the  treaty 
of  Limerick,)  but  also  to  make  the  Catho- 
lics feel  in  their  daily  life  the  whole  bitter- 
ness of  their  degradation. 

llioy  had,  of  course,  no  representative  in 
the  British  Parliament  ;  and  it  appeared, 
in  the  course  of  the  year  1810,  that  such 
Protestant  friends  and  advocates  as  they 
possessed  in  that  Assembly,  Mr.  Grattan 
and  Mr.  Ponsonby  for  example,  desired  to 
effect  their  emancipation  only  on  the  terms 
of  enslaving  the  Catholic  Church  to  the 
State,  by  means  of  the  veto.  The  subject 
of  veto  was  now  revived,  both  in  Parliament 
and  in  the  country.  The  English  Catholics, 
jn  their  petitions  for  relief,  offered  to  accept 
emancipation  on  such  terms  ;  that  is,  on  the 
terms  of  giving  to  a  Protestant  State  a  dis- 
cretion as  to  the  appointment  of  their  Bish- 
ops.    In  Ireland,  that  idea  was  now  univer- 


sally repulsed,  by  the  clergy  and  laity  ;  al- 
though, as  before  stated,  it  had  once  been 
favorably  received  by  a  few  of  the  higher 
clergy. 

Late  in  January,  1810,  was  held  a  large 
meeting  of  the  Catholics  of  Dublin.  The 
Secretary,  Mr.  Hay,  stated,  tiiat  the  most 
Rev.  Doctor  Troy  had  received  from  an 
English  member  of  Parliament  (Sir  John 
Cox  Hippesley)  a  letter,  accompanied  by  an 
explanatory  printed  copy  of  a  sketch  of  pro- 
posed regulations,  concurrent  with  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  state  provision,  for  the  Roman 
Catholic  clergy  of  Ireland.* 

It  was  the  project  of  veto  in  all  its  naked- 
ness, but  recommended  both  by  the  prospect 
of  civil  emancipation  and  by  a  state  provis- 
ion for  the  clergy.  To  the  credit  of  the 
whole  Catholic  body  (for  it  must  be  admit- 
ted that  the  bribe  was  high,)  all  proposals 
of  this  nature  were  rejected,  and  rejected 
with  indignation.  A  petition  was  prepared 
for  presentation  to  Parliament  asking  for 
unconditional  emancipation,  intrusted  to 
Lord  Fingal,  who  carried  it  to  London, 
and  presented  by  Mr.  Grattan.  But,  al- 
tliough  he  presented  it,  he  said  that  it  was 
merely  iu  order  to  have  the  claims  of  the 
Catholics  put  on  record  ;  that  he  had  hoped 
the  Irish  Catholics  would  be  willing  to  al- 
low, on  the  appointment  of  their  Bishops,  a 
veto  to  the  Crown  ;  "he  was  sorry  to  see 
that  at  present  no  such  sentiment  appeared 
to  prevail."  Mr.  Grattan  had  still  the  same 
violent  horror  of  "French  influence,"  which 
had  formerly  prevented  him  from  joining 
the  United  Irishmen.  "  The  Pope,"  he 
said,  "  was  almost  certain  now  to  be  a  sub- 
ject of  France  ;  and  a  subject  of  France, 
or  French  citizen,  could  never  be  permitted 
to  nominate  the  spiritual  magistrates  of  the 
people  of  Ireland."     In  short,  Mr.  Grattan, 

*  The  Catholic  historian,  Plowden,  says:  "This 
deep-laid  plan,  suggested  by  Sir  John  Cox  Hippesley, 
fathered  by  Mr.  Pitt,  adopted  by  Lord  Grenville, 
palmed  by  Lord  Castlereagh  upon  the  duped  or  in- 
timidated trustees  of  Maynooth  College,  in  contem- 
plation of  the  Union,  was  now  brought  forward  with 
the  privity  and  approbation  of  several  of  the  leading 
members  of  the  Board  of  British  Catholics.  The 
concluding  sentence  speaks  in  full  its  primary  intent  : 
"  All  conlirm  the  principle,  that  the  sovereign  power 
in  every  State,  of  whatever  religious  communion,  has 
considered  itself  armed  with  legitimate  authoiity  in 
all  matters  of  ecclesiastical  arrangement  within  iU 
dominioa." 


476 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


iu  both  the  speeches  wliich  he  made  hi  this 
session,  spoke  against  the  petition  which  he 
had  presented.  It  would  be  tedious  to 
make  even  an  abstract  of  the  debate  ;  and 
it  will  be  sufficient  to  say  that  on  the  motion 
for  going  into  committee  with  the  Catholic 
petition,  Mr.  Ponsonby,  Mr.  Grattan,  and 
Sir  John  Cox  Hippesley,  were  in  favor  of 
the  motion,  subject  to  veto  ;  Mr.  Hutcheson, 
Mr.  Parnell,  and  Sir  John  Newport,  in  fa- 
vor of  it,  without  veto — Lord  Castlereagh 
wholly  against  it  in  every  shape  ;  so,  of 
course,  were  Mr.  Perceval,  and  all  other 
members  of  the  No-Pupery  administration  ; 
and  the  motion  was  lost  by  a  majority 
against  the  Catholic  claims  of  one  hundred 
and  four. 

In  June,  the  petition  was  presented  by 
Lord  Donoughmore  to  the  Lords,  in  a  very 
fair  and  just  speech.  He  said,  speaking  of 
the  Catholic  Church,:  "No  man  was  so 
ignorant  as  not  to  know,  that  its  profess- 
ed unity  in  doctrine  and  in  discipline,  un- 
der one  and  the  same  declared  head  was  the 
essential  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  yet  they  were  told, 
that  the  Irish  Catholics  were  the  most  un- 
reasonable of  men,  because  they  would  not 
renounce,  upon  oath,  this  first  tenet  of  their 
religion,  and  consent  to  recognize  a  new 
head  of  their  Church  in  the  person  of  a 
Protestant  King.  The  Irish  Catholic,  under 
the  existing  tests,  solemnly  abjures  the  au- 
thority of  the  Pope  in  all  temporal  matters, 
pledges  himself  to  be  a  faithful  subject  of 
the  King,  and  to  defend  the  succession  of 
the  Crown,  and  the  arrangement  of  proper- 
ty as  now  established  by  law,  and  that  he 
will  not  exercise  any  privil(?ge,  to  which  he 
is,  or  may  become,  entitled,  to  disturb  the 
Protestant  religion  or  Protestant  govern- 
ment. What  possible  ground  of  apprehen- 
sion could  there  be,  which  was  not  effectual- 
ly provided  against  by  the  terras  of  this 
oath.  With  respect  to  that  ill-fated  veto, 
the  introduction  of  which,  into  the  Catholic 
vocabulary,  he  witnessed  with  sincere  re- 
gret ;  he  could  only  say  for  himself,  that  he 
wanted  no  additional  security  j  but  he  was 
equally  ready  to  acknowledge,  that  it  was 
the  bounden  duty  of  the  Catholic,  whenever 
the  happy  moment  of  conciliation  should  ar- 
rive, to  go  the  full  length  his  religion  would 


permit  him,  to  quiet  the  scruples,  however 
groundless  and  imaginary,  of  the  Protestant 
Legislature." 

After  a  short  debate,  in  which  we  find 
Lord  Holland,  Lord  Erskine,  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  and  Lord  Grey,  speaking  in  favor 
of  going  into  committee  on  the  petition  ; 
against  it.  Lord  Liverpool,  Lord  Clancarty, 
Lord  Redesdale,  and  the  Lord-Chancellor 
— there  appeared  on  a  division  :  for  the  mo- 
tion, sixty-eight  ;  non-contents,  one  hundred 
and  fifty-four  ;  majority  against  the  Catho- 
lics, eighty-six. 

It  was  now  at  last  tolerably  evident  that 
there  was  no  use  in  petitioning  that  Parlia- 
ment to  acknowledge  the  rights  of  Catho- 
lics ;  that  the  insidious  promises  made  by 
Lord  Cornwallis  and  Lord  Castlereagh,  for 
the  purpose  of  carrying  the  Union,  were  to 
be  deliberately  disregarded  ;  and  that  the 
Catholic  cause  must  be  either  abandoned  al- 
together, or  must  be  taken  up  by  some  more 
potent  hand  than  any  of  those  which  had 
guided  it  up  to  that  time.  Daniel  O'Con- 
nell  was  to  be  the  new  leader  of  the  Irish 
Catholic  cause,  and  may  be  said  to  date  the 
commencement  of  his  wonderful  career  of 
agitation  from  the  Parliamentary  defeat  sus- 
tained by  the  petition  of  1810.  In  a  month 
after  the  rejection  of  that  petition,  the  gen- 
eral committee  of  the  Catholics,  after  pass- 
ing a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  worthy  old  John 
Keogh  "  for  his  long  and  faithful  services  to 
the  cause  of  Catholic  Emancipation,"  issued 
an  address  to  all  the  Catholics  of  Ireland, 
urging  upon  them  a  new  and  more  combined 
form  of  political  action,  and  bearing  the 
signature  of  "Daniel  O'Connell,  Chairman." 
The  programme  of  action  presented  in  tiiis 
address  is  substantially  the  same  which  was 
followed  up  by  Mr.  O'Connell,  under  sev- 
eral successive  names,  throughout  all  his  agi- 
tations— local  organizations  holding  frequent 
meetings,  and  corresponding  with  a  central 
committee  in  Dublin.  All  proceedings  were 
to  be  peaceful  and  legal  ;  yet  there  was  the 
hint  of  a  possibility  that  millions  of  peo})le 
steadily  denied  their  rights,  might  in  the 
end  be  driven  to  extort  them  with  the  strong 
hand.     Here  is  an  extract : — 

"  Still,  whilst  time  and  opportunity  yet  re- 
main for  peaceful  counsels,  the  virtuous 
Catholic  will  deeply  revolve  in  his  mind  the 


REPEAL    OF   THE   UNTON   FIRST   AGITATED. 


477 


wisest  course  for  liis  redemption.  He  will 
prefer  that  success,  which  promises  the 
greatest  pernianeut  enjoyment  to  himself 
and  his  family  ;  the  most  salutary  to  his 
country  ;  the  most  conformable  to  the  best 
laws  and  dearest  precepts  of  civil  society. 
He  will  prefer  to  opposite  courses — those  of 
peace,  of  reason,  and  of  temperate,  but  firm 
perseverance,  in  well-regulated  efforts. 
•  "The  committee,  sir,  consulting  not 
merely  local,  but  general  feelings,  entertain 
every  wish  and  hope,  of  calling  into  fair  and 
free  exercise  the  unbiased  judgment  and  in- 
dependent opinions  of  the  Catholics  of  Ire- 
land, thinking  and  acting  for  themselves 
throughout  their  respective  counties,  dis- 
tricts, cities,  and  towns,  and  deciding  upon 
such  measures  as  shall  appear  to  them  most 
eligible. 

"  They  hope  that  the  Catholics  will  take 
frequent  opportunities,  and  as  early  as  pos- 
sible, of  holding  local  meetings  for  these 
purposes  ;  and  there,  unfettered  by  external 
authority,  and  unaffected  by  dictation,  ap- 
ply their  most  serious  consideration,  to  sub- 
jects of  common  and  weighty  concern,  with 
the  candor  and  directness  of  mind,  which 
appertain  to  the  national  character. 

"  The  establishment  of  permanent  boards, 
liolding  communication  with  the  General 
Committee  in  Dublin,  has  been  deemed  in 
several  counties  highly  useful  to  the  interests 
of  the  Catholic  cause. 

"  Nothing  is  more  necessary  amongst  us 
tlian  self-agency.  It  will  produce  that  sys- 
tem of  coherence  of  conduct,  which  must 
insure  success. 

"  In  the  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise, 
for  instance,  what  infinite  good  might  not 
result  from  Catholic  colierence?  What 
painful  examples  are  annually  exhibited  of 
the  mischief  flowing  from  the  want  of  this 
coherence  ? 

"  The  Catholic  Committee  have,  there- 
fore, every  reason  to  expect  the  most  bene- 
ficial effects  to  the  general  cause,  from  local 
and  frequent  meetings." 

During  this  same  summer,  was  heard  the 
first  loud  cry  for  a  Bspeal  of  the  Union.  In 
the  Corporation  of  Dublin — then,  of  course, 
an  exclusively  Protestant  body — Mr.  Hut- 
ton,  pursuant  to  notice,  made  an  impressive 
Speech,  in  which  he  powerfully  depicted  the 


ruin,  bankruptcy,  despair,  and  famine,  that 
were  apparent  in  every  street  of  Dublin — - 
pointed  out  that  the  debt  of  the  nation  was 
then  above  ninety  millions  ;  that  two  millions 
sterling,  wrung  from  the  sweat  of  Irish 
peasants,  were  squandered  in  a  foreign  coun- 
try, by  absentees,*  and  that  iE2,500,000 
more  was  drained  away  to  pay  the  interest 
on  that  insupportable  debt.  He  proposed 
resolutions  to  the  effect,  that  the  cure  for  all 
these  evils  was  the  repeal  of  the  Union. 
Of  course,  he  w^as  vehemently  opposed  by 
Giffard  and  his  party  ;  but  the  resolutions 
were  carried  by  a  majority  of  thirty. 

The  next  step  was  a  requisition  from  the 
Grand  Jurors  of  Dublin,  to  the  two  High 
Sheriffs,  Sir  Edward  Stanley  and  Sir  James 
Riddall,  to  call  a  meeting  of'  the  freemen 
and  freeholders,  to  consider  "the.  necessity 
that  exists  of  presenting  a  petition  to  His 
Majesty  and  the  Imperial  Parliament,  for  a 
repeal  of  the  act  of  Union."  Stanley  de- 
clined to  call  such  a  meeting  ;  he  said  it 
"  would  agitate  the  public  mind."  But  Rid- 
dall called  the  meeting.  On  the  18th  of 
September,  at  the  Royal  Exchange,  was 
held  this  memorable  meeting,  at  which  both 
Protestants  and  Catholics  were  unanimous, 
not  only  in  afiirming  the  universal  misery 
and  beggary  of  the  country,  but  in  attribu- 
ting the  whole  to  that  fatal  and  fraudulent 
measure  called  the  Act  of  Uniou.  O'Con- 
nell  delivered,  on  this  occasion,  a  speech  of 
the  most  concentrated  power  and  passion, 
which  deeply  impressed  his  audience,  and  the 
entire  nation.  It  was  at  once  printed  on  a 
broadside,  surmounted  with  a  portrait  of 
the  orator  ;  and  O'Connell  was  from  that 
moment  the  leader  to  whom  all  Catholics 
turned  with  pride  and  hope.  The  resolu- 
tions for  the  preparation  of  a  petition  for 
repeal  of  the  Uniou,  were  adopted  unani- 
mously. 

What  we  have  to  remark  is,  that  in  these 
first  movements  favoring  repeal  of  the 
Union,  all  speakers  concurred  in  represent- 
ing the  material  and  financial  effects  of  that 
measure  as.  disastrous  in  the  extreme  to  Ire- 

*  Dean  Swift  estimated  the  absentee  rents  in  his 
time  at  half  a  million  sterling,  and  thought  that 
same  a  great  grievance.  In  1848,  Mr.  Smith  O'Brien, 
always  moderate  in  his  statements,  said  the  drain 
through  this  single  channel  amounted  to  five  mil- 
lions. 


478 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND, 


land  ;  vet  those  speakers  do  not  appear  to 
have  bethought  them  that  the  impoverish- 
ment of  Ireland  was  tlie  exact  measure  of 
the  profit  to  England  ;  that  this  was  the 
speiific  object  for  wliieh  England  had  de- 
manded, contrived,  and  accomplished  the 
Union  ;  and  that  the  existing  relation  be- 
tween the  two  countries,  was  the  accurate 
fulfillment  of  the  prediction  made  by  that 
honest  Englishman,  Samuel  Johnson,  to  an 
Irish  acquaintance — "  Sir,  we  shall  rob  you." 

The  Catholics  of  Ireland  were  by  this 
time  quite  unanimous  in  favor  of  repealing 
that  Union,  the  perpetration  of  which  they 
had  been  induced  to  regard  with  indifference, 
or  almost  with  complacency.  At  least,  they 
knew  how  treacherously  they  had  been 
dealt  with  on  that  occasion  by  the  English 
Government  and  its  agents,  Cornwallis  and 
Castlereagh  ;  and  the  natural  soreness  which 
they  felt  at  being  duped,  aggravated  the- 
sufferings  which  fell  upon  them,  as  well  as 
upon  the  Protestants,  in  consequence  of  de- 
pressed trade  and  ruined  manufactures. 

"Repeal"  was,  therefore,  fairly  before  the 
country  ;  but  it  was  too  late  for  any  peace- 
ful redress.  When  the  shark  has  once  made 
his  union  with  his  prey,  he  does  not  easily 
disgorge  ;  for  this  there  needs,  either  a 
minicle,  as  in  the  case  of  Jonah's  fish,  or 
else  that  the  shark  be  killed  and  cut  up. 
Petitioning  for  restitution  of  that  rich  prey, 
is,  perhaps,  the  most  imbecile  idea  that  ever 
possessed  any  public  man  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world. 

Catholic  Emancipation,  however,  was 
another  kind  of  question  ;  and  one  quite 
susceptible  of  a  peaceful  solution  ;  because 
to  emancipate  Catholics  would  cost  England 
nothing  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  would  prob- 
ably win  over  many  of  the  leading,  educated, 
and  professional  Catholics,  who  might  be  in- 
duced, by  the  prospect  of  honors  and  emo- 
luments for  themselves,  to  abandon  their 
people  to  plunder  and  extirpation,  and  to 
sell  the  cause  of  their  country  to  its  ene- 
mies ; — an  anticipation  which  we  have  un- 
happily seen  realized  on  a  large  scale. 

Catholic  Emanci|)ation,  then,  although  a 
miiMU'  question,  was  the  immediately-prac- 
tical one  for  an  Irish  agitator  ;  and  O'Con- 
nell  saw  that  it  was  so,  and  devoted  him- 
self to  it  accordingly. 


In  October,  King  George  III.  fell  into  hig 
final  and  irremediable  insanity  ;  and  the 
Prince  again  became  Regent ;  this  time  with 
almost  fidl  regal  powers.  It  was  a  matter 
of  no  interest  whatsoever  to  Ireland  ;  save 
that  many  Catholics  were  simple  enough  to 
believe  that  it  removed  the  only  real  ob- 
stacle to  their  emancipation  ;  namely,  the 
stupid  scruples  of  the  idiot  King  as  to  hig 
Coronation  oath.  The  Prince  had  made 
many  professions,  even  distinct  promises  and 
pledges,  afterwards  minutely  specified  by 
O'Connell,  that  so  soon  as  he  should  enjoy 
actual  power,  he  would  do  all  that  in  him 
lay  to  bring  about  Catholic  Emancipation. 
In  1806,  he  had  made  such  a  pledge,  through 
the  Duke  of  Bedford,  then  Viceroy,  in  or- 
der to  induce  the  Catholics  to  withhold  their 
petitions  ;  his  good  friends,  the  Catholics, 
were  to  trust  all  to  him,  the  Prince.  Mr. 
Ponsonby,  then  Chancellor,  had,  in  the  same 
year,  promulgated  a  similar  promise  in  the 
Prince's  name.  He  had  himself  given  such 
a  pledge  to  Lord  Kenmare,  at  Cheltenham. 
Finally,  he  had  given  a  formal  verbal  pledge 
to  liord  Fingal,  in  presence  of  Lord  Petre 
and  Lord  Clifford,  which  was  reduced  to 
writing  by  those  three  noblemen,  and  signed 
by  them  soon  after  the  interview  ended. 
The  Prince  had  now  uncontrolled  power ; 
and,  as  usual,  the  Catholics  found  them- 
selves cheated.  He  retained  as  his  Prime 
Minister,  the  No-Popery  Perceval,  and  was 
surrounded  by  advisers  intensely  hostile  to 
the  Catholic  cause  ;  his  mistress  at  that 
time  was  the  wife  of  the  Marquis  of  Hert- 
ford ;  and  the  conscience  of  that  lady  could 
not  reconcile  itself  to  the  thought  of  con- 
ceding any  right  to  persons  who  believed  in 
Seven  Sacraments.  Even  the  two  Protest- 
ant Sacraments  were  one  too  many  for  her 
ladyship.* 

*  Certain  resolutions  passed  in  the  Catholic  Com- 
mittee but  too  plainly  referred  to  tliis  woman,  when 
they  spoke  of  the  "  fatal  witchery  "  which  had  led 
the  Regent  to  form  a  Ministry  hostile  to  liberty  of 
conscience  in  Ireland.  The  enchantress  was  over 
fifty  years  of  age  ;  and  her  husband  and  her  son  were 
the  closest  buon-cumpanions  of  the  lover  of  the  fath- 
er's wife  and  of  the  son's  mother.  These  famous 
"  witchery  ■' resolutions  were  supposed  to  have  so 
strongly  aroused  the  Protestant  feelings  of  the  Prince 
as  to  adjourn  all  thought  of  Catholic  Emancipation 
for  many  years,  and  to  have  been  the  .cause  of  the 
exceedingly  bad  grace  with  which  King  George  IV. 
at  last  assented  to  that  measure. 


MR.  CURKAN  AT  NEWRY  ELECTION. 


479 


Almost  the  first  act  of  any  consequence 
done  in  Ireland,  after  the  Prince  became 
Kegent,  was  a  State  prosecution,  instituted 
against  the  Catholic  Committee,  in  the  per- 
sons of  two  of  its  members,  Mr.  Kirwan  and 
Doctor  Sheridan,  who  were  charged  to  have 
been  elected  as  delegates,  in  breach  of  the 
Convention  act.  The  Government  had  been 
long  watching  for  this  chance,  and  now  the 
Castle  strained  every  nerve  to  insure  a  con- 
viction. Mr.  Saurin,  Attorney-General,  com- 
menced his  speech  thus  :  "  My  Lords  and 
Gentlemen  of  the  Jury — I  cannot  but  con- 
gratulate you  and  the  public,  that  thedayof 
justice,  has  at  last  arrived  ;"  surely  a  most 
extraordinary  expression,  under  the  circnm- 
.«tances  ;  seeing  that  these  Catholics  were 
but  peacefully  claiming  their  manifest  right ; 
and  seeing  that  the  crime  of  which  they 
were  now  accused  was  unknown  to  the  law 
of  England.  Mr.  Bushe,  then  Solicitor- 
General,  afterwards  Chief  Justice,  speaking 
of  the  committee,  constituted  as  it  was, 
thus  concluded  his  speech  upon  that  trial : 
"  Compare  such  a  constitution  with  th^  es- 
tablished authorities  of  the  land,  all  con- 
trolled, confined  to  their  respective  spheres, 
balancing  and  gravitating  to  each  other — 
all  .symmetry,  .all  order,  all  harmony.  Be- 
hold, on  the  other  band,  this  prodigy  in  the 
political  hemisphere,  with  eccentric  course 
and  portentous  glare,  bound  by  no  attrac- 
tion, disdaining  any  orbit,  disturbing  the 
system,  and  affrighting  the  world  I "  The 
remedy  for  this  horrible  comet  was  a  packed 
jury  ;  which  is  one  of  those  "  established 
authorities — all  symmetry  and  harmony — " 
spoken  of  by  Mr.  Bushe.  -A  conviction  was 
obtained  ;  and  the  Catholic  Committee,  in 
that  form,  ceased  to  exist.  Mr.  Shell  says  : 
"  A  great  blow  had  been  struck  at  the 
cause,  and  a  considerable  time  elapsed  be- 
fore Ireland  recovered  from  it." 

But  although  that  organization  was  at  an 
end,  many  angry  meetings  were  held  ;  and 
the  Catholic  press  assumed  a  tone  of  aggres- 
sion and  defiance  which  had  not  been  usual 
with  it.  Mr.  O'Counell,  in  conjunction  with 
Mr.  Scully,  a  gentleman  of  large  property 
and  high  talent,  established  a  newspaper  ; 
and  both  in  the  press  and  in  public  assem- 
blies there  was  manifested  by  the  p(jpular 
leaders,  so  much  boldness  and  activity,  as 


assured  all  men  that  the  cause  of  the  nation 
was  now  in  a  fresh  and  vigorous  hand. 

Mr.  Wellesley  Pole,  had  been  appointed 
Irish  Secretary  of  State,  as  successor  to  his 
brother.  Lord  Wellington  ;  and  his  admin- 
istration was  chiefly  noted  for  his  circular 
letter  against  meeting  in  conventions,  with  a 
view  to  tiie  suppression  of  the  Catholic  Com- 
mittee. Mr.  Wellesley  Pole  was  soon  after 
succeeded  by  Mr,  Robert  Peel,  who  proved 
himself  during  many  years  after  the  most 
deadly,  and,  indeed,  most  fatal  foe  the  Irish 
nation  ever  encountered.  He  was  but  twen- 
ty-four years  of  age  ;  and  continued  Chief 
Secretary  for  six  years,  during  which  he 
closely  studied  the  character  and  wants  of 
the  people  ;  so  that  of  all  English  statesmen, 
in  modern  times,  Sir  Robert  Peel  may  be 
said  to  have  understood  Ireland  best,  to  Ire- 
land's bitter  cost. 

In  1812,  Mr.  Perceval,  the  "No-Po- 
pery "  Prime  Minister,  M^as  assassinated  by 
a  maniac,  in  the  lobby  of  the  House  of 
Commons  ;  and  a  change  of  administration 
became  necessary.  But  the  new  arrange- 
ments had  little  interest  for  Irishmen,  and 
presented  no  hope  of  any  approach  to  jus- 
tice, in  the  treatment  of  that  country.  Lord 
Liverpool  was  Prime  Minister,  and  both 
Canning  and  Castlereagh  were  members  of 
the  Cabinet.  A  dissolution  of  Parliament 
and  general  election  followed,  at  which  sev- 
eral additional  "Li'jerals"  were  returned 
from  places  in  Ireland.  ]Mr.  Curran  was 
persuaded  by  his  friends,  and  invited  by  the 
Liberal  electors  of  Newry,  to  permit  him- 
self to  be  placed  in  nomination  for  that 
borough.  He  had  never,  since  the  Union, 
sought  to  enter  the  British  Parliament  ; 
and  it  v/as  with  no  sanguine  hope  of  being 
able  to  effect  any  good  there  for  his  coun- 
try, that  he  now  essayed  to  enter  public  life 
once  more.  He  was  defeated  at  Newry  ; 
defeated  by  General  Needham,  one  of  the 
military  tyrants  who  had  dragooned  the  peo- 
ple into  insurrection,  in  1798.  But  in  Mr. 
Curran's  speech,  on  that  occasion,  to  tlie 
electors  of  Newry,  though  imperfectly  re- 
ported, is  found  a  pnssage  most  vividly  de- 
picting the  condition  of  Ireland  twelve 
years  after  the  Union,  and  Curran's  esti- 
mate of  the  I'atnre  and  elTects  of  that  mea- 
sure.   He  said  :  "  The  whole  historv  uf  man- 


480 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


kind  records  uo  iustaiice  of  any  hostile  Cab- 
inet, perhaps,  even  of  any  Cabinet,  actuated 
by  the  principles  of  honor  or  of  shame. 
The  Irish  Catholic  was,  therefore,  tauglit  to 
believe  that  if  he  surrendered  his  country  he 
would  cease  to  be  a  slave.  The  Irish  Pro- 
testant was  cajoled  into  the  belief  that,  if  he 
concurred  in  the  surrender,  he  would  be 
placed  upon  the  neck  of  a  hostile  faction. 
Wretched  dupe  1  you  wight  as  well  per- 
suade the  jailer  that  he  is  less  a  prisoner 
than  the  captives  he  locks  up,  merely  be- 
cause he  carries  the  key  in  his  pocket.  By 
that  reciprocal  animosity,  however,  Ireland 
was  surrendered — the  guilt  of  the  surrender 
was  most  atrocious — the  consequences  of  the 
crime  most  tremendous  and  exemplary.  We 
put  ourselves  into  a  condition  of  the  most 
unqualified  servitude  ;  we  sold  our  country, 
and  we  levied  upon  ourselves  the  price  of  the 
purchase  ;  we  gave  up  the  right  of  disposing 
of  our  own  property  ;  we  yielded  to  a  for- 
eign legislature,  to  decide  whether  the 
funds  necessary  to  their  projects,  or  their 
profiigacy,  should  be  extracted  from  us,  or 
be  furnished  by  themselves.  The  conse- 
quence has  been,  that  our  scanty  means 
liave  been  squandered  in  her  internal  corrup- 
tion, as  profusely  as  our  best  blood  has  been 
wasted  in  the  madness  of  her  aggressions, 
or  the  feeble  folly  of  her  resistance.  Our 
debt  has,  accordingly,  been  increased  mon 
than  ten-fold — the  common  comforts  of  life 
have  been  vanishing — we  are  sinking  into 
beggary — our  poor  people  have  been  wor- 
ried by  cruel  and  unprincipled  prosecutions  ; 
and  the  instruments  of  our  Government 
have  been  almost  simplified  into  the  tax- 
gatherer  and  the  hangman."  This  dismal 
picture  of  the  condition  of  his  country, 
could  not  have  been  made  in  so  public  a 
manner,  and  by  a  man  of  Curran's  charac- 
ter, unless  it  had  been  true.  He  could  not 
have  ventured  to  tell  a  large  assembly  of  his 
countrymen,  that  they  were  ground  down 
by  taxes  and  sinking  into  beggary,  if  they 
could  all  have  risen  up  and  contradicted  him 
on   the  spot.      Besides,  the  evidence  from 


other  quarters  is  too  clear  and  strong  to  al- 
low us  to  doubt  of  the  accuracy  of  any  one 
feature  in  the  sombre  scene  he  depicts.  The 
country  was  during  all  those  years,  as  usu- 
al, disturbed  now  and  then  by  a  vindictive 
murder  of  some  bailiff,  or  agent,  who  had 
turned  poor  families  adrift,  and  pulled  down 
their  houses  ;  or  some  tithe-proctor,  who 
had  seized  on  a  widow's  stack-yard.  And 
all  these  acts  of  vengeance  or  despair  were 
uniformly  treated  as  seditious  "insurrec- 
tions." Ireland,  therefore,  remained  under 
an  almost  uninterrupted  Insurrection  ad 
The  act  of  Habeas  Corpus  had  been  sus- 
pended in  1800  by  the  act  for  the  suppres- 
sion  of  the  rebellion  ;  that  act  had  been  con- 
tinued in  1801,  and  again  in  1804  ;  and  had 
been  replaced  in  180T  by  another  martial 
law  (substantially  the  same  law,)  called 
Insurrection  act,  which  was  maintained  un- 
til 1810.  It  will  be  seen  hereafter,  how 
steadily  the  same  exceptional  coercion  laws 
— but  with  ingenious  variations  of  name, 
have  been  continued  down  to  this  day. 

When  Mr.  Curran  mentioned  that  the 
people  were  "  worried  by  cruel  and  unprin- 
cipled prosecutions,"  he  had  in  his  thoughts 
the  long  series  of  "special  commissions" 
sent  down  in  state  to  tlie  country,  to  hang 
up  some  scores  of  haggard  wretches,  and  to 
terrify  the  rest ;  he  was  thinking  of  the 
many  fathers  of  poor  families,  who  were  of- 
ten dragged  to  jail,  witliout  a  charge  against 
them,  and  without  tlie  right  to  demand  a 
trial  ;  he  was  thinking  of  the  free  course 
which  suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus 
gave  to  the  vindictive  outrages  of  Orange 
magistrates,  and  to  the  fanatical  rage  of 
packed  juries. 

So  uniform  has  been  the  long  passion  of 
Ireland — generation  after  generation,  wast- 
ing and  withering  under  the  very  same  atro- 
city which  calls  itself  "  Government ; "  the 
children  losing  heart  and  hope,  as  their 
fathers  had  done,  and  begetting  a  progeny 
to  pine  way  under  the  same  miseries  still — 
until  they  are  tempted  to  doubt  whether  a 
just  God  reigns  over  the  earth. 


GRATTAN's   emancipation   bill MOKE   VETO. 


481 


CHAPTER    LTI. 

1813—1821. 

Grattan's  Emancipation  Bill— More  Tfto- Quaran- 
totti— Unanimity  in  Ireland  against  Fpto— Mr.  Peel 
and  his  New  Police— Stipendiary  Magistrates- 
Close  of  the  War— Restoration  of  the  Bourbons 
—  Waterloo— Evil  Effects  on  Ireland— The  Irish 
t^iegion  in  France— Its  Fate — Miles  Byrne  and  his 
Friends — Eflfects  of  the  Peace  in  Impoverishing  the 
Irish — Cheap  Ejectment  Law  Passed — Beginning 
of  Extermination — "Surplus  Population" — Catho- 
lic Claims  Ruined  by  the  Peace — O'Connell  and 
Catholic  Board — Board  Suppressed — O'Connell  in 
Court— His  Audacity — His  Scorn  of  the  Dublin 
Corporation — Duel  with  D'Esterre — Distress  in  Ire- 
land— Famine  of  1817— Coercion  in  Ireland — "  Six 
Acts  "  in  England — Mr.  Plunket's  Emancipation 
Bill — Peel  and  the  Duke  of  York — Royal  Visit  to 
Ireland — Catholics  Cheated  Again. 

Mr.  Grattan  made  his  final  effort  to  ef- 
fect tlie  emancipation  of  the  Catholics  in  the 
first  session  of  the  new  Parliament,  in  1813. 
The  bill  which  he  proposed  was  a  very  imper- 
fect and  restricted  one  ;  but  it  provided  that 
Catholics  should  sit  in  Parliament,  and  hold 
certain  offices — excepting  those  of  Lord- 
Chancellor — either  in  England  or  in  Ireland, 
and  that  of  Lord-Lieutenant,  or  Lord-De- 
jmty,  in  Ireland.  It  did  not  include  a  pro- 
vision for  the  royal  veto  upon  Catholic  Bish- 
ops. The  debate  which  ensued  is  scarce 
worth  recording,  inasmuch  as  after  several 
amendments,  providing  for  vef,o,  and  at  last 
an  amendment,  striking  out  the  clause  ena- 
bling Catholics  to  sit  and  vote  in  Parlia- 
ment, the  bill  was  withdrawn,  and  finally 
lost. 

The  veto  amendments  proposed  by  Castle- 
reagh  and  Canning  were  tlie  work  of  Sir 
John  Hippesley,  that  indefatigable  patron 
of  veto.  They  proposed  to  constitute  a 
Board  of  Commissioners,  to  examine  into 
the  loyalty  of  those  proposed  for  Episcopal 
functions,  and  to  exercise  a  surveillance  and 
control  over  their  official  correspondence 
with  Home.  But  the  Irish  Catholics  were 
now  fully  alive  to  the  insidious  nature  of 
this  proposal ;  and  both  clergy  and  people, 
•with  great  unanimity,  rejected  all  idea  of 
emancipation  upon  any  such  terms.  But 
the  English  Catholics,  not  having  any  na- 
tional interest  at  stake  in  the  matter,  were 
quite   favorable   to    the   project,    and    used 

their  utmost  endeavors  to  liuve  it  accepted 
61 


at  Rome,  and  reeonmiended  from  thence. 
I']nglish  influence  was  then  very  strong  at 
Rome  ;  the  Pope  was  a  prisoner  in  France  ; 
and  it  was  to  the  coalition  of  European 
sovereigns  against  Buonaparte,  that  the 
Court  of  Rome  looked  for.  its  reestublish- 
ment.  A  certain  Monsignor  Quurantotti 
exercised,  in  tlie  year  1814,  the  official  au- 
thority of  the  Pope  ;  and  was  induced,  un- 
der English  influence,  to  recommend  submis- 
sion to  the  veto,  in  a  letter,  or  rescript,  to 
"the  Right  Rev.  William  Poynter,"  Vicar- 
Apostolic  of  the  London  District.  As  the 
question  of  veto  at  that  period  occupied  so 
large  a  share  of  public  attention,  both  in 
England  an<l  in  Ireland,  it  may  be  but  just 
to  let  this  Monsignor  Quarantotti  state,  in 
his  own  way,  the  view  which  was  taken  of  it 
at  Rome  ;  and,  therefore,  we  give  an  ex- 
tract from  the  most  material  passage  of  his 
rescript : — 

"  As  to  the  desire  of  the  Government  to 
be  informed  of  the  loyalty  of  those  who  are 
promoted  to  the  dignity  of  Bishop  or  Dean, 
and  to  be  assured  that  they  possess  those 
qualifications  which  belong  to  a  faithful  sub- 
ject ;  as  to  the  intention,  also,  of  forming  a 
board,  for  the  ascertainment  of  tliose  puiuts, 
by  inquiring  into  the  character  of  those  who 
shall  be  presented,  and  reporting  thereon  to 
the  King,  according  to  the  tenor  of  your 
lordship's  letter  ;  and,  finally,  as  to  the  de- 
termination of  Government  to  have  none  ad- 
mitted to  those  dignities,  who  either  are  not 
natural-born  subjects,  or  who  have  not  been 
residents  in  the  kingdom  for  four  years  pre- 
ceding ;  as  all  these  provisions  regard  mat- 
ters that  are  merely  political,  they  are  enti- 
tled to  all  indulgence.  It  is  better,  indeed, 
that  the  Prelates  of  our  Church  should  be 
acceptable  to  the  King,  in  order  that  they 
may  exercise  their  Ministry,  with  his  full 
concurrence,  and  also  that  there  may  be  no 
doubts  of  their  integrity,  even  with  those 
who  are  not  in  the  bosom  of  the  Church. 
For,  'it  behoveth  a  bishop  (as  the  Apostle 
teaches,  I  Tim.,  iii  :  7,)  even  to  have  a  good 
witness  from  tliose  who  are  not  of  the 
Church.'  Upon  the.se  principles,  we,  in  vir- 
tue of  the  authority  intrusted  to  us.  grant 
permission,  that  those  who  are  elected  to 
and  proposed  for  Bishoprics  and  Deaneries 
bv  the  clergy,  may  oe  admitted  or  rejected 


482 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


hy  the  King,  according  to  the  law  proposed. 
When,  tiierefore,  the  clergy  shall  have,  ac- 
cording to  the  usual  custom,  elected  those 
whom  they  shall  judge  most  worthy  iu  the 
Lord  to  possess  those  dignities,  the  metropo- 
litan of  the  Province,  in  Ireland,  or  the  sen- 
ior Vicar- Apostolic  of  England  and  Scot- 
land, shall  give  notice  of  the  election,  that 
the  King's  approbation  or  dissent  may  be 
had  thereupon.  If  the  candidates  be  re- 
jected, others  shall  be  proposed,  who  may 
be  acceptable  to  the  King  ;  but  if  approved 
of,  the  Metroptjlitan  or  Yicar-Apostolic,  as 
above,  shall  send  the  documents  to  the  Sa- 
cred Congregation  here,  the  members  where- 
of having  duly  weighed  the  merits  of  each, 
shall  take  measures  for  the  obtaiument  of 
canonical  institution  from  His  Holiness.  I 
perceive,  also,  that  another  duty  is  assigned 
to  the  board  above-mentioned,  namely,  that 
they  are  charged  to  inspect  all  letters  writ- 
ten by  the  ecclesiastical  power  to  any  of  the 
British  clergy,  and  examine  carefully  whe- 
ther they  contain  anything  which  may  be 
injurious  to  the  Government,  or  anywi.-e 
disturb  the  public  tranquillity.  Inasmuch 
as  a  communication  ou  ecclesiastical  or  spir- 
itual affairs  with  the  head  of  the  Church  is 
not  forbidden,  and  as  the  inspection  of  the 
board  relates  to  political  subjects  only,  this 
also  must  be  submitted  to.  It  is  right  that 
the  Government  should  not  have  cause  to  en- 
tertain any  suspicion  with  regard  to  the  com- 
luuuicatioa  between  us.  What  we  write 
will  bear  the  eyes  of  the  world,  for  we  in- 
termeddle not  with  matters  of  a  political 
nature,  but  are  occupied  about  those  things 
which  the  divine  and  the  ecclesiastical  law, 
and  the  good  order  of  the  Church,  appear  to 
require.  Tliose  matters  only  are  to  be  kept 
under  the  seal  of  silence  which  pertain  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  conscience  within  us  ; 
and  of  this,  it  appears  to  me  sufficient  care 
lias  been  taken  iu  the  clauses  of  the  law  al- 
luded to.  We  are  perfectly  convinced,  that 
80  wise  a  Government  as  that  of  Great  Bri- 
tain, while  it  studies  to  provide  for  the  pub- 
lic security,  does  not  on  that  account  wish  to 
compel  the  Catholics  to  desert  their  religion, 
hut  would  ratlier  be  pleased  that  they  should 
be  cnreful  observers  of  it.  F'orour  holy  and 
truly-divine  religion  is  most  favorable  to 
public   authority,    is   the    best   suppurt   of 


thrones,  and  the  most  powerful  teacher  both 
of  loyalty  and  patriotism." 

This  did  by  no  means  suit  the  views  of  the 
Irish  Catholics,  or  their  idea  of  "  loyalty 
and  patriotism."  As  they  did  not  them- 
selves "  possess  those  qualifications  which  be- 
long to  a  faithful  subject,"  they  naturally 
thought  that  their  clergy  should  not.  They 
believed,  indeed,  and  not  without  reason, 
that  loyalty  and  faithful  attachment  on  the 
part  of  the  Irish  Catholic  clergy  towards 
a  foreign  and  hostile  Government,  meant 
neither  more  nor  less  than  a  formal  aban- 
donment of  the  people  to  the  mercy  of  their 
enemies,  and  a  desertion  of  the  cause  of 
those  faithful  and  devoted  Catholics  who 
had  stood  by  their  clergy  in  the  worst  of 
times,  when  a  price  was  set  upon  a  priest's 
head.  In  fact,  the  sequel  proved  that  the 
Irish  clergy  of  that  day  were  not  so  base 
as  it  was  hoped  they  would  be.  The  Bishops 
sent  a  strong  remonstrance  to  Rome,  by 
the  hands  of  Doctor  Murray,  coadjutor  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Dublin  ;  which,  however, 
was  not  regarded  in  the  least — so  powerful 
was  the  political  influence  of  England  in 
the  councils  of  the  Holy  See.  Doctor  Mur- 
ray returned  to  Ireland.  At  a  meeting  of 
the  Prelates,  very  energetic  resolutions  were 
adopted,  one  of  which  ran  in  these  terms  : 
"  Though  we  sincerely  venerate  the  Supreme 
Pontitt'  as  visible  head  of  the  Church,  we 
do  not  conceive  that  our  apprehensions  for 
the  safety  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
in  Ireland  can  or  ought  to  be  removed  by 
any  determination  of  His  Holiness,  adopted, 
or  intended  to  be  adopted,  not  only  with- 
out our  concurrence,  but  in  direct  opposition 
to  our  repeated  resolutions,  and  the  very  en- 
ergetic memorial  presented  on  our  behalf, 
and  so  ably  supported  by  our  deputy,  the 
Most  Rev.  Doctor  Murray — who,  in  that 
quality,  was  more  competent  to  inform  His 
Holiness  of  the  real  state  and  interests  of 
the  Roman  Catliolic  Church  in  Ireland  than 
any  other  with  whom  he  is  said  to  have  con- 
sulted:' 

This  last  phrase  meant  the  emissaries  of 
the  English  Catholics,  tlieu  busy  at  Rome  ; 
and  the  Knglisli  Catholics  have  beeu  at  all 
times  as  zealous  and  resolute  to  keep  Ire- 
land subject  to  English  domination,  in  all 
respects,  as    any   "  2s'o-Popery "  BriLou    or 


EESTORATION    OF   THE   BOUUBO'JTS W.VTERLOO. 


483 


Orange  Grand-Master  could  be.  The  reso- 
lutions were  signed  by  Jill  the  Catholic  Bish- 
'ops  in  Ireland,  and  transmitted  to  Rome  by 
the  same  Doctor  Murray,  accompanied  by 
the  Bishop  of  Cork.  A  vehement  agitation 
was  aroused  in  Ireland  ;  which  extended 
to  the  laity  as  well  as  the  clergy  ;  and  un- 
der the  potent  impulse  of  O'Connell,  a  reso- 
lute spirit  of  resistance  manifested  itself  in 
the  whole  Catholic  population,  against  any 
orders  or  recommendations  coming  even  from 
Rome  itself,  tending  to  enchain  their  nation- 
al Church. 

While  this  re^o  commotion  agitated  the 
Catholics,  Mr.  Robert  Peel,  the  Irish  Secre- 
tary, was  engaged  in  reorganizing  and 
greatly  increasing  the  Constabulary  force, 
with  a  view  to  render  it  a  more  efficient  in- 
strument in  the  hands  of  the  English  Gov- 
ernment for  the  coercion  of  the  country, 
and  the  detection  of  seditious  proceedings. 
With  the  same  view,  Mr.  Peel  invented  and 
established  the  class  of  stipendiary  or  police- 
magistrates,  who  were  to  take  their  instruc- 
tions from  the  Castle,  and  whose  business 
was  to  control  and  direct,  as  far  as  possi- 
ble, the  proceedings  of  justices  of  the  peace 
at  petty  sessions  and  quarter-sessions,  and 
to  guard  against  any  movement  of  inde- 
pendent feeling  on  the  part  of  country 
gentlemen  who  were  in  the  commission  of 
the  peace.  The  men  chosen  for  this  office 
of  stipendiary  magistrate  have  been  usually 
briefless  barristers,  or  broken-down  politi- 
cians in  a  small  way,  to  whom  the  salary 
was  a  desirable  livelihood  ;  and  as  they 
have  at  least  legal  phrases  at  their  com- 
mand, a  supposed  acquaintance  with  the 
views  of  the  Castle,  and  great  self-import- 
ance of  manner,  it  has  been  found  in  prac- 
tice that  these  paid  officials  have  really  to 
a  great  extent  controlled  and  managed  the 
local  administration  of  justice  ;  which,  in  all 
conscience,  had  been  bad  enough  before. 
Mr.  Peel's  police  arrangements  were  ex- 
tremely unpopular  ;  and  his  new  constables 
and  stipendiaries  were  popularly  termed 
Feelers ;  but  although  the  Irish,  by  an  in- 
fallible instinct,  abhorred  the  new  system, 
they  were  yet  far  from  suspecting  to  what 
a  deadly  use  Mr.  Peel  would  evcjitualiy  put 
his  new  force. 

In  the  meantime,  the  grand  war  of  coal- 


ized  Europe  against  the  French  Empire  drew 
to  a  close.  The  French  armies  were  driven 
out  of  Spain  by  the  patriotic  efforts  of  the 
Spanish  people,  aided  by  a  British  force 
under  Lord  Wellington — for  the  English 
Government,  with  the  great  object  of  crush- 
ing the  French,  was  willing,  in  a  distant 
country,  to  ally  itself  even  with  patriotism 
The  Emperor  Napoleon,  after  the  tremend- 
ous slaughter  at  Leipsic,  (In  which  he  fought 
all  Europe,)  had  been  obliged  gradually  to 
withdraw  his  forces  into  France  ;  but  though 
he  made  a  most  brilliant  and  fierce  resist- 
ance to  the  advance  of  the  allies,  they  sur- 
rounded Paris  in  overwhelming  numbers  ; 
and  the  great  Emperor  was  forced,  in  an 
evil  hour,  to  abdicate  at  Fontainbleau.  The 
coalized  kings  and  oligarchies  of  Europe 
triumphed  ;  and  the  expelled  Bourbons  came 
back  to  sit  on  the  throne  of  France  for  a 
while.  The  "Congress  of  Vienna"  was 
called,  to  settle  Europe  upon  the  basis  of  a 
distinct  denial  of  every  human  right  and 
every  national  aspiration  ;  and  the  fitting 
representative  of  England  in  that  Congress 
was  no  other  than  Lord  Castlereagh,  the 
artizan  of  the  Irish  Union. 

It  does  not  enter  within  the  compass  of 
this  narrative  to  detail  the  wonderful  series 
of  events  which  followed — the  escape  of 
Buonaparte  from  Elba,  the  enthusiastic  up- 
rising of  France  in  his  favor,  the  tricoloi 
flying  from  steeple  to  steeple,  the  reign  of  a 
Hundred  Days,  the  renewed  concentration 
of  the  forces  of  the  allies,  and  the  sad  dis- 
aster of  Waterloo — Waterloo,  like  every 
other  triumph  of  the  arms  and  policy  of 
England,  was,  of  course,  a  fatal  misfortune 
to  Ireland.  It  confirmed  the  odious  rule  of 
an  insolent  oligarciiy,  both  in  England  and  in 
Ireland,  and  placed  it  high,  as  was  hoped 
and  believed,  above  all  apprehension  of  rev- 
olution and  democracy.  Waterloo  put  an 
end  at  once  to  all  interest  in  Catholic  claims 
on  the  part  even  of  tlie  "  Liberals,"  and  ad- 
journed for  fourteen  years  all  thought 
either  of  emancipation  or  of  reform.  The 
defeat  of  Waterloo  was  not,  indeed,  so  much 
a  defeat  for  France,  as  for  other  oppressed 
countries  of  Europe  ;  for  in  France,  the 
great  revolution  had  been  accomplished, 
and  its  work  could  not  be  undone.  In 
France,  ail  religious  sects  were  equal,  and 


484 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


remained  equal,  before  the  law  ;  all  feudal 
jirivilege  was,  and  remained,  abolished  ; 
and  all  men,  like  all  religions,  were  on  an 
t  qual  footing  ;  in  France,  the  people  were 
)u  possession,  and  remained  in  possession,  of 
the  great  confiscated  estates,  each  oue  of 
which  made  hundreds  or  thousands  of  farms 
for  free  peasants  ;  in  France,  tithes  were, 
and  remained,  abolished  ;  the  highest  dig- 
nity of  the  state  was  open  to  the  meanest 
mechanic  ;  the  highest  grade  in  the  army 
to  the  humblest  private.  It  was  earnestly 
hoped,  indeed,  by  the  coalized  allies  of  the 
Bourbons,  that  the  forcible  restoration  of 
that  family  would  speedily  reverse  and  abol- 
ish all  these  dangerous  privileges  of  the 
French  people— but  that  was  impossible. 
The  sentiment  and  practice  of  justice  and 
equality  had  entered  too  deeply  into  the  life 
and  soul  of  France,  to  be  eradicated  even 
by  foreign  bayonets.  But  for  Ireland,  the 
case  was  very  different.  The.  apprehension 
of  a  triumph  of  "  French  principles" — that 
is,  principles  of  equality  and  justice — which 
had  been  for  twenty-five  years  a  dreadful 
bugbear  to  the  British  oligarchy — was  now 
at  an  end  ;  and  privilege,  and  Church  and 
State,  and  the  "  Ascendancy,"  reigned  su- 
preme. 

Of  the  armies  which  triumphed  on  the 
field  of  Waterloo,  about  one-fourth  consist- 
ed of  British  troops  ;  and  of  these  "  Brit- 
ish" troops,  nearly  one-half  were  Irish.  It 
is  a  shame  to  be  obliged  to  confess  it.  Their 
country  can  take  no  pride  in  those  Irishmen  ; 
Irish  history  refuses  to  know  their  names. 
They  fought  under  a  commander  who  always 
opposed  and  denied  their  right  to  rank  on 
an  equality  with  his  other  soldiers ;  they 
fought  to  perpetuate  a  domination  which 
oppressed  and  despised  them  ;  fought  against 
their  own  enfranchisement,  and  their  own 
right  to  land  and  life  on  their  own  soil  ; 
and  to  establish,  on  an  immovable  basis, 
that  odious  British  system  which  has  since 
degraded,  impoverished,  and  almost  depopu- 
lated their  country.  While  a  vestige  of 
genuine  Irish  feeling  remains  amongst  our 
people,  Irishmen  will  speak  with  pride  of 
the  Irish  Brigade  at  Fontenoy,  and  with 
shame  and  repugnance  of  the  Irisli  regi- 
ments at  Waterloo. 

There  were,  indeed,  some  true  Irislimen 


in  the  service  of  France  at  that  period  ;  the 
Irish'  Legion,  the  relics  of  '98,  as  the  old 
brigades  were  the  relics  of  Limerick.  In 
this  Legion  and  its  gallant  officers.  Ware, 
Allen,  Byrne,  Corbet,  Lawless,  MacSheehy, 
centred  the  genuine  military  renown  of  the 
Irish  race  ut  that  day.  But  the  Legion 
was  not  present  at  Waterloo  ;  it  had  fought 
through  the  Peninsular  campaign,  and  had 
taken  part  in  some  of  the  last  battles  of  the 
campaign  of  1814.  It  had  thus  been  sadly 
reduced  in  numbers  ;  and  during  the  first 
Restoration,  (before  the  Hundred  Days,)  it 
had  been  entirely  reorganized  and  reduced 
to  a  regiment.  At  the  time  of  the  final 
struggle  on  the  plains  of  Belgium,  the  regi- 
ment was  stationed  at  Montreuil,  on  the 
shore  of  the  British  Channel  ;  and  after  the 
calamity  of  Waterloo,  and  the  treacherous 
capture  of  Napoleon,  the  Irish  regiment,  as 
well  as  all  the  rest  of  the  army,  was  dis- 
banded ;  and  the  officers  were  allowed  at 
first  to  retire  upon  their  half-pay  to  any 
town  they  might  select  in  France,  where, 
says  the  venerable  Miles  Byrne,  "  they 
hoped  at  least  to  enjoy  their  pittance  and 
the  protection  of  the  law."  But  it  is  morti- 
fying to  learn  that  through  the  paramount  in- 
fluence of  Castlereagh  with  the  new  Govern- 
ment, and  through  the  base  compliance  of 
Clarke,  Due  de  Feltre,  (himself  the  son  of 
an  Irishman,)  these  forlorn  exiles  were  per- 
secuted with  a  mean  malignity,  which  only 
the  spite  of  Lord  Castlereagh  could  have 
suggested.  Before  quitting  Montreuil  to 
be  disbanded,  orders  had  been  given  to  de- 
face and  destroy  all  their  insignia  and  me- 
morials of  service — a  bitter  ordeal  for  the 
veteran  heroes.  Colonel  Byrne,  in  his  late- 
ly published  memoirs,  gives  some  account  of 
the  affair.     He  says  : — 

"Two  beautiful  standards  were  sent  to 
Spain  by  the  Emperor  in  1810,  for  the 
second  and  third  battalions  of  the  Irish 
regiment,  but  they  were  left  at  Valadolid, 
as  tliose  Ijattalions  were  then  in  Portugal. 
Tlieso  standards  were  brouglit  to  the  depot 
of  the  regiment  and  were  destroyed  by  Lieu- 
tenant Montague  at  Montreuil.  They  were 
green,  with  a  hii'ge  harp  in  the  centre.  On 
one  side,  in  gold  letters,  "Napoleon  I.  to  the 
second  Irish  Battalion."  And  on  the  other, 
"  The  Independence  of  Ireland."     The  third 


THE   IRISH   LEGION    IN    FRANCE ITS   FATE. 


485 


the  same.  The  Eagle  was  carried  by  the 
first  battalion,  whicli,  of  course,  had  its  colors 
like  the  others. 

"  The  officers  of  the  council  left  at  Mon- 
treuil  received  two-thirds  of  their  pay  until 
the  February  following,  and  when  all  was 
finished,  they  retired  on  half-pay  like  the 
other  officers,  hoping,  at  least,  to  remain  un- 
molested But  soon  after  the  battle  of 
Waterloo,  the  brave  regiment  was  disbanded 
by  Louis  XVIII.,  and  the  Irish  officers  were 
made  to  feel  that  Lord  Castlereagh  and 
English  influence  prevailed  in  the  French 
councils. 

"  Commandant  Allen,  who  had  retired  to 
Melun,  was  ordered  from  that  town  to 
Rouen,  and  passing  by  Paris,  was  there  ar- 
rested by  order  of  tlie  Duke  of  Feltre,  and 
informed  he  must  quit  the  Frenel)  territory 
without  delay.  Thus,  without  trial  or  judg- 
ment, one  of  those  officers,  whose  gallant  ac- 
tions had  gained  such  renown  for  the  Irish 
regiment,  both  in  Spain  and  Silesia,  was  to 
be  banished  from  his  adopted  country,  by 
ilie  orders  of  General  Clarke,  the  son  of  an 
Irishman." 

Many  others  of  the  officers,  including 
Miles  Byrne  himself,  were  in  like  manner 
ordered  in  thQ  harshest  manner  to  quit 
France  ;  but  long  afterwards  we  find  most 
of  them  again  upon  active  duty  in  the 
French  service.  Scarcely  one  was  base 
enough  to  offer  his  services  to  England  ;  and 
nothing  could  irritate  these  gentlemen  so 
much  as  any  suggesion  of  seeking  a  British 
pardon,  or  accepting  a  British  favor.* 

Poor  Curran,  when  near  his  last,  and  in 
great  misery  of  body  and  mind,  had  made  a 
visit  to  Paris  in  August  1814,  and  had  met 
there  some  of  the  Irish  officers.  In  a  letter 
to  a  fi'ieiid,  which  afterwards  was  made  pub- 
lic, he  had  spoken  of  his  wish  to  see  mercy 
and  rmnpassion  shown  them  by  the  English 
Government.  Miles  Byrne  tells  us  in  his 
memoirs  : — 

"  I  recollect  a  coincidence.  In  August, 
1814,  whilst  at  Avesnes,  Inspector-General 

*•  The  oflBcers  of  the  Legion  were  almost  all  re- 
stored afterwards  to  active  service  in  the  armies 
of  their  adopted  country.  Corbet  became  a  Ma- 
jor-General,  and  for  some  time  commanded  at 
Caen.  Miles  Byrne  was  commandant  of  Patras,  in 
the  war  of  Greece ;  aud  died  in  lSfi2 ;  his  rank 
was  that  of  Chief  de  BataUlon  in  the  Fifty-sixth 
Regiment  of  the  line. 


Burke  was  preparing  his  report  to  the  Min- 
ister of  War  on  the  merits  and  claims  of 
the  brave  Irish  officers  returning  from  the 
Russian  prisons  of  Siberia,  as  well  as  those 
officers  who  escaped  from  Flushing,  and 
from  the  English  pontons,  Curran's  very  ill- 
timed  and  most  silly  letters  from  Paris,  iu 
August,  1814,  to  his  friend.  Counselor  Denis 
Lube,  were  published  in  the  Dublin  newspa- 
pers. Tiie  following  extract  is  from  one  of 
them  on  the  Irish  e.xiles  : — 

" '  I  had  hopes  that  England  might  let 
them  back.  The  season  and  the  power  of 
mischief  is  long  past  ;  the  number  is  ahno.st 
too  small  to  do  credit  to  the  mercy  that  casts 
a  look  upon  them.  But  they  are  destined  to 
give  their  last  recollection  of  the  green 
fields  they  are  never  to  behold,  on  a  foreign 
deathbed,  and  to  lose  the  sad  delight  of  fan- 
cied visits  to  them  in  a  distant  grave.' 

"  It  caused  no  little  indignation  amongst 
the  Irish  officers  who  had  read  it,  and  seve- 
ral of  them  met  at  dinner  at  the  Trois 
Freres,  in  the  Palais-Royal,  to  talk  it  over. 
These  were  General  Lawless,  who  came  iu 
from  Saint  Germains  for  the  meeting.  Com- 
mandant O'Reilly,  Captain  Luke  Lawless, 
Edward  Lewens,  and  John  Swectman,  &c. 
We  were  a  mixture  of  civil  and  military  at 
dinner. 

"  General  Lawless  asked  Arthur  Barker, 
as  the  youngest,  (for  he  was  still  astuden  tat 
the  Irish  College,)  to  read  those  famous  let- 
ters. AVhen  read.  General  Lawless,  turn- 
ing to  Lewens,  said  :  '  You  must  have  told 
Curran  that  our  number  was  not  worth  the 
commiseration  of  Castlereagh.'  '  Me,  Sir  ! ' 
cried  Lewens,  in  a  great  passion  ;  '  how 
could  you  tliink  me  capable  of  any  such 
thing?'  General  Lawless  rejoined:  'Of 
the  exiles  at  Paris,  Curran  only  saw  you 
and  Corbet.'  It  would  have  been  better 
had  he  vented  his  spleen  and  ill-huinor  on 
something  else  ;  he  might  have  let  the  brave 
Irish  officers  who  have  escaped  the  danger.< 
of  their  various  campaigns,  be  again  placed 
on  active  service." 

Indeed,  to  the  very  last,  we  find  the  sur- 
vivors of  these  noble  Irish  exiles  looking 
forward  with  an.xious  hope  to  a  renewal  of 
war  between  France  and  England,  that  they 
might  have  one  other  chance  of  striking  a 
mortal  blow  at  the  enemy  of  their  country. 


486 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


We  may  be  excused  for  giving  one  other 
characteristic  extract  from  tlie  Byrne  me- 
moir. Speaking  of  Corbet,  (who  died  a 
French  Major-General.)  Colonel  Byrne  says  : 

"  General  Corbet  was  officer  of  the  Legion 
of  Honor,  Knight  of  Saint  Louis,  and  Com- 
mander of  the  Order  of  the  Saviour  in 
Greece,  He  valued  those  distinctions  as 
liighly  honorable,  no  doubt,  but  he  would 
sometimes  say  :  '  How  much  the  more  valu- 
able would  they  have  been,  had  they  been 
gained  in  the  cause  of  my  native  country  ! ' 
And  to  his  last  moment  he  lamented  that 
her  independence  was  not  obtained  ;  and  he 
seemed  ever  anxious  for  something  to  arise 
between  the  governments  of  France  and 
England,  which  might  prove  beneficial  to 
his  own  country. 

"  In  1840,  we  frequently  consulted  about 
the  way  we  could  be  best  employed  to  serve 
Ireland,  in  the  event  of  a  war  between 
France  and  England,  which  was  then  on  the 
point  of  being  declared.  I  remember  one 
day,  after  an  audience  he  had  had  with  the 
Minister  of  War,  on  the  situation  of  Ire- 
land, he  told  me  that  the  Minister,  Gene- 
ral Schneider,  was  very  desirous  to  have  a 
conversation  with  me,  respecting  the  reliance 
which  could  be  placed  on  the  then  leader 
of  the  Irish,  when  a  French  army  should 
land  in  Ireland.  When  he  saw  that  there 
was  to  be  no  war  with  England,  he  would 
sffeak  to  me  of  going  to  the  United  States 
of  America,  being  sure,  he  said,  that  from 
that  country,  one  day  or  other,  Ireland 
would  receive  ultimate  assistance." 

So  tl>e  wholesome  tradition  is  handed 
down  unbroken  ;  any  and  every  foe  of 
England  is  the  Irish  exile's  friend  ;  and 
the  power  of  Britain  must  be,  indeed, 
broadly  and  deeply  based,  if  it  forever  with- 
stand the  long-gathering  tempest  of  just 
wrath  which  has  been  laid  up  against  the 
day  of  wrath. 

•  The  close  of  the  great  war  on  the  Conti- 
nent had  certain  direct  effects  upon  Ireland. 
The  immense  demand  for  agricultural  pro- 
duce for  victualing  of  armies  and  fortresses, 
had  maintained  high  prices  ;  and  as  large 
numbers  of  the  small  farmers  then  possessed 
leases — granted  by  landlords  in  order  to 
manufacture  voting  freeholders — the  people 
generally  lived  with  some  approach  to  com- 


parative comfort.  Immense  contracts  for 
the  provisioning  of  the  English  navy  were 
also  made  at  Cork  ;  and  thus  the  war-prices, 
one  way  and  another,  brought  money  into 
the  country,  which  was  not  all  immediately 
sent  out  again,  but  a-ctually  circulated,  to 
some  extent,  amongst  the  people.  It  is 
true,  that  landlords,  wherever  they  had  ten- 
ants from  year  to  year,  steadily  raised  the 
rents  as  prices  advanced,  but  still  the  good- 
natured  and  kindly  people  helped  one  an- 
other ;  and,  on  the  whole,  there  was  not 
very  much  of  either  extermination  or  emi- 
gration. In  1815,  however,  and  the  few 
following  years,  prices  of  grain,  cattle,  and 
other  produce,  fell  very  low,  and  rents  were 
not  reduced  in  proportion.  The  increase  of 
population — for  there  were  now  six  millions 
of  people  in  Ireland — produced  that  deadly 
competition  for  small  farms  whicli  has  en- 
abled Irish  landlords  to  wring  the  vitals  out 
of  a  helpless  peasantry,  who  had  been  left 
no  other  resource  but  labor  on  the  land. 
Extermination  may  properly  be  said  to  have 
begun  in  good  earnest,  just  after  "  French 
principles  "  were  crushed  at  Waterloo  ;  and 
to  facilitate  this  process  for  the  landlords, 
by  recommendation  of  Mr.  Robert  Peel,  the 
first  of  the  series  of  cheap  ejectment  laws 
was  passed  in  this  very  year,  1815.  It 
provided  that,  in  all  cases  of  holdings,  the 
rent  of  which  was  under  £20 — which  in- 
cluded the  whole  class  of  small  farms — the 
assistant  barrister,  at  sessions,  could  make  a 
decree,  at  the  cost  of  a  few  shillings,  to  eject 
a  man  from  house  and  farm.  Two  years 
after,  the  proceedings  in  ejectment  were  still 
further  simplified  and  facilitated  by  an  act 
making  the  sole  evidence  of  a  landlord  or 
his  agent  sufficient  testimony  for  ascertain- 
ing the  amount  of  rent  due.  By  these  two 
acts  it  was  rendered  very  easy  to  sweep  out 
on  the  highways  the  whole  population  of  a 
village  or  a  townland  ;  and  this  was  very 
often  done  towards  tenants-at-will — a  race 
of  beings  which  exists  in  no  country  of 
Europe  save  Ireland.  As  for  the  possess- 
ors of  a  forty-shilling  freehold,  their  leases 
and  their  voting  capacity  protected  them  for 
a  time.  It  is  about  this  date  that  we  first 
meet  with  the  expression,  "  surplus-popula- 
tion in  Ireland  ;"  although,  indeed,  the  idea 
itst'lf   had   been  common  enough  nearly  a 


O'CONNELL   IN    COTJllT HIS   AUDACITT. 


487 


hundred  years  earlier,  when  Swift  published 
his  "  ISJo'datt  Proposal."  At  all  events,  it  is 
evident  that  from  tiiis  moment,  and  for  many 
years  after,  every  English  statesman,  pub- 
licist and  political  economist,  held  it  as  the 
grand  fundamental  maxim,  in  treating  of 
Irish  affairs,  that  there  was  a  surplus-popu- 
lation in  that  island  ;  and  the  steadiest 
and  most  earnest  aim  of  every  administra- 
tion, of  every  parly,  has  been  to  devise 
and  execute  some  sure  method  of  removing 
— that  is,  extirpating  or  killing  the  said  sur- 
plus. The  young  Irish  Secretary,  Mr.  Peel, 
who  was  destined  to  become  one  of  Eng- 
land's greatest  statesmen,  had,  of  course, 
turned  his  attention  to  this  momentous  ob- 
ject, and  had  commenced  operations,  as  we 
have  seen,  by  laws  providing  for  cheap  and 
easy  ejectment  ;  but  he  had  yet  other 
methods  in  his  mind,  which  were  not  then 
matured,  or  for  which  the  time  was  not  yet 
come. 

The  effect  of  the  peace  upon  the  pros- 
pects and  claims  of  Catholics  was  altogether 
adverse  and  discouraging.  England  felt  not 
only  secure,  but  triumpliant  ;  and,  according 
to  the  invariable  rule,  it  fared  ill  with  Ire- 
land. The  English  oligarchy,  and.  its  de- 
pendant, the  Irish  Ascendancy,  were  abso- 
lutely drunken  with  an  insolent  and  malig- 
nant pride.  Concession  of  anything,  was  no 
longer  to  be  thought  of  ;  and  if  any  person 
presumed  to  hint  that  there  existed  such  a 
thing  as  human  rights,  he  was  set  down  as  a 
Jacobin.  A  "Catholic  Board"  had  main- 
tained its  struggling  existence  until  the  mid- 
dle of  summer,  1814.  But  whenever  the 
news  of  the  capitulation  of  Paris  and  im- 
prisoimient  of  Napoleon  arrived  in  England, 
orders  were  at  once  sent  to  Lord  Wiiitwortli, 
the  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  to  suppress 
the  board  summarily  by  proclamation  ; 
which  was,  accordingly,  done  upon  the  3d  of 
June,  in  that  year.  The  board  met  no 
more  ;  but,  under  O'Conneil's  direction, 
the  agitation  took  the  form  of  "  Aggregate 
Meetings  ;"  thus  avoiding  all  possibility  of 
incurring  the  penalties  of  the  Convention 
act ;  vvhih?  the  meetings  were  even  more  use- 
ful than  the  board  in  arousing  the  people,  dif- 
fusing sound  information  as  to  their  rights 
and  their  wrongs,  and  keeping  up  a  contin- 
ual public  commentary  upon  current  events. 


There  ensued,  however,  differences  and  dis- 
sensions amongst  the  Catholic  leaders,  as  to 
the  most  expedient  policy  to  be  pursued. 
The  veto  question  had  not  yet  entirely  sub- 
sided ;  and  something  of  the  old  jealousy 
between  the  aristocratic  Catholics  and  tlie 
mass  of  the  people  revived.  Lord  Fingal, 
in  fact,  together  with  some  other  Catholi<; 
gentlemen  of  rank,  and  others  who  courted 
rank  and  position,  retired  from  all  partici- 
pation in  public  aflairs  for  some  years.  On 
the  other  hand,  O'Connell  led  and  stirred 
the  Democracy.  But  it  must  he  confessed 
that  it  was  a  most  arduous  and  difficult  en- 
terprize  for  him,  although  then  in  the  full 
vigor  of  his  vast  powers,  to  keep  alive  tiie 
cause  of  Catholic  Emancipation  at  all  in  those 
days  of  triumphant  bigotry  and  tyranny, 
Richard  Lalor  Shell,  speaking  of  this  gloomy 
period,  scruples  not  to  say  :  "  The  hopes  of 
the  Catholics  fell  with  the  peace.  A  long  in- 
terval elapsed  in  which  nothing  very  import- 
ant or  deserving  of  record  took  place.  A 
political  lethargy  spread  itself  over  the  great 
body  of  the  people  ;  the  assemblies  of  the 
Catholics  became  more  unfrequent,  and  their 
language  more  despondent  and  hopeless 
than  it  had  ever  been."  *  And  never  be- 
fore, for  half  a  century,  had  the  "  Protest- 
ant interest  "  shown  itself  so  aggressive  and 
so  spiteful  towards  the  Catholic  people. 
O'Connell,  by  his  activity  and  audacity, 
concentrated  upon  himself  the  greater  part 
of  this  Protestant  wrath.  For  he  mado  no 
scruple,  whether  in  a  public  harangue  to 
the  people,  or  in  a  speech  to  a  jury,  (where 
the  trial  had  anything  of  a  political  charao 
ter,)  to  denounce,  with  a  rough  and  rasping 
tongue,  all  kinds  of  injustice  and  bigotry, 
packed  juries,  church-rates — in  short,  the 
most  cherished  principles  and  practices  of 
"our  glorious  Constitution  in  Church  and 
State."  In  the  celebrated  speech  for  John 
Magee,  proprietor  of  the  Evening  Post, 
who  was  prosecuted  for  a  seditious  libel 
upon  the  Government,  O'Connell  had  not 
only  adopted  and  repeated  the  "  libel,"  but 
aggravated  it  a  thousand  fold.  With  a 
fierce  and  vindictive  energy  he  laid  bare  the 
whole  atrocious  system  which  in  Ireland 
passes  for  government.     Ho  thundered  into 

*  Notice  of  "  Catliolic  T.eader.s  and  Associati  ns," 
in  Slietches  of  the  Iri^h  JJar. 


488 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


the  ears  of  the  judge,  that  he  had  Grst  ad- 
vised this  proseciitiun,  which  he  was  now 
pretending  to  try  ; — and  as  for  tlie  twelve 
pious  Protestants  in  the  jury-box,  (all 
"  saints,"  and  members  of  the  "Society  for 
the  Suppression  of  Vice,")  he  told  them, 
with  cruel  taunts,  that  they  knew  they  were 
fraudulently  padied,  that  they  should  find  a 
man  guilty  (so  help  them  God!)  for  stat- 
ing what  they  knew  to  be  true. 

Mr.  Shell,  in  his  admirable  sketch  of 
O'Counell,  says  :  "  The  admirers  of  King 
William  have  no  mercy  for  a  man  who,  in 
his  seditious  moods,  is  so  provoking  as  to 
tell  the  world  that  their  idol  was  '  a  Dutch 
adventurer.'  Then  his  intolerable  success  in 
a  profession  where  many  a  staunch  Protes- 
tant is  condemned  to  starve, — and  his  fash- 
ionable house  in  Merrion  .Square, — and  a 
greater  eyesore  still,  his  dashing  revolution- 
ary equipage,  green  carriage,  green  liveries, 
and  turbulent.  Popish  steeds,  prancing  over 
a  Protestant  pavement,  to  the  terror  of  Pro- 
testant passengers^ — these  and  other  provo- 
cations of  equal  publicity,  have  exposed 
this  learned  culprit  to  the  deep  detestation 
of  a  numerous  class  of  His  Majesty's  hating 
subjects  in  Ireland.  And  the  feeling  is  duly 
communicated  to  the  public  ;  the  loyal 
press  of  Dublin  teems  with  the  most  as- 
tounding imputations  upon  his  character  and 
motives."  Tlie  provocation  of  the  "  Popish 
liorst'S  prancing  over  a  Protestant  pave- 
ment," rt'as  more  serious  than  it  may  now 
appear  ;  for  the  pavement  was  strictly  Pro- 
testant ;  and  so  were  the  street-lamps.  No 
Catholic,  though  he  might  drive  a  coach- 
and-four,  could  be  admitted  npon  any  pav- 
ing or  lighting  board  in  that  sacred  strong- 
liold  of  the  Ascendancy,  the  Corporation 
of  Dublin.*  O'Connell  was  in  the  habit  of 
tvpeaking  with  supreme  contempt  of  the  lit- 
tle umnici{>al  close-borough  ;  and  in  one  of 
his  sj)eeches  of  this  year,  1815,  lie  termed 
it.  "  a  beggarly  Corporation."  "  One  of  its 
most  needy  members,"  says  Sheil,  "  was  Mr. 
D'Esierre";  and  he,    thinking    the  epithet 

*  It  was  at  the  height  of  the  Catholic  agitation 
that  a  Town-Councillor,  who  was  a  tailor,  said  at  a 
(  orporation  Dinner:  "My  Lord,  these  Papists  may 
get  their  emancipation — they  may  sit  in  Parlian»ent 
— they  may  preside  upon  the  Bench— a  Pajiist  may 
become  Lord  Chancellor,  or  Privy  Councillor; — but 
never,  never  shall  one  of  them  set  foot  in  the  an- 
cient and  loyal  guild  of  tailors. 


"beggarly"  too  scurrilous,  and  too  closely 
j)ersoHal,  at  once  sent  a  challenge  to  the 
speaker.  O'Connell  committed  his  conduct 
as  to  the  reception  of  the  challenge,  to  the 
decision  of  his  friends.  The  parties  met ; 
fought  with  pistols,  and  D'Esterre  was 
killed,  to  the  very  great  and  lasting  sorrow 
of  his  slayer.  Mr.  Shiel  does  not  say  ex- 
pressly— but  says  "  it  is  understood" — that 
D'Esterre  was  induced  to  attempt  O'Con- 
nell's  life,  by  the  expectation  that  if  he 
should  rid  the  Government  of  so  formidaljle 
an  agitator,  he  would  be  rewarded  with  a 
place  ;  and  he  adds  :  "  His  claims  would 
probably  not  have  been  overlooked  by  the 
patrons  of  the  time."  On  what  precise  evi- 
dence Mr.  D'Esterre  was  charged  with  un- 
dertaking the  base  job  of  a  mercenary  as- 
sassin, we  have  not  been  able  to  satisfy  our- 
selves. At  any  rate,  no  dishonorable  prac- 
tice in  the  conduct  of  the  affair  was  ever 
imputed. 

In  the  year  1816,  Sir  John  Newport 
moved  in  Parliament  for  a  connuiltee  to  in- 
quire into  the  state  of  Ireland,  which  was 
then  suffering  greatly  from  scarcity  of  food. 
Sir  Robert  Peel  steadily  and  successfully 
resisted  the  proposed  inquiry.  That  prudent 
statesman  had  not  been  several  years  Chief 
Secretary  of  Ireland  for  nothing.  He  had 
no  need  of  inquiry,  being  quite  well  aware 
of  what  was  passing  in  Ireland,  where  he 
knew  that  things  were  falling  out  exactly 
according  to  his  calculations.  If  there  was 
some  extermination  of  starving  wretches,  it 
was  because  his  cheap  ejectment  laws  were 
working  well.  If  there  was  some  distur- 
bance, and  "  agrarian  crime,"  he  had  his 
new  police  ready  to  repress  it.  Better  than 
all,  he  had  procured  the  renewal  of  the 
"Insurrection  act"  in  1814 — had  caused  it 
to  be  continued  m  1815,  and  it  was  now 
(1816)  in  full  vigor,  filling  the  jails  with 
persons  who  could  not  give  a  good  account 
of  themselves,  and  transporting  men  for  pos- 
sessing a  fowling-piece.  He  felt  that  an  as- 
siduous Irish  Secretary  could  do  no  more  ; 
and  naturally,  resisted  Sir  John  Newport's 
meddling  motion  for  inquiry. 

But,  in  truth,  the  low  price  of  produce 
had  made  thousands  of  farmers  unable  to 
pay  the  rent  ;  then  t!iey  had  been  ejected  ; 
and  then  that  lown'.'ss  of  price  could  not  eu- 


DISTRESS    IN   IRELAND FAMINE   OF    1817. 


489 


able  tlicin  f  0  procure  food,  because  they  liad 
no  money.  Then  there  was  an  occasional 
murder,  or  attempt  at  murder.  Mngistrates 
would  meet,  and  write  to  the  Castle  for  im- 
mediate proclamation  of  the  county,  under 
the  Insurrection  act.  It  is  useless  to  go 
tlirough  the  unvarying  detail  of  torturing 
oppression  which  has  continued  and  repeated 
itself  year  after  year,  and  will  never  end 
while  the  British  Empire  stands.  But  in 
8ad  earnest,  this  year,  1817,  was  a  season 
of  dreadful  famine  and  suffering  ;  and,  of 
course,  the  Coercion  act  of  the  year  before 
was  carefully  renewed.  Tiie  potato-crop 
had  failed  ;  and  although  Ireland  was  then 
largely  exporting  grain  and  cattle  to  Eng- 
land,* yet  this  good  food  was  not  supposed 
to  be  sent  by  Providence,  for  the  nourish- 
ment of  those  who  sowed  and  reaped  it  on 
their  own  soil.  It  is  instructive  to  remark 
the  constant  similarity  of  the  circumstances 
attending  the  series  of  Irish  famines — the 
wholesale  export  of  the  Irish  crops  to  Eng- 
land— the  wholesale  disappearance,  also,  of 
the  money  received  as  the  price  of  those 
crops,  in  the  shape  of  absentee  rents,  of  "  sur- 
plus revenue,"  &c. — and  the  never-failing  Co- 
ercion acts.  If  in  the  famine  of  1847-8, 
tliere  was  a  much  greater  destruction  of  the 
people — and,  at  the  same  time,  a  much  larger 
export  of  their  food  and  their  money  to 
England,  it  is  only  because  the  British  sys- 
tem was  then  more  fully  perfected  in  all  its 
details,  than  in  1817. 

In  that  year,  however,  the  suffering  from 
famine  and  typhus  fever  was  already  dread- 
ful enough  ;  and  in  the  most  fertile  counties 
of  Ireland,  multitudes  of  people  fed  upon 
weeds  of  various  sorts — some  boiled  nettles  ; 
others  subsisted  upon  the  wild  kail,  called  in 
Irish,  jprashagh.  All  political  movement 
was  suspended  for  several  years,  both  in  Ire- 
land and  in  England,  and  in  1819,  Lord  Sid- 
mouth  introduced  and  carried  his  celebrated 
"  Six  acts,"  principally  to  quell  the  "  sedi- 
tious" aspirations  of  the  English  people. 
These  acts  imposed  heavy  penalties  upon  the 
possession  of  arms,  and  upon  "  blasphemous 
and  seditious  libels" — meaning  all  plain  and 
truthful  comments  upon  the  proceedings  of 

*  In  this  year,  1817,  the  export  to  England,  of 
grain  alone,  was  695,651  quarters. — Tliom's  Official 
Tables  in  Directory. 

62 


Government.  A  horrible  military  massacre 
was  perpetrated  this  year  at  Peterloo,  near 
Manchester,  by  the  onslaught  of  a  body  of 
troops  upon  a  perfectly  peaceable  mjeting 
of  the  people  to  demand  reform.  This 
bloody  day  was  tlie  16th  of  August,  1819, 
and  one  of  the  "  Six  acts,"  passed  immedi- 
ately after,  prohibited,  under  cruel  penalties, 
the  assembling  of  more  than  fifty  persons 
together,  unless  at  a  meeting  called  by  the 
magistrates.  In  short,  it  was  the  British 
"  Reign  of  Terror,"  not  inaugurated,  as  in 
France,  by  the  people,  to  rid  themselves  of 
their  oppressors,  but  by  the  oppressors,  to 
crush  the  people  and  their  French  principles 
into  the  earth. 

On  the  2Sth  of  February,  1821,  Mr. 
Plunket  brought  up  in  Parliament  a  bill  for 
Catholic  Emancipation.  It  was  at  an  un- 
favorable time  ;  all  the  governing  and  con- 
trolling opinion  of  England  was  averse  to 
any  kind  of  claim  for  rights.  The  bill  was 
veliemently  opposed  by  the  Tory  party,  and 
especially  by  Sir  Robert  Peel.  In  the 
House  of  Lords,  the  Duke  of  York,  heir 
presumptive  to  the  throne,  made  a  furious 
speech  against  it  ;  saying,  amongst  other 
things,  that  "  there  is  a  great  difference  be- 
tween alloioing  the  free  exercise  of  religion,  ' 
and  the  granlivg  of  political  power" — as  if 
there  could  be  any  freedom  without  poli- 
tical power,  or  as  if  freedom  and  politi- 
cal power  were  things  to  bo  allowed  and 
granted,  by  persons  who  might  lawfully 
withhold  them.  It  was  in  the  same  year,  in 
the  month  of  August,  that  King  George 
IV.  condescended  to  make  a  triumphal  visit 
to  Ireland  ;  and  that  Mr.  O'Connell,  with 
certain  views  of  "  policy,"  which  will  not  be 
universally  appreciated,  testified  an  enthu- 
siastic loyalty  to  that  individual,  and  drank 
at  a  public  dinner  the  "Orange  Charter 
toast."  Overpowered  by  the  cordiality  of 
his  reception,  the  King  quitted  the  soil  of 
Ireland  with  tears  of  emotion  in  his  eyes. 
On  the  spot  where  he  embarked  stands  a 
granite  monument,  surmounted  by  a  crown  ; 
and  Dunleary  changed  its  name  to  Kings- 
town. It  would  be  agreeable  not  to  record 
these  incidents  ;  but  they  form,  unhappily, , 
part  of  the  history  of  Ireland. 

Touching  this  royal  visit — not  to  insist  iu 
this  place  upon  the  savage  comment  of  Lord 


490 


HISTORY    OF    IKELAND. 


Byron,  we  mny  give  the  more  moderate 
prose  of  Richard  Lalor  Sheil :  "  Sir  Ben- 
jamin Bloorafield  arrived  in  Dublin  before 
liis  master,  and  intimated  the  royal  anx- 
iety that  all  differences  and  animosities  should 
he  laid  aside.  Accordingly,  it  was  agreed 
that  a  pnblic  dinner  should  be  held  at  Mor- 
rison's, where  the  leaders  of  both  parties 
should  pledge  each  other  in  libations  of  ever- 
lasting amity.  This  national  festivity  took 
place  ;  and  from  the  vehement  protestations 
ou  both  sides,  it  was  believed  by  many  that 
a  lasting  reconciliation  had  been  effected. 
Master  Ellis  and  Mr.  O'Connell  almost  em- 
braced each  other.  The  King  arrived  ;  the 
Catholics  determined  not  to  obtrude  their 
grievances  upon  him.  Accordingly,  our  gra- 
cious sovereign  passed  rather  an  agreeable 
time  in  Dublin.  He  was  hailed  with  tumul- 
tuous hurrahs  wherever  he  passed  ;  and  in 
return  for  the  enthusiastic  reception  which 
he  had  found,  he  directed  Lord  Sidmouth  to 
write  a  letter  recommending  it  to  the  people 
to  he  united.  His  Majesty  shortly  after- 
wards set  sail,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  from 
Kingstown.  For  a  little  while  the  Catholics 
continued  under  the  miserable  deception  un- 
der which  they  had  labored  during  the  royal 
sojourn,  but  when  they  found  that  no  inten- 
tion existed  to  introduce  a  change  of  system 
into  Ireland — that  the  King's  visit  seemed 
an  artifice,  and  Lord  Sidmouth's  epistle 
meant  nothing — and  that  while  men  were 
changed,  measures  continued  substantially 
unaltered,  they  began  to  perceive  that  some 
course  more  effective  than  a  loyal  solicitude 
not  to  disturb  the  repose  of  His  Majesty 
should  be  adopted." 

In  short,  the  Irish  Catholics  were  once 
more  cheated  ;  and  it  is  not  saying  much 
for  their  perspicacity — for  they  were  twice 
cheated  by  the  same  cheat.  Neither  can 
we  ever  look  back  with  pleasure  on  the 
scenes  of  "loyal"  servility  enacted  at  that 
period  by  leading  Irishmen  —  O'Connell 
toasting  the  glorious,  pious,  and  immortal 
memory  of  the  "Dutch  adventurer,"  and 
presenting  a  huge  bunch  of  shamrocks  to 
the  discreditable  being  who  then  represented 
the  desolating  British  domination.  Doubt- 
less these  hypocritical  demonstrations  of 
"  loyalty "  to  an  enemy,  were  transacted 
with  an  idea  that  it  was  a  cunning  policy  to 


conciliate  tyrants  in  England,  and  to  disarm 
animosities  at  home.  In  these  views  they 
failed  utterly,  and  have  their  place  in  history 
only  as  a  signal  example  of  gratuitous 
crouching   and   crawling. 

The  senseless  gala  of  1821  passed  away  ; 
the  horrible  famine  of  1822  immediately  fol- 
lowed.* 


CHAPTER    LIII. 

1822—1825. 

Famine  of  1822— Its  Causes — Financial  Frauds  upon 
Ireland — Horrors  of  the  Famine — Extermination — 
Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus  Act — Castlereagh 
Cuts  his  Throat — Marquis  VVellesley  Viceroy — Sir 
Harcourl  Lees — The  Bottle  Riot — Catholic  Associ- 
ation Formed— Dr.  Doyle;  "J.  K.  L.'" — Progress 
of  Catholic  Association — "Catholic  Rent" — May- 
nooth  Professors  "  Loyal " — Rage  of  the  Orangemen 
— "  O'Connell,  the  Pope,  and  the  Devil  " — Passive- 
ness  of  the  Dissenters — O'Connell's  Appeals  to 
Them — Intellectual  and  Literary  Power  of  the 
Movement — Act  to  Suppress  "  Unlawful  Associa- 
tions"— First  Attempt  to  Cheat  the  Catholics — A 
Relief  Bill,  with  "  Wings  "—Defeated— Catholic  De- 
putation in  London — O'Connell  and  the  Whigs — 
Strong  Feeling  in  Ii-eland  against  "Wings." 

Before  proceeding  to  the  details  of  this 
dreadful  famine  of  1822,  it  is  needful  to 
consider  the  financial  relations  of  the  two 
islands  since  the  period  of  the  "Union." 

In  1816  was  passed  the  act  for  consoli- 
dating tlie  British  and  Irish  E.xchequers — it 
is  the  56th  George  III.,  chap.  98.  It  be- 
came operative  on  the  1st  January,  1817. 

The  meaning  of  this  consolidation  was, 
charging  Ireland  with  the  whole  debt  of 
England,  pre-union  and  post-union  ;  and  iu 
like  manner  charging  England  with  the 
whole  Irish  debt. 

Now  the  enormous  English  national  debt, 
both  before  and  after  the  Union,  was  con 
tracted  for  purposes  which  Ireland  had  not 
only  no  interest  in  promoting,  but  a  direct 
and  vital  interest  iu  contravening  and  resist- 
ing—  that  is,  it  had  been  contracted  to 
crush  American  and  French  liberty,  and  to 
destroy  those  very  powers  which  were  the 
natural  allies  of  Ireland. 

*  John  Philpot  Curran  died  in  1817,  on  the  14th  of 
October.  His  remains  were  buried  first  in  London ; 
afterwards  removed  to  the  cemetery  of  Ulasnevin. 
Grattan  died  three  years  after,  and  had  the  very  doubt- 
ful honor  of  a  tomb  in  Westminster  Abbey.  These  two 
great  Irishmen  left  the  country  they  loved  in  one  of 
the  gloomiest  periods  of  her  gloomy  story 


FAMINE   IN    1822 ITS    CAUSES FINANCIAL    FRAUDS   UPON   IRELAND 


491 


But  this  is  not  all  :  we  have  next  to  see 
the  proportions  vvliich  the  two  debts  bore  to 
eacli  other.  It  will  be  remembered  that  by 
the  terms  of  the  so-called  "  Union  " 

I.  Ireland  was  to  be  protected  from  any 
liability  on  account  of  the  British  National 
Debt  contracted  prior  to  the  Union. 

II.  The  separate  debt  of  each  country 
being  first  provided  for  by  a  separate 
charge,  Ireland  was  then  to  contribute 
two-seventeenths  towards  the  joint  or  com- 
mon expenditure  of  the  United  Kingdom 
for  twenty  years  ;  after  which  her  contribu- 
tion was  to  be  made  proportionate  to  her 
ability  as  ascertained  at  stated  periods  of 
revision  by  certain  tests  specified  in  the  act. 

III.  Ireland  was  not  only  promised  that 
she  never  should  have  any  concern  with  the 
then  existing  British  Debt,  but  she  was  also 
assured  that  her  taxation  should  not  be 
raised  to  the  standard  of  Great  Britain  un- 
til the  following  conditions  should  occur  : — 

1.  That  the  two  debts  should  come  to 
bear  to  each  other  the  proportion  of 
fifteen  parts  for  Great  Britain  to 
two  parts  for  Ireland  ;  and, 

2.  That  the  respective  circumstances 
of  the  two  countries  should  admit 
of  uniform  taxation. 

It  must  be  further  borne  in  mind,  that 
previous  to  the  Union  the  National  Debt  of 
Ireland  was  a  mere  trifle.  It  had  been 
enormously  increased  by  charging  to  Ire- 
land's special  account,  first,  the  expenses  of 
getting  up  the  rebellion  ;  next,  the  expenses 
of  suppressing  it  ;  and,  lastly,  the  expenses 
of  bribing  Irish  noble  lords  and  gentlemen 
to  sell  their  country  at  this  Union.  Thus 
the  Irish  Debt,  which  before  the  Union  had 
been  less  than  three  millions  sterling,  was  set 
down  by  the  act  of  Union  at  nearly  twenty- 
seven  millions. 

On  the  20th  of  June,  1804,  (four  years 
after  the  Union  had  passed,)  Mr.  Foster, 
Chancellor  of  the  Irish  Exchequer,  observ- 
ed, that,  whereas,  in  1794  the  Irish  debt 
did  not  exceed  two  millions  and  a  half,  it 
had  in  1803  risen  to  forty-three  millions; 
and  that  during  the  current  year  it  was  in- 
creased to  nearly  fiflythree  millions. 

During  the  long  and  costly  war  against 
France,  and  the  second  American  war,  it 
happened,  by  some   very  extraordinary  spe- 


cies of  bookkeeping,  that  while  the  English 
debt  was  not  quite  doubled,  the  Irish  debt 
was  more  than  quiidru[)Ied  ;  as  if  Ireland 
had  twice  the  interest  which  England  had 
in  forcing  the  Bourbons  back  upon  France, 
and  in  destroying  the  commerce  of  America. 

Thus,  in  18  I  G,  when  the  consolidation  act 
was  passed,  the  whole  funded  debt  of  Ire- 
land was  found  to  be  iEl 30,56 l.OoT.  By 
this  management  the  Irish  debt,  which  in 
1801  had  been  to  the  British  as  one  to  six- 
teen and  a  half,  was  forced  up  to  bear  to 
the  British  debt  the  ratio  of  one  to  seven 
and  a  half.  This  was  the  proportion  re- 
quired by  the  Act  of  Union  as  a  condition 
of  subjecting  Ireland  to  indiscriminate  taxa- 
tion with  Great  Britain — a  condition  equally 
impudent  and  iniquitous.  Ireland  was  to  be 
loaded  with  inordinate  debt  ;  and  then  this 
debt  was  to  be  made  the  pretext  for  raising 
her  taxation  to  the  high  British  standard, 
and  thereby  rendering  her  liable  to  the  pre- 
union  debt  of  Great  Britain  ! 

By  way  of  softening  down  the  glaring  in- 
justice of  such  a  proposition.  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  said  that  the  two  debts  might  be 
brought  to  bear  to  each  other  the  prescribed 
proportions,  partly  by  the  increase  of  the 
Irish  debt,  but  partly  also  by  the  decrease 
of  the  British,  To  which  Mr.  Foster  thus 
answered,  on  the  15th  of  March,  1800  : 
"  The  monstrous  absurdity  you  would  force 
down  our  throats,  is  that  Ireland's  increase 
of  poverty,  as  shown  by  her  increase  of 
debt,  and  England's  increase  of  wealth,  as 
shown  by  diminution  of  debt,  are  to  bring 
them  to  an  equality  of  condition,  so  as  to  be 
able  to  bear  an  eqnality  of  taxation." 

But  bad  as  this  was,  the  former  and  worse 
alternative  was  what  really  bei'el.  The 
given  ratio  was  reached  solely  by  the  in- 
crease of  the  Irish  debt,  without  any  de- 
crease of  the  British. 

We  take  from  the  excellent  pamphlet  of 
Mr.  O'Neill  Daunt,*  already  quoted  in  a 
former  chapter,  a  passage  presenting  a  sum- 
mary of  the  financial  dealings  of  England 
with  Ireland  : — 

"  The  following  facts  stand  unshaken, 
and  should  become  familiarly  known  to 
every  man  in  Ireland  : — 


*  "  Financial  Grievances  of  Ireland." 
tious  of  the  b-lsk  National  League. 


FuLlica* 


492 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


"  1.  The  British  Debt  in  1801  was  about 
sixteen  and  a  half  times  as  large  as  the 
Irish  Debt. 

"  2.  It  was  promised  bj^  the  authors  of 
the  Union,  and  the  promise  was  embodied 
in  the  Seventh  Article,  that  as  Ireland  had  no 
part  in  contracting  that  debt,  so  she  should 
be  forever  preserved  from  all  concern  with 
the  payment  of  its  princii)al  or  interest. 

"  3.  In  order  to  give  effect  to  this  prom- 
ise, Great  Britain  was  to  be  separately 
taxed  to  the  extent  of  her  separate  pre- 
union  debt-charge.  But  Great  Britain  is 
not  thus  separately  taxed  ;  and  Ireland  is 
consequently  made  to  contribute  to  the  pay- 
ment of  a  purely  British  liability,  from  which 
she  was  promised  perpetual  exemption. 

"  4.  Ii'eland  has  never  received  from 
Great  Britain  one  farthing,  by  way  of  com- 
pensation or  equivalent,  for  being  thus  sub- 
jected to  the  pre-uniou  British  Debt. 

"  5.  By  the  fifth  clause  of  the  Seventh 
Article  of  the  Union,  Ireland  was  guaran- 
teed the  benefit  of  her  own  surplus  taxes. 
She  has  never,  during  the  sixty-four  years 
of  Union,  received  one  farthing  in  virtue  of 
that  clause.  Her  taxes,  after  defraying  her 
public  domestic  expenses,  have  been  uni- 
formly abstracted  by  England  ;  and  tlie 
clause  that  professes  to  secure  to  Ireland  the 
use  of  them  has  been  rendered  a  dead  let- 
ter by  the  Parliamentai'v  management  I 
have  described. 

"  (5.  Tlie  amount  of  Irish  taxes  annually 
drawn  from  this  kingdom  is  a  very  large 
item  in  the  general  pecuniary  drain.  Mr. 
Dillon,  in  his  able  and  carefully-compiled 
Report  to  the  Dublin  Corporation,  shows 
that  the  Irish  taxes  expended  out  of  Ire- 
land in  the  year  ISfiO,  amounted  to  £4,- 
095,453  ;  and  that  in  1861,  they  amounted 
to  £3,970,715." 

But  even  this  direct  drain  of  Irish  money 
into  England,  under  pretence  of  paying 
interest  on  a  debt,  represents  very  small 
part  of  the  systematic  plunder  of  the  coun- 
try. When  to  this  is  added  the  absentee 
rental,  the  interest  paid  out  of  incumbered 
estates  to  Jews  in  London,  and  the  cost  of 
tnaiuifactured  articles  and  colonial  produce 
V'hich  Ireland  ought  to  manufacture — or 
Import — for  herself,  we  may  begin  to  nnder- 
Btaud  why  the  mass  of  the  Irish  people  is 


always  on  the  verge  of  starvation,  and  why 
the  failure  of  the  meanest  kind  of  food 
throws  them  at  once  into  the  pangs  of  fa- 
mine. 

This  is  what  befel  in  1822.  Alison,  the 
Scotch  historian  of  modern  times,  attributes 
the  dreadful  havoc  of  the  Irish  in  this  year 
entirely  to  "  the  contraction  of  the  currency, 
and  consequent  fall  of  the  prices  of  agri- 
cultural produce  fifty  per  cent."  But  the 
Scotch  historian  does  not  mention  that  the 
grain-crop  of  1821  had  been  carried  oif  to 
England,  to  the  amount  of  nearly  two  mil- 
lion quarters,  (1,822,816,)  and  that  of  1822, 
to  the  amount  of  more  than  one  million 
quarters,*  not  to  speak  of  countless  herds 
of  cattle,  sheep,  and  swine.  No  wonder, 
then,  if  we  see  in  Ireland  perennial  misery 
and  beggary,  with  occasional  paroxysms  of 
murderous  famine. 

On  the  27th  of  June,  in  this  year,  Sir 
John  Newport,  of  Waterford,  in  his  place 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  endeavoring  to 
awaken  that  assembly  to  some  sense  of  the 
horrors  which  were  to  be  seen  in  Ireland, 
described  one  parish  in  his  neighborhood, 
where  fifteen  persons  had  already  died  of 
hunger  ;  twenty -eight  more,  he  said,  were 
past  all  hope  of  recovery,  and  one  hundred 
and  twenty  (still  in  tlie  same  parish)'  were 
prostrated  by  famine-fever  ; — and  the  same 
speaker  mentioned  another  parish  where 
tlie  priest  had  gone  round  and  administered 
extreme  unction  to  every  man,  woman,  and 
child,  all  in  articulo  mortis  by  mere  star- 
vation.f 

*  Tliom's  Official  Directory,  for  1853. 
fin  Cobbett's  "Register"  we  find  tliat  writer's 
contemporary  comment  upon  the  debate  in  the 
House.  He  says :  "  Mono^',  it  seems,  is  wanted  in 
Ireland.  Now,  people  do  not  eat  money.  No,  but 
tiie  money  will  buy  them  something  to  eat.  What  ? 
The  food  is  there,  then.  Pray,  observe  this  ;  and  let 
the  parties  get  out  of  the  concern  if  they  can.  Tli.e 
food  is  there  ;  but  those  who  luive  it  in  their  posses- 
sion will  not  give  it  witliout  the  money.  And  we 
know  that;  the  food  is  there  ;  for  since  this  famine 
has  been  declared  in  Parliament,  thousands  of  quar- 
ters of  corn  have  been  imported  every  week  from 
Ireland  to  England."— iie^is^er,  July,  1822.  Mr. 
Cobbett,  however,  was  not  placing  "  the  parties  "  ia 
so  embarrassing  a  position  as  he  imagined,  when  he 
defied  them  to  get  out  of  it  if  they  could.  It  lias  al- 
waj's  been  a  matter  of  congratulation  with  Englisli 
Ministers,  that  whether  the  Irish  be  starving  or  not, 
England  can  still  draw  from  the  country  her  full 
tribute  of  grain  and  cattle.  In  reading  of  all  these 
transactions  of  1822,  one  might  almost  imagine  that 
he  is  reading  of  what  befel  twenty-five  years  latci. 


CASTLEEEAGH    CUTS    HIS    THROAT MARQUIS    WELLESLET   VICEROY. 


493 


A  certain  Colonel  Patrickson  was  quar- 
tered that  season  in  Galway,  with  his 
regiment.  lie  reports  to  his  superior  of- 
ficer :  "  Hundreds  of  half-faraislied  wretch- 
es arrive  almost  daily  from  a  distance  of 
fifty  miles,  many  of  them  so  exhausted  by 
want  of  food  that  the  means  taken  to  re- 
store them  fail  of  effect,  from  the  weakness 
of  the  digestive  organs,  occasioned  by  long 
fasting."*  Official  statistics  were  not  then 
so  much  attended  to  as  they  have  since 
been  ;  but  certain  returns,  such  as  they 
were,  stated,  that  in  the  month  of  June, 
there  were  in  Clare  County  alone,  99,639 
persons  subsisting  on  daily  charity,  and  in 
Cork,  122,000.t  We  have  no  record  of 
the  estimated  number  of  deaths  in  this  hid- 
eous famine  ;  and  if  we  had  any  such  esti- 
mate, compiled  as  it  would  be  under  the 
direction  of  the  Irish  authorities,  by  aid  of 
their  police,  it  would  not  be  trustworthy. 
Neither  are  there  any  census-tables,  show- 
ing the  decrease  of  the  population.  In 
Thomas  Official  Directory,  the  population  of 
the  island  in  1821,  is  given  at  6,801,827; 
and  there  is  no  statement  of  the  population 
afterwards  for  ten  years. 

Of  course,  there  was  again  a  good  deal 
of  extermination  of  tenantry  ;  and  some  des- 
perate men  did  certainly  kill  here  and  there 
!in  ejecting  landlord  or  agent.  It  appears, 
also,  that  there  were  "nocturnal  outrages  ;" 
men  with  faces  blackened,  and  wearing 
shirts  more  or  less  white,  did  come  to  some 
houses  in  search  of  anas,  to  defend  their 
lives,  or  to  avenge  their  wrongs  ;  but  in  all 
this  there  was  no  trace  or  tittle  of  political, 
seditions,  or  revolutionary  movement.  Nev- 
ertiieless,  the  first  thing  that  occurred  to  the 
r>rilish  Government,  to  meet  tliis  great  cala- 
mity, was  a  new  and  improved  Insurrection 
act.  This  new  act,  together  with  another, 
for  the  suspension  of  tlie  writ  of  Habeas 
Corpus,  was  introduced  and  at  once  carried 
l)y  Lord  Castlereagh,  then  Marquis  of  Lon- 
donderry. It  was  almost  tiie  lastpul)lic  act 
of  his  evil  life.  On  the  12th  of  August,  in 
that  same  year,  he  executed  justice  upon 
himself  by  cutting  his  own  throat  with  a 
knife.     Never  lived  a  more  deadly  foe  of  the 

*  Letter  of  Sir  D.  Baird  to  Sir  H.  Taylor,  Memoirs 
of  Lord  Weliesley.    VIII. 
t  Alison  Jlistory  of  l^urope,  since  1815. 


human  race,  and  especially  of  the  country 
vvhieh  gave  him  birth.  He  was  almost  as 
much  hated  in  England  as  in  Ireland  ;  for 
he  had  been  a  warm  supporter  of  the  "  Six 
acts,"  and  of  every  measure  of  despotism. 
The  body  of  the  suicide,  instead  of  being 
staked  at  Cross-Roads,  was  borne  in  solenni 
pomp  to  Westminster  Abbey  (where  tlie 
bones  of  Henry  Grattan  must  have  shrunk 
aside,)  and  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  the 
proudest  Peers  in  England  were  his  pall- 
bearers ; — but  as  the  cofQn  was  removed 
from  the  hearse  to  be  carried  into  the  Ab- 
bey, the  multitudes  around  could  not  re- 
press a  hoot  of  execration,  a  long,  loud  and 
hideous  yell  of  horror  and  hatred.  Tiie 
Tory  historian,  Alison,  reluctantly  records 
that  "  savage  miscreants  raised  a  horrid 
shout ;"  but  future  ages  will  probably  pro- 
nounce, that  in  all  the  mob  of  London  was 
no  such  dreadful  miscreant  as  the  man  then 
borne  to  his  grave. 

It  must  not  be  omitted  to  state,  that  the 
Parliament  of  1822 — in  addition  to  a  Coer- 
cion act  and  Habeas  Corpus  Suspension  act, 
voted  an  appropriation  of  £500,000  for  re- 
lief of  Irish  distress,  by  employing  destitute 
people  on  public  works.  It  by  no  means 
amounted  to  one-tenth  part  of  the  Irish 
money  annually  drained  from  Ireland  into 
England,  and  applied  to  English  purposes  ; 
and  even  this  appropriation  was,  as  usual, 
corruptly  and  absurdly  expended  by  English 
officials,  principally  upon  useless  and  unpro- 
ductive works,  like  the  unmeaning  obelisk 
upon  Killiney  Hill,  The  British  press, 
and  speakers  in  Parliament  at  that  period, 
as  at  a  later  date,  spoke  of  this  appropria- 
tion out  of  the  Consolidated  Exchequer,  as 
so  much  alms  given  by  England,  and  as- 
sumed immense  credit  for  the  generosity  of 
the  gift.  Under  this  form  and  color,  the 
transaction  has  passed  into  history.  Sir  Ar- 
chibald Alison,  of  course,  glorifies  the  mag- 
nanimity of  England  upon  this  occasion — 
"England  nu  longer  remembered  the  crimes 
of  Ireland — thought  only  of  her  sorrows," 
and  so  forth.  The  Marquis  Weliesley  was 
Lord-Lieutenant  this  year  ;  but  although 
invested  with  terriljle  powers  for  the  sup- 
pression of  outrage  and  insurrection,  lie  i.s 
not  cliarged  with  exereising  too  savagely  the 
extra  legal  authority  with  which  the  British 


494 


HISTORY    OF   lUELAND. 


PiiiTiament  was  so  prompt  to  clothe  liim. 
Indeed,  the  Marquis,  from  the  coiiciHatory 
and  mild  way  in  which  he  spared  the  suffer- 
ing people,  and  from  his  courtesy  towards 
the  Catholic  leaders,  some  of  whom  he  en- 
tertained at  the  Castle,  soon  became  unpop- 
ular with  the  Orange  faction.  The  most 
prominent  Orange  agitator  was  then  a  cer- 
tain Sir  Harcourt  Lees.  He  was  a  clergy- 
man by  profession,  and  held  prefermeiit  In 
the  Church  ;  but  occupied  himself  chiefly  in 
discovering  Popish  plots  for  the  massacre  of 
Protestants,  denouncing,  in  the  newspapers, 
"  O'Connell,  the  Pope,  and  the  Devil,"  and 
sending  petitions  to  Parliament,  praying  to 
"put  down  Popery," and  send  O'Connell  to 
the  Tower.  Sir  Harcourt  was  slightly  in- 
sane ;  but  his  morbid  visions  of  Jesuit  con- 
spiracies, and  wild  stories  from  "  Fox's  Book 
of  Martyrs,"  were  well  enough  suited  to 
excite  the  ignorant  Orangemen  of  Dublin. 
These  pestilent  people  soon  began  to  sus- 
pect that  Lord  Wellesley  was  in  league  with 
"  O'Connell,  the  Pope,  and  the  Devil  ;"  and 
the  city  resounded  with  their  imprecations. 
At  length,  on  the  night  of  the  14th  of  De- 
cember, their  rage  broke  out  in  the  form 
of  a  riot  at  the  theatre.  Some  ruffians 
threw  a  bottle  and  a  piece  of  wood  at  the 
Vice-regal  box,  but  failed  to  strike  the  Mar- 
quis. Three  Dublin  tradesmen  were  arrest- 
ed, cliarged  with  parlici[)ating  in  the  riot, 
and  indicted.  The  Grand  Jury  of  Dublin, 
(all  Orangemen,)  ignored  the  bill.  The 
Attorney-General,  Mr.  Plunket,  then  pro- 
ceeded, e.r  officio,  and  sent  them  up  for  trial. 
As  might  have  been  anticipated,  the  jury 
would  not  convict  ;  and  in  short,  no  person 
was  ever  punished  for  the  "  bottle  riot." 

The  year  1823  is  notable  for  the  forma- 
tion of  the  "  Catholic  Association."  Its 
foundations  were  laid  by  Mr.  O'Connell,  in 
conjunction  with  Mr.  Shiel,  then  a  very 
young  barrister,  but  already  remarkable  for 
a  certain  kind  of  polished,  figurative,  and 
antithetical  rhetoric.  These  two  gentlemen 
met  at  the  house  of  a  common  friend  iu  the 
Wicklow  mountains;  "and  after  exchang- 
ing their  opinions,"  says  Mr.  Shiel,  "  on  the 
deplorable  state  to  which  the  Catholic  mind 
had  been  reduced,  and  the  utter  want  of  or- 
giinization  in  the  body,  it  was  agreed  that 
they   should   botii   sign   an   address   to   the 


Irish  Catholics,"  and  inclose  it  to  the  prin- 
cipal -people  of  that  religion.  The  result  of 
this  procedure  was  for  a  time  not  very  en- 
couraging. "  A  very  thin  meeting,"  says 
Mr.  Shell,  "which  did  not  consist  of  more 
than  twenty  individuals  was  held  at  a  tavern 
in  Sackville  street ;  and  it  was  there  deter- 
mined that  something  should  be  done." 
The  work,  in  truth,  was  difficult.  The  old 
alienation  between  the  Catholic  Peers  and 
the  democratic  masses  still  subsisted.  Old 
Lord  Fingal,  Lord  Gormanstown,  and 
others  of  the  highest  rank  and  influence, 
who  would  have  been  glad  to  accept  eman- 
cipation even  on  the  terms  of  the  veto,  were 
somewhat  scandalized  at  the  violence  with 
which  O'Connell  and  the  famous  Dr.  Drom- 
goole  repudiated  that  project  of  enslaving 
the  Church.  Yet  a  combination  of  all  the 
sections  and  elements  of  the  Catholic  com- 
munity, however  difficult,  was  precisely  the 
indispensable  condition  of  effecting  any  very 
notable  good  to  the  cause.  To  this,  then, 
O'Connell  bent  all  the  energies  and  resources 
of  his  mind.  Happily  the  Earl  of  Fingal 
had  a  son.  Lord  Killeen,  who  not  only  did 
not  share  all  the  prejudices  or  apprehensions 
of  his  father,  but  longed  to  throw  himself 
heart  and  soul  into  the  movement  by  the 
side  of  O'Connell.  Lord  Killeen  had  good 
abilities,  and  was  free  from  those  habits  of 
submission  which  the  Catholic  aristocracy 
had  contracted  at  the  period  of  their  ex- 
treme depression.  His  exam[)le  was  soon 
followed  by  Lord  Gormanstown,  a  Peer  of 
ancient  descent,  and  hitherto  of  retiring 
habits,  so  far  as  political  agitation  was  con- 
cerned, lie  conceived  that  the  course  of 
the  aggressive  agitators  had  the  effect  only 
of  irritating  enmity  ;  and,  therefore,  had 
very  much  secluded  himself  amongst  his 
woods  near  Balbriggan.  IVext  came  in  the 
Earl  of  Kenraare  ;  who,  though  he  did  not 
formally  join  the  association,  (having  an 
aversion  to  public  appearance,) — sent  in 
the  authority  of  his  name  and  his  pecuniary 
contribution.  From  this  time  the  union  of 
the  aristocracy  with  the  rest  of  their  coun- 
trymen was  assured.  Anotlier  and  still 
more  powerful  element  in  tiie  confederacy 
was  the  Catholic  priesthood.  The  celebrat- 
ed and  very  able  and  energetic  Doctor 
Doyle,  IJishop  of  Kildare  and  LeighHn,  was 


DOCTOR   DOYLE  ;    "  J.    K.    L. 


495 


the  first  Prolate  who  open]y  joined  the  as- 
sociation— his  potent  pen  was  devoted  to  its 
service  ;  and  the  whole  world  was  long  fa- 
miliar with  the  signature  "el.  K.  L.,  (the 
initials  of  his  E[)iscopal  office,)  signed  to 
many  a  vigorous  pamphlet  and  letter. 
Other  Bishops  and  the  great  body  of  the 
clergy  soon  became  members  of  the  associa- 
tion, and  the  movement  which  had  begnn  so 
humbly  swelled  into  a  puissant  and  appar- 
ently-irresistible torrent  of  public  opinion. 
O'Connell  was  at  last  in  his  element  ;  and 
al)ly  supported  by  Shell  and  Wyse,  labored 
continually  to  give  a  practical  character  to 
the  meetings  ;  and  to  bring  under  calm  and 
well-considered  discussion  all  great  questions 
arising  in  the  state. 

In  structure,  the  Catholic  Association 
nuich  resembled  all  the  other  political  soci- 
eties instituted  by  Mr.  O'Connell.  It  con- 
sisted of  members  paying  a  guinea  each 
year,  and  of  associates  paying  one  shilling. 
Tlie  executive  consisted  of  a  standing  com- 
mittee. The  regular  meetings  were  weekly 
each  Saturday  ;  and  the  proceedings  con- 
sisted iu  the  reading  of  correspondence,  per- 
fecting organization,  the  discussion  of  public 
questions  which  bore  any  relation  to  the 
canse,  and  deciding  on  petitions.  There 
was  little  or  no  oratorical  display  at  these 
weekly  meetings  ;  the  members  rather  ap- 
plying themselves  to  treat  subjects  of  dis- 
cussion with  a  moderate  and  business-like 
calmness,  so  as  to  develope  facts  and  diffuse 
sound  information.  Still  the  proceedinirs 
attracted  little  attention  during  the  first 
year.  Indeed,  Mr.  Shiel  informs  us  that 
"  the  association  in  its  origin  was  treated 
with  contempt,  not  only  by  its  open  adver- 
saries, but  Catholics  themselves  spoke  of  it 
with  derision,  and  spurned  at  the  walls  of 
nnid  which  their  brethren  had  rapidly  thrown 
jip,  wiiich  were  afterwards  to  become  altae. 
vicenia  Iloinoc.''''  It  was  only  in  the  course 
of  the  following  year,  that  Mr.  O'Connell 
instituted  the  new  system  of  monthly  snb- 
.^cri[»tions  of  one  penny  (which  he  called 
"  Catholic  Rent,")  when  it  became  evident 
both  to  friends  and  enemies  how  deep  a  hold 
the  cause  had  upon  the  hearts  of  the  Catho- 
lic masses,  and  how  wide-spread  was  their 
determination  to  achieve  their  liberties.  The 
Ministry  began   to  take  some  alarm.     The 


Cabinet  at  that  time  was  extremely  Anti- 
Catholic  ;  liord  Liverpool  being  still  First 
Lord  of  the  Treasury  and  Premier  ;  the 
Dnke  of  Wellington,  Master-General  of  the 
Ordnance  ;  Lord  Eldon,  (an  extreme  ex- 
ample of  the  narrowest  bigotry,)  was  Lord 
Chancellor  ;  and  Mr.  Peel,  (not  yet  Sir  , 
Robert,)  was  the  Home  Secretary.  It  is 
true  that  Canning,  well  understood  to  be  a 
friend  of  the  Catholic  claims,  was  in  the 
Ministry,  but  his  place  was  that  of  Foreign 
Secretary,  so  that  he  could  have  little  special 
influence  upon  that  great  question  which 
was  now  agitating  the  three  kingdoms,  and 
at  length  disquieting  seriously  His  Majesty's 
advisers  ;  for,  in  truth,  no  phenomenon  like 
ttiis  had  ever  been  seen  in  Ireland  before ; 
within  two  years  after  its  origin,  the  penny 
subscriptions  to  the  rent  averaged  £f)00  a 
week,  which  represented  half  a  million  of 
enroled  associates,  and  produced  a  fund 
quite  sufficient  to  pay  the  expenses  of  de- 
fending men  unjustly  accused,  to  prosecute 
Orange  violators  of  the  law,  (but  this  was 
generally  a  hopeless  enterprise,) — to  pay 
the  expenses  of  Parliamentary  and  election 
agents,  and  even  to  alTord  considerable  ai> 
propriations  for  the  support  of  Catholic 
schools  for  the  poor. 

But  not  even  these  evidences  of  imposing 
numbers  and  close  organization  so .  much 
alarmed  the  Government,  as  the  determined 
attitude  taken  by  some  of  tiie  clergy,  and 
the  bold  writings  of  Doctor  Doyle.  He 
broached  doctrines  which  not  only  startled 
the  "  Protestant  Ascendancy,"  but  even  af- 
fected the  nerves  of  some  of  the'Maynooth 
Professors.  In  his  letter  to  Mr.  Robertson, 
after  speaking  of  the  possibility  of  a  rebel- 
lion and  a  French  invasion,  he  says  :  "  The 
Minister  of  PJngland  cannot  look  to  the 
exertions  of  the  Catholic  priesthood  ;  they 
have  been  ill-treated  ;  and  they  may  yield 
for  a  moment  to  the  inflnence  of  nature, 
tiiough  it  be  opposed  to  grace.  The  clergy, 
with  a  few  exceptions,  are  from  tlie  ranks 
of  tiie  people  ;  they  iniierit  their  feelings  ; 
they  are  not,  as  formerly,  brought  up  under 
despotic  governments  ;  and  they  have  im-  ; 
bibed  the  doctrines  of  Locke  and  Paley 
more  deeply  than  those  of  Bellarmine,  or 
even  of  Bossuet,  en  the  divine  right  of  kings. 
They  know  miicli   more  of  the  priuciplfs  of 


496 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


the  Constitution  than  they  do  of  passive 
obedience.  If  a  rebellion  were  raging  from 
Carridfergus  to  Cape  Clear,  no  sentence  of 
exammunication  would  ever  be  fulminated  by 
a  Catholic  Prelate y 

This  announcement  produced  some  con- 
sternation ;  and  to  counteract  the  effect  of 
such  perilous  declarations  from  a  Bishop, 
Lord  Wellesley,  it  was  said,  applied  to  May- 
iiooth  ;  and  from  ^laynooth  (which  receives 
money  from  the  Treasury,)  was,  in  fact,  is- 
sued a  protest ;  from  which  it  was  known 
that  the  students  and  Doctor  Crotty,  the 
President,  dissented  altogether.  It  bore, 
however,  the  names  of  five  professors  of 
theology  ;  and  the  persons  who  were  chiefly 
instrumental  in  getting  it  up  were  two  old 
French  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne  ;  who  had 
belonged,  in  their  own  country,  to  the  old 
regime  ;  "  and,  with  a  good  deal  of  learning, 
imported  into  Ireland  a  very  strong  relish 
for  submission."  *  The  publication  of  the 
five  professors  produced  no  effect  whatever  ; 
the  people  and  clergy  now  saw  the  most 
eminent  of  their  Prelates  in  the  ranks  of  the 
association  ;  and  Doctor  Murray,  Arch- 
bishop of  Dublin,  not  only  joined  that  body, 
but  sometimes  used  very  energetic  language, 
tending  to  excite  his  people  to  be  zealous 
in  the  cause.  "The  contemplation  of  the 
wrongs  of  my  country," — he  exclaimed,  iu 
l)is  stately  cathedral  in  Marlborough  street 
— "  the  contemplation  of  the  wrongs  of  my 
country  makes  my  soul  burn  within  me." 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  progress  and 
power  of  the  Catholic  Association  excited 
the  Orafigemen  of  Ireland  to  frenzy  ;  Sir 
Harcourt  Lees  saw  visions,  and  dreamed 
dreams  ;  and  many  petitions  were  sent  to 
Parliament  "  to  put  down  Popery,"  and  save 
the  Protestant  State  from  O'Connell,  the 
Pope,  and  the  Devil.  Ministers,  indeed,  be- 
gan to  perceive  that  they  must  yield;  and  that 
emancipation  could  not  be  far  off.  It  had,  in 
its  favor,  not  only  the  entire  Catholic  popu- 
lation of  Ireland,  but  also  in  England,  a  small 
but  very  wealthy  and  influential  group  of 
nobles  and  gentry  of  that  ancient  faith,  who, 
of  course,  expected  their  own  restoration  to 

♦  Shell's  Sketches :  Catholic  Leaders.  Mr.  Sheil 
gives  at  full  length  what  he  calls  "  the  Sorbonne 
manifesto;"'  and  adds,  that " it  was  laughed  at  by 
the  Irish  priesthood." 


civil  rights  from  the  success  of  the  move- 
ment, then  in  such  rapid  progress.  The 
Dissenting  population  of  the  North  of  Ire- 
land, it  must  be  said,  to  their  credit,  were 
favorable  to  the  claims  of  the  Catholics,  al- 
tliough  their  grandfathers  had  gladly  sub- 
mitted to  the  Test  and  Corporation  acts, 
which  excluded  Nonconformists  from  most 
offices,  rather  than  make  common  cause  with 
their  fellow-sufferers,  the  Catholics,  to  shake 
ofi"  the  yoke  of  the  Ascendancy.  O'Con- 
nell had  often  appealed  to  them  to  give  hira 
their  moral  aid  in  his  struggle  ;  represent- 
ing to  them  that  the  great  reform  he  sought 
was  a  breaking  down  of  all  barriers  of  ex- 
clusion under  pretext  of  men's  religious  be- 
lief ;  that  if  the  last  penal  laws  which  op- 
pressed the  Catholics  were  dashed  to  the 
earth,  the  last  penal  laws  which  injured 
and  insulted  Dissenters,  must  come  down 
along  with  them  ;  and  if  the  Catholics  and 
Nonconformists  of  Ireland  were  once  united 
in  the  assertion  of  their  rights,  there  would 
soon  be  an  end  of  tithes,  and  church-rates, 
and  Minister's  money,  and  every  other  paltry 
imposition  which  bolstered  up  the  "  Asicend 
ancy."  Lan^^uage  like  this  had  its  eQ"ect  , 
!i  large  proportion — and  that  the  most  edu- 
cated and  enlightened — of  the  Presbyteri- 
ans, gave  their  entire  sympathy  to  the  Cath- 
olic movement  ;  and  if  but  few  amongst 
them  aided  it  actively,  they  at  least  remain- 
ed passive,  and  left  all  the  fanatical  howl- 
ing, all  the  pious  imprecations  and  vaticin- 
ations of  wrath  to  come,  to  the  Orange 
Grand  Masters,  and  raving  rectors  and 
curates. 

But  amongst  the  forces  which  were  now 
giving  impetus  to  tlie  Catholic  cause,  must 
also  be  classed  the  English  Reformers,  and 
their  powerful  organs  at  the  press.  Indeed, 
during  this  whole  controversy,  nothing  was 
more  observable  than  the  great  literary  su- 
periority of  the  advocates  of  the  Catholics, 
and  the  utter  nullity  of  anything  which 
was  attempted  on  the  other  side,  in  tlie  shape 
either  of  argument  or  satire.  Most  of  the 
wisest  and  wittiest  pens  of  the  two  islands, 
were  wielded  in  favor  of  emancipation. 
Trenchant  reasoning  from  Jeff"rey,  in  the 
Edinburgh  Review — the  piquant  humor  of 
Sidney  Smith,  in  "  Peter  Plymley's  Letters" 
— the  brawny  might  of   William  Corbett, 


O  CON>"ELL    IN   COURT HIS   AUDACITY. 


497 


vlio  wherever  tyranny  and  intolerance  show- 
ed their  head  smote  it  amain  with  his  knot- 
ted club  ; — the  exqnisite  satire  of  Moore, 
like  a  rapier  of  the  finest  edge,  tliat  cut 
clean  and  drew  blood,  and  often  witli  the 
ligliiest  and  most  graceful  movement,  as  if 
in  i)hiy,  searched  the  very  vitals  of  some 
villain  in  high  places  and  made  him  howl  ; 
• — Slieil's  brilliant  shafts  of  wit  shot  from 
the  New  Monthly  Magazine; — all  these  were 
aimed  at  the  monster  called  Protestant  As- 
cendancy in  Church  and  State  ;  and  there 
was  nothing  of  the  kind  to  oppose  them 
— nothing  but  the  raving  letters  of  Sir  Har- 
court  Lees  and  his  friends,  or  the  bitter 
spite  of  the  Tories  in  Blackwood  and  Fraser 
and  the  Quarterly. 

However,  if  the  Government  had  but 
little  to  say  for  itself  in  the  literary  way,  it 
could  still  produce  acts  of  Parliament  and 
compose  indictments.  Early  in  1825,  Mr. 
Goulburn,  then  Secretary  for  Ireland, 
brought  into  Parliament  and  carried  through 
both  Houses  a  bill  for  suppression  of  "Un- 
lawful Associations  in  Ireland."  This  law- 
was,  of  course,  aimed  against  the  existing 
Catholic  Association,  which  was  not  at  all 
"  unlawful."  Immediately  when  it  passed, 
the  association^  under  the  legal  advice  of 
O'Connell,  dissolved  itself — it  was  no  longer 
in  existence — the  law  was  satisfied — and 
then  immediately  constituted  itself  again, 
under  the  title  of  the  New  Catholic  Asso- 
ciation. This  was  an  usual  expedient  of 
O'Connell,  through  his  loig  series  of  agita- 
tions, in  avoiding  the  penalties  of  penal 
enactments.  He  boasted  that  he  could 
"  drive  a  coach  and  six  through  an  act  of 
Parliament  ;"  and  the  practice  of  evading 
or  practically  annulling  such  tyrannous  laws 
caimot  certainly  be  condemned,  seeing  that 
the  Irish  people  would  at  any  time  have 
been  justified  (if  they  had  the  needful 
force)  in  openly  breaking,  defying,  and  re- 
sisting them.  This  law  against  the  Catholic 
Association  was  never  in  fact  enforced,  nor 
any  enforcement  attempted  ;  and  it  continued 
its  proceedings  precisely  as  before,  until 
emancipation  was  secure. 

But  while  the  Government  thus  made  a 

show  of  coercion  on  the  one  hand,  they  had 

on  the  other  prepared  a  bill  for  granting  the 

Catholic  claims  in  a  certain  stinted  and  very 

68 


guarded  manner  ;  and  the  bill  for  this  pur- 
pose— which  happily  never  became  law — is, 
indeed,    an    instructive    sample    of    British 
statesmanship  with  respect  to  Irish  affairs. 
It  proposed  to  admit  Catholics,  both  in  Eng- 
laiul  and  in  Ireland,  to  Parliament  and  to 
nnniicipal   corporations  ;    but   provided    for 
Ii-eland  two  very  important  safeguards  for 
the   perpetuation   of  English   supremacy  in 
that  island.     In  the  first  place,  the  entire 
class  of  county  voters  having  freeholds  worth 
forty   shillings,    were   to   be   disfranchised. 
These    made  the   great  bulk   of   the  rural 
voters.     The  other  measure  was  to  pension 
the  Catholic  clergy.     The  bill  was  prepared 
under  the  inspiration  of  Sir  Robert  Peel— 
this  shrewd  statesman  had  perceived  when 
in   Ireland,  that  the   large  increase  of  the 
Begium   Donum   to  Presbyterian  ministers 
had  had  the  effect  of  quieting  down  the  re- 
publican aspirations  and  quelling  the  "French 
principles"  which  had  made  those  clergymen 
nearly  all  rebels  in   1798  ;  and   that  what- 
ever influence  they  exercised  over  their  flocks 
was  now  exerted  in  favor  of  "loyalty,"  that 
is,  of  British   dominion.     And   as   for   the 
Catholic  clergy,  we  have  in  fact  seen  that  the 
only  members  of  that  body  who  came  to  the 
rescue  of  British  loyalty  against  Dr.  Doyle's 
audacious  declaration,  were  five  professors 
of  an  institution  endowed  by  the  State.    He 
prudently  calculated  that  to  salary  thera  all 
would  buy  them  away  from  their  people,  and 
give  England  an  efficient  corps  of  clerical 
detectives  in  the  interest  of  the  British  Gov- 
ernment.    Accordingly,  this   bill  provided, 
that  they  were  to  be  paid  out  of  the  Trea- 
sury at  the  rate  of  £1,000  to  each  bishop  ; 
£300  to  a  dean  ;  £200  to  a  parish-priest, 
and  £60  to  a  curate.     It  was  a  scale  some- 
what in  proportion  to   the  tariff  of  rewards 
which  had  been  offered  for  the  discocery  of 
Catholic  clergymen,  and  which  had  kept  the 
"  priest-hunters"  in  good   business  for  many 
years.     It  may  be  thought  that  times  had 
greatly  altered   for  the  better  ;.  yet  the  in- 
t.mtion,  in  the  latter  case,  was  quite  as  dead- 
ly hostile  to  the  Irish  people  and  their  clergy 
as  it  had  been  in  the  former  —  and  so  they 
felt  it ;  for  both  priests  and  people  were  res- 
olutely opposed    to     this   bribe,   and    most 
desirous  for  the  defeat  of  the  bill.     It  was 
defeated.     xVlter  i)assing  the  Lower  House. 


498 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


it  I'licouiitered  most  infuriated  opposition  in 
liie  Lords  ;  and  the  Duke  of  York  made  a 
8pecch  of  the  intenseet  malignity,  which  had 
the  more  serious  effect,  as  he  was  heir  pre- 
sumptive to  the  Crown  of  England.  He 
declared  in  the  most  solemn  manner  that  he 
never  would  consent  to  allow  the  claims  of 
the  Catholics — "  never,  so  help  him  God  !  " 
On  the  second  reading  in  the  House  of 
Lords  the  bill  was  defeated. 

There  was  at  this  time  in  London  a  very 
imposing  deputation  of  L'ish  Catholics. 
O'Connell  and  Shell  had  been  requested 
by  the  Catholic  Association  to  go  over  and 
demdnd  to  be  heard  at  the  bar  of  the  House 
of  Commons  against  the  bill  for  suppression 
of  the  "  Unlawful  Associations  in  Ireland." 
The  motion  that  they  should  be  heard  was 
made  by  Mr.  Brougham  ;  but  was  rejected; 
and  that  part  of  their  mission  failed.  Sever- 
al distinguished  gentlemen  had  been  asso- 
ciated with  the  deputation  ;  amongst  others, 
Mr.  O'Gorman  and  Sir  Thomas  Esraonde. 
They  were  very  warmly  welcomed  and 
courteously  entertained  by  many  leading 
Whigs,  Brougham,  Burdett,  the  Duke  of 
Korfolk,  and  the  Duke  of  Sussex,  the  "  Lib- 
eral "  member  of  the  royal  family. 

An  incident  occurred  during  the  discussion 
npon  Mr.  Brougham's  motion  to  hear  O'Con- 
nell and  Shell  at  the  bar,  which  gave  occa- 
sion to  one  of  the  very  few  imprudent  things 
which  Peel  committed  in  his  Parliamentary 
life.  He  was  opposing  the  motion  with 
much  vehemence,  and  denouncing  ihe  asso- 
ciation as  a  treasonable  body;  alluding  to  a 
friendly  address  which  it  had  presented  to 
the  venerable  patriot  Archibald  Hamilton 
Rowan  ;  "  he  became  heated  with  victory," 
says  Mr.  Shell,  "  and  cheered,  as  he  was  re- 
peatedly, by  his  multitudinous  partizans, 
turned  suddenly  towards  the  part  of  the 
House  where  the  deputies  were  seated,  and 
looking  triumphantly  at  Mr.  O'Connell,  with 
whom  he  forgot  for  a  moment  that  he  had 
been  once  engaged  in  a  personal  quarrel, 
Rliook  his  hand  with  scornful  exultation,  and 
asked  whether  the  House  required  any  bet- 
ter evidence  than  the  address  of  the  associ- 
ation '  to  an  attainted  traitor.'  "     This  lan- 


guage was  held  to  be  in  very  bad  taste  ;  and 
Mr.  Brougham  made  a  fierce  and  damaging 
reply.  The  incident,  however,  showed  in 
very  strong  light  the  bitter  feeling  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel  towards  the  Catholics. 

Before  the  deputation  quitted  London, 
the  other  bill  for  emancipation,  with  pay- 
ment of  the  clergy  and  disfranchisement  of 
forty-shilling  freeholders,  was  pending. 
These  two  conditions  were  called  the 
"  wings "  of  the  bill ;  and  the  deputies, 
especially  Mr.  O'Connell,  had  much  conver- 
sation with  leading  Whig  politicians  upon 
the  terms  of  the  proposed  measure,  and 
upon  the  way  in  which  it  might,  probably,  be 
received  in  Ireland  as  a  final  settlement. 
Those  Whig  politicians  were  naturally  de- 
sirous that  the  measure  should  pass,  wings 
and  all — for  they  cared  nothing  about  the 
independence  of  the  Church,  or  the  rights 
of  electors.  What  they  thought  of  was, 
that  some  Irish  Catholic  members  coming 
into  Parliament  would  be  an  accession  of 
force  to  their  party,  and  might  carry  thera 
into  office.  Mr.  O'Connell  did  not  then, 
probably,  so  fully  know  as  he  afterwards 
came  to  know — that  British  Whigs  regard  all 
Irish  questions  solely  with  a  view  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  Whig  party.  The  courtesies 
also,  and  the  persuasive  phraseology  of  those 
courtly  "Liberals,"  and  of  the  English  Cath- 
olics, who  were  all  for  the  bill,  certainly  im- 
posed somewhat  upon  O'Connell's  mind  ; 
insomuch  that  he  is  known  to  have  signified 
to  some  principal  Whig  statesmen  his  wil- 
lingness to  take  the  bill  as  it  stood,  with 
the  two  offensive  "wings."  The  fortunate 
loss  of  the  measure  in  the  House  of  Lords 
prevented  any  evil  consequences  arising  from 
this  unaccountable  weakness  ;  and  when  the 
deputation  returned  to  Ireland,  and  found 
what  was  the  state  of  feeling  amongst  the 
Catholics;  and  when  O'Connell  found  that  his 
complying  disposition  was  very  likely  to  injure 
his  popularity  and  his  power  for  good,  he 
very  promptly  and  frankly  retracted,  and 
took  his  position  again  with  his  countrymen. 
It  had  been  well,  indeed,  if  he  had  firmly 
held  his  ground  against  both  those  Wings 
to  the  last.  , 


I 


ACTION    OP   THE   CATHOLIC    ASSOCIATION. 


499 


I  CHAPTER    LIV. 

1825—1829. 

Action  of  the  Catholic  Association-— Waterford  Elec- 
tion—Louth  Election — Cliange  of  Ministry— Can- 
ning Premier — Lord  Anglesea  Viceroy — The  "New 
Rel'orniatiou  " — Pope  and  Maguire— Death  of  Can- 
ning— Cioderich  Cabinet — Catliolic  Petition  for  Re- 
peal of  Test  and  Corporation  Acts — Acts  Repealed 
— Clare  Election— O'Connell  Returned — Its  Results 
— Suppression  of  Catholic  Association — Peel  and 
Wellington  Prepare  Catholic  Relief  Bill— Rage  of 
the  Bigots — Reluctance  of  the  King — O'Connell  at 
the  Bar  of  the  House — Passage  of  the  Emancipa- 
tion Act — Disfranchisement  of  the  Forty-Shilling 
Freeliolders— Abstract  of  the  Relief  Act— The  New 
Oath — Meaning  and  Spirit  of  the  Relief  Act. 

The  Ciitholic  Association  continued  its  op- 
erations and  extended  its  organization,  with 
even  greater  vigor  and  success  than  before. 
It  had  a  machinery  which  extended  not  only 
into  every  county  but  into  every  parish. 
Its  funds  were  given  to  employ  lawyers  to 
protect  the  people  in  cases  of  extreme  op- 
pression ;  and  in  such  cases  as  the  wrecking 
of  a  chapel,  or  an  Orange  riot  in  the  North 
— cases  wiiich  the  magistrates  at  petty  and 
quarter-sessions  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
treating  upon  the  general  principle  tliat  Pa- 
pists had  no  rights  which  Protestants  were 
bound  to  respect,  their  worships  were  now 
sometimes  thunderstruck  by  the  apparition 
of  clever  barristers  or  attorneys  from  Dub- 
lin, who  not  only  knew  more  law  than  the 
whole  bench  of  justices,  but  were  attended 
by  newspaper  reporters,  sure  to  publisli 
abroad  to  the  world  any  too-outrageous  in- 
stance of  magisterial  partizanship.  But 
the  machinery  of  the  association,  both  cen- 
tral and  provincial,  was  capable  of  being 
employed  with  more  striking  effect  in  the 
elections  of  representatives  in  Parliament  ; 
and  its  efficiency  began  to  be  proved  in  the 
general  election  of  1826.  It  was  resolved 
in  the  association  that  all  its  efforts  should 
be  concentrated  upon  favoring  the  return  of 
certaiti  liberal  Protestants  (seeing  that 
Catholics  were  not  eligible,)  for  some  coun- 
ties wliich  had  been  up  to  that  time  con- 
trolled absolutely  by  a  few  great  families  of 
the  old  colonial  aristocracy.  The  Beres- 
fords,  for  example,  had  lung  represented 
Waterfurd  in  the  person  of  some  memljer  of 
their    family  ;    the    idea    of    opposing    the 


Beresford  interest  in  that  county  seemed  the 
wildest  dream  ;  and  the  Beresford,  who  was 
Marquis  of  Waterford,  naturally  thought 
that  he  did  not  more  clearly  own  the  de- 
mesne of  Curraghmore  than  he  owned  the 
representation  of  his  county.  At  the  elec- 
tion of  1826,  Lord  George  Beresford  was 
boldly  opposed  by  Mr.  Yilliers  Stuart,  an- 
other large  proprietor  of  the  county,  and  a 
friend  to  the  Catholic  claims.  The  latter 
was  supported  by  the  parochial  organizers 
and  by  the  Catholic  clergy,  and  won  his 
election,  to  the  intense  mortification  of  the 
house  of  Curraghmore,  and  perfect  conster- 
nation of  the  whole  Protestant  interest. 

While  society  in  Dublin  was  much  agi- 
tated by  the  progress  of  this  contest  in  the 
South,  news  arrived  in  that  city  of  a  still 
more  stirring  nature  :  Louth  County  was  in 
like  manner,  held  to  be  an  apanage  of  the 
two  noble  houses  of  Foster  and  Jocelyn  ; 
their  titles  were  Oriel  and  Roden.  Lord 
Oriel  was  that  John  Foster,  Speaker  of  the 
Irish  House  of  Commons  at  the  time  of  the 
Union,  with  whom  this  history  has  already 
had  much  to  do  ;  all  his  life  a  high  place- 
holder, and  bitter  opponent  of  the  Catholics. 
The  politician  of  the  family  was  now  John 
Leslie  Foster,  who  had  long  sat  in  Parlia- 
ment as  one  of  the  members  for  the  county, 
and  consistently  on  every  occasion,  resisted 
the  slightest  concession  to  the  Catholics. 
The  Jocelyns  had  as  their  nominee  for  the 
other  seat,  Mr.  Fortescue,  a  politician  of  the 
same  deep  Orange  hue.  At  the  election  in 
1826,  there  presented  himself  to  tlie  peopla 
to  ask  their  suffrages,  a  Mr.  Dawson,  a  re- 
tired barrister  of  some  }ort\ine,  who  was 
favorable  to  the  enfranchisement  of  six  mil- 
lions of  his  countrymen.  He  was  attended 
to  the  pulls  by  immense  multitudes  of  the 
worthy  forty-shilling  freeholders,  who  march- 
ed with  him  into  Dundalk  with  green  ban- 
ners flying  in  the  wind.  The  contest  was 
close  ;  for  the  influence  of  the  great  land- 
lords was  nearly  ii-resistible,  unless  at  mortal 
peril.  It  needed  all  the  energy  of  the  local 
managers  of  the  association  to  bring  up  the 
voters,  and  get  them  to  defy  those  potent 
despots.  Mr.  Shell  went  down  from  Dublin 
as  counsel  for  Dawson  ;  in  short,  at  theclo.se 
of  the  poll,  Dawson  was  declared  duly  elect- 
ed ;    Mr.  Foster   was  the  second   uiembeJ, 


500 


HISTORY    or   IRELAND. 


and  Fortescue,  nominee  of  Lord  Roden, 
stood  defeated. 

Some  few  other  successes  of  a  similar 
character,  showed  what  the  association  could 
do.  Tlie  effect  of  such  events  upon  the  pub- 
lic mind  in  England  was  very  great.  As 
for  the  "  Ascendancy  "  faction  in  Ireland,  it 
was  as  usual  in  a  foam  of  rage  ;  the  great 
family  interests — the  mighty  Orange  houses 
which  had  been  long  a  rock  and  strong 
tower  to  Protestant  monopoly  and  religion, 
were  now,  as  it  seemed,  to  be  assailed,  not 
l)y  sap  or  mine,  but  by  open  storm  and  esca- 
lade. The  Protestant  mind  of  that  day 
could  not  help  believing  that  there  was  some 
Jesuit  conspiracy  at  work  in  this  matter, 
sind  that  the  Waterford  election  was  won 
virtually  by  the  Pope  of  Rome.  Sir  Har- 
court  Lees  demanded  of  Parliament  whether 
his  vaticinations  would  be  at  length  listened 
to — Popery  "put  down,"  and  O'Connell  sent 
to  the  Tower. 

Early  in  the  first  session  of  the  new  Par- 
liament, Lord  Liverpool,  the  Premier,  was 
struck  with  paralysis.  He  was  a  helpless 
and  timorous  creature  ;  afraid  to  read  his 
letters  in  the  morning,  lest  they  should  bring 
news  of  an  insurrection  in  some  part  of  the 
country  ;  and  his  only  idea  of  government 
was  to  disturb  nothing,  to  reform  nothing, 
(sufficient  unto  the  day  being  the  evil 
thereof,)  and  only  praying  that  all  mankind 
might  remain  precisely  as  it  was,  for  his  day. 
In  short,  he  was  a  "  Conservative  "  of  the  stu- 
pidest sort.*  On  his  death,  which  followed 
very  soon,  Mr.  Canning,  who  had  been  For- 
eign Secretary  in  his  administration,  was 
Bent  for  by  the  King,  and  received  his  com- 
mands to  form  a  Cabinet.  But  Mr.  Can- 
ning, only  a  month  before,  had  made  a  pow- 
erful speech  in  favor  of  Catholic  Emancipa- 
tion ;  the  King,  therefore,  must  have  known 
that  in  making  this  statesman  his  Prime 
Minister,  he  was  taking  an  almost  irrevoca- 
ble step  towards  that  clearly-inevitable  con- 
summation. Accordingly,  Sir  Robert  Peel, 
the  Duke  of  Wellington,  Lord  Eldon,  and 
other  Tory  members  of  the  outgoing  Cabi- 
net,  refused   to   serve  with   Mr.  Canning  ; 

*  His  order  of  Conservatism  is  admirably  charac- 
terized by  Paul  Louis  Courier,  wlio,  speaking  of  one 
©f  Lord  Liverpool's  character,  said:  "  If  he  had  been 
present  on  the  morniup;  of  the  creation  he  would 
bave  cried :    Mon  JHeu  .'  consenons  k  chaos! 


who,  thereupon,  formed  a  Ministry  which  was 
genel'ally  in  favor  of  concession.  Lord 
Wellesley  was  succeeded  in  the  Yiceroyalty 
of  Ireland  by  the  Marquis  of  Anglesea, 
formerly  Earl  of  Uxbridge,  a  very  brilliant 
cavalry  officer,  but  not  much  of  a  statesman. 
The  Chief  Secretary  was  Lord  Francis 
Leveson  Gower. 

When  Lord  Anglesea  arrived  in  Ireland, 
he  found  the  Ascendancy  faction  in  high  ex- 
citement. The  very  Orangemen  began  to 
perceive  the  ominous  signs  of  the  times.  They 
were  making  preparations  to  celebrate  with 
great  pomp  the  grand  Orange  anniversary  of 
the  12th  of  July  ;  being  resolved,  if  they 
could  not  much  longer  trample  on  their  fellow- 
countrymen,  to  insult  them  to  the  last.  As 
the  time  approached,  however,  Lord  An- 
glesea prohibited  by  proclamation  the  cus- 
tomary procession  in  Dublin,  and  the  gar- 
landihg  with  Orange  lihes  the  statue  of  King 
William  in  College  Green.  In  Ulster,  how- 
ever, the  anniversary  was  celebrated  with 
even  more  than  the  usual  show  of  insolent 
triumph.  In  every  town  and  village  the 
brethren  assembled  in  great  numbers,  march- 
ed from  town  to  town,  all  flaunting  with 
purple  and  orange  sashes,  generally  halting 
in  the  midst  of  districts  inhabited  by  Catho- 
lics, firing  a  volley  over  their  houses,  and 
playing  "  The  Protestant  Boys,"  and  "  Crop- 
pies Lie  Down." 

The  prohibition  of  the  Dublin  procession, 
and  other  alarming  signs  of  an  approaching 
compromise  with  Jezebel — for  such  was  held 
to  be  the  meaning  of  the  threatened  admis- 
sion of  Papists  to  Parliament  and  the  Cor- 
porations— aroused  all  the  "  No-Popery  "  an- 
imosities of  their  hereditary  oppressors  ; 
and  the  clerical  agitators  projected  a  "  New 
Refarmation."  If  the  Cathulics  could  but 
be  convinced  of  their  idolatry  and  supersti- 
tion, (which  seemed  so  manifest  to  those 
clerical  persons,)  it  was  thought  that  they 
could  no  longer  persist  in  their  audacious 
pretensions.  In  general,  this  new  scheme  of 
proselytism  was  carried  on  by  mere  ribald 
abuse  of  everything  held  sacred  in  the  an- 
cient religion,  and  by  repeating  the  old 
stories  out  of  "  Fox's  Martyrs  ;  "  but  certain 
of  the  new  reformers  challenged  public  dis- 
cussion with  tlie  most  learned  Catholic  the- 
ologians iu  every  diocese  ;  and  at  first  some 


THE       NEW   REFORMATION 


-POPE   AND    MAGUIRK 


501 


of  tliese  challenges  were  promptly  met  by 
Catholic  clergymen,  who  thought,  on  their 
side  that  their  religion  could  lose  nothing, 
and  might  gain  much  by  public  exposition 
and  defence  of  its  tenets.  Several  oral  dis- 
cussions took  place  accordingly,  of  which  the 
most  notable  was  that  between  a  Rev. 
Mr.  Pope,  an  English  clergyman,  and  Father 
Maguire,  a  parish  priest  of  Leitrim  County. 
The  bold  acceptance  of  the  challenge  by 
"  Father  Tom,"  was  thought  by  his  own 
partizans  rather  unfortunate,  as  he  had  never 
debated  in  public,  though  known  to  be  a 
learned  theologian,  while  Mr,  Pope  was  a 
practiced  controversialist.  The  discussion 
was  to  take  place  in  Dublin;  each  champion 
to  defend  three  articles  of  his  own  and  assail 
three  of  his  adversary's  faith.  The  occasion 
excited  intense  interest.  Not  only  the  pub- 
lic room  where  the  meeting  took  place,  but 
all  Sackville  street  was  thronged  with  eager 
Bympathizers.  As  the  two  disputants  ar- 
gued within  the  building,  thousands  of  minor 
"  oral  discussions"  were  taking  place  on  the 
streets,  and  the  talk  of  Dublin  carmen  was 
of  Two  Sacraments  and  of  Seven.  This 
scene  lasted  many  days  :  the  debate  was 
carried  on  with  sufficient  courtesy  :  Father 
Maguire  proved  himself  a  master  of  theolo- 
gical learning,  and  Mr.  Pope  of  controver- 
sial declamation  :  and  the  affair  ended,  as 
might  have  been  expected — that  is.  Catho- 
lics were  convinced  that  Mr.  Maguire  had 
demolished  the  Protestant  religion,  and 
Protestants  were  satisfied  that  Mr.  Pope 
had  not  left  Popery  a  leg  to  stand  on. 
Nobody  was  converted  on  either  side. 

Many  other  similar  discussions,  in  which 
laymen  sometimes  bore  a  part,  raged  in  each 
province  of  the  island,  and  generally  rather 
inflamed  intolerance  than  advanced  any 
good  cause  ;  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Doyle  dis- 
approved of  them,  and  soon  interdicted  the 
clergy  of  his  diocese  from  engaging  in  tliem. 
So  did  the  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  and  then 
the  other  Bishops.  Soon  not  a  priest  could 
be  found  to  accept  a  challenge — and  their 
opponents  took  this  as  a  plain  [)roof  that  the 
Catliolic  religion  was  afraid  of  the  light  of 
day.  They  eagerly  pressed  their  invitations, 
but  in  vain.  Tliey  urgcmtly  offered  to  their 
Catholic  friends  to  prove  the  Mass  a  plain 
sacrifice  to  idols,  and  Purgatory  a  lameu- 


table  infringement  on  the  prerogatives  of 
Hell — the  Catholic  priests  would  no  longer 
strip  for  this  polemical  prize-ring  ;  although 
still  ready  and  willing  to  expound  their  faith 
by  the  old  methods  of  theological  argument. 

Tlie  year  1827  was  remarkable  for  the 
first  great  examj)le  of  the  emigrant  Irish  in 
every  foreign  country,  and  iu  every  colony 
taking  an  active  part  in  the  struggle  for 
liberty  of  their  friends  at  home.  And  the 
sympathy  and  substantial  aid  were  not  con- 
fined to  Irishmen  alone  ;  nor  even  to  Catho- 
lics alone.  The  bold  attitude  of  O'Connell; 
the  mighty  power  he  had  created  and  direct- 
ed ;  the  vigor  and  wisdom  of  that  agitatiou 
now  so  evidently  shaking  the  deep-rooted 
and  broad-based  structure  of  the  British 
Empire,  attracted  the  admiration  of  thu 
world.  Tiie  powerful  French  press  occupied 
itself  warmly  in  the  struggle  ;  and  from 
French  Catholics,  as  well  as  from  Americans 
of  all  religions,  came  addresses  and  subscrip- 
tions to  the  Catliolic  Association.  Multitu- 
dinous meetings  of  "  Friends  of  Ireland  " 
were  held  in  all  considerable  American 
cities  ;  and  a  large  part  of  the  business  of 
the  association  began  to  be  reading  foreign 
correspondence,  and  receiving  addresses  from 
not  only  France  and  America,  but  from  va- 
rious German  States,  from  Italy,  from  Spain, 
even  from  British  India.  All  these  things, 
while  they  violently  irritated  the  national 
pride  of  the  English,  suggested  to  them  at 
the  same  time  the  impossibility  of  continued 
resistance,  in  so  very  bad  a  cause. 

Mr.  Canning  died  in  August,  after  a  very 
short  tenure  of  office.  He  had  to  contend 
with  a  compact  and  very  acrimonious  oppo- 
sition, consisting  not  only  of  the  Tories,  but 
of  the  aristocratic  party  of  the  old  Whigs, 
headed  by  Lord  Grey — a  party  whicli  was 
jealous  of  Canning,  because  it  sincerely 
believed  him  an  interloper  upon  the  pre- 
scriptive right  of  a  few  great  families  to 
govern  the  country.* 

*  Canning  was  a  man  of  strong  passions  and  higli 
spirit,  with  great  talent  for  satire  ;  and  of  course  had 
made  many  enemies— and  without  enemies,  no  maa 
is  entitled  to  have  friends.  Ue  had  been  a  Tory  too, 
and  had  written  pungent  squibs  in  th?  "  Anti-Jaco- 
bin "  against  "  French  i)rinciples  ; "'  for  example  the 
very  clever  satire  of  the  "  Needy  Knife-Griuder  " 
In  one  of  these  jc«x  d'  esprit,  he  liad  contrasted  the 
statesmanlike  qualities  of  certain  Tory  Tiorda  with 

" The  temper  of  (Jrey 

And  treasurer  Shendau's  promise  to  pay."' 


502 


HISTOBY    OF   IRELAND. 


But  the  head  and  the  heart  of  this  vea- 
omons  opposition  was  Sir  Robert  Peel,  who 
saw  that  Canning;  was  destined,  if  his  gov- 
ernment lasted,  to  carry  tlie  great  measiire 
of  Catholic  Emancii)ation,  and  who  was 
determined,  if  possible,  to  supersede  .him 
and  carry  that  inevitable  measure  himself — 
a  policy  not  unfamiliar  to  this  prudent 
statesman,  which  he  afterwards  pursued  in 
the  other  signal  case  of  the  repeal  of  the 
Corn  laws.  Mr.  Canning,  too,  was  in  failing 
health,  and  had  lost  most  of  the  original  en- 
ergy of  his  nature.  Peel,  therefore,  "  hound- 
ed liim  to  death,"  as  Lord  George  Bentinck 
long  afterwards  bitterly  declared  in  Parlia- 
ment. 

Mr.  Canning  was  succeeded  by  Lord 
Goderich,  a  statesman  of  little  talent  or  in- 
fluence, who  did  not  succeed  in  forming  a 
Ministry  which  could  hold  together;  and 
in  January  1828,  this  feeble  administration 
gave  place  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  aS 
Premier  Minister,  and  Sir  Robert  Peel  as 
Secretary  for  the  Home  Department — both 
of  them  avowed  and  inveterate  enemies  of 
the  liberties  of  Catholics.  The  Duke,  also, 
was  still  sincerely  and  consistently  res- 
olute to  refuse  all  concession  ;  while  his 
prudent  colleague  had  already  determined  to 
he  converted  at  the  right  moment,  and  to 
have  the  credit  of  effecting  a  revolution 
which  he  saw  to  be  inevitable.  In  this  new 
Cabinet  was  Lord  Palmerstou  ;  a  man  who 
never  cared  for  Whig  or  Tory,  Catholic  or 
Protestant,  or  the  rights  or  wrongs  of  any 
class,  sect  or  nation,  but  was  always  ready 
to  bear  a  hand,  and  that  efficiently,  in  the 
current  events  which  were  for  the  time  be- 
ing the  order  of  the  day. 

On  the  opening  of  the  session  of  1828,  the 
Catholic  Association  was  prepared  with  a 
petition,  signed  l)y  800,000  Catholics,  pray- 
jjijr — not  for  any  rights  of  their  own  or  re- 
lief for  themselves, — but  for  repeal  of  the 
Test  act  and  Corporation  act,  which  had 
excluded  Protestant  Dissenters  from  office 
for  a  century  and  a  half.  This  idea  was 
O'Connell's  ;  but  the  petition — as  he  long 
Afterwards  delighted  to  proclaim  —  was 
drawn  up  by  the  hand  of  Father  Tj'Estrange, 
ii  Carmelite  friar.     This  was  an  incident  well 

It  was  generally  belie  red  that  T>orfI  Ovey  did  not 
forget  this  ;  and  that  it  contributed  very  much  to  en- 
venom his  opposition  to  Canning's  Ministry. 


calculated  to  produce  a  fine  dramatic  effect 
— the  proscribed  and  oppressed  Catholics 
petitioning  for  the  rights  of  the  much  less 
proscribed  and  oppressed  Nonconformists  ! 
but  it  is  fair  to  add  that  many  petitions 
poured  in  this  session  from  Protestants  of 
all  sects  in  favor  of  the  Catholic  claims — 
so  that  there  was,  at  least,  an  appearance 
of  mutual  good  will,  and  an  universal  aspi- 
ration towards  liberty,  equality,  and  frater- 
nity. The  picture  was  somewhat  marred, 
however,  by  multitudes  of  petitions  vehem- 
ently deprecating  all  concession  to  Catholics; 
and  these  latter  came  from  the  most  influ- 
ential quarters  in  the  three  kingdoms  of  Ire- 
land, England,  and  Scotland.  The  British 
Universities  were  especially  stirred  by  ap- 
prehension and  alarm  for  the  Protestant  in- 
terest ;  and  the  corporations,  particularly 
that  of  Dublin,  felt  that  all  was  lost  if  a 
man  of  Seven  Sacraments  became  aldermaa 
or  town  comicillor. 

In  that  session  the  Test  act  and  Corpo- 
ration act  were  in  fact  repealed.  The 
measure  was  introduced  by  Lord  John  Rus- 
sell, a  statesman  who,  then  and  always,  pro- 
fessed "Liberal"  principles,  and  aspired  to 
lead  the  party  of  what  is  called  "  Progress," 
but  being  essentially  narrow-minded  has 
often  shown  himself  actuated  by  the  blind- 
est bigotry  and  intolerance.  His  measure 
was  carried,  chiefly  on  account  of  the  lan- 
guid opposition  made  to  it  by  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  who  was  then  in  a  transition  state, 
and  was  making  up  his  mind  to  be  convert- 
ed himself  to  Liberal  principles,  and  even 
to  snatch  from  Lord  John  Russell  and  the 
Whigs,  the  credit  of  carrying  the  grand 
Whig  measure  of  that  age.  The  act  re- 
pealing the  Test  and  Corporation  acts  be- 
came law  in  April  ;  and  a  few  weeks  after, 
on  the  secession  of  several  members  from  the 
Cabinet,  Mr.  Vesey  Fitzgerald,  then  mem- 
ber for  Clare  County,  was  brought  in  to  fill 
a  vacancy  in  the  administration,  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Trade.  This  vacated 
his  seat  for  Clare,  until  he  should  be  reelect- 
ed •  and  he  immediately  issued  his  address 
to  the  Clare  electors,  nothing  doubting  that 
he  would  be  at  once  replaced  in  his  seat  ; 
having  large  influence  in  the  county,  and 
most  of  the  larger  landed-proprietors  being 
his  political  and  personal  friends.     Mr.  Fitz- 


CLAEE   ELECTION O  CONNELL   RETURNED. 


5o:j 


gerald  was  a  highly  honorable  and  4iberal 
gentleman,  and  a  warm  friend  to  Catholic 
Emancipation.  He  was,  moreover,  the  sou 
of  that  steady  Anti-Union  patriot,  Mr. 
Prime-Sergeant  Fitzgerald,  who  had  spoken 
at  the  bar  meeting  against  the  Union,  and 
had  been  thereupon  degraded  from  his  office 
by  the  Government.  He  was,  therefore,  in 
some  sort,  a  martyr  to  patriotism  ;  and  his 
son  had  good  rcuson  to  count  not  only  on 
his  own  possessions  and  influence  in  his 
county,  but  also  on  his  personal  merit  and 
the  traditions  of  his  family,  for  a  warm  sup- 
port in  Clare. 

The  celebrated  Clare  election  followed  ; 
one  of  the  most  momentous  transactions  in 
the  modern  history  of  Ireland,  and,  indeed, 
of  the  other  island  also.  It  was  no  merely 
local  contest  for  one  seat  in  Parliament  ;  it 
was  the  making  up  of  a  decisive  issue  be- 
tween the  millions  of  oppressed  Catholics, 
and  that  potent  and  insolent  "  Ascendancy," 
which  had  so  long  trampled  upon  them  in 
their  own  land. 

At  first,  however,  it  was  not  foreseen  what 
a  sharp  turning  point  this  Clare  election  was 
destined  to  prove  in  history.  The  Catholics 
had  passed  a  resolution  at  one  of  their  ag- 
gregate meetings,  to  oppose  the  election  of 
every  candidate  who  should  not  pledge  him- 
self against  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  ad- 
ministration. Now  here  was  a  proven  friend 
to  those  Catholics,  who  had  always  voted  in 
their  favor,  actually  a  member  of  that  ad- 
minijiratioii,  and  seeking  election  at  the 
hands  of  an  Irish  constituency.  The  ques- 
tion was,  should  that  worthy  gentleman  be 
opposed  by  the  whole  power  of  the  associa- 
tion ?  And  whom  could  they  hope  to  put 
in  his  place  who  would  be  a  better  friend  to 
them  than  Yesey  Fitzgerald  ?  An  incident 
now  occurred,  which  gave  much  additional 
importance  to  this  question.  Lord  John 
Russell,  charmed  with  his  own  success  in 
repealing  the  Test  and  Corporation  acts, 
swelling  with  self-confidence,  as  usual,  and 
never  doubting  that  he  was  about  to  be  the 
great  "Liberal"  leader,  wrote  a  letter  to 
Mr.  O'Connell,  suggesting  that  the  conduct 
of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  the  case  of 
the  repeal  of  Test  and  Corporation  acts, 
had  been  so  fair  and  noble,  as  to  entitle  his 
grace  to  the  gratitude  of  "  Liberals  ; "  and 


that  they,  the  said  Liberals  "  would  con- 
sider the  reversal  of  the  resolution  whicii 
had  been  passed  against  his  Government,  as 
evidence  of  the  interest  which  the  Irish  peo- 
ple felt,  not  only  in  the  great  question  pecu- 
liarly  applicable  to  that  country,  but  in  the 
assertion  of  religious  freedom  throughout  the 
e?npire.^'*  That  is  to  say,  the  Whig  pariy 
of  the  "empire"  would  take  it  very  kind,  if 
Mr.  O'Connell  and  the  Catholic  Association 
would  put  aside  the  consideration  of  their 
own  country  and  their  own  riglits,  and  use 
their  power  so  as  to  benefit  that  parli/. 
This  resembles  extremely  the  many  other 
occasions  on  which  the  Whigs  of  the  "  Em- 
pire "have  endeavored  to  stifle  Irish  ques- 
tions, and  turn  Irish  organizations  for  na- 
tional purposes  to  the  service  of  an  Englisii 
faction,  which  always  courted  the  Catholics 
when  out  of  office,  and  always  spurned  and 
oppressed  them  when  in  power. 

And  Mr.  O'Conaell's  greatest  weakness, 
(as  we  have  seen  in  the  last  chapter,)  both 
then  and  since,  \ya^  his  too-credulous  reli- 
ance upon  the  fair  professions  of  that  treaclt- 
erous  party,  which  he  had  so  often  occasion 
to  describe  as  "the  base,  brutal,  and  bloody 
Whigs."  On  the  present  occasion,  Mr. 
O'Connell  can  scarcely  be  censured  for  lend- 
ing an  ear  to  the  suggestion  of  the  Whig — 
that  Mr.  Fitzgerald's  election  should  go  un- 
opposed ;  for  O'Connell  himself  did  not  yet 
foresee  what  a  potent  engine  this  Clare 
election  would  become  in  his  hands.  There- 
fore, he  proposed  in  the  association,  that 
the  resolution  should  be  suspended. 

But  O'Connell  did  not  fully  appreciate 
how  deeply  his  countrymen  abhorred  both 
Wellington  and  Peel,  of  both  of  whom, 
in  the  capacity  of  Chief  Secretary,  Ireland 
had  bitter  experience.  His  motion  was  ve- 
hemently and  successfully  opposed.  After 
some  debate,  the  original  resolution  was 
left  standing  ;  and  the  association  remained 
committed  to  oppose  the  return  of  Mr. 
Vesey  Fitzgerald.  Mr.  O'Connell  had  rea- 
son to  rejoice  in  his  failure  to  rescind  that 
resolution. 

Clare,  then,  was  to  be  contested  ;  and 
the  next  question  was,  wlio  was  to  be  put 
forward  against  Fitzgerald  ?  The  associa- 
tion pitched  upon  Major  Mac  Namara,  one 

*See  Sliiel'a  Sketclies— 27ie  Clare  Election,    . 


504 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


of  the  proprietors  of  the  county,  a  Protest- 
ant, of  course,  but  descended  of  ancient 
Irish  stock,  very  friendly  to  the  Catholics  ; 
a  man  of  but  little  weight  of  character, 
whose  principal  care  and  ambition,  seem  to 
have  been  to  dress  and  wig  himself  after 
the  pattern  of  George  IV.,  whom  he 
personally  resembled  ;  for  the  rest,  a  good 
landlord,  an  excellent  magistrate,  and  pro- 
lector  of  the  poor  and  oppressed.  But  this 
personage,  though  a  friend  to  his  Catholic 
countrymen,  was  still  more  a  friend,  as  it 
turned  out,  to  his  jieighbor  Yesey  Fitzger- 
ald. He  allowed  many  days  to  elapse, 
without  sending  an  answer  to  the  associa- 
tion ;  and  as  Clare  was  at  a  great  distance 
from  Dublin,  in  those  days  of  slow  traveling, 
much  anxious  delay  was  thus  created. 
Doubts  and  rumors  began  to  prevail,  not 
only  as  to  the  acceptance  of  the  candidacy, 
but  as  to  the  disposition  of  the  priests  of 
Clare,  to  act  warmly  with  the  association 
against  so  estimable  and  popular  a  gentle- 
man. Mr,  O'Gorman  Mahon  and  JNIr. 
Steele  were  sent  post  to  Clare,  to  inquire 
into  the  dispositions  of  priests  and  people, 
and  to  bring  an  answer,  if  possible,  from 
Major  Mac  Naraara.  O'Gorman  Mahcjii 
came  back  in  two  days  ;  the  Major's  family 
lay  under  such  obligations  to  Mr.  Fitzger- 
ald, that  he  could  not  think  of  opposing  him. 
Meanwhile,  the  "  Ascendancy"  party,  as  well 
as  the  Liberal  Protestants  of  Clare,  were 
actively  engaged  in  working  for  the  candi- 
date already  in  the  field  ;  and  boasting  that 
no  gentleman  in  the  county  would  stoop  so 
low  as  to  accept  the  patronage  of  the  Cath- 
i>lic  Association.  Those  gentlemen  of  the 
county,  was  soon  to  receive  a  lesson. 

There  was  earnest  consultation  one  night 
at  O'Connell's  house,  in  Merrion  Square  ; 
next  day  Dublin  City  was  startled,  and  soon 
all  Ireland  was  aroused,  by  an  address  from 
CConndl  himself,  to  the  electors  of  Clare, 
soliciting  their  suffrages,  affirming  that  he 
was  qualified  to  be  elected  and  to  serve 
them  in  Parliament,  although  he  would 
lyever  take  the  oath,  (that  the  Mass  is  idol- 
atrous,) "for,"  continued  he,  "  the  author- 
ity whicli  created  those  oaths,  (the  Parlia- 
ment,] can  abrogate  them  ;  and  I  entertain 
it  coTifident  hope  that  if  you  elect  tne,  the 
ciost  bigoted  of  our  enemies  will  see  the  ne- 


cessity of  removing  from  the  chosen  repre- 
sentat^ive  of  the  people,  an  obstacle,  wliifh 
would  prevent  liiin  from  doing  his  duty  to  his 
King  and  to  his  country,"  At  last  all  the 
world,  friends  and  foes,  saw  in  one  moment 
what  was  to  be  the  meaning  of  the  Clare 
election. 

Several  members  of  the  association  were 
at  once  sent  down  to  Clare,  in  order  to  ex- 
cite the  people,  and  prepare  them  for  the 
great  event  ;  also  to  arouse  the  spirit  of  the 
priests,  and  induce  them  to  use  their  influ- 
ence with  the  tenantry.  The  great  family 
"  interests,"  the  O'Briens,  the  Yandeleurs, 
the  Fitzgeralds,  the  Mac  Namaras  had,  as 
they  thought,  organized  and  drilled  their 
numerous  tenantry  into  proper  discipline. 
They  considered  the  peo|)le  who  lived  ou 
their  estates  almost  in  the  light  of  serfs  ; 
and  it  was  a  principle  then  in  Ireland,  that 
if  any  gentleman  interfered  with  another's 
tenants,  by  canvassing  them,  in  order  to  in- 
duce them  to  vote  against  their  landlords, 
tiie  interference  was  to  be  resented  as  a 
personal  affront.  But  a  power  was  now 
moving  these  masses,  on  which  those  respect- 
able gentlemen  had  not  calculated — the  pro- 
found and  sweeping  passion  of  a  highly  im- 
pulsive and  imaginative  people,  thoroughly 
aroused  by  every  feeling  that  could  appeal 
either  to  their  manhood,  or  their  religious 
enthusiasm — stimulated  by  the  exhortations 
of  priests  whom  they  loved,  and  inspired  by 
the  name  and  renown  of  the  redoubtable 
champion,  who  promised  to  deliver  them. 
All  this  together,  made  up  such  a  mass  of 
concentrated  power,  as  was  sure  to  test  sev- 
erely the  discipline  of  the  great  estates,  and 
the  traditionary  defereuce  paid  by  tenants 
to  their  landlords. 

Mr.  Steele  and  O'Gorman  Mahon  un- 
dertook to  canvass  the  county  ;  and  Steele 
intimated  beforehand,  his  readiness  to  fight 
any  landlord  who  shoidd  feel  himself  ag- 
grieved by  interference  with  his  tenants. 
Then  they  traversed  the  county,  making 
the  most  earnest  and  impetuous  appeals  to 
the  people  ;  nddressing  them  at  all  hours, 
and  in  all  places — in  the  chapels  after  Mass, 
on  tiie  hill-sides,  in  the  village  markets,  by 
day  and  by  night,  until  it  was  clear  that 
the  generous  and  gallant  people,  were  fully 
resolved  to  brave  this  one  good  time,  the  ut- 


RAGE   OF   THE   BIGOTS. 


505 


most  vengeance  of  landlord-wrath,  and  carry 
the  "  Man  of  the  People"  triumphantly  to 
the  door  of  Parliament. 

The  famous  Father  Maguire  traveled  all 
the  way  from  Leitrim,  that  he  might  help  to 
swell  the  excitement.  John  Lawless,  (or 
as  he  was  usually  named  honest  Jack  Law- 
less,) was  then  editor  of  a  newspaper  in  Bel- 
fast, called  the  Irishman  ;  he  left  his  news- 
paper to  other  hands,  and  hurried  to  Clare, 
to  put  his  tiery  leading  articles,  into  the 
form  of  fiery  speeches.  The  town  of  Ennis, 
whicli  had  a  population  of  eight  thousand, 
contained  thirty  thousand  human  beings,  ou 
the  day  when  O'Connell's  green  carriage 
was  expected  in  that  place.  Green  flags 
waved  from  the  windows  ;  priests  and  agi- 
tators addressed  multitudes  from  a  balcony 
or  a  flight  of  steps  ;  and  the  excitement  of 
expectation  was  at  its  highest.  Yet  there 
was  not  the  slightest  appearance  of  turbu- 
lence or  disorder.  On  the  contrary,  through- 
out all  the  exciting  canvass,  and  still 
more  exciting  days  of  the  actual  poll,  eld 
family  fends  were  suspended,  or  terminated 
forever.  There  was  no  drunkenness,  no 
angi-y  language,  and  no  man  ventured  (so 
strong  was  public  opinion)  to  raise  a  hand 
agaiiist  anotlrer  upon  any  provocation. 
O'Connell,  at  length,  appeared,  with  two  or 
three  friends  ;  and  there  was  one  continu- 
ous shout  from  thirty  thousand  throats. 
Women  cried  and  laughed  ;  strangers  who 
had  never  seen  one  another,  wrung  each 
other's  hands  ;  and  from  every  window 
ladies  (Mr.  Shiel  says,  "  of  great  beauty,") 
waved  hands  and  handkerchiefs.  No  won- 
der that  such  a  tempest  of  patriotic  zeal, 
whirled  away  Mr.  Fitzgerald's  own  tenants 
out  of  the  hands  of  their  marshaling  bailiffs  ; 
nor  that  one  wave  of  O'Coimell's  arm,  left 
Mr.  Vandcleur  deserted  by  his  whole  army 
of  freeliolders.  Sir  Edward  O'Brien's  feu- 
dal pride  was  mortally  hurt  by  the  defec- 
tion of  his  people,  and  he  shed  tears  of  vex- 
ation ;  but  his  son,  William  Smith  O'Brien, 
then  member  for  Ennis,  though  his  family 
pride  may  have  been  hurt  by  such  a  result, 
was  not  inconsolable,  being,  indeed,  a  con- 
tributor to  the  "Catholic  Rent,"  and  one 
who  at  all  times,  valued  justice  and  fair 
dealing  more  highly  than  the  broad  acres 
and  high  towers  of  Drumoland. 
61 


The  details  of  an  election  contest,  even 
that  of  Clare  in  1828,  need  not  be  related 
at  length.  Sir  Edward  O'Brien  proposed 
Mr.  Fitzgerald,  who  was  seconded  by  Sir 
Augustus  Fitzgerald.  O'Connell  was  pro- 
posed by  O'Gorman  Mahon  and  Mr.  Steele, 
both  proprietors  in  the  county.  The  speeches 
were  made  ;  the  poll  proceeded  ;  and  at 
its  close  the  nnmbers  stood,  for  O'Connell, 
two  thousand  and  fifty-seven  ;  for  Fitz- 
gerald, one  thousand  and  seventy-five.  After 
an  argument  before  the  assessor,  Mr.  Keat- 
ing, in  which  it  was  contended  that  a 
Catholic  could  not  be  legally  returned,  the 
objection  was  overruled,  ou  the  ground  that 
it  rested  with  the  Parliament  itself,  on  the 
oath  being  tendered  and  refused,  to  exclude 
a  representative,  and  O'Connell  was  pro- 
claimed duly  elected. 

It  is  somewhat  difficnlt,  at  this  day,  fully 
to  comprehend  the  profound  impression 
which  this  event  produced  throughout  Ire- 
land, as  well  as  in  the  other  island.  Mr. 
Vesey  Fitzgerald,  though  deeply  mortified, 
took  his  defeat  with  a  gentlemanlike  calm- 
ness ;  but  the  great  proprietors  of  Clare 
County, who  had  supported  him,  could  not  con- 
ceal their  ominous  apprehensions.  "  Where 
is  all  this  to  end  ?"  was  a  question  frequently 
put  in  his  presence  ;  to  which  he  replied 
only  by  looks  of  gloom  and  sorrow.  In 
fact,  the  worthy  Protestant  "  Liberals,"  dis- 
ciples and  followers  of  Grattan  and  Pon- 
sonby,  had  accustomed  themselves  to  regard 
the  Catholic  claims  as  their  affair — they 
were  the  Parliamentary  patrons  of  the  Irish 
Catholics,  and  liad  never  dreamed  of  the 
possibility  of  their  clients  taking  the  case 
into  their  own  hands  ;  not  only  throwing  off 
all  dependence  upon  them,  but  even  flinging 
aside  so  decisively  one  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  their  advocates,  and  coming  ia 
their  proper  person  to  thunder  at  the  doors 
of  Parliament.  Still  more  fearful  and  ter- 
rible to  them  was  the  example  of  independ- 
ence now  set  by  the  voting  tenantry — the 
hereditary  family  "  interests  "  were  no  longer 
omnipotent  ;  and  the  end  of  the  world 
seemed  at  hand.  The  exultation  of  the 
Catholic  people  of  Ireland  was  unbounded. 
O'Connell  traveled  back  to  Dublin  in  the 
midst  of  one  continued  triumphal  procession. 
Mr.  Lawless,  the  Belfast  editor,  was  escort- 


606 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


ed,  on  his  return  to  Belfast,  by  enormous 
multitudes  of  the  peasantry.  Through  the 
phiius  of  Meath  they  passed  in  peaceable 
triumph,  and  through  the  southern  part  of 
Monaghan  ;  but  in  this  region  the  Orange- 
men were  strong,  armed,  resolute,  and 
infuriated  ;  and  a  vast  concourse  of  armed 
Protestants,  excited  by  the  hai-angues  of 
their  preachers,  and  prayerfully  determined 
to  resist  this  triumph  of  "Jezebel,"  at  least 
in  their  county,  were  assembled  at  Ballybay, 
and  showed  a  stern  purpose  of  opposing  the 
passage  of  Mr.  Lawless  and  his  followers. 
It  needed  all  the  exertions  of  the  Catholic 
clergy,  and  the  friendly  expostulations  of 
General  Thornton,  military  commandant  of 
the  district,  to  prevent  a  collision,  and  induce 
the  multitudinous  escort  of  Mr.  Lawless  to 
disperse  and  go  to  their  homes.  For  a 
week  or  two  there  were  serious  apprehen- 
sions of  collision,  and  of  civil  war  ;  and  large 
cumbers  of  troops  were  hastily  sent  over 
from  England.  It  was  even  formally  pro- 
posed in  the  Catholic  Association  that  a  run 
should  be  made  on  the  banks,  with  a  view 
of  disorganizing  society  and  opening  the 
way  for  armed  revolution  ;  but  these  coun- 
sels were  rejected. 

The  actuul  results  of  this  election  are  well 
known,  and  may  be  shortly  summarized. 
The  Duke  of  Wellington,  who  had  a  few 
months  before  declared  that  "  he  could  not 
comprehend  the  possibility  of  placing  Roman 
Catholics  in  a  Protestant  Legislature  with 
any  kind  of  safety;  as  his  personal  kriowledge 
told  him  that  no  King,  however  Catholic, 
could  govern  his  Catholic  subjects  without 
the  aid  of  the  Pope  ;"  this  Duke,  the 
consistent  and  conscientious  opponent  of 
Catholic  liberties,  and  who  had  taken  office 
expressly  to  defeat  their  claims,  became 
suddenly  converted,  and  felt  that  the  choice 
lay  between  Catholic  Emancipation  and 
civil  war.  As  for  Sir  Robert  Peel,  he  had 
already  divined  the  course  of  events — his 
policy  was  clear  ;  and  his  conscience  pre- 
sented no  serious  difBculty.  Lord  Anglesea, 
the  Lord-Lieutenant,  though  he  had  come 
over  to  Ireland  with  no  friendly  feeling 
towards  the  Catholics,  had  greatly  altered 
liis  views,  and  now  made  no  secret  of  his 
opinion  that  the  time  was  come  to  settle  the 
vexed  question  in  the  only  way  it  could  be 


settled — for  which  expression  of  opinion  he 
was  summarily  removed  from  his  govern- 
ment. 

The  Parliament  met  in  February,  1829. 
The  King's  speech,  prepared,  no  doubt,  by 
Peel,  recommended  the  suppression  of  the 
Catholic  Association,  and  the  subsequent 
consideration  of  Catholic  disabilities,  with  a 
view  to  their  adjustment  and  removal.  As 
for  the  Catholic  Association,  there  could  be 
no  difficulty  about  that  ;  it  had  done  its 
work,  and  not  waiting  for  the  law  to  sup- 
press it,  dissolved  itself  at  once — that  is, 
nominally,  for  substantially  the  organization 
still  subsisted,  and  could  easily  resume  its 
usual  business  in  case  of  necessity. 

It  was  Sir  Robert  Peel  who,  on  the  5th 
of  March,  moved  for  a  Committee  of  the 
Whole  House,  "for  consideration  of  the  civil 
disabilities  of  His  Majesty's  Roman  Catholic 
subjects  ;"  and  the  motion  was  carried, 
after  warm  debate,  by  a  large  majority. 

And  now  arose  the  most  tremendous 
clamor  of  alarmed  Protestantism  that  had 
been  heard  in  the  Three  Kingdoms  since 
the  days  of  James  II.  —  the  last  King 
who  had  ever  dreamed  of  placing  Catholics 
and  Protestants  on  something  like  an  ap- 
proach to  equality.  Multitudinous  petitions, 
not  only  from  Irish  Protestants,  but  from 
Scottish  Presbyteries,  from  English  Univer- 
sities, from  corporations  of  British  towns, 
from  private  individuals,  came  pouring  into 
Parliament,  praying  that  the  great  and 
noble  Protestant  State  of  England  should 
not  be  handed  over  as  a  prey  to  the  Jesuits, 
the  Inquisitors  and  the  Propaganda.  Never 
was  such  a  jumble  of  various  topics,  sacred 
and  profane,  as  in  those  petitions  ;  vested 
interests — idolatry  of  the  Mass — principles  of 
the  Hanoverian  succession — the  Inquisition 
— eternal  privileges  of  Protestant  tailors,  or 
Protestant  lightermen — our  holy  religion — 
French  principles — tithes — and  the  Beast  of 
the  Apocalypse — all  were  urged,  with  vehe- 
ment eloquence,  upon  the  enlightened  legis- 
lators of  Britain. 

What  may  seem  strange,  one  has  to  ad- 
mit that  a  great  number  of  these  frightened 
petitioners  were  truly  sincere  and  conscien- 
tious. The  amiable  Dr.  Jebb,  Protestant 
Bishop  of  Limerick,  for  example,  writes  an 
earnest  letter  to  Sir  Robert  Peel,  on  the  1 1th 


RELUCTANCE    OF    THE   KING. 


507 


of  February,  1829,  (so  soon  as  lie  saw  the 
course  that  matters  were  taking,)  and  says 
to  him  :  "  Infinitely  more  difficulties  and 
dangers  will   attach  to  concession  than  to 

uncompromising  resistance In 

defence  of  all  that  is  dear  to  British  Pro- 
testants, I  am  cheerfully  prepared,  if  neces- 
sary, as  many  of  my  order  have  formerly 
done,  to  lay  down  life  itself."  On  the  other 
hand,  the  good  Dr.  Doyle,  Catholic  Bishop 
of  Kildare  and  Leighlin,  had  uttered  this 
prayer  for  O'Connell  when  he  started  for 
the  contest  in  Clare  :  "  May  the  God  of 
truth  and  justice  protect  and  prosper  you  1" 
What  very  different — what  very  opposite 
ideas  of  truth  and  justice  had  these  two 
excellent  Prelates  ! 

Sir  Robert  Peel,  however,  had  taken  his 
part — the  Catholics  were  to  be  emancipat- 
ed ;  and  by  hi?}i.  But  the  King  would  not 
yield,  save  at  the  last  extremity.  To  assent 
to  an  act  of  justice,  seemed  to  George 
IV.,  like  the  loss  of  his  dearest  heart's 
blood.  He  endeavored  even  to  get  rid  of 
the  Wellington  Cabinet,  and  to  form  a  new 
Ministry,  which  would  pledge  itself  not  to 
do  justice.  But  in  this  he  failed.  Sir 
Robert  Peel  tells  us  :  "  At  a  late  hour  on 
the  evening  of  the  4th  of  March,  the  King 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington, 
informing  him  that  His  Majesty  anticipated 
so  much  difficulty,  in  the  attempt  to  form 
another  administration,  that  he  could  not 
dispense  with  our  services  ;  that  he  must, 
therefore,  desire  us  to  witlidrawour  resigna- 
tion, and  that  we  were  at  liberty  to  proceed 
with  the  measures,  of  which  notice  had  been 
given  in  Parliament."* 

Mr.  O'Connell,  who  had  arrived  in  Lon- 
don, to  claim  his  seat  for  Clare,  as  a  Cath- 
olic, finding  that  there  was  now  a  Govern- 
ment pledged  to  emancipation,  having  carte 
blanche  for  that  purpose,  decided  not  to 
present  himself  for  the  present,  lest  it  should 
embarrass  the  adraiuistration. 

The  Emancipation  act  was  forthwith  in- 
troduced ;  it  was  prepared  by  Sir  Robert 
Peel  ;  it  contained  neither  the  provision  for 
veto,  nor  that  for  bribing  the  priests  ;  but  it 

*  Memoirs.  By  the  Right  Honorable  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  Bart.  PublisboJ  by  the  trustees  of  his  papers, 
Lord  Mahon  ami  Right  Honorable  Ed.  Cardwell,  M. 
p.     London:  185G. 


was  accompanied  by  a  certain  other  act,  as 
fatal,  perhaps,  as  either  of  those,  namely, 
for  disfranciiisement  of  all  the  forty-shilling 
freeholders  in  Ireland.  Sir  Robert  was  de- 
termiued  at  least,  not  to  yield  this  point. 
It  was  the  forty-shilling  freeholders,  who 
had  humbled  the  Beresford  domination  in 
Waterford,  and  destroyed  the  Foster  mo- 
nopoly in  Louth  ;  it  was  the  forty-sliillino; 
freeholders  who  had  carried  O'Connell  tri- 
umphantly to  the  head  of  the  poll  in  Clare  ; 
and  by  destroying  that  whole  class  of  voters, 
Peel,  hoped  very  reasonably,  not  only  to 
render  the  remaining  voters  more  amenable 
to  corrupt  influences,  but  also  to  take  away 
the  motive,  which  had  heretofore  existed,  for 
granting  leases  to  small  farmers,  and  thus  in 
good  time,  to  turn  those  independent  far- 
mers into  tenauts-at-will.  He  had  his  own 
profound  reasons  for  this — which  will  fully 
appear  hereafter. 

The  debates  on  the  Relief  bill  were,  as 
might  have  been  expected,  very  violent  and 
bitter.  The  fanatical  section  of  English  and 
Irish  Protestantism,  was  deeply  moved.  In 
the  mind  of  those  people,  all  was  lost  ;  and 
Sir  Robert  Peel  and  the  Duke,  were  almost 
directly  charged  with  being  agents  of  the 
Pope  of  Rome.  However,  the  bill  passed 
through  its  two  first  readings  in  the  Com- 
mons ;  and  the  third  reading  was  passed  on 
the  30th  of  March,  by  a  majority  of  thirty- 
six.  Next  day  it  was  carried  to  the  House 
of  Lords  ;  and  on  the  2d  of  April,  its  sec- 
ond reading  was  moved  by  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  who  made  no  scruple  to  urge 
its  necessity,  in  order  "  to  prevent  civil  war." 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  his  argument  for  the 
law,  had  been  less  explicit  and  straiglitfor- 
ward  than  the  Duke  —  he  had  only  said 
the  measure  was  needful,  to  prevent  great 
dangers  and  "public  calamity."  f 

After  violent  debates  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  lasting  several  days,  the  bill  was 
passed  a  third  time,  and  passed  by  a  raajor- 

■f  Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  his  letter  to  Doctor  Jebb, 
Bishop  of  Limerick,  in  February,  said  :  "  It  is  easy 
to  blame  the  conce.ssions  that  were  made  in  1782, 
and  in  1793  ;  but  they  were  not  made  without  an  in- 
timate conviction  of  their  absolute  necessity  in  order 
to  prevent  greater  dangers."  Sir  Robert  says  agaia : 
"  I  can  with  trutli  affirm,  that  in  advising  and  promot- 
ing the  measures  of  1829,  I  was  swayed  by  no  fear, 
except  the  fear  of  public  calamity." — Memoirs,  by  Sir 
Robert  Peel. 


608 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


ity  of  one  hundred  and  four.  It  then  re- 
ceived tlie  royal  assent ;  and  what  is  called 
Catholic  Emancipation,  was  an  accomplish- 
ed fact. 

O'Connell,  in  the  meantime,  presented 
himself  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, claiming  to  take  his  seat  as  member 
for  Clare.  This  was  before  the  passage  of 
the  bill  iiito  a  law.  But  an  election  petition 
was  pending,  sent  forward  by  certain  elec- 
tors of  Clare,  against  the  validity  of  his  re- 
turn. The  investigation  of  this  petition  con- 
sumed time  ;  but,  at  length,  the  committee 
reported  INIr.  O'Connell  duly  elected.  The 
Emancipation  act  was  now  passed,  and  was 
the  law  of  the  land.  O'Connell,  thereupon, 
held  himself  entitled  to  go  in  and  take  his 
seat,  subject  only  to  the  new  oaths.  For 
this  purpose,  he  repaired  to  the  House,  on 
the  16th  of  May,  was  introduced  in  the  usu- 
al form  by  Lords  Ebrington  and  Duncan- 
non,  and  walked  to  the  table  to  be  sworn  by 
the  Clerk.  But  Sir  Robert  Peel,  had  pru- 
dently provided  against  this  in  the  new  law  ; 
which  admitted  only  those  who  should, 
"  after  the  comimncement  of  that  act  be  re- 
turned as  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons," to  take  their  seats  under  the  new 
oaths.  It  was  a  mean  piece  of  spite  ;  and 
its  special  object  was,  to  give  Sir  Robert 
an  opportunity  of  snubbing  O'Connell  one 
last  time,  before  yielding  finally  to  his  im- 
perious demand. 

Accordingly,  the  Clerk  of  the  House  ten- 
dered to  the  new  member  the  now-abrogated 
oaths — one  being  the  oath  of  Supremacy, 
(namely,  that  the  King  of  England  is  head 
of  the  Church,)  and  the  other,  "that  the 
Sacrifice  of  the 'Mass  is  impious  and  idola- 
trous," and  so  forth.  He  refused  to  take 
these  oaths  :  he  was  then  heard  at  the  bar 
of  the  House,  where  he  claimed  his  right  to 
sit  and  vote  :  his  claim  was  dissallowed  by 
a  vote  :  the  old  oaths  were  once  more  ten- 
dered to  him  :  he  read  over  the  stupid  trash 
in  an  audible  voice  ;  then  said,  raising  his 
head,  that  he  declined  to  take  that  oath, 
because  "  one  part  of  it  he  knew  to  be  false, 
and  another  he  did  not  believe  to  be  true." 
A  new  writ  was  then  issued  to  hold  an  elec- 
tion for  the  County  Clare. 

The  series  of  measures  called  "  Emanci- 
patiibL  "  consisted  of  three  acts  of  Parlia- 


ment. The  first,  an  act  for  suppression  of 
the  Catholic  Association,  as  an  illegal  and 
dangerous  society  ;  the  second  an  act  for 
the  disfranchisement  of  the  forty-shilling 
freeholders  in  Ireland  (not  in  England, 
where  that  qualification  was  retained) — and 
third,  the  Relief  act  proper,  abolishing  the 
old  oaths  against  transubstantiation,  &c., 
and  substituting  another  very  long  and  in- 
genious oath  (for  Catholics  only)  testifying 
allegiance  to  the  Crown  ;  promising  to  main- 
tain the  Hanoverian  settlement  and  succes- 
sion ;  declaring  that  it  is  no  article  of  the 
Catholic  faith  "  that  Princes  excommuni- 
cated by  the  Pope  may  be  deposed  or  mur- 
dered by  their  subjects  ;  that  neither  the 
Pope  nor  any  other  foreign  prince  has  any 
temporal  or  civil  jurisdiction  within  the 
realm  ;  promising  to  defend  the  settlement 
of  property  as  established  by  law  ;  solemnly 
disclaiming,  disavowing,  and  abjuring  '  any 
intention  to  subvert  the  present  church  estab- 
lishment as  settled  by  law;' and  engaging 
never  to  exercise  any  privilege  conferred  by 
that  act  '  to  disturb  or  weaken  the  Protes- 
tant religion  or  Protestant  government.'  " 

The  act  admitted  Catholics,  on  taking 
this  oath,  to  be  members  of  any  lay  body- 
corporate,  and  to  do  corporate  acts,  and  vote 
at  corporate  elections  ;  but  not  to  join  in  a 
vote  for  presentation  to  a  benefice  in  the 
gift  of  any  corporation. 

The  act  further  most  formally  affirmed 
and  preserved  the  great  principle  of  Protes- 
tant Ascendancy,  by  specially  excluding 
Catholics  from  the  high  offices  of  Lord-Lieu- 
tenant and  Lord  Chancellor  ;  the  former 
being  the  officer  wlio  makes  nearly  all  ap- 
pointments in  Ireland,  and  exercises  the  royal 
power  to  pardon — or  not  to  pardon  ;  the 
latter  being  the  person  who  decides  on  the 
guardianship  of  minors,  and  orders  in  what 
religion  they  are  to  be  brought  up,  in  the 
absence  of  express  directions  from  their  pa- 
rents. The  Lord  Chancellor  also  has  con- 
trol over  the  commissions  of  magistrates, 
and  cancels  them  at  his  pleasure,  thus  con- 
trolling, in  a  very  great  degree,  the  admin- 
istration of  justice. 

Bearing  in  mind  these  important  provis- 
ions and  exceptions — and,  further,  that  the 
Anglican  Church  still  continued  the  estab- 
lished religion  of  the  land,  and  still  devoured 


ME-i^NING   AND   SPIRIT    OF   THE   BELIEF    ACT. 


509 


the  Catholic  people  by  its  exactions — it 
is  tolerably  clear  that  by  the  Relief  bill 
Catholics  were  not  quite  half  emancipated. 

But  the  most  fatal  blow  to  the  liberties 
of  the  Irish  people  was  the  contemporaneous 
act  for  disfranchisement  of  the  forty-shillinc? 
freeholders  ;  and  for  raising  the  connty 
qualification  to  £10  a  year — five  times  the 
qualification  required  in  England.  Only 
seventeen  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons voted  against  this  grievous  injustice. 
It  was  introduced  by  Sir  Robert  Peel,  on 
the  ostensible  ground  that  there  was  too 
great  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  Irish 
landlords  to  divide  their  land  into  minute 
portions  ;  that  the  franchise  was  a  mere  in- 
strument with  which  the  landed  aristocracy 
e.xercised  power  and  control  over  the  elec- 
tions ;  and  that  this  control  had  lately  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  priests,  (which  was 
worse,)  and  he  cited  as  an  example  what  had 
ktely  taken  place  in  Louth  and  Monaghan 
and  Waterford.  In  other  words,  he  would 
disfranchise  those  small  farmers  because  they 
had  shown  themselves  capable  of  defying 
landlord  control  and  acting  independently. 
Amongst  those  who  opposed  this  measure 
were  Lord  Duncannon,  Lord  Palmerston, 
and  Mr.  Huskisson.  Their  argument  was, 
"  If  the  forty-shilling  freeholders  had  been 
corrupt,  like  those  of  Penrhyn,  their  dis- 
franchisement might  be  defended  ;  but  the 
only  offence  of  the  persons  against  whom  the 
bill  was  directed  had  been  that  they  exer- 
cisod  their  privilege  honestly  and  independ- 
ently, according  to  their  conscience."* 

It  is  singular  that  O'Connell  said  not  a 
word  at  any  meeting,  nor  wrote  any  letter, 
protesting  against  this  wholesale  abolition 
of  the  civil  and  political  rights  of  those  to 
whom  he  owed  his  election  for  Clare.  He 
tlius  consented  by  his  silence  to  see  cat  away 
from  under  his  own  feet  the  very  ground- 
work and  material  of  all  effective  political 
action  in  Ireland;  and  often,  afterwards,  had 
occasion,  as  Ireland  also  had,  to  lament  the 
impotence  and  futility  of  all  patriotic  effort 
for  the  real  advancement  of  their  country,  in 

•  Accoant  of  Debate  in  Annual  Register  for  1829. 


consequence  of  the  destruction  of  the  fortj'- 
shilling  freeholders.  Many  thousands  of 
these  freeholders,  and  of  their  children,  are 
now  working  on  canals  and  railroads  in 
America.  The  new  and  cheap  ejectment 
laws  were  in  full  force  ;  and  were  soon  to 
act  with  fatal  effect. 

We  can  now  appreciate  in  some  measure 
the  true  sjpirit  in  which  "  Catholic  Emanci- 
pation "  was  effected.  It  was  "to  avert 
civil  war"  said  the  Duke  of  Wellington  ;  it 
was  "  to  avoid  greater  dangers  "  said  Sir 
Robert  Peel.  It  was  emphatically  not  to  do 
justice,  nor  to  repair  a  wrong.  In  the 
words  of  an  eminent  French  writer  on  Irish 
affairs  "}"  nothing  is  more  certain,  than  that 
neither  the  King  nor  his  Ministers  intended 
to  do  an  act  of  justice  and  reparation  to- 
wards the  Catholics  ;  the  bill  of  1S29  was 
nothing  else  than  a  concession  wrested  from 
them  by  circumstances  ;  which  the  King  would 
never  have  consented  to,  if  he  had  found 
Ministers  decided — even  at  the  cost  of  a 
civil  war,  to  perpetuate  an  iniquity  of  three 
centuries,  and  which  liis  Ministers  would  never 
have  proposed  if  they  had  not  apprehended 
that  civil  war,  in  the  interest  of  the  Protest- 
ant establishment  itself.  Now  when  a  con- 
cession has  been  extorted  by  force,  and  is 
not  a  spontaneous  homage  to  truth  and  jus- 
tice, those  who  grant  it  may,  perhaps,  respect 
it  as  to  its  mere  letter  ;  but  certainly  they 
will  not  loyally  comply  with  its  spirit.  When 
we  see  their  practical  application  of  it,  it  is 
evident  that  they  desire  to  hold  back  with 
one  hand  what  they  have  been  obliged  to 
bestow  with  the  other  ;  and  that  deeply  re- 
gretting the  necessity  they  have  hud  to 
obey,  when  that  necessity  becomes  less  ur- 
gent, they  observe  only  so  much  of  their 
engagement  as  is  needful  to  save  them  from 
the  charge  of  perjury.  Hence  comes 
it  also  that  there  is  so  little  gratitude 
manifested  for  this  concession  —  and  in 
truth,  those  may  dispense  with  gratitude 
who  owe  only  to  fear,  "  a  Utile  justice 
and   a   little  freedom^ 

t  Le  Pere  Perrand.     Etudes  sur  VIrlande  con- 
lemporaine. 


510 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


CHAPTER  LY. 

1829—1840. 

Hesults  of  the  Relief  Act— O'Conncll  Reelected  for 
Clare — Drain  of  Agricultural  Produce — Educated 
Class  of  Catholics  Bought- The  Tithe  War— Lord 
Anglesea  Viceroy  —  O'Coimell's  Associations — 
— Anglesea's  Proclamations — Prosecution  of  0'- 
Connell—  National  Education  —  Tithe-Tragedies — 
Newtownbarry — Carrickshock — Change  of  Dynasty 
in  France— Reform  Agitation  in  England— What 
Reform  Meant  in  Ireland — Cholera— Resistance  to 
Tithe — Lord's  Grey's  Coercion  Act — Abolition  of 
Negro  Slavery— Church  Temporalities  Act — Re- 
peal Debate— Surplus  Population — Surplus  Pro- 
duce— Tithe-Carnage  at  Rathcormack — Queen  Vic- 
toria's Accession — Three  Measures  Against  Ireland 
Poor  Law — Tithe  Law — Mum;;ipal  Reform — Castle 
Sheriffs. 

Lmperfect  and  stinted  and  guarded  as  the 
Catholic  Emancipation  act  was,  it  was, 
nevertheless,  felt  in  Ireland  to  be  a  great 
Iriuniph  and  noble  achievement  of  O'Connell, 
who  at  once  rose  to  the  higliest  pinnacle  of 
popular  favor.  The  Catholics  almost  wor- 
shipped him,  as  their  Heaven-sent  deliverer  ; 
and  the  partizans  of  the  good  old  tradition- 
ary Protestant  Ascendancy  thought  the  end 
of  the  world  was  at  hand.  The  sword 
brandished  in  the  hand  of  Walker's  statue, 
standing  upon  a  lofty  column  on  a  bastion 
of  Derry  walls,  fell  down  with  a  crash,  and 
was  shivered  to  pieces,  upon  the  very 
day  when  His  Majesty,  George  lY., 
placed  his  signature  on  the  Emancipation 
act  ;  which  he  did  not  do,  however,  without 
having  first  broken  and  trampled  upon  a 
pen  which  was  handed  to  him  for  that  pur- 
pose, in  a  highly  dramatic  manner,  and  with 
the  most  perfect  mimicry  of  deep  feeling. 
Sir  Harcourt  Lees,  for  his  part,  thought  the 
time  was  now  at  last  surely  come  to  "  put 
down  Popery  "  by  act  of  Parliament,  and  to 
send  the  "  Arch-Agitator"  to  the  Tower. 

As  for  O'Connell  himself,  and  the  more 
thoughtful  amongst  his  friends  and  support- 
ers of  the  Catholic  Association,  they  saw 
too  well  that  little  or  nothing  was  gained. 
Not  only  was  their  civil  and  political  in- 
feriority maintained  and  formally  reasserted  ; 
but  the  great  body  of  brave  farmers,  who 
had  frightened  the  "  empire  "  by  their  inde- 
pendence, was  swept  out  of  civil  existence 
at  a  blow.  It  at  once  became  evident  to 
O'Connell  that  there  was  no  salvation  for 


Ireland  but  in  a  repeal  of  the  odious  and 
fraudulent  Union.  On  his  return  to  Ireland, 
as  if  sensible  that  what  bad  been  already 
effected  for  his  country  was  rather  apparent 
than  real,  he  declared  openly  that  the  next 
victory  to  be  achieved  must  be  the  repeal 
of  the  Union.  Both  at  Ennis  and  at 
Youghal  he  made  speeches  enforcing  the  ne- 
cessity of  this  great  measure,  and  promising 
never  to  rest  until  it  should  be  accomplished; 
a  pledge  which,  indeed,  he  labored  all  his 
life  to  redeem. 

On  the  passage  of  the  law  disfranchising 
the  forty-shilling  freeholders,  orders  had 
been  at  once  sent  to  Ireland  to  commence  a 
"  registration "  of  those  who  still  retained 
the  franchise,  possessing  a  freehold  of  iSlO 
yearly  value.  This  haste  was  for  the  pur- 
pose of  acting  as  soon  as  practicable  upoa 
Irish  elections,  and,  if  possible,  defeating 
O'Connell  when  he  should  again  present 
himself  in  Clare  under  the  new  writ.  He 
was  not  opposed,  however,  on  his  second 
election  at  Clare,  and  was  again  sent  back 
to  Parliament,  with  all  the  qualifications  re- 
quired even  by  the  new  law.  He  did  not 
at  once  take  his  seat,  as  Parliament  was 
prorogued  on  the  24th  of  June. 

This  year,  Ireland  was  said  to  be  in  aa 
"  alarming  "  state — there  was  "  crime  and 
outrage  "  in  several  counties,  and  especially 
in  Tipperary.  In  fact,  the  old  exaction  of 
tithes  not  only  continued  to  be  enforced, 
but  was  pressed  with  even  increased  rigor, 
seeing  that  Papists  had  become  so  insolent. 
The  consequence  was  the  most  natural  in  the 
world — some  tithe-proctors  were  forced  to 
eat  their  processes,  and  also  had  their  ears 
cut  off.  The  Tipperary  magistrates  as- 
sembled in  great  alarm,  and  demanded  the 
immediate  application  of  the  "  Insurrection 
act,"  for  they  could  not  understand  how 
people  should  thus  resist  payment  of  their 
lawful  tithes,  unless  there  were  a  conspiracy 
to  subvert  the  Protestant  government  and 
bring  iti  the  Pope. 

In  truth,  there  was  throughout  the  is- 
land, a  very  unsettled  and  uneasy  condition 
of  the  popular  mind.  Men  were  told  that 
they  were  "  relieved  "  and  "  emancipated," 
but  they  felt  no  advantage  from  it  whatso- 
ever. They  tried  to  feel  pride  in  the  vic- 
tory, which    they    were    assured    they    had 


EDUCATED    CLASSES   OP   CATHOLICS   BOUGHT. 


511 


won   over  a  British   Ministry  ;  but  in   the 
uieaiitime,  tliey  found  tliemselves  very  gen- 
erally disfranchised  ;  and  what  was  worse — 
landlords  were  refusinp^  to  make  new  leases 
of   farms,  and  were  breaking  the  existing 
leases  wliere   they  could  ;  having  no  longer 
the  motive   to  rear  up  a  small  freehold  pop- 
ulation  for   the    hustings.      The  chairmen 
of    quarter-sessions,    and   the   sheriffs    and 
bailiffs,  were  busy  with   their  ejectments  ; 
and  pauperism  began  extensively  to  prevail. 
The    seasons,  indeed,  had    been  for    some 
time  rather  favorable  ;  and  grain  and  cattle 
were  abundant ;  but  the  British  system  had 
now  been  so  well  established  in  our  island, 
that  all   this  wealth   of   bounteous  nature 
flowed  off   instantly  to   England,   and  the 
price  of  it  also.     All  went  the  same  way. 
The  export  of  agricultural  produce  to  Eng- 
land  out  of  Ireland,   had  grown  so  enor- 
mous within  the  past  few  years,  that  it  had 
been  judged   expedient  in   1826,  to  place 
that  trade  "  on  the  footing  of  a  coasting- 
trade.'''      In  other  words,  no  custom-house 
accounts  were  to  be  kept  of  it  ;    and  the 
amonnt  of  it  was  thus  concealed  for  many 
years.     In   that  year,   1826,  however,  the 
exports  to  England,  had  been  to  the  value 
of  almost  eight  millions  in  corn  and  cattle. 
It  was  but  small  benefit  to  the  Irish  people 
to    have    favorable   seasons   and  plenteous 
harvests  ;  their  wealth  not  only  made  itself 
wings  and  flew  to  England  ;  but  as  tenancy- 
at-will  now   became   the  fashion,  landlords 
increased   rents  in  proportion  to  increased 
produce  ;  and   then   went  to  England — the 
centre  of    political    action   and  fashionable 
life,  to  spend    those  improved  rents.     For 
all  this  there  was  no  remedy  in  emancipa- 
tion. 

It  soon  became  evident  also,  that  the  ef- 
fects of  the  Relief  act  would  be  disastrous  in 
another  respect.  Parliament  and  the  Judicial 
Bench  being  now  opened,  (always  with  the 
exception  of  the  place  of  Lord  Chancellor,) 
to  aspiring  Catholics  of  the  educated  class, 
their  interests  and  sympathies  became  separ- 
ated from  those  of  their  countrymen.  Un- 
doubtedly, this  result  had  been  calculated 
by  the  prudent  statesman  who  accomplished 
the  Relief  measure  ;  and  his  plan  succeeded 
but  too  well.  That  plan  may  by  described 
in  general  terms,  as  a  plan  for  corrupting 


the    higher    classes,    and    extirpating    the 
lower  ;  and  emancipation,  disfranchising  the 
latter,   and   offering  bribes    to  the   former, 
was    admirably  calculated  to  buy  over  to 
the  British  interests,  such  as  aspired  to  the 
offices  and  emoluments  dispensed  by   Eng- 
land,   and    to  make  them  forget   the  duty   , 
they   owed  to  their  own  countrymen,  and 
the  honor  and  welfare  of  their  native  land. 
Since    that   day,  therefore,  we   have   seen 
constantly  more   and  more    of   the  higher 
class  of  Catholics,  in  various  positions  hdp- 
ing  England  to  govern — that   is   to  pillage 
and  depopulate — this  ill-fated  island.     Since 
that  day,  have  been  many  Catholic  members 
of  Parliament ; — they  have  solicited  places 
for  useful  constituents — Catholic  Attorney- 
Generals — they  have  packed  juries  to  "  do 
the    King's  business."      Catholic  judges — 
they  have  sat  complacently  on  the  bench, 
and  permitted   those  juries  to   be  packed, 
and  pretended  to  try  their  fellow-country- 
men before  those  packed  juries,  to  glut  the 
vengeance  of  a  government,  which  caiuiot 
bear  to  be  disquieted  while  clearing  off  its 
"  surplus    population."      In    other   words, 
those    members    of    Parliament,    attorney- 
generals  and  judges,  have   sold  themselves 
for  money  and    station,   to  a  Government 
which  they  know  to  be  the  mortal  enemy 
of  their  countrymen  and  kinsmen,  and  have 
abandoned   those  countrymen  and  kinsmen 
to  certain  slaughter  and  extermination. 

Such  have  been  the  substantial  results  of 
the  "Relief  Measures"  of  1829;  and 
O'Connell  had  good  reason  for  his  conclu- 
sion, that  no  effectual  service  could  be  ren- 
dered to  the  country,  short  of  annulling  the 
union  with  England. 

The  discontent  and  disappointment  of  the 
people,  (who  found  that  emancipation  did 
not  save  them  from  starvation,)  found  vent 
in  occasional  deeds  of  violence  ;  and,  always 
for  the  old  reasons — ruthless  seizures  for 
tithe,  and  wholesale  ejectment  of  tenants. 
Many  thousands  of  farmers,  now  found 
themselves  emancipated,  but  disfranchised, 
and  in  imminent  danger  of  being  ejected 
and  thrown  out  on  the  highways.  They 
were  capable  by  law  of  holding  high  oRice, 
but  exposed,  in  fact,  to  see  their  children 
perishing  by  hunger  an<l  hardship.  The 
crimes    committed   in  Ireland,   have    nearly 


512 


HISTORY    OF    IKELAND. 


always  cue  specific  character,  and  one  ob- 
vious motive  and  provocatiou  ;  their  victims 
have  been  almost  uniformly  tithe-proctors, 
who  seized  upon  the  small  store  of  the  poor 
— or  landlords  or  agents  who  cleared  estates 
— or  incoming  tenants,  who  rented  farms 
from  which  others  had  been  ejected.  Mur- 
ders for  money,  from  jealousy,  or  in  person- 
al quarrel,  have  been  at  all  times,  much 
more  rare  in  Ireland  than  in  England  ;  and, 
indeed,  the  lamentable  acts  of  violence 
which  did  occur,  were  generally  perpetrated 
by  men  who  had  not  previously  known  the 
doomed  victim  ;  and  iu  obedience  to  the  de- 
cree of  a  secret  society.  The  hapless  peo- 
ple of  the  country  had  long  felt  and  expe- 
rienced that  the  laws  were  made  not  for 
them  but  against  them  ;  they  had  long  been 
accustomed  to  see  law  at  one  side,  and  jus- 
tice at  the  other  ;  they  could  not  perceive 
why  there  should .  be  any  law,  compelling 
them  to  pay  clergymen  whom  they  never 
saw,  and  at  whose  services  they  would  shud- 
der to  assist ;  nor  why  there  should  be  a 
law  to  fling  them  out  from  the  little  farm, 
which  they  had  improved  and  rendered  fer- 
tile by  the  sweat  of  their  brows.  Heuce 
the  series  of  secret  combinations,  with  their 
own  judicial  sentences  and  desperate  execu- 
tions. These  proceedings,  however,  always 
drew  down  upon  the  peasantry  of  the  neigh- 
borhood, a  most  ferocious  and  disproportion- 
ate vengeance,  and  formed  the  excuse  for 
keeping  Arms  acts  and  Insurrection  acts 
almost  in  permanence. 

Tlie  grievance  of  tithes,  and  the  whole  of 
that  monstrous  iniquity,  called  the  Establish- 
ed Church,  seemed  to  be  felt  by  the  people, 
with  even  more  intensity  of  irritation,  since 
they  were  told  that  they  were  now  "  eman- 
cipated," and  that  there  was  an  end  of  Pro- 
testant Ascendancy,  What  this  emancipa- 
tion might  be,  they  did  not  well  understand, 
and  knew  no  other  result  from  it,  than  that 
they  were  deprived  of  their  franchise,  and 
could,  therefore,  get  no  more  leases.  And 
ihey  thought  that  they  saw  Protestant  As- 
cendancy all  around  them  as  rampant  as 
ever.  Protestant  Ascendancy  was  always 
at  their  doors  ;  it  entered  their  cabins,  and 
carried  off  their  pans  and  pots,  their  calves, 
and  pigs,  to  satisfy  a  Protestant  rector  ; 
Protestant  magistrates    (who   were   in  the 


great  majority,)  were  always  ready  to  brow- 
beat them  from  the  bench,  and  to  send  po- 
licemen to  search  their  beds  for  concealed 
arms  ;  Protestant  jurors  always  met  them 
in  the  courts  of  justice,  and  proved  to  them 
that  the  laws  of  the  land  were  not  for 
them.  If  sometimes,  therefore,  these  peo- 
ple desperately  took  the  law  into  their  own 
hands,  or  eren  associated  together,  to  be  a 
kind  of  law  unto  themselves,  and  executive 
also — dismal  as  such  a  state  of  society  cer- 
tainly is,  the  whole  blame  of  it  rests  upon 
that  unjust  and  savage  system  of  dealing 
with  Ireland,  which  was  called  "  govern- 
ment," and  of  which,  a  faint  outline  only 
has  been  traced  in  these  pages. 

King  George  IV.  died  in  1830  ;  and 
was  succeeded  by  his  brother  King  Wil- 
liam IV.  ; — an  event  of  little  or  no  interest 
to  Ireland. 

The  next  year  was  occupied  in  England, 
by  a  most  energetic  agitation  for  a  Reform 
in  Parliament  ; — an  aflair  which  also  con- 
cerned Ireland  extremely  little.  The  Re- 
form was  to  consist  chiefly  in  disfraMchisiug 
old  borouglis,  which  had  become  ruinous  and 
almost  uninhabited  ;  and  giving  the  franciiise 
to  lai'ge  centres  of  population,  which  had 
never  returned  members  of  Parliament  be- 
fore. Excitement  on  this  question  ran  very 
high  throughout  the  other  ishxnd,  but  did  not 
extend  iu  any  great  measure  to  Ireland, 
whose  proportions  of  representation  had 
been  fixed  by  the  act  of  Union.  O'Connell 
and  the  other  Catholic  and  Liberal  Irisii 
members,  all  supported  the  "Reform"  Min- 
istry, and  helped  to  carry  the  measure  in 
1832  ;  imagining,  probably,  that  Ireland 
would  thereby  establish  a  claim  upon  the 
popular  party  m  England,  for  support  and 
friendly  sympathy  iu  asserting  her  own 
rights — an  expectation  which  was  signal- 
ly disappointed. 

On  the  4th  of  February,  1830,  Parlia- 
ment opened,  but  was  soon  dissolved,  and  a 
new  election  took  place.  This  time,  O'Con- 
nell  abandoned  Clare,  and  achieved  another 
brilliant  victory  over  the  Beresford  interes»j 
at  Waterford.  A  considerable  immber  of 
Catholics  now  entered  Parliament  for  the 
first  time  ;  O'Gorman  Mahon  for  Clare, 
Richard  More  O'Ferrall  for  Kildare,  Lord 
Killeeu  for  Meath,  &c.     Mr.  Smith  O'Brieu 


O  CONNELL  8    ASSOCIATIONS. 


513 


continued  to  represent  Ennis  ;  and  was  a 
most  attentive  and  industrious  member  of 
Parliament  ;  acting  on  most  questions 
with  the  Whig  party,  and  sincerely  cherish- 
ing the  delusion,  (which  he  afterwards  had 
to  give  u[),)  that  Whigs  were  more  friendly 
to  right  and  justice  in  Ireland,  than  Tories. 

In  the  beginning  of  1830,  the  Duke  of 
Northumberland  was  Lord-Lieutenant.  On 
the  change  of  Ministry,  the  Marquis  of  An- 
glesea,  was  again  sent  over  as  Viceroy  ;  and 
Lord  Pluriket  was  made  Lord  Chancellor,  an 
office  which  he  discharged  with  great  abil- 
ity for  many  years.  He  had  by  this 
time  forgotten  that  the  Union  was  a  nullity 
and  a  fraud,  which  his  sons  were  to  be  sworn 
to  resist  and  annul.  One  of  his  sons  became 
a  Bishop  by  tlie  gracious  appointment  of  the 
King.  Yet  Mr.  Plunket  was  right  in  de- 
nouncing the  Union  as  a  nullity  and  a  fraud  ; 
and  if  he  had  been  thoroughly  honest,  he 
would  now  have  been  found  by  O'Connell's 
side,  demanding  the  restoration  of  an  inde- 
pendent Irish  Legislature. 

During  the  course  of  this  year,  there  was 
established  a  "  Society  of  the  Friends  of 
Ireland."  It  was  notiiing  but  the  Ciitholic 
Association  under  another  name  ;  and  its 
object  was  to  agitate  the  repeal  of  the 
Union.  But  the.  course  pursued  by  Mr. 
O'Connell,  since  the  Relief  act  had  occa- 
sioned violent  irritation  in  England,  amongst 
both  Whigs  and  Tories.  Tliat,  after  so 
generous  and  noble  a  concession  as  emanci- 
pation was  represented  to  be — which  was  to 
liavc  fully  satisfied  the  Irish  people,  and 
iilled  them  with  rejoicing  "  loyalty  " — that, 
instead  of  gratitude  and  loyal  contentment, 
there  should  immediately  spring  up  a  new 
and  acrimonious  agitation,  openly  aiming  at 
the  "  dismemberment  of  the  empire,"  seem- 
ed to  those  Whigs  and  Tories,  an  example 
of  the  basest  ingratitude.  O'Connell,  too, 
whose  deportment  in  Parliament  was  per- 
fectly dignified  and  business-like,  when  he 
came  to  Ireland,  and  found  himself  the  cen- 
tre of  a  great  meeting  of  his  countrjmen, 
often  used  violent  and  denunciatory  lan- 
guage concerning  political  opponents  ;  and 
even  sometimes  turned  into  ridicule,  some 
grave  and  reverend  Tory,  or  some  sneaking 
and  intriguing  Whig. 

iu  short,  it  was  decided  by  the  aduiinis- 
65 


tration,  all  liberal  as  it  was,  to  put  a  stup 
to  the  "Arch-Agitator's"  exciting  proceed- 
ings ;  and  as  the  "  Friends  of  Ireland"  fell, 
undoubtedly,  under  the  former  act,  for  sup 
pressing  illegal  associations,  the  Viceroy  wiu« 
instructed  to  "proclaim  it  under  that  act^ 
and  threaten  prosecution."  Tiie  society 
was,  as  usual,  at  once  dissolved,  and  was  at 
once  succeeded  by  the  "Anti-Union  Asso- 
ciation." O'Connell  omitted  no  opportuni- 
ty of  insisting  upon  a  restoration  of  the 
Irish  Parliament,  and  demonstrating  the 
necessity  of  that  measure — which  made  him 
more  popular  and  powerful  in  Dublin,  tlian 
he  had  ever  been  before.  For  it  was  in 
Dublin  chiefly  that  the  repeal  spirit  then 
existed  ;  the  country-people,  and  the  pro- 
vincial tovvn.s,  were  not  yet  aroused  on  that 
question  ;  but  the  metropolis  appreciated  it 
at  once.  There  was  to  be  held  on  the  27th 
of  December,  a  great  assembly  and  proces- 
sion of  the  trades  of  Dublin,  with  the  ex- 
press object  of  complimenting  Mr.  O'Con- 
nell for  his  advocacy  of  an  Irish  Parliament. 
The  bands  were  to  form  at  Phibsborough, 
iu  the  suburbs  of  Dublin,  and  march  with 
their  banners  and  insignia  into  the  city,  to 
O'Connell's  house  ;  where  they  were  to  pre- 
sent him  with  an  address.  This  procession 
of  peaceful  and  unarmed  men,  appeared  to 
Lord  Anglesea,  too  perillous  a  thing  to  bo 
permitted,  with  due  regard  to  the  peace  of 
the  city ;  and  he  issued  a  proclamation 
absolutely  forbidding  the  assembly.  Tliis, 
of  course,  implied  an  intention  of  dispersing 
it  by  force.  By  O'Connell's  advice,  there- 
fore, the  meeting  was  not  held. 

This  was  but  the  beginning  of  a  long 
contest  between  the  Arch-Agitator  and  the 
Marquis  of  Anglesea,  the  former,  using 
every  legal  device  and  contrivance,  to  make 
for  the  people  some  occasi()u  of  meeting, 
and  expressing  their  sentiments,  and  tlie 
Marquis  regularly  laying  ou  the  heavjf 
hand  of  power,  and  menacing  unarmed  citi- 
zens with  military  violence.  Mr.  O'Connell 
was  unmeasured  enough  in  the  terms  of 
very  natural  resentment,  which  he  applied 
to  Lord  Anglesea,  and  the  whole  Whig 
government,  whom  he  characterized,  as 
"  base,  brutal,  and  bloody  Whigs,"  But 
while  he  could  use  indignant  language,  the 
Lord-Lieutenant  had  all  the  practical  ad vaa- 


614 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


tiigcs  ill  such  a  contest  ;  he  had  his  sheriffs 
iuul  juries  at  hand,  and  the  court  of  King's 
Bencii  always  opea— so  that  anything  was 
an  -'illegal  and  dangerous  association" 
which  he  might  choose  to  prosecute  ; — he 
had  the  garrison  of  Dublin  constantly  ready 
for  action  ;  and  besides  these  things,  the 
noble  Marquis  opened  O'Connell's  letters  in 
the  Post  Office,  as  well  as  letters  addressed 
to  him,  in  order  that  he  might  know  who 
were  his  correspondents,  what  were  his  de- 
ttigiis,  and  wiiat  were  his  resources.  The 
Marquis  had  the  letters  always  resealed 
with  the  utmost  care,  with  counterfeited 
seals,  so  that  the  persons  receiving  the  let- 
ters should  not  suspect  they  had  been  open- 
ed and  so  be  put  on  their  guard.* 

The  next  name  under  which  Mr,  O'Con- 
nell  made  his  association  appear  was  the 
Irish  Volunteers,  for  repeal  of  the  Union  ; 
but  this  had  no  better  fate  than  the  rest. 
When  it  was  "  proclaimed,"  however,  and 
commanded  not  to  meet,  Mr.  O'Connell,  for 
once,  did  not  submit.  He  said — and  this 
was  true — that  a  proclamation  could  not 
make  law  ;  and  pledged  himself,  as  a 
lawyer,  that  his  organization  was  perfectly 
legal,  as  it  was.  He,  therefore,  and  many 
of  his  usual  attendants,  went  and  held  the 
meeting.  Thereupon,  O'Connell,  together 
with  Mr.  Lawless,  Mr.  Steele,  Mr.  Barrett, 
Mr.  Redmond,  Mr.  Clooney,  and  two  or 
three  others,  were  forthwith  arrested,  and 
brought  before  magistrates,  where  they  were 
required  to  give  bail.  On  issuing  from  the 
magistrate's  office,  the  Arch-Agitator  found 

*  The  Marquis  of  Anglesea  is  first  on  the  list  of 
liitter-spies,  wliich  was  laid  before  Parliainent  in 
1844.  But  that  list  extends  over  a  period  of  only 
eleven  years.  It  was  avowed  by  Ministers  that  the 
Post  Office  espionnage  had  existed  long  before  Lord 
Anglesea's  time — as  it  certainly  existed  long  after 
that  of  Earl  de  Grey,  in  1843.  Earl  de  Grey  is  the 
last  of  the  letter-spies  mentioned  in  the  return. 
That  return,  however,  has  taken  care  not  to  inform 
us  whose  letters  were  thus  opened  and  copied.  It 
only  gives  a  list  of  the  Viceroys,  Chancellors,  Arch- 
V'ishops,  and  Lord-Justices,  who  did  order  such  man- 
i])u!ations  of  letters,  and  the  years  in  which  they  so 
ordered  it.  It  appears  that  such  warrants  were  con- 
stantly in  existence  for  ten  years  out  of  the  eleven ; 
but  we  are  not  informed  as  to  the  numbers  of  the 
persons  whose  correspondence  was  thus  investigat- 
ed ;  nor  any  of  their  names.  O'Connell  was,  of 
course,  one;  and  it  was  in  the  very  height  of  the 
contest  waged  with  O'Connell  to  put  down  his 
several  associations  that  the  Marquis  of  Anglesea  is 
first  returned  as  a  letter-spy. 


a  great  crowd  in  the  streets  ;  made  them 
a  speech,  of  course — "  Yesterday,"  he  ex- 
claimed, "  I  was  only  half  an  agitator — 
to-day  I  am  a  whole  one.  Day  and  night 
will  I  now  strive  to  fling  off  despotism,  to 
redeem  my  country,  to  repeal  the  Union." 

The  prosecution  proceeded  ;  and  as  Mr. 
O'Connell  knew  perfectly  well  that  he  could 
have  no  chance  before  a  Castle  jury  properly 
arranged,  which  would  be  sure  to  find  him 
at  once  guilty  of  whatever  he  should  be 
charged  withal,  he  dexterously  delayed  the 
striking  of  the  jury,  and  gained  time.  The 
Orange  party  was  in  vehement  excitement ; 
and  it  need  scarcely  be  added  that  in 
England  all  parties  were  charmed  with  the 
idea  of  having  the  loud-tongued  agitator 
locked  up  in  a  jail  for  a  misdemeanor.  After 
some  ingenuity  in  pleading,  O'Connell 
allowed  judgment  to  go  by  default  upon 
several  of  the  counts  ;  that  is,  substantially 
pleaded  guilty  on  those  counts.  He  knew 
he  might  as  well  do  so,  as  he  would  be 
arraigned  before  a  sure  jury  ;  and  all  the 
world  waited  till  he  should  be  called  up 
for  sentence.  But  he  was  never  called 
up  for  sentence.  It  happened  just  then  that 
the  Whig  Ministry  was  straining  every 
nerve  to  secure  a  good  majority  for  their 
Reform  ;  and  O'Connell,  and  those  others 
whom  he  could  influence,  or  who  would  be 
revolted  by  any  severity  exercised  towards 
him,  were  not  allies  to  be  thrown  away  for 
the  sake  of  gratifying  the  Orangemen.  For 
that  time,  therefore,  legal  proceedings 
airainst  the  agitator  went  no  further. 

The  year  1831  was  marked  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  national  system  of  education 
in  Ireland,  in  pursuance  of  a  bill  introduced 
by  Lord  Stanley.  Two  years  after,  (1833,) 
the  grants  of  public  money  for  the  educa- 
tion of  the  poor,  which  had  previously  been 
enjoyed  by  the  Kildare  Place  School  So- 
ciety and  other  proselytizing  institutions, 
were  intrusted  to  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  to 
be  expended  on  the  instruction  of  children 
of  all  sects,  .under  the  superintendence  of 
commissioners  ajipointed  by  the  Crown,  and 
called  "  Commissioners  of  National  Educa- 
tion." Two  years  afterwards,  (183.5,)  these 
commissioners  were  incorporated  with  power 
to  hold  lands.  The  ostensible  principles  of 
this    new    establishment   were  "  Liberal  ;" 


NATIONAL   EDtrCATION TITHE   TRAGEDIES. 


56 


there  was  to  be  no  interference  with  tlie 
religions  creed  of  any  pupil  ;  and  clera-yracn 
'of  each  denomination  were  to  be  allowed 
the  opportunity  of  giving  religious  instruc- 
tions to  the  children  of  their  respective 
faiths. 

But  practically  the  Government  took 
good  care  that,  both  on  the  first  establish- 
ment of  the  board  and  ever  since,  the  great 
majority  of  the  commissioners  should  be 
Protestants.  Tlie  scheme  was  intended  to 
take  into  the  hands  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment the  formation  of  the  minds  of  young 
Irishmen,  and  the  moulding  of  their  first  im- 
pressions, in  such  a  way  that  they  might 
forget  they  were  Irish,  and  feel  and  think 
as  like  English  children  as  possible.  Their 
reading  lessons  have  been  carefully  edited  to 
this  end  ;  most  of  them  by  Dr.  Wheatley, 
an  Englishman,  and  others  by  Mr.  Carlisle, 
a  Scotchman,  The  intention  was  not  so 
much  to  convert  Catholic  children  as  to  de- 
nationalize them. 

It  had  been  for  long  ages  prohibited  to 
the  Irish  Catholics  to  be  educated  at  all, 
under  heavy  penalties.  When  these  penal 
laws  had  disappeared,  and  the  British 
Government  found  that  the  Irish  were  very 
desirous  to  educate  their  children,  that 
Government  resolved,  if  they  must  be  taught, 
to  teach  them  itself,  and  especially  to  keep 
them  as  much  as  possible  ignorant  of  the 
history  of  their  own  country — a  very  pru- 
dent and  politic  design,  if  it  could  only  have 
been  accomplished. 

For  the  rest,  these  national  schools  have 
been  tolerably  well  conducted  ;  but  in  dis- 
tricts where  the  population  is  of  mixed 
religions.  Catholic  children,  for  the  most 
})art,  have  received  no  benefit  from  them, 
on  account  of  the  objections  of  the  Catholic 
clergy  against  mixed  education.  In  other 
districts,  where  Catholics  form  the  whole 
population,  these  objections  did  not  practi- 
cally opply. 

In  1850,  there  were  nearly  five  thousand 
schools  under  this  board,  and  five  hundred 
and  eleven  thousand  two  iiundred  and  thirty 
nine  scholars. 

The  tithe  war  raged  violently  this  year — 
the  people  were  becoming  more  and  more 
indisposed  to  pay  Protestant  rectors,  especi- 
ally in  the  South  of  Ireland,  where  those 


rectors  often  have  no  flocks.  On  the  banks 
of  the  Slaney,  on  the  very  border  between 
Wexford  and  Carlovv  County,  and  at  the 
foot  of  the  stately  Mount  Leinstcr,  stands 
the  little  town  of  Xewtownbarry.  On  the 
18th  of  June,  1831,  this  usually  quiet  vil- 
lage was  the  scene  of  a  bloody  tithe-tragedy. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  McClintock  would  have  his 
tithe  ;  and  by  aid  of  the  police  and  yeoman- 
ry, he  had  seized  the  crops  and  goods  of 
several  persons  in  the  neighborhood.  These 
things  were  to  be  auctioned  in  Newtown- 
barry  market-place  on  the  market-day.  Be- 
fore that  day  anonymous  written  notices 
were  sent  to  many  persons  in  the  country, 
requesting  them  to  come  in  and  attend  the 
sale  of  their  neighbors'  pigs,  beds  and  ket- 
tles. Considerable  numbers  of  people  at- 
tended in  consequence,  but  not  armed  :  their 
object  being  only  to  keep  all  persons  back 
from  bidding  at  this  auction.  It  was  known 
that  large  crowds  had  come  in  and  that  the 
forced  sale  must  almost  certainly  produce  a 
collision.  But  the  Rev.  Mr.  McClintock 
would  have  his  rights.  The  property  seized 
was  brought  into  town  guarded  by  a  large 
force  of  constabulary,  who  were  to  be  sap- 
ported,  if  needful  by  another  large  force  of 
yeomanry.  The  sale  opened  ;  the  people 
pressed  forward,  and  kept  away,  by  a  show 
of  intimidation,  the  few  who  might  have 
been  disposed  to  purchase.  At  last,  the 
police  attacked  the  unarmed  multitudes  ; 
were  seconded  with  great  alacrity  by  the 
yeomanry  ;  and  very  soon  thirteen  slain  men 
and  twenty  wounded  were  lying  in  their 
blood  on  the  street  of  Newtowubarry.  No 
person  was  ever  brought  to  punishment  fur 
this  slaughter.  Indeed,  it  was  felt  by  the 
Orange  party,  that  the  Rev.  Mr.  McClin- 
tock had  only  shown  proper  spirit  in  vindi- 
cating his  right — that  this  course  of  intimi- 
dation had  gone  too  far — and  that  it  was 
time  an  example  should  be  made  ;  more 
moderate  persons,  however,  even  of  the  Es- 
tablished Church,  could  not  but  think  it 
unfortunate  that  ministers  of  religion  should 
so  often  have  to  wring  their  blood-stained 
dues  out  of  the  very  vitals  of  parishioners 
who  hate  them  and  all  their  works 

Six  months  after  the   afl'air  of  Newtown- 

barry,  befel  the  other    tithe- slaughter  of 

.  Carrickshock.     Certain  moneys  were  due  for 


516 


HISTORY   OP   IKELAND. 


tithe  to  the  Rev.  Hans  Hamilton,  rector  of 
Knocktopher,  in  the  County  Kilkenny  ;  a 
process-server  was  sent  out  to  serve  the 
needful  documents,  and  this  functionary  was 
protected  by  a  large  force  of  armed  police. 
The  people  assembled  in  considerable  and 
still-increasing  numbers,  tlieir  object  being 
to  get  hold  of  the  bailiff  and  force  hira  to 
"eat  the  latitats" — papers  of  that  nature 
being  supposed  in  those  parts  to  be  the  na- 
tural food  of  process-servers.  Menacing 
crowds  of  country-people  gathered  around 
the  line  of  march  of  the  officer  and  his 
fscort  ;  and  when  they  arrived  at  a  bare 
and  desolate  tract  called  the  Common  of 
Carrickshock,  traversed  by  a  lane  which 
is  bordered  by  a  low  wall,  in  most  places 
broken  down,  the  demands  of  the  people  to 
have  the  process-server  delivered  up  to  them 
became  pressing  and  loud.  At  length,  a 
young  man  sprang  into  the  lane,  seized  the 
process-server,  and  endeavored  to  carry  him 
off,  out  of  the  hands  of  his  protectors.  He 
was  instantly  shot  dead.  Then  there  was  a 
general  onslaught — the  people  had  armed 
themselves  with  a  species  of  short  pikes,  and 
they  fell  upon  the  police  with  fury.  Eleven 
of  the  constables  were  killed,  and  a  good 
many  of  the  people  also  ;  but  the  legal  doc- 
uments were  not  served  that  day.  It  was 
fast  becoming  evident  that  some  measures 
roust  be  adopted  to  prevent  these  sanguin- 
ary collisions. 

In  England  the  resistance  of  the  Irish  to 
levies  for  tithes  was,  as  usual,  represented  as 
the  evidence  of  a  deep  Popish  conspiracy  to 
overturn  the  Protestant  Church  ;  and  the 
"Whigs  were  almost  as  much  excited  by  this 
idea  as  the  Tories.  The  voluminous  Tory 
historian,  Alison,  discovered  indeed,  for  once 
that  "the  Pope's  influence  in  Ireland"  was 
on  the  present  occasion  beneficial  :  inasmuch 
as  "The  Yatican  threw  off  the  mask,  and 
measures  were  commenced  evidently  intend- 
ed to  destroy  the  Protestant  Estrtblislunent 
in  Ireland,  and  open  the  door  to  the  re- 
placing of  the  Catholic  faith  in  these 
realms."  Thus,  English  Whigs  drew  off  in 
Bome  measure  from  their  association  with 
the  Irish  Catholics  ;  and  this  weakened  the 
party  of  reform.  The  Cholera,  also,  raored 
all  through  the  summer  of  1832  ;  and  this, 
according  to  the  same  historian,  was  another 


beneficial  event,  as   it   sensibly  abated  the 
reform  mania. 

The  King,  however,  in  a  speech  from  the 
Throne,  recommended  attention  to  the 
question  of  tithes ;  and  a  committee  of  the 
Lords  was  appointed  to  investigate  and  re- 
port upon  it.  They  reported  in  favor  of 
commuting  the  tithe  to  a  charge  upon  land. 
In  the  debate  on  reception  of  this  report,  it 
was  stated  that  the  arrears  of  tithes  due 
but  not  recoverable  in  the  four  dioceses  of 
Ossory,  Leighlin,  Cashel,  and  Ferns,  were 
computed  at  iE84,954.  A  law  was,  in  the 
meantime,  proposed  and  carried  by  Govern- 
ment, authorizing  an  issue  from  the  consol- 
idated fund  of  a  large  sura  of  money  for 
relief  of  those  clergymen  who  could  not 
collect  their  tithes.  A  part  of  the  county 
Tipperary  was  also  proclaimed  under  the 
Coercion  act  then  pending  ;  and  Lord  Grey 
was  preparing  a  still  more  stringent  Coercion 
act  for  the  next  year. 

Mr.  O'Connell  vehemently  opposed  the 
grant  from  the  consolidated  fund,  which  was 
accompanied  by  an  authority  to  levy  the 
amount  due,  in  order  to  repay  the  advance. 
This  was,  in  fact,  the  Government  assuming 
upon  itself  the  function  of  the  tithe-proctor 
and  the  bailiff,  with  the  aid  of  all  the  troops 
and  police  ;  and  it  was  plainly  intended  to 
make  a  few  salutary  examples  of  slaughter. 
Tliroughout  the  Parliamentary  discussions 
on  these  questions,  there  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  the  slightest  intention  on  the 
part  of  either  party  to  relieve  Ireland  from 
the  burden  of  the  Established  Church  ;  all 
their  anxiety  was  how  to  insure  to  the 
clergy  their  income  out  of  the  pockets  of  the 
people  in  some  way  which  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  resist  or  evade.  On  the  other 
hand,  O'Connell  declared  in  Parliament — 
"  The  Irish  people  are  determined  to  get 
rid  of  tithes,  and  get  rid  of  them  they  will." 

But  the  resistance  of  the  farmers  was 
carried  on  peacefully  ;  and  generally  consist- 
ed in  deterring  purchasers  at  tithe-sales  by 
the  demonstration  of  a  resolute  public 
opinion.  The  same  force  operated  to  pre- 
vent neighbors  from  aiding  to  remove  crops 
or  other  tilings,  even  in  case  they  should  have 
been  nominally  sold.  It  cannot  be  denied 
that  this  force  was  nothing  but  a  very 
manifest   intimidation,  and  would  have  been 


CHURCH    TEMPORALITIES    ACT. 


517 


quite  unjustifiable  if  tlie  claim  for  tithe  had 
been  just. 

The  next  year  Lord  Grey  bronglit  for- 
ward his  Coercion  bill,  and  the  Tories  not 
only  supported  it  with  alacrity,  but  hailed  it 
with  joy,  as  a  proof  that  the  most  "liberal" 
of  English  reformers  had  come  round  to 
Iheir  policy  for  the  government  of  Ireland  ; 
and,  in  fact,  since  that  day  English  Tories 
and  English  "Whigs  have  generally  been  in 
the  most  gratifying  accord  upon  coercion 
bills  for  Ireland.  However,  they  may  differ 
upon  other  matters,  they  are  an  unit 
whenever  it  is  a  question  of  dragooning 
the  Irish. 

The  Coercion  acts  are  all  very  like  one 
another  ;  but  this  one  contained  the  new 
provision  that  the  Yiceroy  might  suppress 
and  disperse  any  meeting  which  he  should 
deem  dangerous  to  the  public  peace.  The 
bill  contained  the  usual  powers  and  penal- 
ties— the  Lord-Lieutenant  might  "proclaim" 
any  district — all  persons  in  proclaimed  dis- 
tricts to  remain  within  doors  from  one  hour 
after  sunset  until  sunrise,  and  also  to 
abstain  from  attending  any  meeting  whatso- 
ever. No  meeting  was  to  be  held,  even  to 
petition  Parliament,  without  ten  days' 
previous  notice  to  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  and 
Lis  sanction  to  bold  such  meeting.  The 
proclaimed  districts  were  to  be  subject  to 
martial  law  ;  every  offender  was  to  be  tried 
before  a  court-martial  ;  and  all  officers  of 
justice  and  military  on  duty  were  (in  such 
proclaimed  district,)  to  have  authority  to 
enter  houses  at  any  hour  and  search  for 
arms.  The  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  was  to 
be  suspended  for  three  months  after  the 
arrest  of  any  person,  as  respected  that 
person. 

These  atrocious  provisions  for  torturing 
the  people,  and  for  repressing  even  all 
open  and  peaceful  expressions  of  opinion, 
continued  to  be  the  law  of  the  laud  for 
five  years.  This  law  was  then  succeeded 
by  another  law  of  the  same  kind  ;  and  that 
by  anoiher  and  another.  It  might  be  sup- 
posed that  the  British  Parliament  might  as 
well  pass  a  perpetual  Coercion  act  for 
Ireland  at  once,  and  take  away  altogether 
the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus ;  but  such  a 
measure  as  this  would  be  supposed  to  be 
too  abhorrent  to  the  spirit  of  the  British 


Constitution.  The  Coercion  acts,  therefore, 
are  all  proposed  for  a  limited  time,  and  a 
hope  is  regularly  expressed,  by  the  member 
of  the  Government  who  introduces  one 
of  them,  that  the  time  is  approaching  when 
these  "  exceptional "  measures  will  be  no 
longer  needful  to  the  good-government  and 
well-being  of  Ireland. 

In  the  same  session.  Parliament  passed 
the  act  for  abolishing  negro  slavery  in  the 
British  "West  Indies,  and  appropriated 
twenty  millions  sterling  to  compensate  the 
planters.  Of  course,  the  money  was  bor- 
rowed, and  added  to  the  national  debt ;  and 
England  and  Ireland  have  been  paying  the 
interest  on  it  ever  since. 

"  The  Church  Temporalities  act "  for 
Ireland,  was  passed  in  the  year  1833.  It 
was  introduced  by  Lord  Althorpe,  and  be- 
came law  on  the  30th  of  July.  His 
lordship  stated  the  entire  revenue  of  the 
Irish  Church  at  ^£132,000  sterling.  The 
new  act  abolished  ten  Bishoprics,  by  con- 
solidating their  sees  with  sees  adjoining. 
The  consolidation  was  to  take  place  gradu- 
ally, on  the  deach  of  Bishops.  "  Church- 
rates  "  were  abolished.  The  revenues  of  the 
sees  which  were  to  remain  in  existence  were 
diminished  ;  and  the  Church  properly  of  the 
suppressed  sees,  together  with  the  saving 
by  diminished  revenues,  were  estimated  as 
creating  a  fund  of  £3,000,000,  to  be  vested 
in  a  board  of  "  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners," 
to  be  expended  for  strictly  ecclesiastical 
purposes ;  the  principle  being  that  no 
Church  property  could  be  alienated  from 
its  legal  owners,  and  that  the  country  was 
not  to  be  relieved  of  any  part  of  the  burden 
of  this  enormous  establishment.  Accord- 
ingly, the  people  were  not  at  all  benefited 
by  this  act ;  even  the  abolition  of  "  Church- 
rates"  was  oidy  a  boon  to  the  landlords, 
who  immediately  raised  the  rents  to  their 
tenants-at-wiU. 

Next  was  introduced  and  passed  another 
bill,  appropriating  one  million  sterling  to 
the  parsons,  in  compensation  for  the  tithes 
due  and  unpaid  for  three  years. 

In  1834,  O'Conuell  commenced  seriously 
the  work  of  repeal  of  the  Union,  in  Par- 
liament. His  first  move  was  a  proposal  to 
appoint  a  committee  to  inquire  into  the 
conduct  of  Baron  Smith,  one  of  the  Irish 


518 


HISTOET    OF   IKELAND. 


judges,  whom  he  accused  of  introducing  pol- 
itics into  bis  charges  from  the  bench.  The 
committee  was  refused  ;  because  it  was 
held  that  an  Irish  judge  could  not  avoid  the 
subject  of  politics  in  his  judicial  addresses, 
seeing  that  Irish  "crimes"  were  almost 
wholly  of  a  political  character.  Oq  the 
23d  of  April,  O'Conuell  formally  brought 
forward  in  Parliament,  the  question  of  re- 
pealing the  Union.  There  followed  a  de- 
bate of  four  days.  His  chief  opponent  was 
Mr.  Spring  Eice,  (afterwards  Lord  Mon- 
toagle,)  who  labored  to  prove  that  Ireland 
had  largely  profited  by  the  Union  ;  and 
was  at  that  moment  enjoying  exemption 
from  several  specific  taxes  which  pressed 
upon  Great  Britain.  In  ti-uth,  according  to 
his  statistics,  Ireland  was  growing  rich,  or 
at  least  ought  to  be,  in  consequence  of  the 
generous  forbearance  of  the  English  people 
and  Government,  in  burdening  the  other 
parts  of  the  empire  with  imposts,  which  she 
had  not  to  pay. 

But,  notwithstanding  statistics,  the  noto- 
rious truth  was,  that  England  was  becoming 
always  richer,  and  her  people  more  luxu- 
rious in  their  style  of  living,  while  Ireland 
was  fast  sinking  into  destitution.  The 
Irish  rents  spent  by  absentee-proprietors 
now  amounted  to  more  than  four  mil- 
lions. Manufacturers  in  Ireland,  (with  tlie 
single  exception  of  linen,)  no  longer  ex- 
isted. Extermination  of  tenantry,  (or  as 
the  people  were  now  always  termed,  "  sur- 
plus population,")  had  increased  to  a  dread- 
ful extent  ;  and  those  who  had  means  to 
emigrate  were  flying  from  the  country  in 
wild  terror.  A  writer  in  Blackwood's  Mag- 
azine for  January,  1833 — the  writer  being 
no  other  than  Sir  Archibald  Alison — states 
that  the  emigration  in  1831,  from  Ireland, 
umouiited  to  eighteen  thousand.  The 
writer  adds  :  "  No  reason  can  be  assigned 
why  it  should  not  be  one  hundred  and 
eighty  thousand."  From  this  time  the 
leading  idea  of  English  statesmen  and  econ- 
omists was,  to  devise  some  way  of  getting 
rid  of  the  "surplus"  people. 

Yet  while  the  people  were  said  to  be  sur- 
plus, the  island  in  wiiich  they  lived  was 
Kleadily  and  rapidly  increasing  her  export 
of  provisions  ;  the  export  of  grain  and  cat- 
tle into  England,  which  had  amL-unted  in 


1826,  to  nearly  eight  millions  sterling,  had 
now  been  augmented  by  about  one-half; 
and  this  wasting  process — shipping  off  men 
in  one  direction,  and  the  food  they  had 
raised  in  another — went  on  developing  itself, 
as  we  shall  see,  until  the  export  of  the  sur- 
plus people  reached  three  hundred  thousand 
a  year,  and  the  export  of  the  surplus  food 
amounted  to  at  least  twenty  millions  ster- 
ling— Ireland  being  the  only  country  known 
in  ancient  or  in  modern  times,  which  had 
these  two  kinds  of  "  surplus  "  for  export  at 
one  time.  It  was  so  plainly  demonstrated, 
however,  in  Parliament,  by  Mr.  Spring 
Rice  and  other  speakers,  that  the  country 
was  prospering  under  the  Union,  that 
O'Connell's  motion  was  at  once  voted  down. 
On  the  same  occasion,  the  House  of  Peers 
not  only  rejected  the  proposition  unanimous- 
ly, but  addressed  the  King,  declaring  their 
firm  resolution  to  maintain  the  "  integrity 
of  the  empire." 

Various  efforts  were  made  in  this  and  the 
following  year  to  force  upon  Parliament 
some  just  measure  for  the  reduction  of  the 
Irish  Church  Establishment.  Mr.  Ward,  an 
English  member,  was  especially  zealous  in 
this  cause  ;  but  as  these  proposals  were 
steadily  resisted,  and  came  to  nothing 
whatever  for  several  years,  we  need  not  oc- 
cupy ourselves  with  them  here.  The  Church 
bill  of  Mr.  Ward,  contained  what  was  called 
the  "  Appropriation  clause,"  for  devoting  to 
state  purposes,  and  the  general  improvement 
of  the  country,  the  funds  to  be  curtailed 
from  the  wealth  of  the  Church.  This  was 
the  great  stumbling-block  to  the  Tories, 
and  to  the  House  of  Lords  ;  and  the  mea- 
sure was  abandoned. 

The  last  scene  of  tithe-carnage,  was  en- 
acted at  Rathcorrnack,  a  village  in  Water- 
ford  County.  It  was  on  the  18th  of  De- 
cember, 1834.  Seizure  had  been  made 
upon  the  stackyard  of  a  poor  widow,  to  pay 
the  Protestant  rector.  Her  neiglibors  be 
came  strongly  excited  ;  and  assembled  in 
crowds,  with  the  apparent  purpose  of  resist- 
ing the  abstraction  of  the  property.  A 
narrow  lane,  or  horeen,  led  up  from  the  high- 
road to  the  widow's  place.  In  this  lane,  tlie 
people  had  overturned  a  wagon  to  block  up 
the  way,  and  seemed  resolved  to  defend 
their  barricade.     The  officers  of  the  law  ap- 


QUEEN   VICTORIAS   ACCESSION. 


)19 


pfoached,  well  siipporled  by  armed  men,  both 
police  and  military.  Tliere  was  some  parley  ; 
stones  were  thrown  ;  the  Riot  act  was  read  ; 
and  then  orders  were  given  to  fire.  A  de- 
«tructive  volley  was  poured  in  upon  the  un- 
armed crowd,  many  of  thera  fell,  killed  and 
wounded  ;  and  his  reverence  carried  off,  over 
the  bleeding  corpses,  his  lithe  of  the  widow's 
sheaves.  The  excitement  and  indignation 
aroused  by  this  "  Rathcormaclc  massacre," 
were  profound  and  wide-spread.  The  com- 
binations amongst  the  peasantry  to  resist 
tiihe-sales,  and  to  prevent  all  persons  from 
[)urchasing,  at  their  own  proper  peril,  be- 
came more  organized  and  formidable.  Doc- 
tor MacHale,  Archbishop  of  Tuara,  writing 
a  public  letter  at  this  time  to  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  thus  expresses  himself  :  "  All 
the  united  authorities,  and  the  Senate,  can 
never  annex  the  conscientious  obligations  of 
law  to  enactments  that  are  contrary  to 
right,  reason,  and  justice.  And  hence,  the 
stubborn  and  unconquerable  resistance  of 
the  people  of  Ireland  to  those  odious  acts — 
I  wiil  not  call  them  laws — which  have  forc- 
ed them  to  jDay  tribute  to  the  teachers  of  an 
adverse  creed.  I  shall  freely  declare  my 
own  resolve.  I  have  leased  a  small  farm, 
just  sufficient  to  qualify  me  for  the  exer- 
cise of  the  franchise.  After  paying  the 
landlord  his  rent,  neither  to  parson,  proctor 
nor  agent,  shall  I  consent  to  pay,  in  the 
shape  of  tithe,  or  any  other  tax,  a  penny 
which  shall  go  to  the  support  of  the  great- 
est nuisance  in  this,  or  any  other  country." 
It  may  well  be  supposed,  that  such  a  declar- 
ation as  this,  coming  from  a  reverend  digni- 
tary of  the  Catholic  Church — affirming  ihat 
the  Church  laws  were  no  laws,  and  that  he 
himself  would  deny  and  defy  them,  greatly 
aggravated  and  encouraged  the  organized 
resistance  of  the  people.  If  an  attempt 
had  been  made  to  levy  tithe  from  the  Arch- 
bishop's farm,  no  man  in  the  diocese  would 
have  dared  to  bid  for  his  corn-sheaves. 

King  William  IV.,  died  in  June,  1S.S7, 
and  Queen  Victoria  reigned  in  his  stead  ; 
a  disastrous  reign  to  Ireland. 

Within  the  first  three  years  of  this 
Queen's  reigu,  three  measures  of  great  im- 
portance were  passed  for  Ireland  ;  all 
brought  forwai'd  under  jiretext  of  Conces- 
sion  and    Liberalism  ;  but    all    marked    in  i 


reality  with  the  invariable,  inevitable  stamp 
of  mortal  enmity  towards  the  people  of  our 
country.  These  were,  the  Poor  Law,  the 
Tiihe  Law,  and  the  Imw  fur  Municipal  Re- 
form. 

Poor  laws  had  become  at  once  necessary 
in  England,  on  the  supression  of  the  mon- 
asteries in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  In 
Catholic  times,  and  according  to  Catholic 
ideas,  alms-giving  was  a  Christian  duty;  from 
that  moment  it  had  to  become  a  tax.  Those 
monasteries  had  been  endowed  by  charitable 
and  religious  people  mainly  for  the  relief  of 
the  poor  ;  but  when  their  lands  came  into 
possession  of  King  Henry's  courtiers,  the 
poor  immediately  began  to  be  regarded  as 
public  enemies  to  be  suppressed.  The  poor 
man  had  been  a  brother,  whom  it  was  a 
privilege  and  duty  to  console  ;  he  became 
one  of  the  "  dangerous  classes,"  to  be  well 
watched,  to  be  often  punished,  and  to  be 
forever  degraded  and  disgraced.  The  fir.st 
English  Poor  law  (27  Henry  VIII.,) 
prohibited  alms-giving  under  heavy  penal- 
ties ;  and  as  for  "sturdy  beggars" — "a 
sturdy  beggar  is  to  be  whipped  the  first 
time,  and  if  he  again  offend,  he  shall  suffer 
death  as  a  felon  and  an  enemy  of  the  com- 
monwealth." Tlie  fourteenth  of  Elizabeth 
provided  that  these  terrll)le  sturdy  beggars 
"  should  for  the  first  offence  be  grievously 
whipped,  and  burned  through  the  gristle  of 
the  right  ear  with  a  hot  iron  of  the  compass 
of  an  inch  about ;  for  the  second,  be  deemed 
as  felons  ;  and  for  the  third,  suffer  death  as 
felons  without  benefit  of  clergy."  Innu- 
merable amendments  and  alterations  have 
been  made  since  those  days  in  the  English 
system  of  Poor  laws,  by  which,  altTiough 
these  ferocious  punishments  were  mitigated, 
the  principle  was  maintained,  of  treating  the 
poor  as  enemies,  and  making  charity  a  com- 
pulsory tax. 

All  this  system  had  been  hitherto  un- 
known in  Ireland — as  it  is  still  unknown  in 
France  and  Spain.  Poor  men  had  been  al- 
ways with  us,  and  that  in  plenty  ;  but  no 
"  able-bodied  paupers,"  by  profession.  If  a 
third  of  the  population  was  sometimes  in  a 
half-starving  condition  for  half  the  year,  the 
others,  who  had  more  comforts  around  them, 
shared  generously  witli  their  suffeiing  ne'gh- 
bors,  and  thought  they  were  doing  God  ser- 


520 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


vice.  Clu'istiau  charity  was  not  yet  worked 
by  machinery,  nor  exacted  by  sheriflF's  offi- 
cers. In  short,  poor  as  the  Irish  were — 
and  they  were  only  poor  because  tlie  Eno;- 
lish  ate  them  out  of  house  and  home — their 
whole  nature  and  habits  were  totally  abhor- 
rent to  the  idea  of  Poor  laws.  But  it  was 
now  the  settled  dfsijj:n  of  tlie  British  Gov- 
ernment to  fasten  upon  them  this  plague  ; 
and  for  two  principal  reasons — first,  to  ob- 
tiiin  absolute  control;  through  their  own  offi- 
cials, of  the  great  mass  of  the  poor,  who 
might  otherwise  be  turned  into  elements  of 
revolutionary  disturbance  ;  second,  to  aid 
and  encourage  the  extermination  of  the 
"  surplupos  pulution" — thus  coming  in  aid 
of  the  new  code  of  cheap  and  easy  eject- 
ment— for  when  there  should  be  great  poor- 
houses  in  every  district  to  receive  the  home- 
less people,  landlords  would  have  the  less 
hesitation  in  turning  out  upon  the  highways 
the  population  of  whole  townlands  at  once. 
Besides,  the  immense  patronage  which  the 
new  system  would  place  in  the  hands  of  the 
Government — a  patronage  to  be  chiefly  ex- 
ercised amongst  the  class  a  stage  or  two  re- 
moved above  the  very  poor  themselves, 
would  give  to  that  Government,  in  every 
"  Poor-Law  Union,"  a  very  extensive  con- 
trol over  the  interests  and  whole  way  of  life 
of  the  farming  class. 

A  person  named  Nicholl,  a  Scotchman, 
was  sent  to  make  a  tour  in  Ireland,  and  to 
report  on  the  distresses  of  the  poor.  After 
a  journey  of  a  few  weeks,  in  a  country 
quite  unknown  to  him,  this  man  made  a  re- 
[)ort.  He  saw  much  suffering  and  privation  ; 
and  reported  that  during  half  the  year, 
there  were  five  hundred  and  eighty-five 
thousand  persons,  with  two  millions  three 
hundred  thousand  more  depending  on  them, 
in  a  state  of  utter  destitution.  He  took 
care  to  report  notliing  of  the  reason  of  this 
destitution  ;  namely,  the  drain  of  Irish  pro- 
duce to  England.  Upon  the  report  of  this 
Sfotchnian,  a  measure  was  prepared  and  in- 
troduced  by  Lord  John  Russell,  to  estab- 
lish an  universal  system  of  Poor  laws  ;  a 
Vioard  of  commissioners,  and  distribution  of 
the  i.sland  into  "Unions."  It  was  in  vain 
that  O'Connell,  nnvny  Catholic  Bishops, 
many  Protestant  Irishmen,  even,  opposed 
this  dreadful  law.     It  was  carried  by  large 


majorities,  and  became  law  in  July,  1838. 
TvTO  years  later  there  were  one  hundred  and 
twenty-seven  Unions  marked  out  and  consti- 
tuted ;  fourteen  immense  Poor  Houses, 
builf  like  prisons,  had  been  built,  and  tiie 
others  were  in  rapid  progress.  Ireland  has 
been  blistering  and  festering  under  this 
British  pestilence  ever  since  that  day.  One 
of  the  first  consequences  of  it  was  a  large 
increase  in  the  number  of  ejectments.  The 
ejected  people,  when  they  had  no  money  to 
emigrate,  could  only  take  refuge  in  these 
Poor  law  jails,  bid  adieu  to  all  decency  and 
independence,  and  become  paupers  forever, 
cursing  the  cruel  "  charity  "  that  prolonged 
their  miserable  existence. 

The  second  of  these  measures  was  the 
Tithe  bill  ;  passed  in  May,  1838.  \i  alol- 
ishecl  Church  tithes  in  Ireland  ;  that  is  to 
say,  it  converted  them  into  a  charge  upon 
the  land  ;  called  tithe  rent-charge,  payable 
in  the  first  place  to  the  parsons  by  the  land- 
lords, and  then  levial)le  on  the  tenants  by 
distress,  along  with  the  rent.  Thus,  the 
parsons  were  relieved  from  the  necessity 
of  coming  into  immediate  collision  with  the 
farmers,  and  raising  bloody  riots  to  come  at 
their  tenth  sheaf  and  tenth  potato.  The 
tithe  was,  in  fact,  confounded  with  tlie  rent, 
and  put  into  a  form  impossible  to  be  resist- 
ed or  evaded.  In  return  for  the  additional 
security  and  tranquillity  thus  assured  to  the 
clergymen,  and  for  the  saving  of  their  heavy 
expenses  to  proctors  and  tithe-faruiers,  they 
were  made  to  submit  to  a  deduction  of 
twenty-five  per  cent,  upon  the  amount 
claimed  by  them.  On  the  whole  it  was  a 
profitable  change  for  the  parsons,  who  have 
been  better  paid  since  that  time  than  they 
had  been  for  many  years  before.  The  people 
were  assured  that  they  were  relieved  from 
the  "  tithe  ;"  and  the  Church  was  supposed 
to  have  escaped  the  odium  of  this  shocking 
imposition  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  many  a 
poor  family  saw  its  last  bed  carried  off 
by  the  landlord's  bailiffs,  to  pay  "tithe 
rent-charge."  Nothing  can  demonstrate  in 
a  more  offensive  manner  the  savage  resolu- 
tion of  the  British  Government  and  people 
to  make  us  pay  for  support  of  that  alien 
church,  or  die. 

The  third  great  measure  which  signalized 
the  first  years  of  Queen  Victoria,  was  the 


1>0I)K   LAW TITHE   LAW MUNICIPAL    KEFOKM. 


521 


Municipal  lleform  not.  The  Emancipalioii 
act  had  been  quite  inoperative  iu  giving  to 
Catholic's  tiieir  rightful  i)Iace  in  the  corpora- 
tions, A  Municipal  Reform  bill  had  been 
introduced  into  Parliament,  in  1836,  by 
O'Loglilcn,  then  Attorney-General.  Tie 
bad  stated  in  his  speecii,  that  "although 
the  whole  number  of  corporators  in  Ire- 
land were  thirteen  thousand,  and  although 
since  1"92,  the  corporations  had  been 
nominally  open  to  Catholics,  not  more 
than  two  hundred  had  been  admitted." 
The  municipal  bodies  also,  being  quite  free 
from  popular  control,  and  all  other  control, 
liad  become  quite  as  conspicuous  for  corrup- 
tion as  for  Protestantism  ;  and  independ- 
ently of  the  claims  of  the  Catholics,  some 
cleansing  process  was  absolutely  needful 
amongst  those  dens  of  iniquity.  The  prin- 
ciple of  the  new  bill  was  to  give  to  the  in- 
habitants of  the  towns  (subject  to  a  qualifi- 
cation according  to  rating,)  the  power  to 
elect  town  councillors,  and  thus  infuse  a 
popular  element  into  the  little  close  boroughs 
of  municipal  jurisdiction. 

A  Municipal  Reform  bill  had  been  within 
a  few  years  enacted  for  England  ;  and  an- 
other object  of  the  Government  was  to  assim- 
ilate, iis  far  a's  was  })rudent,  the  Irish  insti- 
tutions of  this  kind  with  the  English.  One 
great  difficulty,  however,  at  once  presented 
itself.  Some  of  tlie  functions  of  municipal 
officers  were  connected  wilh  the  administra- 
tion of  justice.  The  mayor  is  a  magistrate. 
What  is  of  still  graver  importance,  the 
sheriff'  of  a  corporate  city  is  the  officer  wiio 
has  charge  of  the  list  of  qualified  jurors  in 
that  city,  and  who  summons  a  certain  num- 
ber of  them  to  serve  at  each  assize  or  com- 
mission. If  such  sheriff  should  be  a  Cath- 
olic, there  was  reason  to  fear  that  he  might 
not  exercise  due  vigilance  in  kee[)ing  Catho- 
lics off  those  juries  which  might  have  to 
try  "  political  offences" — a  large  and  essen- 
tial department  of  what  is  called  "  govern- 
ment "  in  Ireland. 

Violent  opposition  was  made  to  the  bill, 
on  this  and  other  grounds  ;  and  it  was 
thrown  out  by  the  House  of  Lords.  The 
agitation,  however,  was  quite  vehement  on 
the  subject  in  Ireland  ;  and  the  demsind  for 
corporate  refoi-m  grew  loud.  While  the 
Marquis  of  Normauby  was  Lord-Lieutenant 


of' Ireland,  he  did  not  prevent  and  repress 
politi(!al  meetings,  us  he  was  invested  with 
power  to  do  ;  and  the  Whig  Ministry  soon 
found  they  could  not  calculate  on  Catholic 
su])port,  (which  they  needed,)  without  some, 
measure  of  this  character.  During  the  three 
years,  1837-8-9,  the  bill  underwent  several 
modifications,  and  was  several  times  passed 
by  the  Commons  and  thrown  out  by  the 
Peers.  At  last,  it  took  its  final  shape,  and 
was  introduced  by  Lord  Morpeth,  on  the 
Uth  of  Fel)ruary,  1840.  In  his  bill,  the 
amount  of  rating  fixed  as  the  qualification 
for  voters  was  £,i.  When  it  was  sent  up  to 
the  Lords,  they  insisted  upon  the  qualifica- 
tion of  a  iElO  rating  ;  and  with  this  change 
it  was  accepted  by  the  Commons,  and  be- 
came law  * 

The  Municipal  Reform  act  would  have 
been  indeed  an  invaluable  concession  of 
right  and  equity  to  Ireland  ;  and  we  should 
here  be  called  upon  to  greatly  modify  or  re- 
tract very  much  of  the  bitter  reflections 
which  have  been  made  upon  the  deadly 
hostility  shown  by  all  British  Governments 
against  the  Irish  people,  but  for  one  circum- 
stance. A  clause  of  the  new  act,  not  only 
renders  all  the  rest  comparatively  worthless, 
but  provides  with  deliberate  malignity  for 
the  subversion  of  all  law  and  justice  in  Ire- 
land. It  enacts  that  the  sheriff  shall  not  be 
elected  by  the  Town  Councils,  as  in  Eng- 
land, but  appointed  by  the  Lord-Lieute- 
nant. That  is  to  say,  the  Town  Councils 
were  to  be  allowed  to  submit  certain  names 
to  that  functionary,  amongst  whom  they 
should  pray  him  to  appoint  their  sheriff  ; 
and  if  none  of  the  names  pleased  him,  the 
nomination  was  to  rest  with  him — that  is 
to  say,  the  officer  who  had  charge  of  the 
jury-lists,  and  whose  special  duty  it  is  to 
take  care  that  his  fellow-citizens  are  fairly 
represented  in  the  jury-box,  was  to  be,  not 
an  elected  servant  of  the  people,  but  a  crea- 
ture of  the  Castle  and  the  Crown.  There 
is  no  occasion  for  hesitation  or  delicacy  in 
affirming,  that  the  intention  of  this  clause 
was  to  enable  the  Crown  to  pack  its  juries 
with  the  utmost  certainty,  and  to  destroy 
a  political  op[)onent  at  any  time,  under  a 
false  pretence  of  law.     To  what  deadly  use 

♦  3  and  4  Victoria,  cap.  118. 


522 


mSTOKY   OF    IRELAND. 


this  provision  has  been  turned  will  be  but 
too  evident  throughout  the  later  history  of 
the  country.  In  the  meantime,  however, 
the  Catholic  townsmen  of  Ireland  took  their 
place  in  the  municipal  bodies,  and  in  such 
municipal  business  as  had  no  reference  to 
tlie  administration  of  justice.  O'Connell 
was  elected  first  Catholic  Lord  Mayor  of 
Dublin  ;  and  took  much  state, in  his  scar- 
let cloak  and  gold  chain  ;  but  at  the  same 
moment  was  nominated  a  sheriff,  whose 
business  it  was  to  secure  a  jury  that  would 
send  this  Lord  Mayor  to  jail  on  the  first 
occasion  when  the  Castle  might  desire  to 
imprison  him  as  a  criminal. 

These  tliree  measures  were  the  first  fruits 
of  Whig  legislation  for  L'eland,  in  the  three 
first  years  of  Queen  Victoria. 


CHAPTER    LYL      ■ 

1840—1813. 

Spirit  of  Legislation  for  Ireland — More  Spying  in  the 
Post  Office — Savings'  Banks — "Precursor  Society" 
Support  to  the  Whigs— Whigs  Go  Out— Peel  Comes 
In — Repeal  Association — Export  of  Food — Exter- 
mination— The  Repeal  Year — Corporation  Debate 
— The  Younger  Nationalists — New  "Arms  Bill" — 
O'Brien  Movea  for  Inquiry — Preparations  for  Coer- 
cion—All Engla.nd  against  Repeal — Monster  Meet- 
ings —  Mallow  —  Tara—  MuUaghmast  —  Clontarf — 
Proclamation. 

We  can  now  appreciate,  in  some  mea- 
sure, the  spirit  and  motive  of  all  the  legisla- 
tion for  Ireland  after  "Emancipation." 
Catholics  having  been  admitted  into  Parlia- 
ment and  into  the  Corporations,  it  became 
necessary,  in  the  hiterest  of  British  domin- 
ation, to  take  securities  against  the  employ- 
ment of  the  new  franchises  for  any  Irish 
purpose.  By  the  "National  Education" 
system  provision  was  made  for  stifling  all 
national  sentiment  in  the  young.  By  the 
Poor  law,  the  life  or  death  of  certain  mil- 
lions of  tlie  people  was  placed  at  the  dis- 
posal of  British  officials.  By  the  Tithe  law 
the  impositions  of  the  Established  Church 
were  rendered  inevitable.  By  the  Municipal 
law  the  perpetual  packing  of  juries  was 
made  certain.  Every  enactment  of  the 
British  Parliament  was  expressly  designed 
and  admirably  calculated  to  nullify  alto- 
gether the  sentiments  and  aspirations  of  the 


Irish  people,  and  to  sultject  their  whole  way 
of  life  to  the  will  and  the  interests  of  Eng- 
land. '  The  police  force  had  been  gradually 
converted  into  a  standing  army,  under  the 
absolute  control  of  the  Castle.  The  Port 
Office  espionnage  had  been  systematized  and 
perfected.  Government  officers  were  trained 
.to  open  letters  and  re-seal  them,  without 
showing  any  trace  of  their  manipulation  ; 
and  Her  Majesty's  Lords-Lieutenant  read 
the  correspondence  of  all  suspected  persons. 
In  1834,  it  was  Mr.  Secretary  Littleton, 
(afterwards  Lord  Hatherton,)  who  inspect- 
ed men's  letters.  In  1835,  it  was  Lord 
Mulgrave,  (afterwards  Marquis  of  Nor- 
manby,)  who  discharged  this  needful  office. 
The  next  year  it  was  the  same  noble  mar- 
quis, and  the  Irish  Secretary,  Mr.  Drum- 
mond — the  man  wlio  scandalized  the  whole 
British  interest  in  Ireland  by  a  casual  obser- 
vation of  his,  (which,  however,  he  did  not 
mean,)  that  "property  had  its  duties  as  well 
as  its  rights."  It  was  this  Mr.  Drummond 
who  was  the  spy  upon  our  correspondence 
both  in  1836  and  1837.  In  the  same  year, 
1837,  it  appears  that  both  Lord  Cliancellor 
Plunket,  one  of  the  Lords-Justices,  and  Doc- 
tor Whateley,  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  a 
member  of  the  Privy  Council,  had  a  curios- 
ity to  know  what  Mr.  O'Connell  and  others 
might  be  writing  about  to  their  friends. 
They,  therefore,  gave  directions  that  the  let- 
ters to  and  from  that  gentleman,  and  all  the 
other  gentlemen  named  in  their  orders,  (we 
are  not  told  who  they  were,)  should  be 
opened  in  the  Post  Office,  softening  the  seals, 
or  envelopes,  by  a  cunning  application  of 
steam,  then  copied  for  the  study  of  those 
functionaries,  and  then  sealed  up  again  with 
great  skill.  In  1838,  Lord  Morpeth,  (after- 
wards Lord  Carlisle,)  had  the  opening  of 
our  letters.  In  1839,  the  Marquis  of  Nor- 
ma nby,  Lord  Ebrington,  and  General  Sir 
T.  Blakeney,  one  of  the  Lords-Justices.  In 
1840,  Lord  Ebrington  again  freely  indulged 
his  curiosity.* 

When  to  all  these  methods  of  inspection 
and  control,  we  add  the  immense  police 
force — about  thirteen  thousand  men,  well- 
armed  and  scientifically  distributed  over  the 
whole  island — with    their  complete  code  of 

*  Parliamentary  Return.    Session  of  1845.    Papers 
relating  to  Mazziui. 


savings'    banks THE    "  PRECUIiSOK    SOCIETY." 


523 


signals  for  commiiiiieating  from  station  to 
station,  with   blue   lights,  red    lights,    and 
other  apparatus — when  we  add  the  numer- 
ous corps   of  detectives,  (a  sort  of  institution 
in  which  Great  Britain  is  unmatched  in   all 
the   world,)    and   when   we   remember  the 
Disarming  acts  and  Coercion  acts  always  in 
force,  *  it  is  easy  to    understand    how  the 
unfortunate  Irish  nation,  bound  hand  and 
foot,  muzzled,  disarmed,  and   half  starved, 
could  but  writhe  helplessly  under  the  lash 
of  its  greedy  tyrant.     Yet  the  pictures  of 
these  engines  of  subjugation  is  not  complete, 
without  an   account  of   the  savings^  banks. 
These    institutions    were    the    only   means 
left   to   industrious    and   frugal    people    by 
which  they  could  safely  invest  their  savings. 
Manufacturing    industry    was    out  of    the 
question  ;  land  in  small  lots  was  not  to  be 
had  ;  even  leases  for  lives  or  years  were  no 
longer  obtained,  (for  there  was  now  no  use 
for  small  freeholders  at  the  hustings,)  and 
those  who  could  save  a  little  money  could 
do  no  better  than  deposit  it  in  the  savings' 
bank   of  the  nearest  town.     The  system  of 
savings'  banks    had    been    introduced    from 
Scotland  into  Ireland  in  IS  10.     Soon  after 
it  had  been  made  a  Government  institution, 
and  the  rate  of  interest  was  fixed  by  law  : 
the    depositors  were    allowed   £o  Os.    lOd. 
per  cent.  ;  and  the  savings'  bank  was  bound 
to  invest  the  whole  of  the  money  deposited 
with  it  in  the  Government  funds.     Thus  the 
small  savings  of  every  industrious  artizan 
and   of  every  prudent  maid-servant  were  in 
the  hands  of   tlie    Govertuneut  ;  and    their 
value    depended    upon    tlie    value    of  the 
Government   funds— that  is,  on  the  credit 
and  stability  of  the  existing  British  system. 
This  was  a  substantial  security  against  revo- 
lution— because  every  depositor  felt  that  his 
little  all  depended  on  the  tranquillity  of  the 
state  :  in  other  words,  on  the  peaceful   per- 
petuation of  the  hateful  system,  which  was 
really  making  beggars  of  tiiem  all. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  in  so  very  help- 
less a  condition  of  the  country,  it  was  a 
difficult  task  for  even  the  most  powerful  and 
popular  agitator  to  produce  any  movement 
that   would    be   really   formidable    to   the 

*  Lord  Grey's  Coercion  act  remained  in  force  till 
183[).  It  wud  soon  succeeclcd  by  auutker  Coercion 
act. 


enemy's    Government,  or  would   exert  any 
serious  pressure  upon  their  action.      O'Con- 
nell   was,   for   several   years,  in  a  state  of 
manifiest    perplexity    and    indecision.      He 
always  knew  and  felt,  it  is  true,  that  the 
repeal  of  the  Union — the  destruction  of  the 
British   Empire — was  the  only  salvation  for" 
his   couutry.     But  that  British  Empire  was 
now  on  its  guard  at  all  points.     Besides,  tho 
governing    faction    at    that    moment    was 
Whig  ;    full   of    fine,    liberal    professions  ; 
always  employed  in  some  fraudulent  pretence 
of  friendly  legislation  for  Ii'ekind  ;  and  even 
courting    him   and  his  influence  for  its  own 
party  purposes.     It  is  not   to  be   wondered 
at,    then,    that   when    the    Liberal    Lord 
Melbourne  was   I'rime   Minister,    and    the 
more    than    Liberal    Lord    Normauby  and 
Lord  Ebrington  were  Viceroys  of  Ireland, 
who  were  willing  to  distribute  a  large  share 
of  the  Government   patronage  on   his  re- 
commendation,  (whilst    they   inspected    his 
letters    in   the    Post  Office,)  it   cannot  be 
thought  strange  that  he  held   in  abeyance 
for  a  time  the  real   and  rightful  claims  of 
Irish  nationhood,  and   gave  a  certain  quali- 
fied support   to   the  "  Liberal"  administra-* 
tion,  which  bestowed  profitable  offices  on  his 
friends.       It  was    at   this    period    that  tha 
Tories  accused  the  Government  of  truckling 
to  O'Conuell,  and  that  the  thorough-goiuaf 
nationalists  of  Ireland  accused  O'ConutjU  of 
trafficking  with    the  Whigs ;  and,  in    fact, 
this  was  the  most  questionable  part  of   his 
whole  political  career. 

Yet,  O'Conuell  was  too  much  devoted  to 
the  cause  of  his  country  to  sell  it  to  any 
English  party.  He  insisted  no  longer  on 
the  restoration  of  a  native  legislature, 
but  loudly  claimed  "justice  to  Ireland," 
and  affected  to  believe  that  these  Whig 
statesmen  would  consent  to  such  justice. 
Thereupon,  he  established  a  new  agitatin<j 
association,  which  he  called  by  the  peculiar 
name  of  "  Precursor  Society,"  in  the  be- 
giiming  of  1839.  The  meaning  of  the  name 
was,  that  Ireland  was  now  making  a  last  ap- 
peal for  "justice,"  and  that  if  this  were  still 
denied,  the  existing  society  was  but  the  pre- 
cursor of  a  new  and  universal  agitation  for 
repeal  of  the  Union.  In  the  meantime,  all 
the  influence  of  the  organization  was  to  be 
used  in  support  of  the  Wliig  adiniui-^M-atioa. 


524 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


"  What  am  I  here  for  ?"  exclaimed  O'Con- 
nell,  at  a  meeting  of  the  6th  of  March, 
1S39  ;  "  What  am  I  iiere  for?  To  call  on 
all  Ireland  to  rally  round  ike  Ministry  ;  to 
call  for  my  two  millious  of  enroled  Pre- 
enrsors." 

Lord  Normanby,  while  in  secret  he  pried 
into  everybody's  letters,  omitted  in  public 
none  of  the  usual  arts  of  popularity.  He 
procured  places  for  Catholic  lawyers  ;  he 
dismissed  from  the  commission  of  the  peace 
Colonel  Yeruer,  and  other  outrageous 
Orange  magistrates,  for  publicly  celebrating 
that  ruffianly  slaughter  called  Battle  of 
the  Diamond  ;  he  received  Catholic  nota- 
bilities at  the  Castle  with  distinguished 
courtesy  ;  he  made  excursions  through  the 
provinces,  and  liberated  from  the  jails  great 
numbers  of  prisoners  who  were  either  un- 
justly confined,  or  undergoing  punishment 
for  trifling  offences.  At  length,  English 
opinion  became  inflamed  against  him  ;  and 
Lord  Brougham  (wlio  had  entirely  aban- 
doned all  pretence  to  liberalism,  when 
Ireland  was  in  question,)  moved  a  vote  of 
censure  against  Lord  Normanby  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  on  the  express  ground  of 
an  abuse  of  patronage  and  of  the  pardoning 
power.  It  appeared  on  the  debate  that  his 
lordsliip  had,  between  November,  1837,  and 
the  31st  January,  1839,  released  eight  hun- 
dred and  twenty-two  prisoners — but  not  with- 
out inquiry  into  their  cases,  and  not  without 
rejecting  appeals  for  clemency  amounting 
to  nearly  as  large  a  number.  The  vote  of 
censure  passed,  however.  Lord  Normanby 
retired  from  the  Vice-royalty,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded in  1839  by  Lord  Ebrington,  another 
Liberal,  who  lost  no  time  in  commencing 
liis  duties  as  Post  Office  spy  ;  which,  in- 
deed, he  continued  faithfully  to  discharge 
during  the  whole  period  of  his  government. 

The  "Precursor"  Association  continued 
its  meetings  at  the  Corn  Exchange,  on 
Burgh  Quay,  and  Mr.  O'Connell,  regularly 
ouce  a  week,  while  he  demanded  justice  to 
Ireland,  called  on  the  people  to  sustain  the 
Whig  Government, 

This  anomalous  political  situation  ended 
in  November,  1841.  The  Whig  administra- 
tion went  out  ;  and  Sir  Robert  Peel,  the 
proved  and  inveterate  enemy  of  Ireland  and 
of  the  Catholics,  became   Prime  Minister, 


There  was  to  be  no  more  patronage  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Corn  Exchange  ;  no  more 
pretext  for  affecting  to  expect  justice  for 
Ireland  at  the  hands  of  an  English  Govern- 
ment ;  and  the  Precursor  Society  merged 
into  the  Repeal  Association. 

For  the  next  two  years,  this  new  organ- 
ization attracted  but  little  attention  ia 
England,  or  even  at  home.  The  country 
had  become  so  much  accustomed  to  Mr. 
O'Connell's  successive  forms  of  agitation, 
that  it  would  have  surprised  nobody  if  the 
Repeal  Association  had  been  upon  any 
morning  "  proclaimed"  out  of  existence — or 
if  its  versatile  author  had  again  changed  its 
name  and  character,  and  called  it  the 
"  Liberal  Association,"  or  "  Justice  to  Ire- 
land Association,"  But,  in  truth,  no  person 
could  be  more  fully  sensible  than  Mr. 
O'Connell  that  there  was  no  justice  for  Ire- 
land save  in  national  independence.  For 
full  thirty  years  he  had  constantly  avowed 
this  creed  ;  and  if  he  had  waived  the  claim 
for  awhile,  it  was  only  to  aid  and  encourage 
the  Whigs  in  granting  what  he  called 
"instalments"  of  justice,  which  might 
strengthen  the  nation  to  demand  and  en- 
force all  that  was  due,  or  in  putting  "good 
men  "  into  office,  who,  he  said,  were  certain- 
ly better  thau  bad  men.  Now,  at  last,  he 
felt  himself  standing  upon  the  only  plaiu  and 
honest  principle,  engaged  in  tiie  only  agita- 
tion by  which  his  countrymen  would  be  really 
stirred  and  tired  to  the  very  hearts'  core. 

Nothing  important  took  place  during  these 
two  years.  Mr.  O'Connell  was  now  Lord 
Mayor  of  Dublin,  and  held  his  levees  in  state 
at  tlie  Mansion  House,  while  the  Lord- 
Lieutenant  was  studying  his  private  letters 
to  find  matter  of  accusation  against  him. 
The  people  were  pleased  to  see  their  chosen 
chief  adorned  with  the  splendid  corporate 
insignia,  so  long  appropriated  by  the  "As- 
cendancy," and  did  not  yet  perceive  how 
firmly,  instead  of  that  old  "  Ascendancy," 
British  domination  was  fastened  upon  tliem. 

In  1843,  more  than  three  million  quarters 
of  grain  were  exported  out  of  Ireland  into 
England  ;  besides,  almost  a  million  head  of 
live  stock,  including  horned  cattle,  slieep  and 
swine.  * 

*  Thorn's  Official  Directory.  This  is  quite  a  n  under- 
csitmate. 


EXTERMmATIOX THE   REPEAL   TEAR. 


525 


In  1843,  extermination  of  tenantry  was 
sweeping  and  destructive  ;  and  the  emi- 
gration of  "  surplus  population"  from  Ireland 
reached  nearly  one  hundred  thousand. 

From  a  Londonderry  newspaper,  of  this 
year,  we  extract  an  advertisement,  signed 
by  one  M'MuUin,  "  Emigration  Agent," 
which  will  show  what  was  going  on  through- 
out Ireland  better  than  particular  details 
could  do  : — 

Notice. — A  favorable  opportunity  presents  itself, 
in  the  course  of  the  present  month,  for  Quebec,  to 
gentlemen  residing  in  the  Counties  of  Lonilonderry, 
Donegal,  Tyrone,  or  Fermanagh,  who  wish  to  send 
out  to  the  Canadas  the  overstock  tenantry  belonging 
to  their  estates— as  a  moderate  rate  of  passage  will 
be  taken,  and  six  months'  credit  given  for  a  lump 
(sum  to  any  gentleman  requiring  such  accommoda- 
tion, &c. 

The  mode  in  which  the  overstock  tenantry 
are  persuaded  in  Ireland  to  embark  for 
America,  is  ejecting  them,  and  pulling 
down  their  houses.  And  in  1843,  and 
many  years  before,  and  every  year  since, 
this  process  has  been  going  on  so  extensively 
and  notoriously  that  there  will  be  no  further 
occasion  to  refer  to  it,  until  we  arrive  at 
what  the  British  call  the  "  Famine." 

In  1843,  the  rental  of  Ireland,  carried  off 
to  be  spent  abroad,  amounted  (according  to 
Mr.  Smith  O'Brien's  estimate,)  to  five  rail- 
lions  sterling  ;  and  the  peasantry,  whose 
industry  created  all  the  wealth  of  the 
country  were  proverbially  known  through- 
out the  earth  as  "  the  worst  fed,  the  worst 
clothed,  and  the  worst  housed  peasantry  in 
Europe." 

Tiie  poor-houses,  which  had  been  built 
under  the  new  law,  wore  all  full  ;  the  far- 
mers were  paying  their  tithes  to  the  land- 
lords, with  no  possibility  of  escape  ;  for  the 
bailiffs  were  always  at  the  door,  and  the 
tithe  was  levied  along  with  the  rent  ;  the 
"national  schools"  were  teaching  Irish 
children  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
nationality,  and  that  it  is  a  blessed  privilege 
to  be  born  "  a  happy  English  child."  Thus, 
the  mature  and  highly-elaborated  policy  of 
the  ei\emy  towards  Ireland  was  in  full  and 
successful  operation  at  every  point,  when,  in 
the  spring  of  184  3,  O'Connell  announced 
that  it  was  the  repe,al  year,  and  proceeded 
to  infuse  into  that  movement  an  energy  and 
power  greater  than  any  of  his  organizations 


had  ever  possessed,  even  in  the  days  of  the 
old  Catholic  Association 

First,  he  asked  for  three  millions  of  en- 
roled repealers  in  the  Repeal  Association  ; 
and  confidently  promised,  and,  perhaps,  fully 
believed,  that  no  English  administration 
would  venture  to  resist  that  great  measure 
so  enforced.  The  more  thoroughly  to 
arouse  the  people,  he  declined  to  go  over  to 
London  to  take  his  seat  in  Parliament, 
(many  other  members  following  his  example, ) 
and  resolved  to  hold  multitudinous  meetings 
in  every  corner  of  the  island. 

First,  he  moved  in  the  Dublin  Corj)ora- 
tion  a  resolution,  for  the  adoption  of  a  peti- 
tion to  Parliament  demanding  a  repeal  of 
the  union  with  England  —  that  is  to  say,  de- 
manding back  the  Irish  Parliament,  which 
had  been  extinguished  in  1800  ;  so  that 
Ireland  should  once  more  have  her  own 
House  of  Peers  and  House  of  Commons  ; 
the  Sovereign  of  England  to  be  also  Sov- 
ereign of  Ireland.  His  speech  was  master- 
ly, and  covered  the  whole  case.  He  cited 
the  ablest  jurists  to  show  that  the  so-called 
Union  was  in  law  a  nullity  ;  reminded  his 
audience  of  what  was  at  any  rate  notorious 
and  never  denied — that,  supposing  the  two 
Parliaments  competent  to  pass  such  an  act, 
it  had  been  obtained  by  fraud  and  open 
bribery  ;  an  open  market  of  bribery,  of 
which  the  accounts  are  extant — viz.,  £.1, 
275,000  paid  to  proprietors  for  the  purchase 
of  nomination  boroughs,  at  i£l  5,000  per  bor- 
ough, (which  seats  were  immediately  filled 
by  English  officers  and  clerks)  —  more 
than  one  million  sterling  expended  on  mere 
bribes  ;  the  tariff  being  quite  familiar,  £8,- 
000  for  an  Union  vote,  or  an  office  worth 
£2,000  a  year,  if  the  member  did  not  like 
to  touch  the  ready  money  ;  twenty  Peer- 
ages, ten  Bishoprics,  one  Chief  Justice- 
ship, six  Puisne  Judgeships  ;  not  to  count 
regiments  and  ships  given  to  officers  in  tiie 
army  and  navy  ;  all  dispensed  as  direct 
payment  for  the  vote.  He  reminded  thera 
that  the  right  of  holding  public  meetings  to 
protest  against  all  this  was  taken  awny  dur- 
ing the  time  the  Union  was  in  agitation  ; 
tliat  county  meetings,  convened  l)y  High 
Sheriffs  of  counties,  as  in  Tipperary  and 
Queen's  County,  were  dispersed  by  troops  ; 
martial  law  was  in  force,  and  the  Habeas 


526 


HISTORY    OF   lEELAND. 


Corpus  suspended  ;  that,  in  1800,  the 
number  of  soldiers  concentrated  in  that 
small  island,  was  one  liundred  and  twen- 
ty-nine thousand,  as  "good  lookers-on;" 
that,  notwithstanding  all  intimidation,  sev- 
en hundred  thousand  persons  had  peti- 
tioned against  the  measure  ;  and,  notwith- 
standing all  enticements,  only  three  thou- 
sand had  petitioned  for  it,  most  of  these 
being  Government  officials,  and  prisoners  in 
the  jails.  If  he  had  stopped  here,  most  per- 
Bons  would  think  it  enough  —  that  was  a 
deed  which  at  the  earliest  possible  moment 
must  be  undone  and  punished. 

But  he  did  not  stop  here  ;  he  went  into 
all  the  details  of  ruined  trade  and  manufac- 
tures since  the  Union — immensely-increased 
drains  in  the  shape  Of  absentee-rents  and 
surplus-taxation — frauds  in  sulijecting  Ire- 
land to  a  charge  for  the  English  national 
debt,  and  even  charging  to  Ireland's  special 
account  the  very  monies  expended  in  bribes 
and  military  expenses  for  carrying  the 
Union  ;  which,  he  said,  was  about  as  fair  as 
"  making  Ireland  pay  for  the  knife  with 
which  Lord  Castlereagh  cut  his  throat  ; " 
—  injustice  in  giving  Ireland  but  one  hun- 
dred members  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
while  her  population  and  revenue  entitled 
her  to  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  ;  and, 
above  all,  the  injustice  of  fixing  the  qualifi- 
cation of  electors  of  these  members  much 
higher  in  Ireland,  the  poorer  country,  than 
in  England. 

This  is  a  sketch  only  of  the  case  for  re- 
peal of  the  Union  ; — the  necessity  for  some 
remedy  or  other  was  only  too  apparent  in 
the  poverty  and  wretchedness  which  moved 
and  scandalized  all  Europe. 

The  petition  for  repeal  was  adopted  by 
a  vole  of  forty-one  to  fifteen  in  the  Corpo- 
ration ;  and  a  similar  petition,  shortly  after, 
by  the  Corporation  of  Cork.  Hitherto  the 
English  press,  and  Irish  press  in  the  English 
interest,  looked  on  with  afiiected  or  real  in- 
diffi'rence  and  contempt. 

O'Connell  then  left  Dublin  for  the  prov- 
inces. Then  began  the  series  of  vast  open- 
air  meetings,  to  which  the  peasantry,  ac- 
companied by  their  priests,  repeal  wardens, 
and  "  temperance  bauds,"  flocked  in  numbers, 
varying  from  fifty  thousand  to  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand — (we  take  the  reduced  and 


disparaging  estimate  of  enemies  ;  but  the  re- 
peal newspapers  put  up  the  Tara  meeting  to 
four  hundred  thousand.)  Of  course,  the 
orator  always  addressed  these  multitudes, 
but  though  his  voice  was  the  most  powerful 
of  his  day,  he  could  not  be  heard  by  a  tenth 
of  them,  ^'either  did  they  come  to  hear  ; 
they  were  all  well  indoctrinated  by  local  re- 
peal wardens  ;  had  their  minds  made  up  ; 
and  came  to  convince  their  leader  that  they 
were  with  him,  and  would  be  ready  at  any 
time  when  called  upon. 

But  all  was  to  be  peaceable  ;  they  were 
to  demand  their  rights  imperatively  ;  they 
were,  he  assured  them,  tall  men  and  strong  ; 
at  every  monster  meeting  he  had  around 
him,  as  he  often  said,  the  materials  of  a 
greater  army  than  both  the  armies  combined 
that  fought  at  Waterloo.  "  But  take  heed," 
he  cried,  "  not  to  misconceive  me.  Is  it  by 
force  or  violence,  bloodshed  or  turbulence, 
that  I  shall  achieve  this  victory,  dear  above 
all  earthly  considerations  to  my  heart  ? 
Xo  I  perish  the  thought  forever.  I  will  do 
it  by  legal,  peaceable,  and  constitutional 
means  alone — by  the  electricity  of  public 
opinion,  by  the  moral  combination  of  good 
men,  and  by  the  enrolment  of  four  millions 
of  repealers.  I  am  a  disciple  of  that  sect 
of  politicians  who  believe  that  the  greatest 
of  all  sublunary  blessings  is  too  dearly  pur- 
chased at  the  expense  of  a  single  drop  of 
human  bloodP 

Many  persons  did  not  understand,  this 
sort  of  language.  The  prevailing  impres- 
sion was,  that  while  the  Repeal  Association 
was,  indeed,  a  peaceful  body,  contemplating 
only  "  Constitutional  agitation,"  yet  the  par- 
ade of  such  immense  masses  of  physical 
force  had  an  ulterior  meaning,  and  indicated 
that  if  the  British  Parliament  remair^'-d 
absolutely  insensible  to  the  reasonable  de- 
mands of  the  people,  the  association  must 
be  dissolved  ;  and  the  next  question  would 
be,  how  best  and  soonest  to  exterminate  the 
British  forces.  Many  who  were  close  to 
O'Connell  expected  all  along  that  the  Eng- 
lish Parliament  and  Goverinuent  never 
would  yield  ;  and  these  would  hav^  taken 
small  interest  in  the  movement,  if  it  was 
never  to  go  beyond  speeches  and  cheers. 

Meanwhile,  nothing  could  be  more  peace- 
ful,   orderly,    and   good-humored   than    the 


THE   tOTmOER   NATIONALISTS. 


527 


meetings.  Father  Mathew's  temperance  re- 
formation bad  lately  been  working  its 
wonders ;  and  all  tlie  people  were  sober 
and  qniet  ;  repeal  wardens  everywhere  or- 
ganized, and  an  "  O'Connell  Police,"  with 
wands  ;  and  any  person  of  the  whole  im- 
mense multitude  who  was  even  noisy,  was 
instantly  and  quietly  removed.  The  Gov- 
ernment, indeed,  soon  took  alarm,  or  affect- 
ed to  do  so,  for  the  peace  of  the  country  ; 
and  they  sent  large  forces  of  armed  con- 
stabulary to  bivouac  on  the  ground  ;  but 
there  never  was  the  slightest  excuse  for  in- 
terference. 

The  movement  of  the  people,  throughout 
this  whole  summer,  was  profound  and  sweep- 
ing ;  it  carried  along  with  it  the  Catholic 
clergy,  though  in  many  cases  against  their 
will  ;  but  they  were  of  the  people,  bound  up 
with  the  people,  dependent  on  the  people,  and 
found  it  their  best  policy  to  move  not  only 
with  the  people,  but  at  their  head.  The 
Catholic  Bishops  and  Archl)ishops  gave  in 
their  adhesion,  and  began  to  take  the  chair 
at  meetings  ;  the  French  and  German  press 
began  to  notice  the  struggle,  and  eagerly 
watch  how  England  would  deal  with  it.  At 
last,  on  April  27th,  Mr.  Lane  Fox,  a  Tory 
member  of  Parliament,  gave  notice,  "That 
it  is  the  duty  of  Her  Majesty's  Government 
to  take  immediate  steps  to  put  an  end  to 
the  agitation  for  repeal" — and  on  the  same 
day  Lord  Eliot,  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland, 
gave  notice  of  a  bill  "  for  the  regulation  of 
arms  in  Ireland."  At  the  same  moment  the 
funds  fell  one  and  a  half  per  cent. 

The  first  threat  of  coercion  brought  im- 
portant accessions  to  the  ranks  of  the  re- 
pealers ;  and  the  monster  meetings  became 
now  more  monstrous  than  ever  ;  but,  if  pos- 
sible, even  gayer  and  more  good  humored. 

Mr.  O'Connell  affected  to  treat  very  light- 
ly all  these  menaces  of  violence.  His  sar- 
casm was  bitter,  his  reason  irrefragable,  his 
array  multitudinous  in  its  peaceful  might  ; 
but,  in  the  meantime,  Lord  Eliot  was  pre- 
Jtaring  his  Arms  bill  ;  and  on  the  9th  of 
May,  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  in  the  Lords, 
and  Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  the  Commons,  de- 
clared that  all  the  resources  of  the  empire 
fihould  be  exerted  to  preserve  the  Union  ; 
and  Sir  Robert  Peel  added,  quoting  Lord 
Althorpe,  that,  deprecating  civil  war  as  he 


did,  he  should  hold  civil  war  preferable  to  the 
"dismemberment  of  the  empire."  Mr.  Ber- 
nal,  [Osborne,]  instantly  asked  Sir  Robert, 
as  he  cited  Lord  Althorpe's  words,  "  whether 
he  would  abide  by  another  declaration  of 
that  noble  lord — namely,  that  if  all  the 
members  for  Ireland  should  be  in  favor  of 
repeal,  he  would  consider  it  his  duty  to 
grant  it  ?  "  And  Sir  Robert  replied  :  "I 
do  not  recollect  that  Lord  Althorpe  ever 
made  any  such  declaration  ;  but  if  he  did, 
I  am  not  prepared  to  abide  by  it." 

At  this  point,  issue  was  joined.  The  ma- 
jority of  the  Irish  nation  desired  to  undo 
the  Union  with  England  ;  but  England  de- 
clared, that  if  all  Ireland  demanded  that 
measure,  England  would  rather  drown  the 
demand  in  blood. 

The  new  association  for  repeal  contained 
many  men  of  great  ability  and  influence. 
Mr.  Shiel,  indeed,  though  he  had  publicly 
declared  himself  in  fiivor  of  rej)ea]ing  the 
Union,  had  desisted  from  all  active  a^ita- 
tion  after  the  Catholic  Relief  bill.  He 
never  entered  at  all  into  this  new  repeal 
movement,  perhaps,  because  he  knew  it 
meant  war,  and  knew  O'Connell  would  never 
fight  ;  perhaps,  because  he  chose  to  identi- 
fy himself  witli  the  higher,  class  of  Catholics, 
who  thought  enough  had  been  done,  and 
"  called  it  freedom  when  themselves  were 
free  ;"  perhaps,  because,  he  was  somewhat 
ititolerant  of  O'Connell's  autocratic  sway — 
for,  like  every  great  leader  of  a  democracy, 
the  agitator  was  a  most  despotic  discip- 
linarian in  ruling  the  movement  he  had 
created.  Up  to  the  time  of  the  Ministerial 
declaration  against  repeal  in  April,  very 
few  members  of  Parliament  were  actual 
members  of  the  association  ;  but  amongst 
them  was  Henry  Grattan,  member  for 
Meath,  who  brought  to  its  ranks  an  illus- 
trious name,  if  nothing  else  of  great  value. 
O'Brien  still  stood  aloof. 

But  within  tliis  same  association  there 
was  a  certain  smaller  association,  composed 
of  very  different  men.  Its  head  and  heart 
was  Thomas  Davis,  a  young  Protestant 
lawyer  of  Cork  County,  who  had  been  pre- 
viously known  only  as  a  scholar  and  anti- 
quarian ;  a  zealous  member  of  the  Royal 
Irish  Academy,  and  of  the  Archgeological 
Society.     In  the  autumn  of  '42,  he  ami    his 


528 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


friend  Dillon  had  projected  the  publication 
of  a  weekly  literary  and  political  journal  of 
the  highest  class,  to  sustain  the  cause  of 
Irish  nationhood,  to  give  it  a  historic  and 
literary  interest  which  would  win  and  in- 
spire the  youth  of  the  country,  and,  above 
all,  to  conciliate  Protestants  by  stripping 
the  agitation  of  a  certain  suspicion  of  sec- 
tarianism, which,  though  disavowed  by 
O'Counell,  was  naturally  connected  with  it 
by  reason  of  the  antecedents  of  its  chief 

So  commenced  the  Nation  newspaper  ; 
which,  for  several  years,  was,  next  to  O'Con- 
nell,  the  strongest  power  on  the  national 
side.  Its  editor  was  Mr.  Duffy,  but  Thomas 
Davis  was  its  chief  writer.  By  his  ardent 
temperament,  amiable  character,  and  high 
accomplishments,  he  soon  gathered  around 
him  a  gifted  circle  of  educated  young 
men,  both  Protestant  and  Catholic,  whose 
lieadquarters  was  the  Nation  office,  and 
whose  chief  bond  of  union  was  their  warm 
attachment  to  their  friend.  It  was  the  one 
grand  object  of  these  men — and  it  was  grand 
— to  lift  up  the  Irish  cause  high  above  both 
Catholic  claims  and  Protestant  pretensions, 
and  unite  all  sects  in  the  one  character  of 
"  Irishmen,"  to  put  an  end  to  English  domi- 
nation. Their  idea  was  precisely  the  idea 
of  the  United  Irishmen  ;  although  their 
mode  of  action  was  very  different.  Mr. 
Davis  and  his  friends  soon  received  the 
nickname  of  "  Young  Ireland,"  which  desig- 
nation they  never  themselves  assumed,  nor 
accepted. 

O'Connell  knew  well,  and  could  count, 
this  small  circle  of  literary  privateer  re- 
pealers ;  he  felt  that  he  was  receiving,  for 
the  present,  a  powerful  support  from  them 
— the  Nation  being,  by  far,  the  ablest  organ 
of  the  movement  ;  but  he  knew,  also, 
that  they  were  outside  of  his  influence,  and 
did  not  implicitly  believe  his  confident  pro- 
mises that  repeal  would  be  yielded  to 
"  agitation  ;"  that  they  were  continually 
seeking,  by  their  writings,  to  arouse  a  mili- 
tary spirit  among  the  people  ;  and  had 
most  diligently  promoted  the  formation  of 
temperance  bands,  with  military  uniforms, 
the  practice  of  marching  to  monster  meet- 
ings in  ranks  and  squadrons,  with  baimers, 
and  the  like  ;  showing  plainly,  that  while 
they  helped    the   Repeal  Association,  they 


fully  expected  that  the  liberties  of  the  coun- 
try must  be  fought  for  at  last.  O'Connell, 
tlierefore,  suspected  and  disliked  them  ;  but 
could  not  well  quarrel  with  them.  Ap- 
parently, they  worked  in  perfect  harmony  ; 
and  during  all  this  "  repeal  year"  few  were 
aware  how  certainly  that  alliance  must  end. 
Personally,  they  sought  no  notoriety  ;  and 
the  Nation  was  as  careful  to  swell  O'Con- 
nell's  praise,  and  make  him  the  sole  figure 
to  which  all  eyes  should  turn,  as  any  of  his 
own  creatures  could  be.  O'Connell  accept- 
ed their  services  to  convert  the  "  gentry  " 
and  the  Protestants — they  could  not  dis- 
pense with  O'Connell,  to  stir  and  wield  the 
multitudinous  people. 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  on  the  same 
day  when  the  Ministers  declared,  in  the 
Queen's  name,  that  the  Union  must,  at  all 
hazards,  be  maintained,  Lord  Eliot  introduc- 
ed anew  "Arms bill"  for  Ireland,  This  new 
bill  was  recommended  by  Lord  Eliot,  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  by  the  remark,  "  that 
it  was  substantially  similar  to  what  had 
been  the  law  in  Ireland  for  half  a  century," 
(June  15th,)  and  again,  (June  26th,)  "  He 
would  ask  the  noble  lord  to  compare  it  with 
the  bill  of  1838,  and  to  point  out  the  differ- 
ence. In  fact,  this  was  milder."  This  mild 
act,  then  provided  :  That  no  man  c(ju1(1 
keep  arms  of  any  sort,  witht)ut  first  having 
a  certificate  from  two  householders,  "  rated 
to  the  poor  "  at  above  iE20,  and  then  pro- 
ducing that  certificate  to  the  justices  at 
sessions,  (said  justices  being  all  a|)pointed 
by  the  Crown,  and  all  sure  men,)  and  then 
if  the  justices  permitted  the  applicant  to 
keep  arms  at  all — they  were  to  be  reg- 
istered and  branded  by  the  police.  After 
that  they  could  not  be  removed,  sold,  or 
inherited,  without  new  registry.  And  every 
conversation  respecting  these  arms  in  which 
a  man  should  not  tell  truly  whatever  he 
might  be  asked  by  any  policeman,  sul>- 
jected  the  delinquent  to  penalties.  To  have 
a  pike  or  spear,  "  or  instrument  serving  for 
a  pike  or  spear,"  was  an  offence  punishable 
by  transportation  for  seven  years.  Domi- 
ciliary visits  by  the  police  might  be  ordered 
by  any  magistrate  "  on  suspicion  ;"  wliere- 
upon,  any  man's  house  might  be  broken 
into  by  day  or  night,  and  his  very  bed 
searched  for  concealed  arms.      Blacksmiths 


NEW    "AKM9   BILL. 


529 


were  required  to  take  out  licenses,  similar  to 
those  for  keeping  arms,  and  under  the  same 
penalties,  in  order  that  the  workers  in  so 
dangerous  a  metal  as  iron  might  be  known 
and  approved  persons.  And  lo  crown  the 
code,  if  any  weapon  should  b"  found  in  any 
house,  or  out-house,  or  stack-yard,  the  oc- 
cupier was  to  be  convicted  unless  he  could 
prove  that  it  was  there  without  his  knowl- 
edge. 

Such  had  been  "  substantially  the  law 
of  Ireland  for  half  a  century."  The  idea  of 
arms  had  come  to  be  associated  in  the 
people's  minds  with  handcuffs,  jails,  petty- 
sessions,  and  transportation  ;  a  good  device 
for  killing  the  manly  spirit  of  a  nation. 

The  Disarming  act  passed  into  a  law,  of 
course,  by  large  majorities.  It  was  in  vain 
that  some  Irish  members  resisted  ;  in  vain 
Mr.  Smith  O'Brien,  then  member  for  Limer- 
ick, moved  that  instead  of  meeting  the 
discontent  of  Ireland  with  a  new  Arms  bill, 
the  House  should  resolve  itself  into  a  com- 
mittee "to  consider  the  cause  of  the  discontent 
with  a  view  to  the  redress  of  grievances." 
O'Brien,  who  was  afterwards  to  play  so 
conspicuous  a  part,  was  not  yet  a  repealer — 
he  had  been  for  twenty  years  one  of  the 
rao&t  industrious  members  of  Parliament, 
and  was  attached,  on  most  questions,  to  tlie 
Whig  party.  His  speech,  however,  on  this 
motion,  showed  that  he  regarded  it  as  a  last 
effort  to  obtain  any  approach  to  justice  in 
a  British  Parliament  ;  and  that  if  they  still 
resolutely  adhered  to  the  policy  of  coercion, 
and  nothing  but  coercion,  he  wouW  very 
shortly  be  found  by  O'Connell's  side. 

He  pointed  out  the  facts  which  justified 
discontent — that  the  Union  made  Ireland 
poor,  and  kept  her  poor — that  it  encouraged 
tlie  absenteeism  of  landlords,  and  so  caused 
a  great  rental  to  be  spent  in  England — that 
nearly  a  million  sterling  of  "  surplus 
revenue,"  over  what  was  expended  in  the 
government  of  Ireland,  was  annually  re- 
mitted from  the  Irish  to  the  Englisli 
exchequer  —  that  Irish  manufactures  had 
ceased,  and  the  profits  on  all  the  manufac- 
tured articles  consumed  in  that  island,  came 
to  England — that  the  tenantry  had  no 
permanent  temire  or  security  that  they 
would   derive    benefit  by.  any  improvements 

they  might   make — that   Ireland  had  but 
H7 


one  hundred  and  five  members  of  Parlia- 
ment, whereas,  her  population  and  revciue 
together  entitled  her  to  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five — that  the  municipal  laws  of  the 
two  coimtries  were  not  the  same — then  the 
new  "  Poor  law  "  was  a  failure,  and  waa 
increasing  the  wretchedness  and  hunger  of 
the  people — and  the  right  honorable  gentle- 
man (Sir  R.  Peel,)  had  now  declared  his 
idtimatum  ;  he  declared  that  "  conciliation 
had  reached  its  limits  ;  and  that  the  Irish 
should  have  an  Arms  bill,  and  nothing 
but  an  Arms  bill."  (Speech  of  July  4th, 
1843.") 

His  facts  were  not  disputed.  Nobody  in 
Parliament  pretended  to  say  that  anything 
in  this  long  catalogue  was  overstated  ;  but 
the  House  refused  the  committee  of  inquiry  ; 
would  discuss  no  grievances  ;  and  proceeded 
with  their  Arms  bill. 

It  has  been  said,  indeed,  that  these  ex- 
cessive precautions  to  keep  arms  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  Irish  people,  testified  the  high 
esteem  in  which  the  military  spirit  of  that 
people  was  held  in  England  ;  and  in  this 
point  of  view  the  long  series  of  Arms  acts 
may  be  regarded  as  a  compliment.  .In 
truth,  the.  English  had  some  occasion  to 
know  that  the  Irish  make  good  soldiers.  In 
this  very  month  of  July,  1843,  for  example, 
a  British  general  fouglit  the  decisive  battle 
of  Meeanee,  by  which  the  Ameers  of  Scinde 
were  crushed.  While  the  bill  for  disarming 
Ireland  was  pending,  far  off  on  the  banks  of 
the  Indus,  Napier  went  into  action  with 
less  than  three  thousand  troops  against 
twenty-five  thousand  ;  only  four  hundred  of 
his  men  being  "  British  "  soldiers  ;  but  those 
four  hundred  were  a  Tipperary  regiment,  the 
Twenty-second  —  and  they  did  their  work 
in  such  style  as  made  the  gray  old  warrior 
shout  aloud,  "  magnificent  Tipperary." 

Along  with  the  new  Arms  act,  several 
additional  regiments,  mostly  of  English  and 
Scotch  troops,  were  sent  to  Ireland  ;  and 
several  war-steamers,  with  a  fleet  of  gun- 
brigs,  were  sent  to  cruise  round  the  coast. 
Barracks  began  to  be  fortified  and  loop- 
holed  ;  and  police-stations  were  furnished 
with  iron-grated  windows.  It  was  quite 
evident  that  the  English  Government  in- 
tended, on  the  first  pretext  of  provocation, 
to  make  a  salutary  slaughter. 


530 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAKD. 


Ill  the  meantime,  the  vast  monster  meet- 
iu'^s  continued,  with  even  iiiteuser  enthusi- 
asm, but  always  with  perfect  peace  and 
ordel*.  "  Whom  are  they  going  to  fight  ?  " 
O'Connell  would  exclaim :  "  We  are  not 
going  to  fight  them.  We  are  unarmed  ;  we 
meet  peacefully  to  demand  our  country's 
freedom.  There  is  no  bloodshed,  no  drunk- 
enness even,  or  ill-humor.  Hurrah  for 
the  Queen,  God  bless  her  1 " 

The  speeches  of  O'Connell  at  these  meet- 
ings, though  not  lieard  by  a  fourth  of  the 
multitudes,  were  carefully  reported,  and  flew 
over  all  Ireland,  and  England  too,  in  hun- 
dreds of  newspapers.  So  tliat  probably  no 
speeches  ever  delivered  in  the  world  had  so 
wide  an  audience.  The  people  began  to  ne- 
glect altogether  the  proceedings  of  Parlia- 
liament,  and  felt  that  their  cause  was  to  be 
tried  at  home.  More  and  more  of  the  Irish 
members  of  Parliament  discontinued  their 
attendance  in  London,  and  gathered  round 
O'Connell.  Many  of  those  who  still  went 
to  London,  were  called  on  by  their  consti- 
tuents to  come  home  or  resign. 

Sir  Edward  Sngdeu  was  then  Lord  Chan- 
cellor of  Ireland  ;  and  he  began  ofi'ensive 
operations  on  the  British  side,  by  depriving 
of  the  Commission  of  the  Peace  all  magis- 
trates who  joined  the  Repeal  Association, 
or  look  the  chair  at  a  repeal  meeting.  He 
had  dismissed  in  this  way  about  twenty,  in- 
cluding O'Connell  and  Lord  French,  usu- 
ally accompanying  the  announcemeut  of  the 
supersedeas  with  an  insolent  letter  ;  when 
Smith  O'Brien  wrote  to  him  that  he  had 
been  a  magistrate  for  many  years,  that  he 
was  not  a  repealer,  but  could  not  consent 
to  hold  his  commission  on  such  humiliating- 
terms.  Instantly  his  example  was  followed 
by  many  gentlemen  ;  who  flung  their  com- 
missions in  the  Chancellor's  face,  sometimes 
with  letters  as  insulting  as  his  own.  And 
now  O'Connell  brought  forward  one  of  his 
grand  schemes.  It  was,  to  have  all  the  dis- 
missed magistrates  appointed  "  arbitrators," 
who  should  hold  regular  courts  of  arbitra- 
tion in  their  respective  districts — all  the 
people  pledging  themselves  to  make  no  re- 
Kort  to  the  Queen's  magistrates,  but  to  set- 
tle every  dispute  by  the  award  of  their  arbi- 
trators. This  was  put  into  operation  in 
many  places,  and  worked  very  well. 


In  reply  to  questions  in  Parliament,  as  to 
what  they  were  concentrating  troops  in  Ire- 
land for.  Peel  and  Wellington  had  said  they 
did  not  mean  to  make  war  or  attack  any- 
body, but  only  to  maintain  the  peace  of  the 
country. 

It  was  very  obvious  that  all  England,  and 
men  of  all  parties  and  creeds  in  England, 
were  fully  resolved  to  resist,  at  any  cost  of 
blood  and  havoc,  the  claim  for  a  repeal  of 
the  Union  ;  and  it  must  be  admitted  to  have 
been  a  strange  weakness  on  the  part  of 
O'Connell,  if  he  really  believed  that  the 
same  sort  of  "  agitation  "  which  had  extort- 
ed the  Relief  bill,  could  now  coerce  the 
prosperous  and  greedy  British  nation  to 
yield  up  its  hold  upon  Ireland.  That 
Relief  act,  it  must  be  remembered,  was 
a  measure  for  the  consolidaiion  of  the  "Brit- 
ish Empire  ;"  it  opened  high  oEBcial  position 
to  the  wealthier  Catholics  and  educated 
Catholic  gentlemen  ;  and  thus  separated 
their  interest  from  that  of  the  peasantry. 
But  it  was  of  the  peasantry  mainly  that  the 
Government  had  any  apprehension  ;  and 
British  Ministers  felt  that  Catholic  Emanci- 
pation would  place  tiiis  peasantry  more 
completely  in  their  power  than  ever. 

Besides,  emancipation  had  a  strong  party 
in  its  favor,  both  amongst  Irish  Protestants 
and  in  England  ;  and  in  yielding  to  it  Eng- 
land made  no  sacrifice,  except  of  her  ancient 
grudge.  To  her  it  was  positive  gain.  O'- 
Connell did  not  bethink  him  that  when  his 
agitation  should  be  directly  aimed  at  the 
"  integrity  of  the  empire,"  and  the  supre- 
macy of  the  British  in  Ireland,  it  would  be 
a  difi"erent  matter. 

One  fact  showed  very  plainly  that  English- 
men, of  all  sorts,  regarded  this  repeal  move- 
ment as  a  mortal  stab  aimed  at  the  heart  of 
the  empire — the  English  Catholics  were  as 
bitterly  hostile  to  Ireland,  on  this  question, 
as  the  highest  "  No-Popery  "  Tories.  Thus, 
Lord  Beaumont,  an  English  Catkolic  Peer, 
who  owed  his  seat  in  the  House  to  O'Con- 
nell, thought  himself  called  upon  to  deuoauct.- 
the  repeal  agitation.  "  Do  you  know  who 
this  Beaumont  is?"  asked  O'Connell,  at  his 
next  meeting.  "  Why,  the  man's  name  is 
Martin  Bree,  though  he  calls  himself  Staple- 
ton.  His  grandfather  married  a  Stapleton 
for  her  fortune,  and  then  changed  the  name. 


O  BRIEN   MOVES   FOR    INQUIKY. 


631 


He  was  a  Stapleton  wlien  I  emancipated 
him.  I  beg  your  pardon  for  having  eraan- 
Icipated  such  a  fellow." 

For  the  last  twenty  years,  the  English 
press  has  mocked  at  the  whole  repeal  move- 
ment ;  and  in  Parliament  it  was  never  men- 
tioned save  with  a  jeer.  In  the  summer  of 
1843,  they  neither  laughed  nor  jeered.  Sir 
James  Graham,  earnestly  appealing  to  the 
House,  to  refuse  O'Brien's  motion  of  inquiry, 
exclaimed  : — 

"  Any  hesitation  now,  any  delay  and  irre- 
solution, will  multiply  the  danger  an  hun- 
dred-fold. If  Parliament  expresses  its  sense 
iu  favor  of  the  course  pursued  by  Govern- 
ment, Ministers  have  every  ho;pe  that,  with 
the  confidence  of  the  House,  they  will  be 
enabled  to  triumph  over  all  difficulties. 
I  appeal,  then,  to  both  sides — not  to  one, 
but  to  both — I  appeal  to  both  sides,  and 
say,  if  you  falter  now,  if  you  hesitate  now 
iu  repressing  the  rebellious  spirit  which  is  at 
work  in  the  struggle  of  repeal,  the  glory  of 
the  country  is  departed — the  days  of  its  pow- 
er are  numbered  ;  and  England,  this  all- 
conquering  England,  must  be  classed  with 
those  countries  frovi  whom  power  has  dwin- 
dled away,  and  present  the  melancholy  as- 
pect of  a  falling  nation." 

To  refuse  a  Committee  of  Inquiry  was 
reasonable  enough  ;  because  Parliament, 
and  all  the  people — men,  women,  and  child- 
ren— already  knew  all.  The  sole  and  avow- 
ed idea  of  the  Government  was,  that  to  ad- 
mit the  idea  of  anything  being  wrong,  would 
make  the  repeal  movement  altogether  irre- 
sistible. The  various  projects  now  brought 
forward  in  England,  showed  the  perplexity 
of  that  country.  Lord  John  Russell  made 
an  elaborate  speech  for  conciliation  ;  but 
the  meaning  of  it  seemed  to  be  merely  that 
it  was  no  wonder  Ireland  was  unquiet,  seeing 
he  was  out  of  power.  The  grievance  of 
Ireland,  said  he,  in  effect,  is  a  Tory 
Ministry.  Let  her  be  ruled  by  us  Whigs, 
and  all  will  be  well.  Lord  Brougham 
also  gave  it  as  his  opinion,  that  "  you  must 
purchase,  not  prosecute,  repeal."  The  Morn- 
ing Chronicle,  (Whig  organ,)  in  quite  a 
friendly  sjjirit,  said  :  "Let  us  have  a  perfect 
Union  ;  let  us  know  each  other  ;  let  the 
Irish  judges  come  circuit  in  England  ;  and 
let  the  English  judges  occasionally  take  the 


same  round  in  Ireland,"  and  so  forth.  "  la 
it  absolutely  certain,"  asked  the  Westmin 
ster  Review,  "  that  we  can  beat  this  people  ?  " 
And  the  Naval  and  Military  Gazette,  a  high 
military  authority,  thus  expresses  its  appre- 
hensions : — 

"There  are  now  stationed  in  Ireland, 
thirty-five  thousand  men  of  all  arms  ;  but 
widely  scattered  over  the  island.  In  the 
event  of  a  rebellion — and  who  can  say  that 
we  are  not  on  the  eve  of  one  ? — we  feel 
great  solicitude  fur  the  numerous  small  de- 
tachments of  our  gallant  soldiers.  .  .  . 
It  is  time  to  be  up  and  doing.  We  have 
heard  that  the  order  and  regularity  of  move- 
ment displayed  by  the  divisions  which  pass- 
ed before  !Mr.  O'Connell,  in  review  order, 
en  route  to  Donnybrook,  lately,  surprised 
many  veteran  officers,  and  led  them  to  think 
that  some  personal  training,  in  private  and 
iu  small  parties,  must  be  practiced.  The 
ready  obedience  to  the  word  of  command, 
the  silence  while  moving,  and  the  general 
combinations,  all  prove  organization  to  have 
gone  a  considerable  length.  Iu  these  train- 
ed bands  our  soldiers,  split  up  into  detached 
parties,  would  find  no  ordinary  opponents  ; 
and  we,  therefore,  hope,  soon  to  learn  that 
all  small  parties  have  been  called  in,  and 
that  our  regiments  iu  Ireland  are  kept  to- 
gether and  complete.  That  day,  we  fear,  is 
near  when  '  quite  peaceably,^  every  repealer 
will  come  armed  to  a  meeting  to  be  held 
simultaneously  as  to  day  and  hour,  a,Il  over 
the  island,  and  then  try  to  cut  off  quite 
peaceably  every  detachment  of  Her  Majes- 
ty's loyal  army." 

What  contributed  to  disquiet  the  British 
exceedingly  was,  that  great  and  excited  re- 
peal meetings  were  held  every  week  in 
American  cities  ;  meetings  not  only  of  Irish 
born  citizens,  but  of  natives  also — and  con- 
siderable funds  were  remitted  from  thence 
to  O'Connell's  repeal  exchequer. 

"  If  something  is  not  done,"  said  Colonel 
Thomson,  iu  the  Westminster,  "  a  fleet  of 
steamboats  from  the  United  States  will, 
some  fine  morning,  be  the  Euthanasia  of  the 
Irish  struggle." 

We  might  cite  many  extracts  from  the 
press  of  France,  exhibiting  a  powerful  inter- 
est in  what  the  French  conceived  to  be  an 
impending  military  struggle. 


532 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


Take  one  from  the  Paris  Consiitutionnd : 

"  When  Ireland  is  agitated — when,  at  the 
80und  of  the  powerful  voice  of  O'Connell, 
four  hundred  thousand  Irish  assemble  to- 
gether in  their  meetings,  and  pronounce,  as 
if  it  were  by  a  single  man,  the  same  cry, 
and  the  same  word,  it  is  a  grand  spectacle, 
which  fills  the  soul,  and  which,  even  at  this 
distance,  moves  the  very  strongest  feelings 
of  the  heart,  for  it  is  the  spectacle  'of  an 
entire  people  who  demand  justice  —  of  a 
people  who  have  been  despoiled  of  every- 
thing, even  of  the  means  of  sustenance,  and 
yet  who  require,  with  calmness  and  with 
firmness,  the  untrammeled  exercise  of  their 
J  eligion,  and  some  of  the  privileges  of  their 
ancient  nationality." 

Now  nobody,  either  in  France  or  in  the 
United  States,  would  have  given  himself 
the  trouble  to  watch  that  movement  with 
interest,  if  they  had  not  all  believed  that 
0  Connell  and  the  Irish  people  meant  to 
fight.  Neither  in  America  nor  in  France 
had  men  learned  to  appreciate  "  the  ethical 
experiment  of  moral  force."  Clearly,  also, 
the  English  expected  a  fight,  and  were  pre- 
paring for  it,  and  greatly  preferred  that 
mode  of  settling  the  difficulty,  (having  a 
powerful  army  and  navy  ready,)  to  O'- 
Brien's method — inquiry,  discussion,  and 
redress — seeing  that  they  were  wholly  un- 
provided with  arguments,  and  had  no  idea 
of  giving  redress. 

It  is  also  quite  as  clear  that  the  Irish 
people  then  expected,  and  longed,  and 
burned  for  battle  ;  and  never  believed  that 
O'ConneU  would  adhere  to  his  "  peace 
policy  "  even  in  the  last  extremity.  Still, 
as  he  rose  in  apparent  confidence,  and  be- 
came more  defiant  in  his  tone,  the  people 
rallied  more  ardently  around  him  ;  and 
thousands  of  quiet,  resolute  men,  flocked 
into  the  repeal  cause,  who  had  hitherto  held 
back  from  all  the  agitations,  merely  because 
they  had  always  believed  O'Connell  insin- 
cere. They  thought  that  the  mighty  move- 
ment which  now  surged  up  around  him  had 
whirled  him  into  its  own  tempest  at  last  ; 
and  that  "  the  time  was  come." 

No  speech  he  ever  uttered  roused  such  a 
stormy  tumult  of  applau.se  as  when,  at 
Mallow  "  monster  meeting,"  referring  to  the 
threats  of    coercion,   and    to    an    anxious 


Cabinet  council  which  had  just  been  held. 
He  said : — 

"  They  spent  Thursday  in  consulting 
whether  they  would  deprive  us  of  our  rights, 
and  I  know  not  what  the  result  of  that 
council  may  be  ;  but  this  I  know,  there  was 
not  an  Irishman  in  the  council.  I  may  be 
told  that  the  Duke  of  Wellington  was  there. 
Who  calls  him  an  Irishman?  If  a  tiger's 
cub  was  dropped  in  a  fold,  would  it  be  a 
lamb  ?  But,  perhaps,  I  am  wrong  in  an- 
ticipating ;  perhaps  I  am  mistaken  in  warn- 
ing you.  But  is  there  reason  to  caution 
you  ?  The  council  sat  for  an  entire  day, 
and  even  then  did  not  conclude  its  delibera- 
tions, but  adjourned  to  the  next  day,  while 
the  business  of  the  country  was  allowed  to 
stand  still.  What  had  they  to  deliberate 
about  ?  The  repealers  were  peaceable, 
loyal,  and  attached — aflfectionately  attached 
— to  the  Queen,  and  determined  to  stand 
between  her  and  her  enemies.  If  they  as- 
sailed us  to-morrow,  and  that  we  conquered 
them — as  conquer  them  we  will  one  day — 
the  first  use  of  that  victory  which  we  would 
make  would  be,  to  place  the  sceptre  in  the 
hands  of  her  who  has  ever  shown  us  favor, 
and  whose  conduct  has  ever  been  full  of 
sympathy  and  emotion  for  our  sufl'erings. 
Suppose,  then,  for  a  moment,  that  England 
found  the' act  of  Union  to  operate  not  for 
her  benefit — if,  instead  of  decreasing  her 
debt,  it  added  to  her  taxation  and  liabilities, 
and  made  her  burden  more  onerous — and 
if  she  felt  herself  entitled  to  call  for  a  repeal 
of  that  act,  I  ask  Peel  and  Wellington,  and 
let  them  deny  it  if  they  dare,  and  if  they  did 
they  would  be  the  scorn  and  by-word  of  the 
world,  would  she  not  have  the  right  to  call 
for  a  repeal  of  that  act.  And  what  are 
Irishmen  that  they  should  be  denied  the 
same  privilege  ?  Have  we  not  the  ordi- 
nary courage  of  Englishmen  ?  Are  we  to 
be  trampled  under  foot  ?  Oh,  they  shall 
never  trample  me,  at  least.  I  was  wrong 
— they  may  trample  me  under  foot — I  say 
they  may  trample  me,  but  it  will  be  my 
dead  body  they  will  trample  on,  not  the 
living  man." 

And  a  roar,  two  hundred  thousand  Strong, 
rent  the  clouds.  From  that  day,  the  meet- 
ings went  on  increasingly,  in  numbers,  in 
regularity  of  training,  and  in  highly-wrought 


ALL    ENGLAND    AGAINST   BEPEAL MONSTEK   MEETINGS. 


533 


excitement ;  until  at  Tara,  and  at  Mullagh- 
miist,  the  agitator  shook  with  the  passion 
of  the  scene,  as  the  fiery  eyes  of  three  hun- 
dred thousand  upturned  faces  seemed  to 
crave  the  word. 

Whig  newspapers  and  politicians  in  Eng- 
land, (the  Whigs  being  then  in  opposition,) 
began  now  to  suggest  various  conciliatory 
measures — talked  of  the  anomaly  of  the 
"  Established  Church  " — and  generally  jfave 
it  to  be  understood,  that  if  they  were  in 
power  they  would  know  how  to  deal  with 
the  repeal  agitation.  At  every  meeting 
O'Connell  turned  these  professions  into 
ridicule.  It  was  too  late,  now,  he  said  to 
offer  to  buy  up  repeal  by  concessions,  or 
good  measures.  An  Irish  Parliament  in 
Collage  Green  :  this  was  his  uUimalum. 

We  approach  the  end  of  the  monster 
meetings.  Neither  England  nor  Ireland 
could  bear  this  excitement  much  longer. 
The  two  grandest  and  most  imposing  of 
these  parades  were  at  Tara  and  Mullagh- 
mast  ;  both  in  the  Province  of  Leinster, 
within  a  short  distance  of  Dublin  ;  both 
conspicuous,  the  one  in  glory,  the  other  in 
gloom,  through  past  centuries,  and  haunted 
by  ghosts  of  kings  and  chiefs. 

On  the  great  plain  of  Meath,  not  far  from 
the  Boyne  river,  rises  a  gentle  eminence,  in 
the  midst  of  a  luxuriant  farming  country. 
On  and  around  its  summit  are  still  certain 
mouldering  remains  of  earthen  mounds  and 
moats,  the  ruins  of  the  "  House  of  Cormac," 
and  the  "  Mound  of  the  Hostages,"  and  the 
"  Stone  of  Destiny."  It  is  Temora  of  the 
Kings.  On  Tuesday  morning,  the  15th  of 
August,  most  of  the  population  of  Meath, 
with  many  thousands  from  the  four  counties 
round,  were  pouring  along  every  road 
leading  to  the  hill.  Numerous  bands,  ban- 
ners and  green  boughs,  enlivened  their 
march,  or  divided  their  ordered  squadrons. 
Vehicles  of  all  descriptions,  from  the  hand- 
Eorae  private  chariot  to  the  Irish  jaunting- 
car,  were  continually  arriving,  and  by  the 
wardens  duly  disposed  around  the  hill.  In 
Dublin,  tlie  "  Liberator,"  after  a  public 
breakfast,  set  forth  at  the  head  of  a  cortege, 
and  his  progress  to  Tara  was  a  procession 
and  a  triumph.  Under  triumphal  arches, 
and  amidst  a  storm  of  music  and  acclama- 
tions,   his    carriage    passed    through     the 


several  little  towns  that  lay  in  his  way.  At 
Tara,  the  multitudes  assembled  were  esti- 
mated in  the  Nation  at  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  ;  an  exaggeration,  certainly. 
But  they  were  at  least  three  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand.  Their  numbers  were  not  so 
impressive  as  their  order  and  discipline ; 
nor  these  so  wonderful  as  the  stifled  en- 
thusiasm that  uplifted  them  above  the  earth. 
They  came,  indeed,  with  naked  hands  ;  but 
the  agitator  knew  well  that  if  he  had  in- 
vited them,  they  would  have  come  still  more 
gladly  with  extemporaneous  pikes  or  spears, 
"  or  instruments  serving  for  pikes  and 
spears."  He  had  been  proclaiming  from 
every  hill-top  in  Ireland  for  six  months  that 
something  was  coming — that  repeal  was  "  ou 
the  wild  winds  of  Heaven,"  Expectation 
had  grown  intense,  painful,  almost  intoler- 
able. He  knew  it  ;  and  those  who  were 
close  to  him  as  he  mounted  the  platform, 
noticed  that  his  lip  and  hand  visibly  trembled, 
as  he  gazed  over  the  boundless  human  ocean, 
and  heard  its  thundering  roar  of  welcome. 
He  knew  that  every  soul  in  that  host  de- 
manded its  enfranchisement  at  his  hand. 

O'Connell  called  this  meeting  "  an  august 
and  triumphant  meeting  ; "  and  as  if  con- 
scious that  he  must  at  least  seem  to  make 
another  step  in  advance,  he  brought  up  at 
the  next  meeting  of  the  Repeal  Association, 
a  detailed  "plan  for  the  renewed  action  of 
the  Irish  Parliament,"  which,  he  said,  it 
only  ueedefl  the  Queen's  writs  to  put  in  op- 
eration. The  new  House  of  Commons  was 
to  consist  of  three  hundred  members,  quite 
fairly  apportioned  to  the  several  constituen- 
cies ;  and,  in  the  meantime,  he  aimounced 
that  he  would  invite  three  hundred  gentle- 
men to  assemble  in  Dublin,  early  in  Decem- 
ber, who  were  to  come  from  every  part  of 
Ireland,  and  virtually  represent  their  re- 
spective localities.  This  was  t!ie  "  Council 
of  Three  Hundred,"  about  which  he  had  often 
talked  before  in  a  vague  manner  ;  but  had 
evidently  great  difficulty  in  bringing  to  pa.ss 
legally.  For  it  would  be  a  "  Convention  of 
Delegates," — and  such  an  assembly,  though 
legal  enough  in  England,  is  illegal  in  Ire- 
land. Conventions,  (like  arms  and  ammu- 
nition,) are  held  to  be  unsuitable  to  the  Irish 
character.  For,  in  fact,  it  was  a  convention 
which  proclaimed  the  independence  of  Ire- 


534 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


land  in  Dnngannon  ;  and  the  arms  and  am- 
munition of  the  volimteer  army  that  made 
it  good,  in  1782. 

Two  weeks  after  this,  the  London  Par- 
liament was  prorogued  ;  and  the  Queen's 
speech,  (composed  by  Sir  Robert  Peel,) 
was  occupied  almost  entirely  by  two  sub- 
jects— the  disturbances  in  "Wales,  and  the 
repeal  agitation  in  Ireland.  There  had 
been  some  rioting  and  bloodshed  in  Wales, 
in  resistance  to  oppressive  turnpike  dues, 
and  the  like — there  was  a  quiet  and  legal 
expression  of  opinion  in  Ireland,  unattended 
by  the  slightest  outrage,  demanding  back 
the  Parliament  of  the  country.  The  Queen 
first  dealt  with  Wales.  She  had  taken  mea- 
sures, she  said,  for  the  repression  of  violence 
— and,  at  the  same  time,  directed  an  in- 
quii'y  to  be  made  into  the  circumstances 
which  led  to  it.  As  to  Ireland,  Her  Ma- 
jesty said,  there  was  discontent  and  dis- 
jiffection,  but  uttered  not  a  word  about  any 
inquiry  into  the  causes  of  that,  "  It  had 
ever  been  her  earnest  desire,"  Her  Majesty 
i^aid,  "  to  administer  the  government  of  that 
country  in  a  spirit  of  strict  justice  and  im- 
partiality " — and  "  she  was  firmly  determin- 
ed, under  the  blessing  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence to  maintain  the  Union." 

The  little  principality  of  Wales  was  in 
open  revolt — there  Ministers  would  institute 
inquiry.  Ireland  was  quiet,  and  stand- 
ing upon  the  law — there  they  would  meet 
the  case  with  horse,  foot,  and  artillery  ;  for 
all  knew  that  was  what  the  Queen  meant 
by  "  the  blessing  of  Divine  Providence." 

Again  the  agitator  mustered  all  Con- 
naught,  at  three  monster  meetings — in  Ros- 
common, Clifden,  and  Loughrea.  Again  he 
asked  them  if  they  were  for  the  repeal  ;  and 
again  the  mountains  and  the  sea-cliffs  re- 
f^ounded  with  their  acclaim.  Yes  ;  they 
were  for  the  repeal  ;  they  had  said  so  be- 
fore.    What  next? 

licinster,  too,  was  summoned  again  to 
meet  on  the  1st  of  October,  at  Mullagh- 
mast,  in  Kildare  County,  near  the  road  from 
Dublin  to  Carlow,  and  close  on  the  borders 
of  the  Wicklow  higlilands. 

This  was  the  most  imposing  and  efi'ective 
of  all  the  meetings.  The  spot  was  noted  as 
the  scene  of  a  massacre  of  some  chiefs  of 
Ofi'aly   and   Leix,  with    hundreds  of  their 


clansmen,  in  1577,  by  the  English  of  the 
Pale,  who  had  invited  them  to  a  great  feast, 
but  had  troops  silently  drawn  around  the 
banqueting-hall,  who,  at  a  signal,  attacked 
the  place  and  cut  the  throat  of  every  was- 
sailer.  The  hill  of  MuUaghmast,  like  that  of 
Tara,  is  crowned  by  a  rath,  or  ancient  earth- 
en rampart,  inclosing  about  three  acres. 

The  members  of  the  town  corporations 
repaired  to  the  rath,  in  their  corporate  robes. 
O'Connell  took  the  chair,  in  his  scarlet  cloak 
of  alderman  ;  and,  amidst  the  breathless 
silence  of  the  people,  John  Hogan,  the  first 
of  Irish  sculptors,  came  forward  and  placed 
on  the  Liberator's  head  a  richly-embroider- 
ed cap,  modeled  after  the  ancient  Irish 
Crown,  saying  :  "  Sir,  I  only  regret  this  cap 
is  not  of  gold,"  Then  the  deep  roar  of  half 
a  million  voices,  and  the  waving  of  at  least 
a  thousand  banners,  proclaimed  the  enthu- 
siasm of  the  people.  Again  O'Connell  as- 
sured them  that  England  could  not  long  re- 
sist these  demonstrations  of  their  peaceful 
resolve — that  the  Union  was  a  nullity — that 
he  had  already  arranged  his  plan  for  the 
new  Irish  Parliaments — and  that  this  was 
the  repeal  year. 

In  truth,  it  was  time  for  England  either 
to  yield  with  good  grace,  or  to  find  or  make 
some  law  applicable  to  this  novel  "  political 
offence,"  or  to  provoke  a  fight  and  blow- 
away  repeal  with  cannon.  Many  of  the  Pro- 
testants were  joining  O'Connell  ;  and  even 
the  troops  in  some  Irish  regiments  had  beeu 
known  to  throw  up  their  caps  with  "  hur- 
rah for  repeal ! "  It  was  high  time  to  grap- 
ple with  tlie  "  sedition," 

Accordingly,  the  Government  was  all  this 
time  watching  for  an  occasion  on  which  it 
could  come  to  issue  with  the  agitation,  and 
on  which  all  advantages  would  be  on  its 
side.  The  next  week  that  occasion  arose. 
A  great  metropolitan  meeting  was  appointed 
to  be  held  on  the  historic  shore  of  Clontarf, 
two  miles  from  Dublin,  along  the  bay — ou 
Sunday,  the  8th  of  October,  The  garrisoa 
of  Dublin  amounted  then  to  about  fonr 
thousand  men,  besides  the  one  thousand 
police  ;  with  abundance  of  field  artillery. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  on  Saturday,  when 
it  was  already  almost  dusk,  a  proclamation 
was  posted  on  the  walls  of  Dublin,  signed 
by  the  Irish  Secretary  aad  Privy  Council* 


WHY   ENGLAND    COULD   NOT   YIELD. 


535 


lors,  and  the  Commander  of  the  forces, 
forbidding  the  meeting  ;  and  charging  all 
magistrates  and  officers,  "  and  others  whom 
it  might  concern,  to  be  aiding  and  assisting 
in  the  execution  of  the  law,  in  preventing 
said  meeting." 

"Let  them  not  dare,"  O'Connell  had 
^often  said,  "  to  attack  us  !  "  The  challenge 
was  now  to  be  accepted. 


CHAPTER    LYII. 
1843—1844. 

Why  England  could  not  Yield — Cost  to  Her  of  Re- 
peal—Intention of  Government  at  Clontarf— The 
"  Projected  Massacre  " — Meeting  Prevented — State 
Prosecution — O'Brien  Declares  for  Repeal — Pack- 
ing of  the  Jury— Verdict  of  Guilty— BehsLtc  in 
Parliament — Russell  and  Macaulay  on  Packing  of 
Juries — O'Connell  in  Parliament — Speculation  of 
the  Whigs — Sentence  and  Imprisonment  of  "  Con- 
Bpirators '' — Effects  on  Repeal  Association  —  Ap- 
peal to  the  House  of  Lords — Whig  Law  Lords — 
Reversal  of  the  Sentence  —  Enthusiasm  of  the 
People— Their  Patience  and  Self-Denial— Decline 
of  the  Association. 

British  Goverkment  then  closed  with 
repeal  ;  and  one  or  the  other,  it  was  plain, 
must  go  down. 

For  this  was,  in  truth,  the  alternative. 

The  British  Empire,  as  it  stands,  looks 
vast  and  strong  ;  but  none  know  so  well 
as  the  statesmen  of  that  country  how  in- 
trinsically feeble  it  is  ;  and  how  entirely  it 
depends  for  its  existence  upon  prestige — tliat 
is,  upon  a  superstitious  belief  in  its  power. 
England,  in  short,  could  by  no  means  afford 
to  part  with  her  "sister  island  :" — both  in 
money  and  in  credit  the  cost  would  be  too 
much.  In  this  repeal  year,  for  example,  there 
was  an  export  of  provisions  from  Ireland  to 
England  of  the  value  of  dSl  6,000,000.  And 
between  surplus  revenue  remitted  to  Eng- 
land, and  absentee-rents  spent  in  England, 
Mr.  O'Connell's  frequent  statement  that 
£9,000,000  of  Irish  money  was  annually 
spent  in  England,  is  not  over  the  truth. 
These  were  substantial  advantages,  not  to 
be  yielded  up  lightly. 

In  point  of  national  prestige,  England 
could  still  less  afford  to  repeal  the  Union, 
because  all  the  world  would  know  the  con- 
cession had  been  wrung  IVoui  tier  ugainst  her 
will.     AVhigs  and  Tories  were  of  one  mind 


upon  this ;  and  nothing  can  be  more  bitter 
than  the  language  of  all  sections  of  tho 
English  press,  after  it  was  once  determined 
to  crush  the  agitatiou  by  force. 

"A  repeal,  (says  the  Times,)  is  not  a 
matter  to  be  argued  on  ;  it  is  a  blow  which 
despoils  the  Queen's  domestic  territory- 
splinters  her  Crown — undermines,  and  then 
crushes,  her  Throne — exposes  her  to  insult 
and  outrage  from  all  quarters  of  the  earth 
and  ocean  ;  a  repeal  of  the  Union  leaves 
England  stripped  of  her  vitality.  Whatever 
might  be  the  inconvenience  or  disadvantage, 
therefore,  or  even  unwholesome  restraint 
upon  Ireland — although  the  Union  secures 
the  reverse  of  all  these — but  even  were  it  gall 
to  Ireland,  England  must  guard  her  own 
life's  blood,  and  sternly  tell  the  disaffected 
Irish  :  You  shall  have  me  for  a  sister  or 
a  subjugatrix  ;  that  is  my  ultimatum." 

And  the  Mornivg  Chronicle,  speaking  of 
the  act  of  "  Union,"  says  : — 

"  True,  it  was  coarsely  and  badly  done  ; 
but  stand  it  must.  A  Cromwell's  violence, 
with  Machiavelli's  perfidy,  may  have  been 
at  work,  but  the  treaty,  after  all  is  more 
than  parchment." 

The  first  bolt  launched,  then,  was  the 
proclamation  to  prevent  the  meeting  at 
Clontarf.  The  proclamation  was  posted  iu 
Dublin  only  an  hour  before  dusk  on  Satur- 
day. But  long  before  that  time  thousands 
of  people  from  Meath,  Kildare,  and  Dublin 
Counties  were  already  on  their  way  to 
Clontarf.  Tliey  all  had  confidence  in  O'- 
Connell's knowledge  of  law  ;  and  he  had 
often  told  them,  (and  it  was  true,)  that  the 
meetings,  and  all  the  proceedings  at  them, 
were  perfectly  legal  ;  and  that  a  proclama- 
tion could  not  make  them  illegal.  Tlu-y 
would,  therefore,  have  most  certainly 
flocked  to  the  rendezvous  in  the  usual 
numbers,  eveu  if  they  had  seen  the  procla- 
mation. 

Many  persons  did  not  at  first  understand 
the  object  of  the  Privy  Council  in  keeping 
back  the  proclamation  to  so  late  an  hour 
on  Saturday,  seeing  that  the  meeting  had 
been  many  days  announced ;  and  tiiey 
might  as  well  have  issued  their  command 
earlier  in  the  week.  One  may  also  be  at  a 
loss  to  understand  why  the  proclamation 
called  not  only  upon   all   magistrates,  aud 


536 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


civil  and  military  ofiBcers  to  assist  in  pre- 
venting the  assembly  ;  but  also,  "all  others 
whom  it  might  concern." 

But  the  thing  was  simple  enough  :  they 
meant  to  take  O'Connell  by  surprise — so 
that  he  miglit  be  unable  to  prevent  the 
assembly  entirely,  or  to  organize  it,  (if  such 
were  iiis  policy,)  for  defence — and  thus  they 
hoped  to  create  confusion  and  a  pretext  for 
an  onslaught,  or  "salutary  lesson."  Be- 
sides, they  had  already  made  up  their  minds 
to  arrest  O'Connell  and  several  others,  and 
subject  them  to  a  state  prosecution  ;  and 
the  Crown  lawyers  were  already  hard  at 
work  arranging  a  case  against  him.  It  is 
quite  possible  that  they  intended,  (shonld 
O'Connell  go  to  Clontarf  in  the  midst  of 
such  confusion  and  excitement,)  to  arrest 
him  then  and  there  ;  wiiich  would  have 
been  certainly  resisted  by  the  people  ;  and 
so  there  would  have  been  a  riot ;  and  every- 
thing would  have  been  lawful  then.  As  to 
the  "others  whom  it  might  concern,"  thai 
meant  the  Orange  Associations  of  Dublin, 
and  everybody  else  who  might  take  the 
invitation  to  himself.  "  Others  whom  it  may 
concern  1"  exclaimed  O'Connell.  "  Why, 
this  is  intended  for,  and  addressed  to 
Tresham  Gregg  and  his  auditory."  * 

Thus,  the  enemy  had  well  provided  for 
confusion,  collision,  and  a  salutary  lesson. 
Lord  Cloncurry  made  no  scruple  to  term  the 
whole  of  these  Government  arrangements  "a 
projected  massacre." 

For  O'Connell  and  the  committee  of  the 
Repeal  Association,  there  were  but  two 
courses  possible — one  to  prevent  the  meeting, 
and  turn  the  people  back  from  it,  if  there  was 
*«till  time  ;  the  other  was,  for  O'Connell  to 
let  the  people  of  the  country  come  to  Clon- 
tarf— to  meet  them  there  himself  as  he  had 
invited  them — but,  the  troops  being  almost 
all  drawn  out  of  the  city,  to  keep  the 
Dublin  repealers  at  home,  and  to  give  them 
a  commission  to  take  the  Castle  and  all  the 
barracks,  and  to  break  down  the  canal 
bridge,  and  barricade  the  streets  leading  to 
Clontarf.  The  whole  garrison  and  police 
were  live  thousand.  The  city  has  a  popula- 
tion of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 
The  multitudes  coming  in  from  the  country 

*  Rev.  Tresham  Gregg  was  then  the  Orange  agitator, 
oa  whom  had  fallen  the  mantle  of  Sir  Harcourt  Lees. 


would,  probably,  have  amounted  to  almost 
as  many  ;  and  that  handful  of  men  between. 
There  would  have  been  a  horrible  slaughter 
of  the  unarmed  people  without,  if  the  troops 
would  fire  on  them — a  very  doubtful  mat- 
ter— and  O'Connell  himself  might  have 
fallen.  But  those  who  have  well  considered 
the  destinies  of  Ireland  since  that  day,  may 
reasonably  enough  be  of  the  opinion  that 
the  death  of  five  or  ten  thousand  men  at 
Clontarf,  might  have  saved  Ireland  the 
slaughter  by  famine  of  an  hundred  times  as 
many  shortly  afterwards. 

The  first  course  was  the  one  adopted. 
The  committee  issued  another  proclamation, 
and  sent  it  off  by  parties  of  gentlemen 
known  to  the  people,  and  on  whom  they 
would  rely,  to  turn  back  the  crowds  upon  all 
the  roads  by  which  they  were  likely  to 
come  in.  AH  that  Saturday  night  their 
exertions  were  unremitting  ;  and  the  good 
Father  Tyrrell,  whose  parishioners,  swarm- 
ing in  from  Fingal,  would  have  made  a 
large  part  of  the  meeting,  by  his  exertions 
and  fatigue  that  night,  fell  sick  and  died. 
The  meeting  was  prevented.  The  troops 
were  marched  out,  and  drawn  up  on  the 
beach  and  on  the  hill  ;  the  artillery  was 
placed  in  a  position  to  rake  the  place  of 
meeting,  and  the  cavalry  ready  to  sweep  it  ; 
but  they  met  no  enemy. 

Within  a  week,  O'Connell  and  eight  others 
were  held  to  bail  to  take  their  trial  for 
"  conspiracy  and  other  misdemeanors." 

O'Connell,  on  his  side,  laughed  both  at 
the  "  Clontarf  war  "  and  at  the  state  trials. 
He  seemed  well  pleased  with  them  both. 
The  one  proved  how  entirely  under  disci- 
pline were  the  virtuous,  and  sober,  and  loyal 
people,  as  he  called  them.  The  other  would 
show  how  wisely  he  had  steered  the  agita- 
tion through  the  rocks  and  shoals  of  law. 
In  this  he  would  have  been  perfectly  right, 
his  legal  position  would  have  been  imj)reg- 
nable,  but  for  two  circumstances — first, 
"conspiracy"  in  Ireland,  means  anything 
the  Castle  judges  wish  ;  second,  the  Castle 
sheriff  was  quite  sure  to  pack  a  Castle-jury 
— so  that  whatever  the  Castle  might  desire, 
the  jury  would  affirm  on  oath,  "  so  help 
them  God!"  The  jury  system  in  Ireland 
we  shall  have  occasion,  more  than  once,  to 
explain  hereafter. 


THE  "  PROJECTED  MASSACRE  " MEETING  PREVENTED. 


537 


For  the  next  eijjht  months,  that  is,  until 
the  end  of  May,  1844,  the  state  prosecution 
was  the  grand  concern  around  wliich  all 
public  interest  in  Ireland  concentrated 
itself.  The  prosecuted  "conspirators"  were 
nine  in  number — Daniel  O'Connell ;  his  son, 
John  O'Connell,  M.  P ,  for  Kilkenny  ; 
Charles  Gavan' Duffy,  Editor  of  the  Nation  ; 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Tyrrell,  of  Lusk,  County 
Dublin,  (he  died  while  the  prosecution  was 
pendinsr  ;)  the  Rev.  ^Ir.  Tiorney,  of  Clon- 
tibret.  County  Monnghan  ;  Richard  Barret, 
Editor  of  the  Pilot,  Dublin  ;  Thomas 
Steele,  "  Head  Pacificator  of  Ireland  ;" 
■Thomas  M.  Ray,  Secretary  of  the  Repeal 
Association  ;  and  Dr.  Gray,  Editor  of  the 
Freemmi's  Journal,  Dublin. 

During  all  the  eight  months  of  these  legal 
proceedings,  the  repeal  agitation  continued 
to  gain  strength  and  impetus.  The  open- 
air  meetings,  indeed,  ceased — Clontarf  was 
to  have  been  the  last  of  them,  owing  to  the 
approach  of  winter.  But  the  new  hall, 
which  had  been  built  as  a  place  of  meeting 
for  the  association,  was  just  finished  ;  and 
O'Connell,  who  had  a  peculiar  taste  in 
nomenclature,  christened  it  "  Conciliation 
Hall  ;"  intending  to  indicate  the  necessity 
for  uniting  all  classes  and  religions  in  Ire- 
land in  a  common  struggle  for  the  inde- 
pendence of  their  common  country. 

On  the  22d  of  October  the  new  hall  was 
opened  in  great  form,  and  amidst  great  en- 
thusiasm. The  chair  was  taken  by  John 
Augustus  O'Neill,  of  Bunowen  Castle,  a 
Protestant  gentleman,  who  had  been  early 
in  life  a  cavalry  ofScer,  and  member  of 
Parliament  for  Hull,  in  England.  Letters 
from  Lord  French,  Sir  Charles  Wolesley,  Sir 
Richard  Musgrave,  and  Mr.  Caleb  Powell, 
one  of  the  members  for  Limerick  County, 
were  read  and  placed  on  the  minutes — 
all  breathing  vehement  indignation  against 
the  "  Government,"  and  pledging  the 
warmest  support.  But  this  first  meeting 
in  the  new  hall  was  specially  notable  for 
the  adhesion  of  Mr.  Smith  O'Brien. 
Nothing  encouraged  the  people,  nothing 
provoked  and  perplexed  the  enemy  so  much 
as  this. 

For  O'Brien  was  not  only  a  member  of 

the  great  and  ancient  House  of  Thoinond, 

but  was  further  well-known  as  a  man  both 
tiii 


of  calmness  and  resolution.  The  family 
had  been  Protestant  for  some  generations  ; 
and  Smith  O'Brien,  though  always  zealous 
in  promoting  everything  which  might  be  use- 
ful to  Ireland  in  Parliament,  had  remained 
attached  to  the  Whig  party,  and  was  hardly 
expected  to  throw  himself  into  the  national 
cause  so  warmly,  and  at  so  dangerous  a 
time. 

It  has  been  already  related  how  this  ex- 
cellent and  gallant  Irishman  had  flung  to 
the  Lord  Chancellor  his  Commission  of  the 
Peace,  when  that  functionary  began  to 
dismiss  magistrates  for  attending  peace- 
ful meetings.  He  now  saw  that  the 
British  Government  had  commenced  the 
deliberate  task  of  crushing  down  a  just  na- 
tional claim  in  the  blood  of  the  Irish  people. 
The  letter  in  which  he  announced  his  adhe- 
sion was  extremely  moderate  ;  and  it  pro- 
duced the  deeper  impression  upon  that  ac- 
count. One  passage  of  it  is  highly  charac- 
teristic of  the  writer.     He  says  : — 

"  Lest  I  should  be  led  to  form  a  precipi- 
tate decision,  I  availed  myself  of  the  interval 
which  followed  the  close  of  the  session  to 
examine  whether,  among  the  Governments 
of  Central  Europe,  there  are  any  so  indif- 
ferent to  the  interests  of  their  subjects  as 
England  has  been  to  the  welfare  and  happi- 
ness of  our  population.  After  visiting  Bel- 
gium, and  all  the  principal  capitals  of  Ger- 
many, I  returned  home  impressed  with  the 
sad  conviction  tliat  there  is  more  human 
misery  in  one  county  in  Ireland,  than  through- 
out all  the  populous  cities  and  districts  which 
I  had  visited.  On  landing  in  England,  I 
learn  that  the  Ministry,  instead  of  applying 
themselves  to  remove  the  causes  of  com- 
plaint, have  resolved  to  deprive  us  even  of 
the  liberty  of  discontent — that  public  meet- 
ings are  to  be  suppressed — and  that  state 
prosecutions  are  to  be  carried  on  against 
Mr.  O'Connell,  and  others,  on  some  frivol- 
ous charges  of  sedition  and  conspiracy. 

"  I  should  be  unworthy  to  belong  to  a 
nation  which  may  claim,  at  least  as  a  char- 
acteristic virtue,  tliat  it  exhibits  increased 
fidelity  in  the  hour  of  danger,  if  I  were  to' 
delay  any  longer  to  dedicate  myself  to  the 
cause  of  my  country.  Slowly,  reluctantly 
convinced  that  Ireland  has  nothing  to  hope 
from  the  sagacity,  the  justice,  or  the  gene- 


538 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAITD. 


rosity  of  the  English  Parliament,  my  reli- 
ance shall  henceforth  be  placed  upon  our 
own  native  energy  and  patriotism." 

This  chivalrous  example,  set  by  a  man  so 
justly  esteemed,  of  course,  induced  many 
other  Protestants  to  follow  his  example. 
The  weekly  contributions  to  the  revenue  of 
the  association  became  so  great  as  to  place 
in  the  hands  of  the  committee  a  large  trea- 
sury, to  be  used  in  spreading  and  organizing 
the  movement ;  arbitration  courts  decided 
the  people's  complaints,  with  general  accept- 
ation ;  and  great  meetings  in  American 
cities  sent,  by  every  steamship,  their  words 
of  sympathy  and  bills  of  exchange. 

It  is  not  very  certain  that  the  "  Govern- 
ment "  was  at  first  resolutely  bent  on  press- 
ing their  prosecution  to  extremity.  Prob- 
ably they  rather  hoped  that  the  show  of  a 
determination  to  put  down  the  agitation 
somehow  would  cool  the  ardor  both  of  dema- 
gogues and  people.  Plainly  it  had  no  such 
effect  ;  and  it  was,  therefore,  resolved  to 
pursue  the  "  conspirators  "  to  conviction  and 
imprisonment,  at  any  cost,  and  by  any 
means. 

Tlie  "state  trials"  then  began  on  the  2d 
of  November,  1843.  These  trials  cannot 
be  considered  as  really  a  legal  proceeding, 
though  invested  with  legal  forms.  It  was  a 
de  facto  government  using  its  courts  and 
tribunals  and  juries,  and  all  the  other  appa- 
ratus of  justice,  to  crush  a  political  enemy, 
under  the  false  and  fraudulent  pretence  of  a 
trial.  Everybody  understood  from  the  first 
that  there  was  here  no  question  of  pleading, 
or  of  evidence,  or  of  forensic-rhetoric ;  and 
that  all  depended  upon  the  vote  of  the  jury  ; 
— which  vote,  however,  was  to  be  termed  a 
"  verdict." 

A  revisal  of  the  special  jury-list  took 
place  before  Mr,  Shaw,  Recorder  of  Dub- 
lin, with  a  special  view  to  these  trials.  The 
names,  when  passed  by  the  recorder,  from 
day  to  day,  were  then  sent  to  the  sher- 
iff's ofiBce,  to  be  placed  on  his  book.  Coun- 
sel were  employed  before  the  recorder  to 
oppose,  by  every  means,  the  admission  of 
every  Catholic  gentleman  against  whom  any 
color  of  objection  could  be  thought  of  ;  yet, 
with  all  this  care,  a  large  number  of  Catho- 
lics were  placed  on  the  list.  As  the  names 
were   transferred   to    the  sheriff's  office,    it 


happened  that  the  slip  which  contained  the 
largest  proportion  of  Catholic  names  missed 
its  way,  or  was  mislaid  ;  and  the  sixty- 
seven  names  it  contained  never  appeared  on 
the  sheriff's  book.  This  became  immediately 
notorious,  and  excited  what  one  of  the 
judges  called  "grave  suspicion." 

In  striking  a  special  jury  in  Ireland,  forly- 
eight  names  are  taken  by  ballot  out  of  the 
the  jurors'  book,  in  the  Crown  office.  Then 
each  party,  the  Crown  and  tlie  traverser, 
has  the  privilege  of  striking  off  twelve — 
leaving  twent3'-four  names.  On  the  day  of 
trial,  the  first  twelve  out  of  these  twenty- 
four,  who  answer  when  called,  are  sworn  as 
jurors.  Now,  so  well  had  the  sheriff  dis- 
charged his  duty  in  this  case,  that  of  the 
forty-eight  names  there  were  eleven  Catho- 
lics. They  were  all  struck  off  by  the  Crown, 
together  with  a  great  number  of  Protes- 
tants, whose  British  principles  were  not  con- 
sidered sure  at  the  Castle,  and  a  "jury" 
was  secured  on  whose  patriotic  vote  Her 
Majesty  could  fully  rely. 

These  details  respecting  juries  may  not, 
perhaps,  be  very  interesting  to  the  general 
reader  ;  yet  the  history  of  our  country  can 
by  no  means  be  understood  without  them. 
Ever  since  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
juries  have  been  merely  one  of  the  arms  of 
British  domination  in  Ireland,  just  as  the 
troops  and  police,  the  detectives  and  spies 
are.  The  jury  may  be  said  to  be  the  one 
point  at  which  the  government  and  the 
people  touch  one  another  ;  and  if  it  be  a 
real  jury  of  the  "  neighborhood,"  as  de- 
scribed in  the  law  books,  then  can  be  easily 
appreciated  that  profound  saying — "  that 
the  only  use  of  a  government  is  to  make 
sure  that  there  shall  be  twelve  impartial 
men  in  the  jury-box."  But  the  Englisli 
Government  has  never  been  able  to  sustain 
itself  in  Ireland,  witiiout  making  sure  of  the 
very  opposite  arrangement.  And  it  has 
been  said,  with  truth,  that  the  real  Palla- 
dium of  the  British  Constitution  in  that 
land,  is  a  packed  jury  and  the  suspension  of 
the  Habeas  Corpus.  If  Ireland  truly  and 
effectively  possessed  those  two  institutions, 
as  England  possesses  them,  the  British 
power  would  not  exist  in  our  island  three 
months. 

The  details  of  the  trials  are  of  small  in- 


VERDICT    OF    '   GUILTY. 


539 


tercst.  All  knew  how  they  would  end. 
The  Government,  on  this  prosecution  for 
"  conspiracy,"  had  not  only  its  inevitable 
jury,  but  its  Post  Office  spies  at  work,  by 
whose  means  the  "authorities"  had  spread 
out  before  them  every  morning  all  the  corres- 
pondence of  all  the  traversers,  and  of  all 
their  counsel  and  attorneys  ;  no  small  ad- 
vantage in  dealing  with  conspiracy — if  there 
had  been  a  conspiracy. 

Early  in  February  the  trials  ended  ;  and 
when  the  Chief  Justice  in  his  charge  to  the 
jury  argued  the  case  like  one  of  the  counsel 
for  the  prosecution,  and  so  far  forgot  hira- 
sel  as  to  term  the  traversers'  counsel  "  the 
gentlemen  on  the  other  side,"  there  was 
more  laughter  than  indignation  throughout 
the  country.  The  jury  brought  in  their  ver- 
dict of  GUILTY — of  course.  O'Connell  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  the  people  of  Ireland, 
informing  them  that  "  the  repeal "  was 
now  sure  ;  that  all  he  wanted  was  peace, 
patience,  and  perseverance  ;  and  that  if 
they  would  only  "  keep  the  peace  for  six, 
or  at  most,  for  twelve  months,  repeal  was 
certain."  In  the  meantime,  he  and  his 
friends  wwe  appointed  to  come  before  the 
Court  on  a  certain  day  in  May,  to  receive 
sentence. 

Immediately  on  the  verdict  being  known 
in  London,  there  arose  in  Parliament  a  vio- 
lent debate  on  the  state  of  Ireland.  The 
Whig  party,  being  then  out  of  place,  and 
who  saw  in  this  whole  repeal  movement  noth- 
ing but  a  machinery  by  which  they  might  raise 
themselves  to  power,  affected  great  zeal  for 
justice  to  Ireland,  and  even  indignation 
at  the  conduct  of  the  trials.  It  is  almost 
incredible,  but  remains  on  record,  that  Lord 
John  Russell  used  these  words  : — 

"  Nominally,  indeed,  the  two  countries 
have  the  same  laws.  Trial  by  jury,  for  in- 
stance, exists  in  both  countries  ;  but  is  it  ad- 
ministered alike  in  both  ?  Sir,  I  remember 
on  one  occasion  when  an  honorable  gentle- 
man, Mr.  Brougham,  on  bringing  forward  a 
motion,  in  1823,  on  the  administration  of 
the  law  in  Ireland,  made  use  of  these 
words  :  '  The  law  of  England  esteemed 
all  men  equal.  It  was  sufficient  to  be 
born  within  the  King's  allegiance  to 
be  entitled  to  all  the  rights  the  loftiest 
subject  of  the  laud  enjoyed.      None   were 


disqualified  ;  the  only  distinction  was  be- 
tween natural-born  subjects  and  aliens. 
Such,  indeed,  was  the  liberality  of  our 
system  in  the  times  which  we  called  barbar- 
ous, but  from  which,  in  these  enlightened 
days,  it  might  be  as  well  to  take  a  hint, 
that  if  a  man  were  even  an  alien-born,  he 
was  not  deprived  of  the  protection  of  the 
law.  In  Ireland,  however,  the  law  held  a 
directly  opposite  doctrine.  The  sect  to 
which  a  man  belonged,  the  cast  of  his  re- 
ligious opinions,  the  form  in  which  he 
worshipped  his  Creator,  were  grounds  on 
which  the  law  separated  him  from  his  fel- 
lows, and  bound  him  to  the  endurance  of  a 
system  of  the  most  cruel  injustice.'  Such 
was  the  statement  of  Mr.  Brougham, 
when  he  was  the  advocate  of  the  op- 
pressed. But,  sir,  let  me  ask,  was  what  I 
have  just  now  read  the  statement  of  a  man 
who  was  ignorant  of  the  country  of  which 
he  spoke  ?  No  ;  the  same  language,  or  to 
the  same  effect,  was  used  by  Sir  M. 
O'Loghlen,  in  his  evidence  before  the  House 
of  Lords.  That  gentleman  stated  that  he 
had  been  in  the  habit  of  going  the  Munster 
circuit  for  nineteen  years,  and  on  that  circuit 
it  was  the  general  practice  for  the  Crown, 
in  criminal  prosecutions,  to  set  aside  all 
Catholics  and  all  the  Liberal  Protestants  ; 
and  he  added,  that  he  had  been  informed 
that  on  other  circuits  the  practice  was 
carried  on  in  a  more  strict  manner.  Sir  M. 
O'Loghlen  also  mentioned  one  case  of  tliis 
kind  which  took  place  in  1834,  during  the 
Lord-Lieutenancy  of  the  Marquis  of  Welles- 
ley,  and  the  Attorney-Generalship  of  Mr. 
Blackburne,  the  present  Master  of  the 
Rolls,  and  in  which,  out  of  forty-three  per- 
sons set  aside  (in  a  cause,  too,  which  was 
not  a  political  one,)  there  were  thirty-six 
Catholics  and  seven  Protestants,  and  all  of 
them  respectable  men.  This  practice  is  so 
well  known,  and  carried  out  so  generally, 
that  men  known  to  be  Liberals,  whether 
Catholics  or  Protestants,  have  ceased  to 
attend  assizes,  that  they  might  not  be  ex- 
posed to  these  public  insults.  Now,  I 
would  ask,  are  these  proofs  of  equal  laws, 
or  laws  equally  administered?  Could  the 
same,  or  similar  cases,  have  happened  in 
Yorkshire,  or  Sussex,  or  Kent  ?  Are 
these  the   fulOlliueiit  of  the   promise   made 


540 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


and  engagements  entered  into  at  the 
Union  ?" 

This  sounds  extremely  fair.  WTio  would 
think  that  Lord  John  Russell  was  Prime 
Minister  afterwards  in  '48  ?  Mr.  Macau  lay 
said,  in  the  same  debate,  February  19, 1844  : 

"  I  do  say  that  on.,  this  question,  it  is  of 
the  greatest  importance  that  the  proceedings 
which  the  Government  have  taken  should 
be  beyond  impeachment,  and  that  they 
should  have  obtained  a  victory  in  such  a 
way  that  that  victory  should  not  be  to  them 
a  greater  disaster  than  a  defeat.  Has  that 
been  the  result  ?  First,  is  it  denied  that 
Mr.  O'Connell  has  sufiFered  wrong  ?  Is  it 
denied  if  the  law  had  been  carried  into 
effect  without  those  irregularities  and  that 
negligence  which  has  attended  the  Irish 
trials,  Mr.  O'Connell's  chance  of  acquittal 
would  have  been  better  ? — no  person  denied 
that.  The  afBdavit  which  has  been  pro- 
duced, and  which  has  not  been  contradicted, 
states  that  twenty-seven  Catholics  were  ex- 
cluded from  the  jury-list.  I  know  that  all 
the  technicalities  of  the  law  were  on  the 
side  of  the  Crown,  but  my  great  charge 
against  the  Government  is,  that  they  have 
merely  regarded  this  question  in  a  technical 
point  of  view.  We  know  wliat  the  principle 
of  the  law  is,  in  cases  where  prejudice  is 
likely  to  arise  against  an  alien,  and  who  is 
to  be  tried  de  medietate  lingua.  Is  he  to  be 
tried  by  twelve  Englishmen  ?  No  ;  our 
ancestors  knew  that  that  was  not  the  way 
in  which  justice  could  be  obtained — they 
knew  that  the  only  proper  way  was  to  have 
one-half  of  the  jurymen  of  the  country  in 
which  the  crime  was  committed,  and  the 
other  half  of  the  country  to  which  the 
prisoner  belonged.  If  any  alien  had  been 
in  the  situation  of  Mr.  O'Connell,  that  law 
would  have  been  observed.  You  are  ready 
enough  to  call  the  Catholics  of  Ireland 
'  aliens '  when  it  suits  your  purpose  ;  you 
are  ready  enough  to  treat  them  as  aliens 
when  it  suits  your  purpose  ;  but  the  first 
privilege,  the  only  advantage,  of  alienage, 
you  practically  deny  them." 

This  orator,  also,  was  a  member  of  the 
administration  in  1848  ;  and  he  did  not 
utter  any  of  his  fine  indignation  at  the  gross 
packing  of  juries  which  was  perpetrated 
tlien.     In  1848,  however,  these  "Liberals" 


were  in,  not  out  ;  had  resting  upon  them 
the  responsibility  of  maintaining  the  British 
Empire  ;  and,  therefore,  desired  to  hear  no 
more  of  "justice  to  Ireland." 

In  the  same  debate,  there  was  much  fe- 
rocious language  on  the  part  of  Tory  mem- 
bers of  the  House  :  the  infamous  nature  of 
the  alleged  conspiracy  was  dwelt  upon,  and 
the  necessity  of  bringing  to  condign  punish- 
ment that  "  Arch-Agitator,"  that  "  hoary 
criminal,"  who  was  endeavoring  to  over- 
throw the  British  Empire.  In  the  midst  of. 
all  this,  O'Connell  himself,  the  "  hoary 
criminal,"  strode  into  the  House.  In  a 
discussion  upon  the  state  of  Ireland,  he  had 
had  somewhat  to  say.  First,  he  listened  to 
the  debate  for  a  whole  week,  and  then, 
amidst  breathless  silence,  arose. 

He  did  not  confine  himself  to  the  narrow 
ground  of  the  prosecution,  but  reviewed  the 
whole  career  of  British  power  in  Ireland, 
with  bitter  and  taunting  comments.  As  to 
the  prosecution,  he  treated  it  slightly  and 
contemptuously. 

"  I  have,  at  greater  length  than  I  intend- 
ed, gone  through  the  crimes  of  England 
since  the  Union — 1  will  say  tlie  follies  of 
England.  I  have  but  little  more  to  say  ; 
but  I  have,  in  the  name  of  the  people  of 
Ireland — and  I  do  it  in  their  name — to  pro- 
test against  the  late  prosecution.  And 
I  protest,  first,  against  the  natui'e  of  that 
prosecution  ;  forty-three  public  meetings 
were  held,  and  every  one  of  them  was  ad- 
mitted to  be  legal  ;  not  one  was  impeached 
as  being  against  the  law,  and  every  one  of 
them  making  on  the  calendar  of  crime  a 
cypher  ;  but  by  multiplying  cyphers,  you 
come,  by  a  species  of  legal  witch-craft,  to 
make  it  a  number  that  shall  be  fatal.  One 
meeting  is  legal,  another  meeting  is  legal,  a 
third  is  the  same,  and  three  legal  meetings,  you 
say,  make  one  illegal  meeting.  The  peoj)Ie 
of  Ireland  understand  that  you  may  oppress 
them,  but  not  laugh  at  them.  That,  sir,  is 
my  first  objection  Tiie  second  is  the 
striking  out  all  the  Catholics  from  the  jury 
panel.  There  is  no  duubt  of  the  fact. 
Eleven  Catholics  were  upon  the  jury  panel, 
and  everyone  of  them  was  struck  out." 

All  the  world  knew  it.  Nobody  j)reteiid- 
ed  to  deny  it,  or  pnl)lifly  to  excuse  it  ;  l)ut 
what   availed  all   this  ?     The  ultimatum  of 


SE>TENCE   AND   INPR^ONMENT   OF    "CONSPIRATORS. 


541 


England  was,  that  the  Union  must  be  main- 
tained at  any  cost,  and  by  all  means.  And 
O'Connell  was  to  return  to  Dublin  by  a 
certain  day  for  judgment  and  sentence. 
His  taunts  and  invectives  against  the  whole 
system  of  Irish  government  were  very  wel- 
come, and  highly  entertaining  to  English 
Whigs,  who  only  looked  to  their  own  party 
chances.  But  no  man  in  all  England  ever, 
for  one  moment,  suffered  the  idea  to  enter 
his  head,  that  Ireland  was  to  be  in  any  case 
permitted  to  govern  herself. 

And  British  Whigs  could  well  afford  to 
let  O'Connell  have  a  legal  triumph,  to  the 
damage  of  British  Tories,  so  long  as  the 
real  and  substantial  policy  of  England  in 
Ireland  was  pursued  without  interruption. 
As  to  this  point,  there  must  be  no  mistake 
— no  British  Whig  or  British  Tory  regarded 
the  Irish  question  in  any  other  point  of 
view  than  as  a  question  on  which  might 
occur  a  change  of  Ministry. 

An  army  of  fifty  thousand  men,  includ- 
ing police,  was  all  this  while  in  full  military 
occupation  of  the  island.  The  Anns  bill 
had  become  law  ;  and,  in  the  registration  of 
arms  before  magistrates  under  that  act, 
those  who  were  in  favor  of  their  country's 
independence'were  refused  the  privilege  of 
keeping  so  much  as  an  old  musket  in  their 
houses  for  purposes  of  self-defence.  * 

The  police-barracks  were  still  further 
strengthened  ;  the  detectives  were  multi- 
plied ;  the  regular  troops  were  kept  almost 
constantly  under  arms,  and  marched  to  and 
fro  with  a  view  of  striking  terror  ;  imyroved 
codes  of  signals  were  furnished  to  the  police 
for  use  by  day  and  niglit — to  give  warning  of 
everything  they  might  conceive  suspicious. 
With   so   firm  a  hold    upon   the   island,  the 

*  Of  the  proceedings  upon  these  applications  for 
registry  of  arms  at  all  the  petty  sessions  of  Ireland, 
■we  have  no  record,  but  to  the  Cork  Sautheni  Re- 
porter we  are  indebted  for  the  minute  report  of  a 
session  at  llarcroom,  in  that  county,  which  may  be 
taken  as  a  kind  of  sample. 

•'  Maurice  DuUea,  Glaun — Applicant  for  leave  to 
keep  one  gun. 

"  Mr.  Gillman.  Magistrate — Are  you  a  repeal 
warden  ?    1  am  not. 

•'  Would  you  answer  the  question  on  your  oath,  if  it 
Were  put  to  you?    I  would. 

"  Mr.  Warren— The  question  should  not  be  asked, 
unless  it  was  known  he  had  so  acted.     Admitted. 

"  John  M'Auliffe,  Millstreet — One  pistol. 

"  Captain  Wallace — Are  you  a  repeal  warden  ?  I 
am,  sir. 


British  Ministers  might  have  thought  them- 
selves in  a  condition  to  abandon  their 
questionable  prosecution  ;  but  they  had  the 
idea  that  O'Conncll's  power  lay  very  much 
in  the  received  opinion  of  his  legal  infalli- 
bility ;  so  they  were  resolved  to  imprison 
him,  at  any  rate,  for  a  short  time — even 
though  he  should  finally  trample  on  their 
prosecution,  and  come  forth  in  trimmph — as, 
in  fact,  he  did. 

On  the  30th  May,  the  "conspirators" 
were  called  up  for  sentence  ;  and  were  im- 
prisoned in  Richmond  Penitentiary  —  a 
suburban  prison  at  the  south  side  of  Dublin, 
with  splendid  gardens  and  handsome  ac- 
commodations ;  here  they  rusticated  for 
three  months,  holding  levees  in  an  elegant 
marquee  in  the  garden  ;  receiving  daily 
deputations,  and  visits  from  Bishops,  from 
Americans,  and  from  ladies.  O'Connell 
still  wrote  once  a  week  to  Conciliation  Hall, 
that  repeal  never  was  so  sure,  never  so  im- 
minent, as  now,  if  only  the  people  would 
keep  the  peace. 

The  great  multitudinous  people  looked  on 
in  some  amaze.  "  Peace  "  was  still  the  or- 
der ;  and  they  obeyed  ;  but  they  much  mar- 
veled what  it  meant,  and  when  it  would  end. 

Still  it  was  doubtful  whether  the  enemy's 
government  had  really  gained  much  by  their 
prosecution.  Yery  considerable  indignation 
had  been  excited,  even  amongst  the  reason- 
able Protestants,  by  the  means  wliich  had 
been  used  to  snatch  this  conviction.  The 
agitation  had  rather  gained  than  lost  ;  and 
many  gentlemen  who  had  held  back  till 
now,  sent  in  their  names  and  subscriptions. 
Smith  O'Brien  was  now  a  constant  attend- 
ant at  the  association  ;  and  by  the  boldness 
and  pnrity  of  his  character,  and  by  his  ex- 
tensive knowledge  of  public  affairs,  gave  it 
both  impetus  and  steadiness. 

"Mr.  M'Carthy  O'Leary,  Attorney—The  man  bears 
a  most  unimpeachable  character. 

"  Mr.  Warren — W'e  cannot  reject  one  repeal  war- 
den, and  admit  anotlier.     Rejected." 

At  the  same  sessions  was  made  manifest  the  fact 
that  the  Protestant  "gentry"  of  the  country  were 
providing  themselves  with  a  sufficient  armament. 
For  e.xample,  Mrs.  Charlotte  Stawell,  of  Kilbritton 
Castle,  registers  "  six  guns  and  six  pistols,"  and 
Richard  Quinn,  of  Skivanish,  "nine  guns,  one  pair 
pistols,  two  dirks,  two  bayonets,  and  one  sword.'' 
No  objection  was  offered  against  these  persons  keep- 
ing as  many  fire-arms  as  they  chose  !  So  worked  the 
Disarming  act. 


542 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


Yet  O'Connell  and  his  friends  were  in 
prison,  sentenced  to  an  incarceration  of  one 
year  ;  and  it  would  be  vain  to  deny  that 
there  was  humiliation  in  the  fact.  True,  the 
jury  had  been  notoriously  packed  ;  the  trial 
liad  been  but  a  sham  ;  and  the  sentence 
would  probably  be  reversed  by  the  House 
of  Lords.  Still  there  was  Ireland  represent- 
ed by  her  chosen  men  suffering  the  penalties 
of  crime  in  a  jail.  The  island  was  still 
fully  and  effectively  occupied  by  troops,  as 
a  hostile  country  ;  and  all  its  resources 
were  in  clear  possession  of  the  enemy. 
Many  began  to  doubt  whether  the  "  moral- 
force"  principle  of  O'Connell  would  be 
found  suflBcient, 

In  truth,  the  repeal  agitation,  as  a  living 
and  formidable  power,  was  over  from  the 
day  of  imprisonment.  The  judgment  of  the 
Irish  Court  of  Queen's  Bench  was  brought 
up  to  the  British  House  of  Peers  on  Writ 
of  Error  ;  and  on  the  2d  and  4  th  of  Sep- 
tember, the  opinions  of  nine  English  judges 
were  delivered,  and  the  decision  pronounced. 
Eight  of  the  judges  gave  their  opinion  that 
the  jury  was  a  good  jury,  the  verdict  good, 
and  the  judgment  good.  It  appeared,  how- 
ever, that  Mr.  Justice  Coleridge  dissented. 
Lord  Lyudhurst,  the  Lord  Chancellor,  then 
delivered  his  decision  ; — he  agreed  with  the 
majority  of  the  judges,  and  thought  the 
judgment  should  stand,  the  packing  of  the 
jury  being  immaterial.  He  was  followed  by 
Lord  Brougham — and  nobody  could  doubt 
what  would  be  the  decision  of  that  learned 
person — the  jury  was  a  good  enough  jury  : 
Bome  of  the  counts  in  the  indictment  might 
be  bad  ;  but,  bad  or  good,  the  judgment  of 
the  Irish  Court  was  to  stand,  and  O'Con- 
nell was  to  remain  in  prison. 

Lord  Denman,  Chief  Justice  of  England, 
then  arose.  I  have  already  told  yon  that 
tlie  whole  Irish  question  was  regarded  in 
the  British  Parliament  solely  with  reference 
to  its  affording  a  chance  of  turning  out  the 
Tory  Ministry,  and  conducting  the  Whigs 
into  power  and  place.  We  have  seen,  ac- 
cordingly, the  pretended  indignation  of 
Lord  John  Russell,  and  of  Mr.  Macaulay, 
against  the  packing  of  the  juries.  It  may 
geem  an  atrocious  charge  to  niiike  upon 
judges  and  law  lords — that  tliey  could  be 
influeui-ed  by  any  other  considerations  tlian 


the  plain  law  and  justice  of  the  case.  But 
the  mere  matter  of  fact  was,  that  the  ma- 
jority of  the  English  judges  were  of  the 
Tory  party.  Of  the  law  lords,  also, 
Lord  Chancellor  Lyndhurst  was  a  violent 
Tory,  and,  moreover,  an  avowed  enemy  to 
Ireland.  Lord  Brougham  was  at  that  time 
a  Tory,  and,  also,  a  well-known  personal  foe 
to  O'Connell,  having  been  often  stung  by 
the  vicious  taunts  and  sarcasms  of  that 
gentleman.  But  Lord  Denman,  Lord  Cot- 
tenhara,  and  Lord  Campbell  were  Whigs  ; 
and  Denman,  Cottenham,  and  Campbell  gave 
it  as  their  opinion  that  the  jury  had  been 
unfair  and  fraudulent — that  no  fair  trial 
had  taken  place — and,  therefore,  that  the 
judgment  against  the  repeal  conspirators 
should  be  reversed. 

Now,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  Brit- 
ish Government,  by  openly  and  ostentatious- 
ly striking  off  from  the  jury  panel  all  Cath- 
olics, without  exception,  and  all  Protestants 
of  moderate  and  liberal  opinions,  made  pro- 
clamation that  they  knew  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  to  be  averse  to  them  and  their 
rule — avowed  that  they  accounted  that  small 
remainder  out  of  whom  they  selected  their 
jurors,  to  be  the  only  "good  and  lawful 
men."  These  were  the  vicinage  contem- 
plated in  the  law  books  ;  and  the  repeal 
conspirators  being  arraigned,  not  before  their 
countrymen,  not  even  before  one  sect  of  their 
countrymen,  but  before  chosen  men  carefully 
selected  by  the  Crown  out  of  one  section  of 
one  sect,  were  told  to  consider  themselves 
on  their  trial  pe?-  pais.  This,  to  be  sure, 
amounted  to  an  admission  that  nine-tenths 
of  Irishmen  desired  the  freedom  of  their 
country — but  then  it  also  amounted  to  a  de- 
claration that  the  English  meant  to  hold 
the  country,  whether  Irishmen  would  or 
not.  On  the  reversal  of  the  judgment, 
iiowever,  there  was  a  show  of  high  re- 
joicing in  Dublin,  and  the  prisoners  were  es- 
corted from  the  jail  through  the  city  by  a 
vast  and  orderly  procession,  to  O'Connell's 
house.  The  procession  marched  through 
College  Green  ;,  and  just  as  O'Connell's  car- 
riage came  in  front  of  the  Irish  Parliament 
House,  (the  most  superb  building  in  Dub- 
lin,) the  carriage  stopped  ;  the  whole  pro- 
cession sro[)pcd  ;  and  there  was  a  deep 
silence  as  O'Connell  rose  to  his  full  height 


ENTHUSIASM   OF   THE   PEOPLE. 


543 


and,  pointing  with  his  finger  to  the  portico, 
turned  slowly  round  and  gazed  into  the 
faces  of  the  people,  without  a  word.  Again 
and  again,  he  stretched  forth  his  arm  and 
pointed  ;  and  a  succession  of  pealing  cheers 
seemed  to  shake  the  city. 

The  state  trials,  then,  were  at  an  end  ; 
and  all  the  country,  friends  and  enemies, 
Ireland  and  England,  were  now  looking  eag- 
erly and  earnestly  for  O'Connell's  first  move- 
ment, as  an  indication  of  his  future  course. 
Never,  at  any  moment  in  his  life,  did  he 
hold  the  people  so  wholly  in  his  hand.  Dur- 
ing the  imprisonment,  both  clergy  and  re- 
peal wardens  had  labored  diligently  in  ex- 
tending and  confirming  the  organization  ; 
and  the  poor  people  proved  their  faith  and 
trust  by  sending  greater  and  greater  con- 
tributions to  the  repeal  treasury.  They  kept 
the  "  peace  "  as  their  Liberator  bade  them  ; 
and  the  land  was  never  so  free  from  crime— 
lest  they  should  give  strength  to  the  enemy. 

It  is  impossible  to  record,  without  pro- 
found admiration,  the  steady  faith,  patient 
zeal,  self-denial,  and  disciplined  enthusiasm, 
which  the  Irish  people  displayed  for  these 
two  years.  To  many  thousands  of  those 
peasants  the  struggle  had  been  more  severe 
than  any  war ;  for  they  were  expected  to 
set  at  nought  potent  landlords,  who  had 
over  them  and  their  children  power  of  life 
and  death — with  troops  of  insolent  bailiifs, 
and  ejecting  attorneys,  and  the  omnipresent 
police  ;  and  they  did  set  them  at  nought. 
Every  vote  they  give  at  an  election  might 
cost  them  house  and  home,  land  and  life. 
They  were  naturally  ardent,  impulsive, 
and  impatient  ;  but  their  attitude  was  now 
cahn  and  steadfast.  They  were  an  essen- 
tially military  people  ;  but  the  great  "  Lib- 
erator" told  them  that  "  no  political  ameli- 
oration was  worth  one  drop  of  human 
blood." 

They  did  not  believe  the  formula,  and  in 
assenting  to  it  often  winked  their  eyes  ;  yet 
steadily  and  trustfully,  this  one  good  time, 
they  sought  to  liberate  their  country  peace- 
fully, le<^ally,  under  the  advice  of  counsel. 
Tiiey  loyally  obeyed  that  "man,  and  would 
obey  no  other.  And  when  he  walked  in 
triumph  out  of  his  prison,  at  one  word  from 
liis  mouth  they  would  have  marched  upon 
Dublin  from  all  the  five  ends  of  Ireland,  and 


made  short  work  with  police  and  military 
barracks. 

But  O'Connell  was  now  old,  approaching 
seventy  ;  and  the  fatal  disease  of  which  he 
was  then  really  dying,  had  already  begun 
to  work  upon  his  iron  energies.*  After  his 
release  he  did  not  propose  to  hold  the  Clon- 
tarf  meeting,  as  many  hoped.  He  said 
nothing  more  about  the  "  Council  of  Three 
Hundred,"  which  the  extreme  section  of 
nationalists  were  very  desirous  to  see  carried 
into  effect ;  and  the  more  desirous  because 
it  would  be  illegal,  according  to  what  passes 
for  law  in  Ireland.  Yet  the  association  all 
this  time  was  becoming  more  powerful  for 
good  than  ever.  O'Brien  had  instituted  a 
"  Parliamentary  Committee,"  and  worked 
on  it  continually  himself  ;  which,  at  all 
events,  furnished  the  nation  with  careful  and 
authentic  memoirs  on  all  Irish  questions  and 
interests,  filled  with  accurate  statistical  de- 
tails. Many  Protestant  gentlemen,  also,  of 
high  rank  joined  the  association  in  1844 
and  1845 — being  evidently  unconscious  how 
certainly  and  speedily  that  body  was  going 
to  destruction. 

In  short,  the  history  of  Ireland  must 
henceforth  be  sought  for  elsewhere  than  in 
the  Repeal  Association. 


CHAPTER    LVIIL 

1844. 

Decadence  of  Repeal  Association  —  Land  Tenure 
Commission  ^Necessity  of  Exterminatincr  "Sur- 
plus Population" — Report  of  the  "Landlord  and 
Tenant  Commission  " — Tenant  Riglit  to  be  Disal- 
lowed— Farms  to  be  Consolidated — People  to  be 
Extirpated — Methods  of  the  Minister  to  Divide  Re- 
pealers— Grant  to  Maynooth — Queen's  Colleges — 
Secret  Agent  at  Rome — American  Slaverj' — Dis- 
traction in  Repeal  Ranks — Bill  for  "  Compensation 
to  Tenants  " — Defeated — Death  of  Thomas  Davis — 
The  Famine  —  Commission  of  Chemists  to  Gain 
Time — Demands  of  Ireland — Of  the  Corporations — • 
Of  O'Connell  and  O'Brien — Repudiation  of  Alms — 
Coercion  Bill — Repeal  of  Corn  Laws — Irish  Har- 
vests go  to  England — "Relief  Measures" — Delays 
— Fraud — Havoc  of  the  People— Peel's  System  of 
Famine-Slaughter  Fully  Established — Peel  Resigns 
Office 

During  the  two  Inst   years  of  the  exist- 
ence of  the  Ivepeal  Association,  it  made  no 

*  It  was  .softening  of  the  brain  ;  and  the  physicians, 
after  his  death,  pronounced  that  it  had  been  in  oper« 
ation  for  two  years  at  least. 


BU 


HISTORY   OF    IKELAND. 


progress  whatever  towards  the  attauimerit 
of  its  great  object ;  which  is  equivalent  to 
saying  that  it  was  going  back.  One  of  tlie 
first  things  proposed  by  Mr.  O'Conuell,  after 
his  release,  in  a  secret  meeting  of  the  coin- 
mittee,  was  a  dissolution  of  the  body,  in  or- 
der to  its  reconstruction  on  a  somewhat 
more  safe  and  legal  basis.  This  was  his 
old  policy,  whenever  his  agitations  had  come 
in  conflict  with  what  the  Government  called 
"law,"  and  it  had  generiilly  answered  its 
purpose,  whilst  those  agitations  were  direct- 
ed against  penal  laws,  or  tithes  and  church- 
rates,  against  something,  in  sliort,  which 
was  not  vital  to  the  existence  of  the  Brit- 
ish Empire.  But  he  now  found  himself  at 
last  in  front  of  a  castle  wall,  armed  and 
garrisoned,  totally  unassailable  by  any  "agi- 
tation" yet  invented.  He  could  not  make 
a  single  step  in  advance,  upon  that  line  ; 
and  he  seemed  to  feel  it.  Yet  the  whole, 
country  was  earnestly  expecting  that  step  in 
advance.  The  proposal  to  dissolve  was  com- 
batted  and  was  given  up.  He  occupied  his 
weekly  speeches  with  collateral  issues  upon 
Parliamentary  questions  which  were  often 
arising — the  "  Bequests  act,"  the  "  Colleges 
bill,"  the  Papal  Rescript  negotiatiou,  and 
the  like  ; — all  matters  which  would  have 
been  of  moment  in  any  self-governing  nation, 
but  were  of  next  to  no  moment  in  the  circum- 
stances ;  or  he  poured  forth  his  fiery  floods 
of  eloquence  in  denunciation,  not  of  the 
British  Government,  but  of  Aintrican  slav- 
ery, with  which  he  had  nothing  on  earth  to 
do.  He  praised  too  much,  as  many  thought, 
the  sublime  integrity  and  justice  of  the  three 
Whig  law  lords  who  had  voted  for  revers- 
ing his  judgment.  But  the  most  significant 
change  in  his  behavior  was  in  the  querulous 
captiousness  he  showed  towards  the  Nation, 
and  those  connected  with  it,  whom  he  now 
frequently  rebuked  as  "rash  young  men," 
who  would  goad  the  country  into  a  danger- 
ous course. 

In  the  meantime,  the  English  press  and 
people  ceased,  in  a  great  degree,  to  speak 
of  the  repeal  movement  with  alarm  and 
horror — they  seemed  satisfied  now  that  there 
was  no  danger  in  it,  at  least  while  O'Con- 
nell  lived. 

For,  in  fact,  all  this  time,  the  steady 
policy  of  England  towards  her  "  sister  -is- 


land," was  proceeding  on  the  even  tenor  of 
its  way  quite  undisturbed.  Four  millions 
sterling  of  the  rental  of  Ireland  was,  as 
usual,  carried  over  every  year,  to  be  spent 
in  England  ;  and  the  few  remaining  manu- 
factures which  our  island  had  struggled  to 
retain,  were  growing  gradually  less  and  less. 
The  very  "frieze,"  (rough  home-made 
woolen  cloth, )  was  driven  out  of  the  mar- 
ket by  a  far  cheaper  and  far  worse  York- 
shire imitation  of  it.  Some  repeal  artist 
had  devised  a  "  repeal  button,"  displaying 
the  ancient  Irish  Crown  ;  the  very  repeal 
button  was  mimicked  in  Birmingham,  aud 
hogsheads  of  ancient  Irish  Crowns  were 
poured  into  the  market,  to  the  utter  ruin 
of  the  Dublin  manufacturer.  True,  they 
were  of  the  basest  of  metal  and  handiwork  ; 
but  they  lasted  as  long  as  "  the  repeal " 
lasted. 

All  great  public  expenditures  were  still 
confined  to  England  ;  and  in  the  year  1844, 
there  was,  quite  as  usual,  Irish  produce  to 
the  value  of  about  fifteen  millions  sterling 
exported  to  England. 

In  1843,  the  Government  had  sent  forth 
the  famous  "  Landlord  and  Tenant  Com- 
mission," to  travel  through  Ireland,  collect 
evidence,  and  report  on  the  relations  of 
landlord  and  tenant  in  that  country.  The 
commissioners  were  all,  without  exception, 
Irish  landlords.  In  '44,  it  traveled  and  in- 
vestigated ;  and  the  next  year  its  report 
came  out,  in  four  great  volumes.  The  true 
function  and  object  of  this  commission  was 
to  devise  the  best  means  of  getting  rid  of 
what  Englishmen  called  "  the  surplus  popu- 
lation" of  Ireland.  Ever  since  the  year 
1829,  the  year  of  Catholic  Emancipation, 
British  policy  had  been  directing  itself  to 
this  end. 

About  the  time  of  emancipation,  when  the 
small  farmers,  by  the  abolition  of  their 
franchise,  were  left  more  absolutely  at  the 
mercy  of  their  landlords,  it  happened  that 
new  theories  of  farming  became  fasiiionable. 
"High  farming"  was  the  word.  There 
was  to  be  more  grazing,  more  green 
cropping  ;  there  were  to  be  larger  farms  ; 
and  more  labor  was  to  be  done  by  horses 
and  by  steam.  But  consolidation  of  many 
small  farms  into  one  large  one  could  not  be 
effected  without  clearing  off  the  "surplus 


REPORT  OF  THE  "LANDLORD  AND  TENANT  COMMISSION. 


545 


population  ;"  and  then,  as  tliere  would  be 
fewer  mouths  to  be  fed,  so  there  would  be 
more  produce  for  export  to  England.  The 
clearance  system,  then,  had  begun  in  1829, 
and  had  proceeded  with  great  activity  ever 
after,  but  never  with  such  remorseless  fury 
as  just  after  the  year  of  the  "  monster 
meetings."  The  surplus  population  had  ap- 
peared more  than  usually  excessive  and 
perilous  in  the  form  of  those  huge  masses  of 
powerful  men,  whom  O'Connell's  voice  could 
call  around  him  upon  any  hill  in  the  island. 
Now,  therefore,  the  "assistant  barristers" 
were  especially  busy  in  decreeing  ejectments, 
which  they  issued  by  whole  sheaves.  These 
formidable  documents,  once  placed  in  the 
hands  of  sheriffs'  ofiScers,  often  came 
down  upon  the  people  with  a  more  sweep- 
ing desolation  than  an  enemy's  sword  and 
torch. 

"Whole  neighborhoods  were  often  thrown 
out  upon  the  highways  in  winter,  and 
the  homeless  creatures  lived  for  a  while 
upon  the  charity  of  neighbors  ;  but  this 
was  dangerous  ;  for  the  neighbors  were 
ofteu  themselves  ejected  for  harboring  them. 
Some  landlords  contracted  with  emigration 
companies  to  carry  them  to  America  "  for  a 
lump  sum,"  according  to  the  advertisements 
cited  before.  Others  did  not  care  what 
became  of  them  ;  and  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands perished  every  year  of  mere  hardship. 
The  new  Poor  law  was  now  in  full  opera- 
tion, and  workhouses,  erected  under  that 
law,  received  many  of  the  exterminated 
people ;  but  it  is  a  strangely  significant 
fact,  that  the  deaths  by  starvation  increased 
rapidly  from  the  first  year  of  the  Poor  law. 
The  Report  of  the  Census  Commissioners,  for 
1851,  declares  that  while  in  1842  the  deaths 
registered  as  deaths  by  famine  amounted  to 
one  hundred  and  eighty-seven,  they  increased 
every  year  until  the  registered  deaths  in 
1S45  were  five  hundred  and  sixteen.  The 
"registered"  deaths  were,  perhaps,  one- 
tenth  of  the  unregistered  deaths  by  mere 
hunger. 

Such,  then,  was  the  condition  of  Ireland 
in  1844-5  ;  and  all  this  before  the  "Fa- 
mine " 

Now,  the  "  Landlord  and  Temint  Com- 
mission"  began  its  labors  in  '44.  The 
peoj)le  v.'ere  told  to  expect  great  beneOts 
61) 


from  it.  The  commissioners,  it  was  diligent- 
ly given  out,  would  inquire  into  the  various 
acknowledged  evils  that  were  becoming 
proverbial  throughout  Europe  and  America 
— and  there  were  to  be  Parliamentary 
"ameliorations."  This  "commission"  looked 
like  a  deliberate  fraud  from  the  first.  It 
was  composed  entirely  of  landlords  ;  the 
chairman,  Lord  Devon,  being  one  of  the 
Irish  absentee-landlords.  It  was  at  all  times 
quite  certain  that  they  would  see  no  evi- 
dence of  any  evils  to  be  redressed  on  the 
part  of  the  tenants  ;  and  that  if  they  re- 
commended any  measures,  those  measures 
would  be  such  as  should  promote  and  make 
more  sweeping  the  depopulation  of  the 
country.  "  You  might  as  well,"  said  0'- 
Connell,  "  consult  butchers  about  keepinjj 
Lent,  as  consult  these  men  about  the  rights 
of  farmers." 

The  report  of  this  set  of  commissioners 
would  deserve  no  more  especial  notice  than 
any  of  the  other  reports  of  innumerable 
commissions  which  the  British  Parliament 
was  in  the  habit  of  issuing,  when  it  pretend- 
ed to  inquire  into  any  Irish  "grievance;" 
but  that  the  report  of  this  particular 
"  Devon  Commission  "  has  become  the  very 
creed  and  gospel  of  British  statesmen  with 
regard  to  the  Irish  people  from  that  day  to 
this,  and  has  often  been  cited  by  Secretaries 
for  Ireland,  as  affording  the  fullest  and  most 
conclusive  authority  upon  the  relations  of 
landlord  and  tenant  in  that  island.  It  is 
the  programme  and  scheme  upon  which  the 
last  conquest  of  Ireland  was  undertaken, 
in  a  business-like  manner,  twenty-four  years 
ago  ;  and  the  completeness  of  than  conquest 
is  due  to  the  exactitude  with  which  the  pro- 
gramme was  observed. 

The  problem  to  be  solved  was,  how  \o 
get  rid  of  the  Irish  people. 

But,  one  of  the  strongest  demands  and 
most  urgent  needs  of  these  people  had.  al- 
ways been  permanence  of  tenure  in  their 
lands.  O'Connell  called  it  "  fixity  of 
tenure,"  and  presented  it  prominently  ia 
his  speeches  as  one  of  the  greatest  benefits 
to  be  gained  by  repealing  the  Union.  It 
was,  indeed,  tlie  grand  necessity  of  the 
nation — tJ!iat  men  should  have  some  security 
— that  they  wlio  sowed  sliould  reap — that 
la!jor    aivJ    capital   ex[K?nded    iu    improving 


546 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


farms  should,  in  part,  at  least,  profit  those 
wlio  expended  it.  This  would  at  once  abol- 
ish pauperism,  put  an  end  to  the  necessity 
of  emigration,  supersede  Poor  laws,  and 
prevent  the  periodical  famines  which  had 
desolated  the  island  ever  since  the  Union. 
It  is  a  measure  wliich  would  have  been  sure 
to  be  recommended  as  the  first,  or,  indeed, 
the  only  measure  for  Ireland  by  any  other 
commission  than  a  commission  of  Irish  land- 
lords. 

In  the  northern  Province  of  Ulster,  there 
was,  as  before-mentioned,  a  kind  of  un- 
written law,  or  established  custom,  which  in 
some  counties  gave  the  tenant  such  needful 
security.  The  "Tenant-Right  of  Ulster" 
was  the  name  of  it.  By  virtue  of  that 
tenant-right,  a  farmer,  though  his  tenure 
might  be  nominally  "  at  will,"  could  not  be 
ejected  so  long  as  he  paid  his  rent  ;  and  if 
he  desired  to  remove  to  another  part  of  the 
country,  he  could  sell  his  "good-will"  in  the 
farm  to  an  incoming  tenant.  Of  course,  the 
greater  had  been  his  improvements,  the 
larger  price  would  his  tenant-right  com- 
mand ;  in  other  words,  the  improvements 
created  by  his  own  or  his  father's  industry 
were  his  own.  The  same  custom  prevented 
rents  from  being  arbitrarily  raised  in  pro- 
portion to  the  improved  value  ;  so  that 
in  many  cases  which  came  within  the 
knowledge  of  all  lawyers'  lands  held  "at 
will"  in  Ulster,  and  subject  to  an  ample 
rent,  were  sold  by  one  tenant-at-will  to 
another  tenant-at-will  at  full  half  the  fee- 
simple  value  of  the  land.  Conveyances 
wore  made  of  it.  It  was  a  valuable  pro- 
perty, and  any  violent  invasion  of  it,  as  a 
witness  told  Lord  Devon's  commission,  would 
have  "  made  Down  another  Tipperary." 

The  custom  was  almost  confined  to 
Ulster.  It  was,  by  no  means,  (though  this 
lias  often  been  slated,)  created  or  com- 
menced by  the  terms  of  the  Plantation  of 
Ulster,  in  the  time  of  King  James  I.,  but 
was  a  relic  of  the  ancient  free  social  polity 
of  the  nation,*  and  had  continued  in  Ulster 
longer  tlian  in  the  other  three  provinces, 
simply  because  Ulster  had  been  the  last 
part  of  the  island  brought  under  British 

*  See  an  article  on  the  True  Origin  of  Tenant- 
Riglit,  written  by  Samuel  Ferguson,  in  the  J}uhlin 
Unicersity  Magazine  for  May,  1848. 


dominion,  and  forced  to  exchange  the 
ancient  system  of  tribe-lands  for  feudal 
tenures.  Neither  is  "  tenant-right"  by  any 
means  peculiar  to  Ireland,  but  prevails 
in  all  countries  formerly  embraced  by  the 
feudal  system,  except  Ireland  alone. 

The  people  of  Ireland  are  not  idle.  They 
anxiously  sought  opportunities  of  exertion 
on  fields  where  their  landlords  could  not 
sweep  off  all  their  earnings  ;  and  many 
thousands  of  small  farmers  annually  went  to 
England  and  Scotland  to  reap  the  harvest, 
lived  all  the  time  on  food  that  would  sustain  no 
other  working  men,  and  hoarded  their  earn- 
ings for  their  wives  and  children.  If  they  had 
had  tenant-right,  they  would  have  labored 
for  themselves,  and  Tipperary  would  have 
been  a  peaceful  and  blooming  garden. 

In  this  stage  of  our  narrative,  a  difficulty 
arises.  It  is  hard  to  conceive  it  possible 
that  noble  lords  and  gentlemen,  the  landlords 
and  legislators  of  an  ancient  and  noble 
people,  should  deliberately  conspire  to  slay 
one  out  of  every  eight — men,  women,  and 
little  children — to  strip  the  remainder  barer 
than  they  were — to  uproot  them  from  the 
soil  where  their  mothers  bore  thera  —  to 
force  thera  to  flee  to  all  the  ends  of  the 
earth  —  to  destroy  tliat  tenant-right  of 
Ulster  where  it  was,  and  to  cut  off  all 
chance  and  hope  of  it  where  it  was  not. 
There  is  nothing  but  a  patient  examination 
of  the  facts  and  documents  which  can  makes 
this  credible  to  mankind. 

First,  then,  for  the  Report  of  the  Devon 
Commission.  As  first  printed,  it  fills  four 
stupendous  Blue  Books.  But  it  contained 
too  much  valuable  matter  to  be  buried,  like 
other  reports,  in  the  catacombs  which  yawn 
for  that  species  of  literature.  The  secre- 
tary of  the  commission,  therefore,  was 
employed  to  abstract  and  condense,  and 
present  the  cream  of  it  in  an  abridgement. 
This  had  the  advantage  not  only  of  con- 
densation, but  of  selection  ;  the  commission- 
ers could  then  give  the  pieces  of  evidence 
which  they  liked  the  best,  together  with 
their  own  recommendations. 

This  portentous  abstract  is  called  a 
"  Digest  of  the  Evidence,"  &c.;  is  published 
by  authority ;  and  has  a  preface  signed 
"  Devon." 

Much  of  the  volume  is  occupied  with  dis- 


TEN  ANT- RIGHT   TO   BE    "DISALLOWED.* 


547 


sertittiims  uud  evideuce  respecting  "  tenant- 
rij^lit,"  which  the  North  had,  and  the  Soiitli 
:  demanded.  The  commissiouers  are  clearly 
ag-ainst  it  iu  every  shape.  They  terra  it 
"  unphilosophical  ;"  and  in  the  preface  they 
state  that  the  Ulster  landlords  and  tenants 
look  upon  it  iu  the  light  of  a  life  insurance 
— that  is,  the  landlord  allows  the  sale  of 
tenant-right,  and  the  inconaing  tenant  buys 
it,  lest  they  should  both  -be  murdered  by 
the  out-going  tenant.  The  following  passage 
treats  this  tenant-right  as  injurious  to  the 
tenant  himself: — 

"  It  is  even  questionable  whether  this 
growing  practice  of  tenant-right,  which 
would  at  the  first  view  appear  to  be  a  valu,- 
able  assumjption  on  the  part  of  the  tenant, 
be  so  iu  reality  ;  as  it  gives  to  him,  without 
any  exertion  on  his  own  part,  an  apparent 
properly  or  security,  by  means  of  which  he 
is  enabled  to  incur  future  incumbrance,  in 
order  to  avoid  present  inconvenience  —  a 
practice  which  frequently  terminates  in  the 
utter  destitution  of  his  family,  and  in  the 
sale  of  his  farm,  when  the  debts  thus  created 
at  usurious  interests  amount  to  what  its 
sale  would  produce." 

It  appears^  then,  that  in  the  opinion  of 
these  landlords,  it  is  injurious  to  the  ten- 
ant to  let  him  have  anything  on  the  security 
of  which  he  can  borrow  money  ; — a  theory 
which  the  landlords  would  not  relish  if  ap- 
plied to  themselves.  Further,  the  com- 
missioners declare,  that  this  tenant-right 
is  enjoyed  without  any  exertion  on  the  part 
of  tenants.  Yet  they  have,  in  all  cases, 
either  created  the  whole  value  of  it  by  the 
sweat  of  their  brows,  or  bought  it  from 
those  who  did  so  create  it. 

The  commissioners  "foresee  some  danger 
to  th€  jiist  rights  of  property  from  the  un- 
limited allowance  of  this  tenant-right." 

But  they  suggest  a  substitute  :  "  com- 
pensation for  future  improvements  ; "  sur- 
rounding, however,  that  suggestion  with  dif- 
ficulties which  have  prevented  it  from  ever 
being  realized. 

Speaking  of  the  consolidation  of  farms, 
they  say  : — 

"When  it  is  seen  in  the  evidence,  and  in 
the  return  of  the  size  of  the  farms,  how 
small  those  holdings  are,  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  such  a  step  is  absolutely  necessary.'^ 


And  then,  as  to  the  people  whom  it  is 
thus  "  necessary  "  to  eject,  they  say  : — 

"Emigration  is  considered  by  the  com- 
mittee to  be  peculiarly  applicable,  as  a  re- 
medial measure." 

They  refer  to  one  of  their  tables,  (No. 
95,  p.  564,)  where — 

"  The  calculation  is  put  forward  showing 
that  the  consolidation  of  the  small  holdings 
up  to  eight  acres,  would  require  the  removal 
of  about  one  hundred  and  ninety-two  thou- 
sand three  hundred  and  sixty-eight  families." 
That  is,  the  removal  of  about  one  million 
of  persons. 

Such  was  the  Devon  programme  :  Ten- 
ant-right to  be  disallowed  ; — one  million  of 
people  to  be  revwved — that  is,  swept  out  on 
the  highways,  where  their  choice  would  be 
America,  the  poor  house,  or  the  grave.  We 
shall  see  with  what  accuracy  the  details 
were  carried  out  in  practice. 

Iu  affirming  that  there  was  a  conspiracy 
of  landlords  and  legislators  to  destroy  the 
people,  it  would  be  unjust,  as  it  is  unneces- 
sary, to  charge  all  members  of  the  Queen's 
Government,  or  all  of  the  Devon  Commis- 
sioners with  a  privity  to  that  design.  Sir 
Robert  Peel  knew  how  Irish  landlords  would 
inquire — and  what  report  they  would  make 
— just  as  well  as  he  knew  what  verdict  a 
jury  of  Dublin  Orangemen  would  give. 
Sir  Robert  Peel  had  been  Irish  Secretary. 
Tie  knew  Ireland  well  ;  he  had  been  Prime 
Minister  at  the  time  of  Catholic  Emancipa- 
tion ;  and  he  had  taken  care  to  accompany 
that  measure  with  another,  disfranchising 
all  the  sra^dl  farmers  in  Ireland.  Tliis  dis- 
franchisement, as  before  explained,  had  given 
a  stimulus  and  impetus  to  the  cleiimnce 
system.  He  had  helped  it  by  Clienp  Eject- 
ment acts.  It  had  not  worked  fast  enough. 
The  same  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  now  again 
Prime  Minister  in  1855,  when  the  first  of 
the  reports  was  published  by  the  Land  Ten- 
ure Commission  ;  and  it  at  once  opened  to 
him  a  plan  for  the  faster  clearing  off 
of  the  "  Irish  enemy,"  under  the  pretext  of 
"  ameliorations." 

In  the  meantime,  as  the  repeal  movement 
was  still  considered  formidable,  and  as 
Davis  and  the  younger  nationalists  were 
earnestly  laboring  to  give  it  more  of  a  mili- 
tary urgani'zation,   it    became    necessary  to 


548 


HISTORY   OF   IBELAND. 


take  some  measures  for  the  purpose  of  divid- 
ing and  distracting  the  repealers. 

Danger  was  then  threatening  from  the 
side  of  America,  on  the  question  of  Oregon. 
True  Irish  nationalists,  of  course,  hoped 
that  this  would  end  in  a  war  ;  and  the  Na- 
tion gave  unmistakable  notification  that  in 
case  of  war  about  Oregon,  the  Americans 
might  count  upon  a  diversion  in  Ireland. 

Suddenly  Sir  Robert  Peel's  Ministerial 
organs  announced  that  there  were  "good 
measures,"  or  what  the  English  call  "  ame- 
lioration," in  store  for  Ireland.  And,  in 
truth,  three  measures,  having  much  show  of 
liberality,  were  soon  brought  forward.  They 
were  all  cunningly  calculated  to  the  great 
end — the  breaking  up  of  the  Repeal  organ- 
ization. On  the  2d  of  April,  then,  Sir 
Robert  Peel  "  sent  a  message  of  peace  to 
Ireland  "  : — it  was  a  proposed  bill  to  give 
Bome  additional  thousands  per  annum  to 
the  Catholic  College  of  Maynooth  ;  and  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  the  Premier  thus 
urged  his  measures  : — 

"  I  say  this  without  hesitation,  and  re- 
collect that  we  have  been  responsible  for 
the  peace  of  Ireland  ;  you  must,  in  some 
way  or  other,  break  up  that  formidable  con- 
federacy which  exists  against  the  British 
Government  and  British  connection.  I  do 
not  believe  you  can  break  it  up  by  force. 
You  can  do  much  to  break  it  up  by  acting 
in  a  spirit  of  kindness  and  forbearance,  and 
generosity." 

It  was  novel  to  hear  these  good  words  ; 
and  all  knew  they  meant  fraud.  But  the 
Premier  continued  : — 

"  There  rises  in  the  far  western  horizon  a 
cloud,  [Oregon,]  small,  indeed,  but  threat- 
ening future  storms.  It  became  my  duty, 
on  the  part  of  the  Government,  on  that  day, 
in  temperate  but  significant  language,  to  de- 
part so  far  from  the  caution  which  is  usu- 
ally observed  by  a  Minister,  as  to  declare 
publicly,  that,  while  we  were  most  anxious 
for  the  amicable  adjustment  of  the  differ- 
ences— while  we  would  leave  nothing  un- 
done to  effect  that  amicable  adjustment — 
yet,  if  our  rights  were  invaded,  we  were 
prepared  and  determined  to  maintain  them. 
I  own  to  you,  that  when  I  was  called  upon 
to  make  that  declaration,  I  did  recollect 
with  satisfaction  and  consolation,  that  the 


day  before  /  had  sent  a  message  of  peace  to 
IrdandP 

The  object  of  the  bill  was  to  provide  more 
largely  for  the  endowment  of  Catholic  pro 
fessors,  and  the  education  of  young  men  for 
the  Catholic  Church  ;  and  the  Minister 
prudently  calculated  that  it  would  cool  the 
ardor  of  a  portion  of  the  Catholic  clergy 
for  repeal  of  the  Union.  It  was  forced 
through  both  Lords  and  Commons  as  a  party 
question,  though  vehemently  opposed  by  the 
intense  bigotry  and  ignorance  of  the  English 
nation.  But  the  Premier  put  it  to  them  iu 
that  irresistible  form  —  vote  for  our  mea- 
sure, or  we  will  not  answer  for  the  Union  ! 

Another  of  the  Premier's  ameliorations 
was  the  College  bill,  for  creating  and  endow- 
ing three  purely  secular  colleges  in  Ireland, 
to  give  a  good  course  of  education  without 
reference  to  religious  belief.  This  also  was 
sure  to  be  regarded  as  a  great  boon  by  a 
portion  of  the  Catholic  clergy — while  anoth- 
er portion  was  just  as  sure  to  object  vio- 
lently to  the  whole  scheme  ;  some,  because 
it  would  place  education  too  much  under 
the  control  of  the  English  Government  ; 
and  others,  because  the  education  was  to  be 
"  mixed," — strict  CathoHcs  being  much  in 
favor  of  educating  Catholic  youth  separate- 
ly. Here,  then,  was  a  fruitful  source  of 
quarrel  amongst  repealers  ;  and,  in  fact,  it 
arrayed  bishop  against  bishop,  and  O'Con- 
nell  against  "  Young  Ireland."  The  walls 
of  Conciliation  Hall  rung  with  denuncia- 
tions, not  of  the  Union,  but  of  "  Godless 
Colleges,"  and  of  tlie  "  young  infidel  party." 

But  the  Premier  had  anotlier  plot  in  op- 
oration.  Protestant  England  had  for  ages 
refused  to  recognize  the  Pope  as  a  Sove- 
reign, or  to  send  a  Minister  to  the  Vatican. 
It  was  still  illegal  to  send  an  avowed  Min- 
ister ;  but  Sir  Robert  Peel  sent  a  secret  one. 
He  was  to  induce  His  Holiness  to  take 
some  ordf'r  with  the  Catholic  bishops  and 
priests  of  Ireland,  to  draw  them  off  in  some 
degree  from  the  repeal  agitation.  By 
what  motives  and  inducements  that  agent 
operated  upon  the  Pope,  we  can  only  con- 
jecture ;  and  one  conjecture  is  this — Italy 
was  then,  as  now,  in  continual  danger  of  rev- 
olution. Wiihin  the  year  that  had  passed, 
England  had  demonstrated  ttiat  slie  held  in 
her  hand  the  clew  to  all  those   Republican 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 


549 


conspiracies  by  her  Post  Office  espiannage ; 
and  it  was  evident  that  the  same  Sir  James 
Graham,  who  had  copied  the  private  cor- 
respondence of  Mazziui  and  the  Baudieras, 
and  laid  it  before  the  King  of  Naples,  could 
as  eiisily  have  kept  it  all  to  himself.  Highly 
desirable,  surely,  that  "  peace,  law,  and  or- 
der," in  Italy  should  secure  so  useful  a 
friend. 

In  short,  the  Sacred  College  sent  a  re- 
script to  the  Irish  clergy,  declaring  that, 
whereas  it  had  been  reported  to  Ilis  Holi- 
ness, that  many  of  them  devoted  themselves 
too  much  to  politics,  and  spoke  too  rashly  in 
public  concerning  affairs  of  state — they 
were  thereafter  to  attend  to  their  religious 
duties.  It  was  carefully  given  out  in  the 
English  press,  that  the  Pope  had  denounced 
Repeal  ;  if  he  had  done  so,  nobody  would 
have  minded  it,  because  Catholics  do  not 
admit  his  jurisdiction  in  temporal  affairs  ; 
and  Quarantotti's  interference  about  the 
veto,  had  been  a  significant  warning.  It 
was  soon  settled  that  the  rescript  had  no 
such  power,  and  presumed  that  it  had  no 
such  intention,  on  the  part  of  the  Pope  ; 
yet  a  certain  prudent  reserve  began  to  be 
observable  in  the  repeal  speeches  of  the 
clergy.  So  far,  the  Premier's  Roman  policy 
had  succeeded. 

The  distraction  in  the  repeal  ranks  was 
much  aided  at  the  same  time  by  a  certain 
well  meaning  James  Haughton,  a  repealer 
himself,  but  one  who  concerned  himself  more 
about  the  wrongs  and  rights  of  American 
negroes,  than  about  those  of  his  own  coun- 
trymen. In  O'Connell's  perplexity  as  to 
his  course,  in  the  necessity  which  was  upon 
him  to  appear  to  do  something,  he  took 
hold  of  this  slavery  question,  made  some 
vehement  speeches  upon  it,  and  sent  back, 
with  contumelious  words,  some  money  re- 
mitted from  a  Southern  State,  in  aid  of  his 
repeal  exchequer. 

So  far  tlie  Premier's  plans  were  successful 
in  breaking  up  the  repeal  movement.  Re- 
ligious disputes  were  introduced  by  the 
Colleges  bill  ;  and  this  held  the  Protes- 
tants aloof,  and  produced  bitter  altercation 
throughout  the  country.  By  the  discussion 
on  slavery,  American  alliance  and  coopera- 
tion were  checked  ;  a  great  gain  to  the  Pre- 
iiiier  ;  for  the  Americans,  and  the  Irish  in 


America,  all  looked  forward  to  something 
stronger  than  moral  force. 

The  Minister  thought  he  might  proceed, 
under  cover  of  this  tumult  of  senseless  debate, 
to  take  the  first  step  in  his  plan  for  the  de- 
population of  Ireland,  in  pursuance  of  the 
"  Devon  Commission  "  report.  Accordingly, 
his  third  measure  for  the  "  amelioration " 
of  Ireland  was  a  bill,  ostensibly  provid- 
ing for  "  Compensation  of  Tenants  in  Ire- 
land," but  really  calculated  for  the  de- 
struction of  the  last  relics  of  tenant-right. 
We  need  not  go  through  the  details  of  the 
proposed  measure  ;  it  is  enough  to  observe, 
that  Lord  Stanley  admitted  that  he  contem- 
plated the  "removal  of  a  vast  mass  of  la- 
bor" from  its  present  field.  "In  justice  to 
the  colonies,"  he  would  not  recommend,  as 
the  Devon  Commissioners  did,  merely  that 
the  whole  of  this  vast  mass  should  be  shot 
out  naked  and  destitute  upon  their  shores  ; 
and  his  bill  proposed  the  employment  of  a 
part  of  it  on  the  waste  lands  of  Ireland — 
of  which  waste  lands  there  were  four  mil- 
lions of  acres,  capable  of  improvement.  A 
portion  of  the  "vast  mass  of  labor"  re- 
moved from  other  places  was  to  be  set  to 
work,  under  certain  conditions,  to  reclaim 
these  lands  for  the  landlords. 

The  bill,  though  framed  entirely  for  the 
landlords,  did  yet  propose  to  interfere,  in 
some  degree,  with  their  absolute  rights  of 
property.  They  did  not  choose  that  ten- 
ants should  be  presumed  to  have  any  right 
to  "  compensation,"  even  nominally  ;  or  any 
other  riglit  whatever  ;  and  as  for  the  waste 
lands,  they  wanted  them  for  snipe-shooting. 
Accordingly,  they  resisted  the  bill  with  all 
their  power  ;  and  English  landlords,  on 
principle,  supported  them  in  that  resistance. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Irish  tenants,  with 
one  consent,  exclaimed  against  the  bill,  as  a 
bill  for  open  robbery  and  slaughter.  A 
meeting  of  County  Down  tenants  resolved 
that  it  would  rob  their  class,  (in  one  pro- 
vince, Ulster  alone,)  of  £1,500,000  ster- 
ling. The  Nation  commented  upon  it  under 
the  title  of  "Robbery  of  Tenants  (Ireland) 
bill."  The  opposition  of  the  tenant  class, 
and  of  the  Repeal  newspapers,  would  have 
been  of  small  avail,  but  for  the  resistance — 
upon  other  grounds— of  the  landlords.  The 
bill  was  defeated  ;  Sir  Robert  Peel  had  to 


550 


HISTOKY    OF   IRELAND. 


devise  some  other  method  of  getthig  rid  of 
the  "  surplus  population." 

He  w<as  soou  to  be  aided  by  a  most  effi- 
cient ally — the  ftiniine  ;  and  to  tell  how  the 
famine  helped  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  how  Sir 
Robert  Peel  helped  the  famine,  forms  the 
whole  history  of  the  island  for  the  next  five 
years. 

In  the  meantime,  Thomas  Davis  died,  in 
September,  1845,  full  of  sad  foreboding  de- 
spondency, as  he  witnessed  the  gradual  dis- 
integration and  discomfiture  of  that  repeal 
movement,  which  had  so  many  elements  of 
power  at  first.  The  loss  of  this  rare  and 
noble  Irishman  has  never  been  repaired  ; 
neither  to  his  country  nor  to  his  friends. 
Before  the  grave  had  yet  closed  on  Thomas 
Davis,  began  to  spread  awful  rumors  of  ap- 
proaching famine.  Within  the  next  month, 
from  all  the  counties  of  Ireland  came  one 
cry  of  mortal  terror.  Blight  had  fallen  on 
the  crop  of  potatoes — the  food  on  which 
five  millions  of  the  Irish  people  had  been 
reduced  to  depend  for  subsistence  ;  three 
millions  of  them  wholly  and  exclusively. 
That  winter  of  1845-6  was  the  first  season 
of  Ireland's  last  and  greatest  agony  of 
famine. 

Lord  Brougham,  in  his  high-flowa  clas- 
sical way,  described  the  horrors  of  the 
famine  in  Ireland,  as  "surpassing  anything 
in  the  page  of  Thucydides  —  on  the  can- 
vas of  Poussin — in  the  dismal  chant  of 
Dante."  Such  a  visitation,  falling  suddenly 
upon  any  land,  certainly  imposes  onerous 
duties  upon  its  de  fade  government  ;  and 
the  very  novelty  of  the  circumstances,  dri- 
ving everything  out  of  its  routine  course, 
might  well  excuse  serious  mistakes  in  apply- 
ing a  remedy  to  so  monstrous  a  calamity. 
First,  however,  we  are  to  bear  in  mind  that 
all  tlie  powers,  revenues,  and  resources  of 
Ireland  had  been  transferred  to  London. 
The  Imperial  Parliament  had  dealt  at  its 
pleasure  with  the  "sister  island"  for  forty- 
six  years,  and  had  brought  ns  to  this.  Sec- 
end,  a  great  majority  of  the  Irish  people  had 
been  earnestly  demanding  back  those  pow- 
ers, revenues,  and  resources  ;  and  the  Eng- 
lish people,  through  tlieir  E.xecutive,  Pai'lia- 
ment  and  press,  had  unanimously  vowed 
this  must  never  be.  They  would  govern  us 
in  spite  of  us,  "  under  the  blessing  of  Di- 


vine Providence,"  as  the  Queen  said. 
"  Were  the  Union  gall,^^  said  the  Times, 
"swallow  it 'you  must." 

Well,  then,  whatsoever  duties  may  be 
supposed  to  fall  upon  a  government,  in  case 
of  such  a  national  calamity,  rested  on  the 
English  Government.  We  had  no  Legisla- 
ture at  home  ;  in  the  Imperial  Legislature 
we  had  but  a  delusive  semblance  of  repre- 
sentation ;  and  so  totally  useless  was  it, 
that  national  Irish  members  of  Parliament 
preferred  to  stay  at  home.  We  had  no  au- 
thoritative mode  of  even  suggesting  what 
measures  might,  (in  mere  Irish  opinion,) 
meet  the  case. 

But  we  will  see  what  was  proposed  by 
such  public  bodies  in  Ireland  as  still  had 
power  of  meeting  together  in  any  capacity 
— the  city  corporations,  for  example,  and 
especially  the  Repeal  Association.  It  has 
been  carefully  inculcated  upon  the  world  by 
the  British  press,  that  the  moment  Ireland 
fell  into  distress,  she  became  an  abject  beg- 
gar at  England's  gate — nay,  that  she  even 
craved  alms  from  all  mankind.  Many  will, 
perhaps,  be  suiprised  to  learn  that  iiciiher 
Ireland,  nor  anyhody  in  Ireland,  ever  aslced 
alms  or  favors  of  any  kind,  either  from  Eng- 
land, or  from  any  other  nation  or  people.  On 
the  contrary,  it  was  England  herself  that 
begged  for  us,  asking  a  penny  for  the  love 
of  God  to  relieve  the  poor  Irish.  And 
further,  constituting  herself  the  almoner  and 
agent  of  all  that  charity,  she,  England,  took 
all  the  profit  of  it. 

Before  describing  the  actual  process  of 
the  "  Relief  measures,"  it  is  well  to  con- 
sider what  would  be  the  natural,  obvious, 
and  inevitable  course  of  conduct  in  a  nation 
which  was,  indeed,  one  undivided  nation  : 
France,  for  example.  If  blight  and  famine 
fell  upon  the  South  of  France,  the  whole 
common  revenue  of  the  kingdom  would  cer- 
tainly be  largely  employed  in  setting  the 
people  to  labor  upon  works  of  public  utility; 
in  purchasing  and  storing,  for  sale  at  a 
cheap  rate,  such  quantities  of  foreign  coru 
as  might  be  needed,  until  the  season  of  dis- 
tress should  pass  over,  and  another  harvest 
should  come.  If  Yorkshire  and  Lai\cashire 
had  sustained  a  like  calamity  in  England, 
there  is  nodoul)tsuch  measures  as  these  wonid 
liave  been    taken,    proiuplly    and    liberally. 


THE   FAMINE, 


551 


And  we  know  that  the  EiigHsh  Goveriinieut  is 
not  sh3w  to  borrow  money  for  parent  public 
objects,  when  it  suits  British  policy  so  to  do. 
Tiiey  borrowed  twenty  millions  sterling  to 
give  away  to  their  slaveholding  colonists  for 
a  mischievous  whim. 

In  truth,  they  are  always  glad  of  any  oc- 
casion or  excuse  for  borrowing  money  and 
adding  it  to  the  national  debt ;  because,  as 
they  never  intend  to  pay  that  debt,  and  as  the 
stock  and  debentures  of  it  are,  in  the  mean- 
time, their  main  safeguard  against  revolu- 
tion, they  would  be  well  pleased  to  incur  a 
debt  of  hundred  millions  more  at  any  moment. 
But  the  object  must  be  popular  in  England  ; 
it  must  subserve  some  purpose  of  British 
pulicy — as  in  the  case  of  the  twenty  millions 
borrowed  to  free  negroes — or  the  loans  freely 
taken  to  crush  the  people  of  India,  and 
preserve  and  extend  the  opium  trade  with 
China. 

To  make  an  addition  to  the  national  debt 
in  order  to  preserve  the  lives  of  a  million  or 
two  of  Celts,  would  have  seemed  in  England 
a  singular  application  of  money.  To  kill  so 
many  would  have  been  well  worth  a  war 
that  would  cost  forty  millions. 

On  the  first  appearance  of  the  blight,  the 
Government  sent  over  two  learned  com- 
missioners, Playfair  and  Lindley,  to  Ireland, 
who,  in  conjunction  with  Doctor  (now  Sir 
Robert,)  Kane,  were  to  examine  and  report 
upon  potatoes  generally,  their  diseases, 
habits,  &c.  This  passed  over  the  time  for 
some  weeks.  Parliament  was  prorogued, 
and  did  not  meet  again  till  January. 

In  the  meantime,  the  Corporation  of 
Dublin  sent  a  memorial  to  the  Queen,  pray- 
ing her  to  call  Parliament  together  at  an 
early  day,  and  to  recommend  the  appropri- 
ation of  some  public  money  for  public  works, 
especially  railways,  in  Ireland.  A  depu- 
tation from  the  citizens  of  Dublin,  including 
the  Duke  of  Leinster,  the  Lord  Mayor, 
Lord  Cloncurry,  and  Daniel  O'Connell, 
waited  on  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  (Lord 
Heytesbury,)  to  offer  suggestions  as  to 
opening  the  ports  to  foreign  corn,  at  least 
for  a  lime,  sto[)ping  distillation  from  grain, 
providing  public  works,  and  the  like  ;  and 
to  ui'go  that  there  was  not  a  moment  to  Ije 
lost,  as  ni'.lHons  of  people  would  shortly  Ije 
without  a    ni  rsel  of   food.       The  reply  of 


Lord  Heytesbury  is  a  model  in  that  kind. 
He  told  them  they  were  premature  ;  told 
them  not  to  be  alarmed  ;  that  learned  men 
had  been  sent  over  from  Enghmd  to  in- 
quire into  all  those  matters  ;  that,  I'n  the 
meantime,  the  inspectors  of  constabulary, 
and  stipendiary  magistrates,  were  charged 
with  making  constant  reports  from  their 
several  districts  ;  that,  in  the  meantime, 
there  was  "  no  immediate  pressure  on  the 
market  ; "  finally,  that  the  case  was  a  very 
important  one,  and  it  was  evident  "  no 
decision  could  be  taken  without  a  previous 
reference  to  the  responsible  advisers  of  the 
Crown."  In  truth,  no  other  answer  was 
possible,  because  the  Viceroy  knew  nothing 
of  Sir  Robert  Peel's  intentions.  To  wait 
for  the  report  of  learned  men — to  wait  for 
Parliament — in  short,  to  wait ;  that  was 
the  sole  policy  of  the  enemy  for  the  present. 
He  could  wait  ;  but  he  knew  that  hunger 
could  not  wait. 

The  Town  Council  of  Belfast  met  and 
made  suggestions  similar  to  those  of  the 
Dubliu  Corporation,  but  tieither  body  asked 
charity.  They  demanded  that  if  Ireland 
was  indeed  an  integral  part  of  the  realm, 
the  common  exchequer  of  both  islands 
should  be  used — not  to  give  alms,  but  to 
provide  employment  on  public  works  of 
general  utility. 

The  plea  of  the  enemy  for  not  being  ready 
with  any  remedy,  was  the  suddenness  of  the 
calamity.  Now,  it  hajjpened  that  nearly 
eleven  years  before,  a  certain  "  select  com- 
mittee," composed  principally  of  Irish  mem- 
bers of  Parliament,  had  been  appointed  by 
the  House  of  Commons  to  inquire  into  the 
condition  of  the  Irish  poor.  They  had  re- 
ported, even  then,  in  favor  of  promoting  the 
reclamation  of  waste  lands  ;  had  given 
their  opinion  decidedly  (being  Irish,)  that 
there  was  no  real  surplus  of  population,  see- 
ing that  the  island  could  easily  sustain  much 
more  than  its  actual  population,  and  export 
immensely  besides.  Nevertheless,  they  warn 
tiie  Government  that,  "  if  the  potato  crop 
were  a  failure,  its  produce  would  be  con- 
sinned  long  before  they  could  acquire  new 
means   of  subsistence  ;    and   then  a  famine 


*  Report  of  the  "  Select  Committee,'"  1836. 


652 


HISTOKY    OF    IRELAND. 


Yet,  when  the  famine  did  ensue,  it  took 
"the  Government"  as  much  by  surprise  (or 
they  pretended  that  it  did,)  as  if  they  had 
never  been  warned. 

Not  only  the  citizens  of  Cork  and  Belfast, 
but  the  Repeal  Association,  also,  had  sug- 
gestions to  make.  Indeed,  this  last-named 
body  was  the  only  one  that  could  pretend 
especially  to  represent  the  very  class  of  peo- 
'ple  whose  lives  were  endangered  by  the 
dearth.    Let  us  see  what  they  had  to  propose. 

On  the  8th  of  December,  O'Connell,  in 
the  Repeal  Association,  said  :  "  If  they 
ask  rae  what  are  my  propositions  for  relief 
of  the  distress,  I  answer,  first,  tenant-right. 
I  would  propose  a  law  giving  to  every  man 
his  own.  I  would  give  the  landlord  bis 
land,  and  a  fair  rent  for  it ;  but  I  would 
give  the  tenant  compensation  for  every 
shilling  he  might  have  laid  out  on  the  land 
in  permanent  improvements.  And  what 
next  do  I  propose  ?  Repeal  of  the  Unions 
In  the  latter  part  of  his  speech,  after  detailing 
the  means  used  by  the  Belgian  Legislature 
during  the  same  season — shutting  the  ports 
against  exports  of  provisions,  but  opening 
them  to  import,  and  the  like — he  goes  on  : — 

"  If  we  had  a  domestic  Parliament,  would 
not  the  ports  be  tlirovvn  open — would  not 
the  abundant  crops  with  wliicli  heaven  ha> 
blessed  her  be  kept  for  the  peo[)le  of  IreUinil 
— and  would  not  the  Irish  Parliament  be 
more  active  even  than  tiie  Belgian  Parlia- 
ment to  provide  for  the  people  food  and 
employment  ?  The  blessings  that  would  re- 
sult from  repeal — the  necessity  for  repeal — 
the  impossibility  of  the  country  enduring 
the  want  of  repeal — and  the  utter  hopeless- 
ness of  nny  other  remedy — all  those  tilings 
powerfully  urge  you  to  join  with  me,  and 
hurrah  for  the  repeal." 

Still  earlier,  in  November,  O'Brien  had 
used  these  words  : — 

."I  congratulate  you,  that  the  universal 
sentiment  hitherto  erhibited  upon  this  subject 
h^is  Lee  a  that  we  will  accept  no  English  charity. 
The  resources  of  this  country  are  still 
abundantly  adequate  to  maintain  our  popu- 
lation, and  mitil  tho.se  resources  shall  have 
been  utterly  exhausted,  I  hope  there  is  no 
man  in  Ireland  who  will  so  degrade  himself 
as  to  ask  the  aid  of  a  subscription  from 
Knuland." 


And  the  sentiment  was  received  with 
"loud  cheers"  O'Brien's  speech  is  au 
earnest  and  vehement  adjuration  not  to  suf- 
fer promises  of  "  relief,"  or  vague  ho[)es  of 
English  boons  to  divert  the  country  one 
moment  from  the  great  business  of  putting 
an  end  to  the  Union.  Take  one  other  ex- 
tract from  a  speech  of  O'Conuell's  : — 

"  If  we  had  a  paternal  government,  I 
should  be  first  to  counsel  the  appropriation 
of  a  portion  of  the  revenues  of  Ireland  to 
the  wants  of  the  people,  and  this,  too,  with- 
out very  strictly  considering  whether  the 
whole  should  be  repaid  or  not.  We  have 
an  abstract  claim  to  such  application  of  the 
Irish  revenues  ;  but  were  we  to  advocate 
such  an  arrangement  now,  we  should  be 
mocked  and  insulted.  Therefore,  I  ajjproach 
the  Government  of  England  on  equal  terms. 
I  say  to  the  English  people  :  You  are  the 
greatest  money-lenders  in  Europe,  and  I 
will  suppose  you  to  be  as  determined  aa 
Sliylock  in  the  play.  During  the  last  ses- 
.^ion  of  Parliament,  an  act  was  passed 
for  the  encouragement  of  drainage  in  Eng- 
land and  Ireland.  According  to  the  pro- 
visions of  that  act,  any  money  advanced  for 
the  purpose  of  draining  estates  takes  prior- 
ity over  the  other  charges  affecting  those 
estates  ;  so  that  whatever  amount  of  money 
may  be  bo  applied  becomes  the  first  charge 
on  the  estate  of  the  proprietors  of  Ireland, 
and  thus  is  its  repayment  secured  beyond 
all  hazard.  The  Government  can  borrow 
as  much  money  as  they  please  on  Exchequer 
bills  at  not  more  than  three  per  cent.  If 
they  lend  It  out  for  the  purposes  of  drainage, 
they  can  charge  such  proprietors  as  may 
chouse  to  borrow,  interest  at  the  rate  of 
four  per  cent.  They,  therefore,  will  have  a 
clear  gain  of  one  per  cent.,  and  we  shall 
owe  them  nothing,  but  they  will  stand 
indebted  to  us  for  aflording  them  an  oppor- 
tunity of  obtaining  an  advantageous  invest- 
ment of  the  capital  at  their  disposal." 

All  this  while,  until  after  the  meeting  of 
Parliament,  there  was  no  hint  as  to  the  in- 
tentions of  Goveriuneut  ;  and  all  this  while 
the  new  Irish  harvest  of  1845,  (which  was 
particularly  abundant,)  with  immense  herda 
of  cattle,  sheej),  and  hogs,  quite  as  usual, 
was  iloating  otf  on  every  tide,  out  of  every 
one    of  our    thirteen    seaports,    bound    for 


IRISH   HARVESTS    GO    TO    ENGLAND. 


553 


Eiig-luud  ;  and  the  landlords  were  receivinjr 
their  rents,  and  going  to  England  to  spend 
them  ;  and  many  hnndreds  of  poor  })cople 
had  lain  down  and  died  on  the  road-sides 
for  want  of  food,  even  before  Cliristmas  ; 
and  the  famine  not  yet  begun,  but  expected 
shortly.* 

All  eyes  were  turned  to  Parliament.  The 
commission  of  learned  naturalists — the  in- 
quiries and  reports  made  by  means  of  the 
constabulary — and  various  mysterious  inti- 
mations in  the  Government  newspapers — all 
tended  to  produce  the  belief  that  the  Im- 
perial "  Government  "  was  about  to  charge 
itself  with  the  whole  care  and  administra- 
tion of  the  famine.  And  so  it  was — with  a 
vengeance. 

Late  in  January,  Parliament  assembled. 
From  the  Queen's  (that  is.  Sir  Robert 
Peel's,)  speech,  one  thing  only  was  clear — 
that  Ireland  was  to  have  a  new  "  Coercion 
bill."  Extermination  of  tenantry  had  been 
of  late  more  extensive  than  ever,  and, 
therefore,  there  had  been  a  few  murders  of 
landlords  and  agents — the  most  natural  and 
inevitable  thing  in  the  world.  The  Queen 
fcays  :— 

"  My  Lords  and  Gentlemen  : — I  have  ob- 
served with  deep  regret  the  very  frequent- 
instances  in  which  the  crime  of  deliberate 
assassination  has  been  of  late  committed  in 
Ireland. 

"  li  will  be  your  duty  to  consider  whether 
any  measure  can  be  devised,  calculated  to 
give  increased  protection  to  life,  and  to  bring 
to  justice  the  perpetrators  of  so  dreadful  a 
crime." 

This  meant  more  police,  more  police- 
taxes,  police-surveillance,  and  a  law  that 
every  one  should  keep  at  home  after  dark. 
The  speech  goes  on  to  refer  to  the  ap- 
proaching famine,  and  declares  that  Her 
Majesty  had  "adopted  precautions"  for  its 
alleviation.  Tiiis  intimation  served  still 
further  to  make  our  people  turn  to  "  Gov- 
ernment" for   counsel    and  for   aid.     Who 


*The  Census  Commissioners  admit  only  five  hun- 
dred aud  sixteen  "registered  deaths,''  b}'  starvation 
alone,  up  to  January  1st.  There  was,  at  that  time, 
no  rejistry  for  them  at  all ;  and  thousands  perished, 
registered  by  none  but  the  Recording  Angel.  Be- 
Bides,  the  commissioners  do  not  count  the  much 
greater  numbers  who  died  of  typiius  fever,  the  coa- 
sequeuce  of  insuflicieut  nourishmeut. 
70 


can  blame  them?  "  Govenunent"  had 
seized  upon  all  our  means  and  resources.  It 
was  confidently  believed  they  intended  to 
let  us  have  the  use  of  some  part  of  our  own 
money  in  this  deadly  emergency.  It  was 
even  fondly  imagined,  by  some  sanguine 
persons,  that  the  Government  had  it  in  con- 
templation to  stop  the  export  of  provisions 
from  Ireland — as  the  Belgian  Legislature 
had  done  from  Belgium,  and  the  Portuguese 
from  Portugal,  until  our  own  people  should 
first  be  fed.  It  was  not  known,  in  short, 
what  "Government"  intended  to  do,  or 
how  far  they  would  go  ;  all  was  mystery  ; 
and  this  very  mystery  paralyzed  such  private 
and  local  efi'orts,  by  charitable  persons,  as 
might  otherwise  have  been  attempted  iu 
Ireland. 

The  two  great  leading  measures  proposed 
in  this  Parliament  by  the  administratioo 
were,  first,  a  Coercion  bill  for  Ireland,  and, 
second,  repeal  of  the  Corn  laws.  This  repeal 
of  the  duties  on  foreign  corn  had  long  been 
demanded  by  the  manufacturing  and  trading 
interests  of  England,  and  had  been  steadily 
opposed  by  the  great  landed-proprietors. 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  as  a  Conservative  states- 
man, had  always  hitherto  vigorously  op- 
posed the  measure  ;  but  early  in  this 
Parliament  he  suddenly  announced  himself 
a  convert  to  free-trade  in  corn  ;  and  even 
used  the  prettrJ  of  the  famine  in  Ireland  to 
justify  himself  and  carry  his  measure.  He 
further  proposed  to  abolish  the  duties  ou 
foreign  beef,  and  mutton,  and  bacon.  Shall 
we  exclude  any  kind  of  food  from  our  ports, 
he  said,  while  the  Irish  are  starving  ? 

That  is  to  say,  the  Premier  proposed  to 
cheapen  those  products  which  England 
bought,  and  which  Ireland  had  to  sell.  Ire- 
land imported  no  corn  or  beef — she  exported 
those  commodities.  Hitherto  she  had  an 
advantage  over  American  and  other  corn- 
growers  in  the  English  market,  because 
tliere  was  a  duty  on  foreign,  but  not  on 
Irish,  provisions.  Henceforl,h,  the  agricul- 
tural produce  of  all  the  world  was  to  be 
admitted  on  the  same  terms,  duty-free  ;  and 
precisely  to  the  extent  that  this  wuuld 
clieapeu  provisions  to  the  English  consumer, 
it  wuuld  impoverish  the  Irish  producer. 
Tlie  great  ma.ss  of  the  Irish  people  were 
ulmusl  unacquainied  with  tlie  laste  of  bread 


554 


HISTORY   OF   rRELAND. 


and  meat ;  they  raised  those  articles,  not  to 
eat,  but  to  sell  and  pay  their  rents  with. 
Yet  many  of  the  Irish  people,  stupified  by 
the  desolation  they  saw  around  them,  had 
cried  out  for  "  opening  the  ports,"  instead 
of  closing  them.  The  Irish  ports  were 
open  enough;  much  too  open;  and  an 
Irish  Parliament,  if  there  had  been  one, 
would  instantly  have  closed  them  in  this 
emergency. 

In  looking  over  the  melancholy  records  of 
those  famine  years,  we  find  that  usually  the 
right  view  was  seized,  and  the  right  word 
said,  by  William  Smith  O'Brien.  He  said, 
in  the  Repeal  Association  : — 

"  With  respect  to  the  proposal  before  us, 
I  have  to  remark  that  it  professes  to  abro- 
gate all  protection.  It  is,  in  my  opinion,  a 
proposal  manifestly  framed  with  a  view  to 
English  rather  than  Irish  interests.  About 
two-thirds  of  the  population  of  England 
(that,  I  believe,  is  the  proportion,)  are  de- 
pendent on  manufactures  and  commerce, 
directly  or  indirectly.  In  this  country  about 
nine-tenths  of  the  population  are  dependent 
on  agriculture,  directly  or  indirectly.  It  is 
clearly  the  object  of  the  English  Minister  to 
obtain  the  agricultural  produce  which  the 
people  of  this  country  send  to  England,  at  the 
lowest  possible  price — tliat  is  to  say,  to  give 
as  httle  as  possible  of  English  manufactures 
and  of  foreign  commodities  in  return  for  the 
agricultural  produce  of  Ireland." 

If  this  was  the  Minister's  design,  we 
may  appreciate  the  spirit  in  which  he  ad- 
dressed himself  to  the  "relief  measures" 
for  Ireland. 

The  other  measure  was  the  Coercion  hill. 
It  authorized  the  Viceroy  to  proclaim  any 
district  in  Ireland  he  might  think  proper, 
commanding  the  people  to  remain  within 
doors  (whether  they  had  houses  or  not,) 
from  sunset  to  sunrise  ; — authorized  him  to 
quarter  on  such  district  any  additional  police 
force  he  might  think  i\eedful — to  pay  re- 
wards to  informers  and  detectives — to  pay 
compensation  to  the  relatives  of  murdered 
or  injured  persons — and  to  levy  the  amount 
of  all  by  distress  npon  the  goods  of  the 
occupiers,  as  under  the  Poor  law — with  tliis 
difference,  that  whereas  under  the  Poor-law 
the  occupier  could  deduct  a  portion  of  the 
rate   from  his  rent,  under  the  new  law  he 


could  not — and  with  this  further  difference, 
that  whereas  under  tiie  Poor  law,  house- 
holders whose  cabins  were  valued  under  £i 
per  annum  were  exempt  from  the  rate, 
under  this  law  they  were  not  exempt. 
Thus,  every  man  who  had  a  house,  no 
matter  how  wretched,  was  to  pay  the  new- 
tax  ;  and  every  man  was  bound  to  have  a 
house  ;  for  if  found  out  of  doors  after  sun- 
set, and  convicted  of  that  offence,  he  was 
to  be  transported  for  fifteen  years,  or  im- 
prisoned for  three — the  court  to  have  the 
discretion  of  adding  hard  labor  or  solitary 
confinement. 

]yovv,  the  first  of  these  two  laws,  which 
abolished  the  preference  of  Irish  grain  in  the 
English  markets,  would,  as  the  Premier  well 
knew,  give  a  great  additional  stimulus  to 
the  consolidation  of  farms — that  is,  the 
ejectment  of  tenantry  ;  because  "  high- 
farming" — farming  on  a  large  scale,  with 
the  aid  of  horses  and  steam,  and  all  the 
modern  agricultural  improvements  —  was 
what  alone  would  enable  Irish  agriculturists 
to  compete  with  all  mankind. 

The  second  law  would  drive  the  survivors 
of  the  ejected  people  (those  who  did  not  die 
of  hunger,)  into  the  poor  houses  or  to 
America  ;  because,  being  bound  to  be  at 
home  after  the  sun-set,  and  having  neither 
house  nor  home,  they  would  be  all  in  the 
absolute  power  of  the  police,  and  in  con- 
tinual peril  of  transportation  to  tlie  colonies. 

By  another  act  of  this  Parliament,  the 
police  force  was  increased,  and  taken  more 
immediately  into  the  service  of  the  Crown  ; 
tlie  Irish  counties  were  in  part  relieved  fi'om 
their  pay  ;  and  they  became,  in  all  senses,  a 
portion  of  the  regular  army.  They  amount- 
ed to  twelve  thousand  chosen  men,  well 
armed  and  drilled.  * 

*•  No  population  was  ever  more  peaceable  than  the 
Irish  at  this  time ;  but  they  were  assumed  to  be  in 
an  unusually  dangerous  temper,  and  to  require  the 
especial  vigilance  of  this  terrible  police-force.  To 
show  the  pains  taken  by  the  authorities  for  re- 
pressing all  disturbance,  we  may  give  a  few  sen- 
tences out  of  a  manual  published  in  this  same  year, 
1846,  by  David  Duff,  Esq.,  an  active  police  magistrate. 
It  is  entitled,  "  The  Constable's  Guide  "  :— 

"  The  great  point  towards  efficiency  is,  that  every 
man  should  know  his  duty  and  do  it,  and  should  have 
a  thorough  and  perfect  laiowledge  of  the  neighbor- 
hood of  his  station ;  and  men  should  make  them- 
selves not  only  ac(inainted  with  roads  and  passes,  but 
the  character  of  all,  which,  with  a  little  trouble, 


RELIEF   MEASUKES. 


555 


The  police  were  always  at  the  command 
of  sheriffs  for  executing  ejectments  ;  and  if 
they  were  not  in  sufiBcicnt  force,  troops  of 
the  line  could  be  had  from  the  nearest 
giirrison.  No  wonder  that  the  London 
Times,  within  less  than  three  years  after, 
was  enabled  to  say  :  "  Law  has  ridden 
roughshod  through  Ireland  :  it  has  been 
taught  with  bayonets,  and  interpreted  with 
ruin.  Townsliips  leveled  ^with  the  ground; 
straggling  columns  of  exiles,  work-houses 
multiplied  and  still  crowded,  express  the 
determination  of  the  Legislature  to  rescue 
Ireland  from  its  slovenly  old  barbarism,  and 
to  plant  the  institutions  of  this  more  civilized 
land  " — meaning  England. 

These  were  the  two  principal  measures 
for  the  prudent  administration  of  the  famine; 
but  there  was  also  another,  purporting  to 
aim  more  directly  at  relief. 

Mr.  Secretary  Labouchere  making  his 
Ministerial  statement  in  Parliament  this 
session,  estimated  the  total  money-loss  ac- 
cruing by  the  potato-blight  at  sixteen  mil- 
lions sterling.  It  was  about  the  value  of 
the  Irish  provisions  consumed  every  year  in 
England.  The  people  likely  to  be  affected 
by  this  dearth  were  always,  in  ordinary 
years,  on  the  brink  of  destruction  by  famine, 
and  many  were  every  year  starved  to  death. 
Now,  to  replace,  in  some  measure,  this 
ahsobUely  necessary  food  by  foreign  corn, 
and  to  pay  the  higher  price  of  grain  over 
roots,  (besides  freight,)  would  have  required 
an  appropriation  of  twenty  millions  sterling 
— the  same  amount  which  had  been  devoted, 
witliout  scruple,  to  turning  of  West  India 
negroes  wild. 

could  be  easily  accomplished.  A  policeman  cannot 
be  considered  j)e;ytici  in  his  civil  duty  as  a  constable, 
who  could  not,  when  required,  march  direct  to  any 
house  at  night. 

********* 

"  Independent  of  regular  night  patrols,  whose 
hours  should  vary,  men  should  by  day  take  post  on 
hills  commanding  the  houses  of  persons  having 
registered  arms,  or  supposed  to  be  obnoxious.  The 
men  so  posted  will  be  within  view  of  other  parties, 
80  as  to  cooperate  in  pursuit  of  offenders. 

********* 

"  Patrols  hanging  about  ditches,  plantations,  and, 
above  all,  visiting  the  houses  of  suspicious  charac- 
ters, are  most  essential. 

"  The  telescope  to  be  taken  always  on  day  patrol, 
and  rockets  and  blue-lights  used,  as  pointed  out  in 
the  confldentinl  memorandum." 

The  "  confidential  memorandum ''  we  have  not 
been  privileged  to  see. 


England  had,  for  so  many  years,  drawn 
so  vast  a  tribute  from  Ireland,  (prubably 
eight  millions  per  annum,  for  forty  years,) 
that  now,  when  the  consequence  of  our  in- 
tercourse with  the  sister  island  turned  out 
to  be  that  she  grew  richer  every  year,  while 
Ireland,  on  her  side  of  the  account,  had  ac- 
cumulated a  famine,  we  claimed  that  there 
was  something  surely  due  to  us.  It  is  out 
of  the  question  to  enter  here  into  these  mul- 
tifarious accounts.  England  beats  all  man- 
kind in  bookkeeping  by  double  entry  ;  and 
as  she  has  had  the  keeping  of  the  books,  as 
well  as  everything  else,  it  has  been  very  diffi- 
cult even  to  approximate  to  the  truth.  But 
to  those  who  have  followed  the  course  of 
this  narrative,  and  who  call  to  mind  the  im- 
mense drain,  first  of  provisions,  and  then  of 
the  money  paid  for  tliose  provisions  steadily 
going  on,  from  Ireland  to  England,  since 
the  Union,  it  will  seem  quite  within  bounds 
to  affirm  that,  the  value  of  one  yeai'^s  plun- 
der— or  the  loan  of  that  amount,  (if  Ireland 
had  had  a  legislature  to  effect  such  a  loan,) 
would  have  amounted  to  the  needful  twenty 
millions  sterling  ;  would  have  saved  Ireland 
the  first  year's  famine,  and  made  the  suc- 
ceeding famines  impossible. 

Considering  all  these  things,  it  was  be- 
lieved not  unreasonable,  that  the  common 
Exchequer  of  the  "  Three  Kingdoms  "  (so 
liberal  when  it  was  a  question  of  turning  ne- 
groes wild,)  ought  to  devote  at  least  as 
great  a  sum  to  the  mitigation  of  so  dread- 
ful a  calamity  as  the  famine.  Accordingly, 
our  people  demanded  such  an  appropriation, 
not  as  alms,  but  as  a  right.  The  Commit- 
tee of  the  Repeal  Association  for  example, 
said  : — 

"  Your  committee  beg  distinctly  to  dis- 
claim any  participation  in  appeals  to  the 
bounty  of  England  or  of  Englishmen.  They 
demand,  as  a  right,  that  a  portion  of  the 
reveime  which  Ireland  contriljutes  to  the 
state,  may  be  rendered  available  for  the 
mitigation  of  a  great  public  calamity." 

Up  to  the  meeting  of  Parliament,  the 
enemy  concealed  their  intentions  in  mystery  ; 
tliey  consulted  nol)ody  in  Ireland  about  this 
Irish  emergency,  but  prepared  their  plans  in 
silence. 

In  the  meantime,  the  aburidant  and  mag- 
nificent crops  of  grain  and  herds  of  cuttle 


556 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


were  goiii"^  over  to  England,  both  earlier  in 
the  season  and  in  greater  quantities  than  ever 
before,  for  speculators  were  anxious  to  real- 
ize, and  the  landlords  were  pressing  for 
their  rents  ;  and  agents  and  bailifiFs  were 
down  upon  the  farmers'  crops  before  they 
could  even  get  them  stacked.  So  the  farm- 
ers sold  them  at  a  disadvantage,  in  a  glut- 
ted market,  or  they  were  sold  for  them,  by 
auction,  and  with  costs.  The  great  point 
was  to  put  the  English  Channel  between 
the  people  and  the  food  which  Providence 
had  sent  them,  at  the  earliest  possible 
moment. 

By  New  Year's  Day,  it  was  almost  swept 
off.  Up  to  that  date,  Ireland  sent  away 
and  England  received,  of  grain  alone,  of 
tlie  crop  of  1815 — three  millions  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  quarters — besides 
innumerable  cattle  ; — making  a  value  of  at 
least  seventeen  millions  sterling* 

Now,  when  Parliament  met  in  January, 
the  sole  "  remedial  measure "  proposed  by 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  (besides  the  Coercion  bill, 
and  the  Corn  bill,  to  cheapen  bread  in 
England,)  was  a  grant  of  £.^0,000  for 
public  works,  and  another  grnnt  of  as 
much  for  drainage  of  estates  ; — both  these 
being  grants,  not  to  Ireland,  but  to  the 
"  Commissioners  of  Public  Works ; "  and 
to  be  administered  not  as  Irishmen  might 
suggest,  but  as  to  the  said  commissioners 
might  seem  good.f 

It  was  the  two-hundredth  part  of  what 
might  probably  have  sufficed  to  stay  the 
famine.  It  might  have  given  sensible  re- 
lief— if  honestly  administered — to  the  small- 
est of  the  thirty-two  counties.  How  it  was 
used,  not  for  relief,  but  for  aggravation  of 
the  misery,  we  shall  see  hereafter.  For 
that  season's  limine  it  was  at  any  rate  too 
late,  and  before  any  part  of  it  became 
available  many  thousands  had  died  of  hun- 
ger. The  London  newspapers  complacently 
stated   that    the    impression    "  in   political 

*  Thomas  Official  Birectory.  It  appears,  even  in 
that  Government  publication,  that  the  export  of 
grain  from  Ireland  to  England  was  considerably 
greater  in  this  first  famine  year,  (1845,)  than  it  liad 
been  in  any  3'ear  before.  So  that  the  famine  is  not 
at  all  a  mysterious  dispensation  of  Providence. 

t  O'Connell  pointed  out  that  the  Quit  and  Crown 
rents  drawn  from  Ireland  last  year,  and  spent  at  that 
time  in  beautifying  Trafalgar  square  and  Windsor 
Caatle,  amounted  to  more  than  £G0,000. 


circles"  was,  that  two  millions  of  the  people 
must  perish  before  the  next  harvest. 

January,  February,  and  part  of  March 
passed  away.  Nothing  was  done  for  relief ; 
but  much  preparation  was  made  in  the  way 
of  appointing  hosts  of  commissioners  and 
commissioners'  clerks,  and  preparing  the 
voluminous  stationery,  schedules,  specifica- 
tions, and  red-tape  to  tie  them  up  neatly, 
which  so  greatly  tmbarrass  all  British  offi- 
cial action — a  very  injurious  sort  of  embar- 
rassment in  such  a  case  as  the  Crimean  war, 
but  the  very  thing  that  did  best  service  (to 
the  Government)  on  the  present  occasion. J 

O'Connell,  O'Brien,  and  some  other  re- 
peal members,  proceeded  to  London,  in 
March,  to  endeavor  to  stir  up  Ministers,  or 
at  least  discover  what  they  were  intending. 
In  answer  to  Mr.  O'Brien,  Sir  James  Gra- 
ham enumerated  the  grants  and  loans  I 
have  above  mentioned  ;  and  added  some- 
thing about  other  public  moneys,  which,  he 
said,  were  also  available  for  relief  of  dis- 
tress ;  adding  : — 

"  Instructions  have  been  given  on  the  re- 
sponsibility of  the  Government,  to  meet 
every  emergency.  It  would  not  be  expe- 
dient for  me  to  detail  those  instructions  ; 
but  I  may  state,  generally,  there  is  no  por- 
tion of  this  distress,  however  wide-spread  or 
lamentable,  on  which  Government  have  not 
endeavored,  on  their  own  responsibility,  to 
take  the  best  precautions,  to  give  the 
best  directions  of  which  circumstances  could 
admit." 

O'Brien  had  just  come  from  Ireland, 
where  he  had  anxiously  watched  the  pro- 
gress of  the  "  relief  measures,"  and  of  the 
famine  ;  he  had  seen  that  while  the  lat- 
ter was  quick,  the  former  were  slow — in 
fact,  they  had  not  then  appeared  in  Ireland 
at  all  ;  but  the  very  announcement  that 
Government  intended  to  interpose  in  some 
decisive  manner,  had  greatly  hastened  col- 
lection of  rents  and  ejectment  of  tenants  ; 
and  both  hunger,  and  its  sure  attendant, 
the  typhus,  were  sweeping  them  off  rapidly. 
Briti.sh  Ministers  listened  to  all  he  could 
say,  with  a  calm,  incredulous  smile.    "  Have 

i  In  April  of  next  year,  (1S46,)  Jones,  Twisleton, 
&c.,  were  enabled  to  report  that  they  had  sent  to  Ire- 
land "  ten  thousand  books— besides  fourteen  tons  of 
paper." 


HAVOC   OP   THE   PEOPLE. 


557 


we  uot  told  you,"  they  said,  "  we  have  sent 
persons — Englishmen,  reliable  men — to  in- 
quire into  all  those  mattere  ?  Are  we  uot 
goinp:  to  meet  every  emergency  ?  " 

"  Mr.  W.  S.  O'Brien  was  bound  to  say, 
with  regard  to  the  sums  of  money  mention- 
ed by  the  right  honorable  baronet,  as  hav- 
ing been,  on  a  former  occasion,  voted  by  the 
House  for  the  relief  of  Ireland,  that  as  far 
as  his  own  information  went,  not  one  single 
guinea  had  ever  been  e.xpended  from  those 
sources.  He  was  also  bound  to  tell  the 
right  honorable  baronet  that  one  hundred 
thousand  of  his  fellow-creatures  in  Ireland 
were  famishing." 

And  here  the  report  adds  :  The  honorable 
gentleman,  who  appeared  to  labor  under 
deep  emotion,  paused  for  a  short  time. 
Doubtless,  it  was  bitter  to  that  haughty 
Bpirit  to  plead  for  his  plundered  people,  as 
it  were  in  forma  pauperis,  before  the  plun- 
derers ;  and  their  vulgar  pride  was  soothed  ; 
but  soon  it  was  wounded  again,  for  he 
added  : — 

"  Under  such  circumstances  did  it  not 
become  the  House  to  consider  of  the  way 
in  which  they  could  deal  with  the  crisis  ? 
He  would  tell  them  frankly — and  it  was  a 
feeling  participated  in  by  the  majority  of 
Irishmen — that  he  was  not  disposed  to  ap- 
peal to  their  generosity  in  the  matter.  They 
had  taken,  and  they  had  tied,  the  purse- 
strings  of  the  Irish  purse  1 " 

Whereupon  the  report  records  that  there 
were  cries  of  oh !  oh !  They  were  scandal- 
ized at  the  idea  of  Ireland  having  a  purse. 

Notwithstanding  this  repeated  repudia- 
tion of  alms,  all  the  appropriations  of  Parlia- 
ment, purporting  to  be  for  relief,  but  really 
calculated  for  aggravation  of  the  Irish  fa- 
mine, were  persistently  called  alms  by  the 
English  press.  These  Irish,  they  said,  are 
never  done  craving  alms.  It  is  true,  they  did 
not  answer  our  statement  that  we  only  de- 
manded a  small  part  of  what  was  due ; 
they  chose  to  assume  that  the  Exchequer 
was  their  E.xchequer  ;  —  neither  did  they 
think  it  fit  to  remember  that  Mr.  O'Brien, 
and  such  as  he,  were  by  no  means  suffering 
from  famine  themselves,  but  were  retrench- 
ing the  e.xpenses  of  their  households  at  home 
to  relieve  those  who  were  suffering.  To  the 
common  English  intellect  it  was  enough  to 


present  this  one  idea — here  are  these  starv- 
ing Irish  coming  over  to  beg  from  you. 

Thus,  it  will  be  easy  to  appreciate  the 
feelings  which  then  prevailed  in  the  two 
islands — in  Ireland,  a  vague  and  dim  sense 
that  we  were  somehow  robbed — in  England, 
a  still  more  vague  and  blundering  idea,  that 
an  impudent  beggar  was  demanding  their 
money,  with  a  scowl  in  his  eye  and  a  threat 
upon  his  tongue. 

In  truth,  only  a  few,  either  in  England 
or  in  Ireland,  fully  understood  the  bloody 
game  on  the  board.  The  two  cardinal 
principles  of  the  British  policy  in  this  busi- 
ness seem  to  have  been  these  two  :  First, 
strict  adherence  to  the  principles  of  "  poli- 
tical economy  ;"  and,  second,  making  the 
whole  administration  of  the  famine  a  Gov- 
ernment concern.  "Political  economy"  be- 
came, about  the  time  of  the  repeal  of  the 
Corn  laws,  a  favorite  study,  or  rather,  in- 
deed, the  creed  and  gospel  of  England. 
Women  and  young  boys  were  learned  in  its 
saving  doctrines  ;  one  of  the  most  funda- 
mental of  which  was,  "  there  must  be  no 
interference  with  the  natural  course  of 
trade."  It  was  seen  that  this  maxim  would 
insure  the  transfer  of  the  Irish  wheat  and 
beef  to  England  ;  for  that  was  what  they 
called  the  natural  course  of  trade.  More- 
over, this  maxim  would  forbid  the  Govern- 
ment, or  relief  committees,  to  sell  provis- 
ions in  Ireland  any  lower  than  the  market 
price — for  this  is  an  interference  with  the 
enterprize  of  private  speculators  ;  it  would 
forbid  the  employment  of  Government  ships 
— for  this  troubles  individual  ship  owners  ; 
and  further,  and  lastly,  it  was  found,  (tliis 
invaluable  maxim,)  to  require  that  the  pub- 
lic works  to  be  executed  by  laborers  em- 
ployed with  borrowed  public  money,  should 
be  unproductive  works  ;  that  is,  works 
which  would  create  no  fund  to  pay  their 
own  expenses.  There  were  many  railroad 
companies  at  that  time  in  Ireland  that  had 
got  their  charters  ;  their  roads  have  been 
made  since  ;  but  it  was  in  vain  they  asked 
then  for  Government  advances,  whicli  they 
could  have  well  secured,  and  soon  paid  off; 
the  thing  could  not  be  done.  Lending  mon- 
ey to  Irish  railroad  companies  would  be  a 
discrimination  against  English  companies — > 
flat  interference  with  private  enterprize. 


558 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


The  other  great  leading  idea  completed 
Sir  Robert's  policy.  It  was  to  make  the  fa- 
mine a  strictly  Government  concern.  The 
famine  was  to  be  administered  strictly 
through  officers  of  the  Government,  from 
high  commissioners  down  to  policemen. 
Even  the  Irish  General  Relief  Committee, 
and  other  local  committees  of  charitable 
persons  who  were  exerting  themselves  to 
raise  fnnds  to  give  employment,  were  either 
induced  to  act  in  subordination  to  a  Gov- 
ernment Relief  Committee,  which  sat  in 
Dublin  Castle — or  else  were  deterred  from 
importation  of  food,  by  the  announcement 
in  Parliament  that  the  Government  had  given 
orders  somewhere  for  the  purchase  of  for- 
eign corn.  For  instance,  the  Mayor  of 
Cork,  and  some  principal  inhabitants  of 
that  city,  hurried  to  Dublin,  and  waited  on 
the  Lord-Lieutenant,  representing  that  the 
local  committee  had  applied  for  some  por- 
tion of  the  Parliamentary  loans,  but  "  were 
refused  assistance  on  some  points  of  official 
form — that  the  people  of  that  county  were 
already  famishing,  and  both  food  and  labor 
were  urgently  needed.  Lord  Heytesbury 
simply  recommended  that  they  should  com- 
municate at  once  with  the  Government  Re- 
lief Committee  " — as  for  the  rest,  that  they 
should  consult  the  Board  of  Works.  Thus 
every  possible  delay  and  official  difficulty 
•was  interposed  against  the  efforts  of  local 
bodies — Government  was  to  do  all.  These 
things,  together  with  the  new  measure  for 
an  increase  in  the  police  force,  (who  were 
the  main  administrative  agents  throughout 
the  country,)  led  many  persons  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  enemy  had  resolved  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  famine  in  order  to  in- 
crease Governmental  supervision  and  esjpion- 
vage;  so  that  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
in  Ireland,  with  all  their  goings  out  and  com- 
ings it,  might  be  thoroughly  known  and  re- 
gistered—that when  the  mass  of  the  people 
began  to  starve,  their  sole  resource  mio-bt 
be  the  police  barracks  —  that  Govern- 
ment might  be  all  hi  all ;  omnipotent  to 
give  food  or  withhold  it,  to  relieve  or  to 
starve,  according  to  their  own  ideas  of  po- 
licy and  of  good  behavior  in  the  people. 

It  is  needless  to  point  out  that  Govern- 
ment patronage  also  was  much  extended  by 
this  system  ;  and  by  the  middle  of  tlie  next 


year,  1847,  there  were  ten  thousand  men 
salaried  out  of  Parliamentary  loans  and 
grants  for  relief  of  the  poor — as  com- 
missioners, inspectors,  clerks,  and  so  forth  ; 
and  some  of  them  with  salaries  equal  to 
that  of  an  American  Secretary  of  State. 
So  many  of  the  middle  classes  had  been 
dragged  down  almost  to  insolvency  by  the 
ruin  of  the  country,  that  they  began  to  be 
eager  for  the  smaller  places,  as  clerks  and 
inspectors  ;  for  those  ten  thousand  officers, 
then,  it  was  estimated  there  were  one  hun- 
dred thousand  applicants  and  canvassers — 
so  much  clear  gain  from  "  repeal." 

The  Repeal  Association  continued  its  re- 
gular meetings  and  never  ceased  to  repre- 
sent that  the  true  remedies  for  Irish  famine 
were  tenant-right — the  stoppage  of  export 
— and  repeal  of  the  Union  ; — and  as  those 
were  really  the  true  and  only  remedies,  it 
was  clear  they  were  the  only  expedients 
which  an  English  Parliament  would  not 
try.  The  repeal  members  gained  a  kind  of 
Parliamentary  victory,  however,  this  spring  ; 
— they  .nused  the  defeat  of  the  Coercion 
bill,  with  the  aid  of  the  Whigs.  Sir  Rob- 
ert Peel  had  very  cunningly,  as  he  thought, 
made  this  bill  precede  the  Corn  Law  Re- 
peal bill  ;  and  as  the  English  public  was  all 
now  most  eager  for  the  cheapening  of  bread, 
he  believed  that  all  parties  would  make 
haste  to  pass  his  favorite  measure  first. 
The  Irish  members  went  to  London,  and 
knowing  they  could  not  influence  legislation 
otherwise,  organized  a  sort  of  mere  mechan- 
ical resistance  against  the  Coercion  bill  ; 
that  is,  they  opposed  first  reading,  second 
reading,  third  reading,  opposed  its  being  re- 
ferred to  committee,  moved  endless  amend- 
ments, made  endless  speeches,  and  insisted 
upon  dividing  the  House  on  every  clause. 
In  vain  it  was  represented  to  them  that  this 
was  only  delaying  the  Corn  law  repeal,  which 
would  "cheapen  bread."  O'Brien  replied 
that  it  would  only  cheapen  bread  to  Eng- 
lishmen, and  enable  them  to  devour  more 
and  more  of  the  Irish  bread,  and  give  less 
for  it.  In  vain  Ministers  told  them  they 
were  stopping  public  business — they  an- 
swered that  English  business  was  no  busi- 
ness of  theirs.  In  vain  their  courtesy  was 
invoked.  They  could  not  afford  to  be 
courteous   in   such    a   case,  and   their   sole 


PEEL   RESIGNS   OEFICE. 


559 


errand  ia  London  was  to  resist  an  atrocious 
and  torturing  tyranny  threatened  against 
tlieir  poor  countrymen. 

Just  before  this  famous  debate,  there  had 
been  very  extensive  clearing  of  tenantry  in 
Connanght  ;  and,  in  particular,  one  case,  in 
which  a  Mrs.  Gerrard  had,  with  the  aid  of 
the  troops  and  police,  destroyed  a  whole 
villnge,  and  thrown  out  two  hundred  and 
seventy  persons  on  the  high  road.  Tlie 
Nation  thus  improved  the  circumstances 
•with  reference  to  the  "  Coercion  bill "  : — 

"  Some  Irish  member,  for  instance,  may 
point  to  the  two  hundred  and  seventy  per- 
sons thrown  out  of  house  and  home  the 
other  day  in  Galway,  and  in  due  form 
of  law,  (for  it  was  all  perfectly  legal,) 
turned  adrift  in  their  desperation  upon  the 
wide  world — and  may  ask  the  Minister, 
if  any  of  these  two  hundred  and  seventy 
commit  a  robbery  on  the  highway — if  any 
of  them  murder  the  bailiff  who,  (in  exer- 
cise of  his  duty,)  flung  out  their  naked 
children  to  perish  in  the  winter's  sleet — if 
any  of  them,  maddened  by  wolfish  famine, 
break  into  a  dwelling-house,  and  forcibly 
take  food  to  keep  body  and  soul  together, 
or  arms  for  vengeance — what  will  you  do  ? 
How  will  yoir  treat  that  district  ?  Will 
you,  indeed,  proclaim  it  ?  Will  you  mulct 
the  householders,  (not  yet  ejected,)  in  a 
heavy  fine,  to  compound  for  the  crimes  of 
those  miserable  outcasts,  to  afford  food  and 
shelter  to  whom  they  wrong  their  own 
children  in  this  hard  season  ?  Besides 
sharing  with  those  wretches  his  last  po- 
tato, is  the  poor  cottier  to  be  told  that 
he  is  to  pay  for  policemen  to  watch  them 
day  and  night — that  he  is  to  make  atone- 
ment in  money,  (though  his  spade  and  poor 
bedding  should  be  auctioned  to  make  it 
np,)  for  any  outrage  that  may  be  done 
in  the  neighborhood  ? — but  that  these  Qer- 
RARDs  are  not  to  pay  one  farthing  for 
nil  this-— for,  perhaps,  their  property  is  in- 
cumbered, and,  it  may  be,  they  find  it  hard 


enough  to  pay  their  interest,  and  keep 
up  such  establishments,  in  town  and  coun- 
try, as  befit  their  rank  ?  And  will  you,  in- 
deed, issue  your  commands  that  those  house- 
less and  famishing  two  hundred  and  seventy 
— after  their  roof-trees  were  torn  down,  and 
the  ploughshare  run  through  the  founda- 
tions of  their  miserable  hovels — are  to  be  at 
home  from  sunset  to  sunrise  ? — that  if  found 
straying,  the  jails  and  the  penal  colonies 
are  ready  for  their  reception  ?" 

It  was  precisely  with  a  view  to  meet  such 
cases  that  the  Coercion  bill  had  been  de- 
vised. The  English  Whigs,  and,  at  length, 
the  indignant  Protectionists,  too,  joined  the 
repealers  in  this  resistance — not  to  spare 
Ireland,  but  to  defeat  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and 
get  into  his  place.  And  they  did  defeat 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  get  into  his  place. 
Whereupon,  it  was  not  long  before  Lord 
John  Russell  and  the  Whigs  devised  a  new 
and  more  murderous  Coercion  bill  for  Ire- 
land themselves. 

It  was  on  the  25th  of  May,  that  the  Co- 
ercion bill  for  Ireland  was  defeated — tlie 
first  Coercion  bill  for  Ireland  that  was  ever 
refused  by  a  British  Parliament ;  and  it 
was  rejected,  not  by  the  exertions  of  Ire- 
land's friends,  but  by  political  combinations 
of  her  enemies. 

Sir  Robert  Peel  immediately  resigned 
office,  and  left  the  responsibility  of  dealing 
with  the  Irish  affair  to  the  Whigs.  He 
knew  he  might  do  so  safely.  His  system 
was  inaugurated.  His  two  great  ideas — 
free  trade  and  police  administration — were 
fully  recognized  by  the  Whigs  ;  and  Lord 
John  Russell  was  even  a  blind  bigot  about 
what  he  imagined  to  be  political  economy. 
This  "  liberal"  statesman  never  had  an  idea 
of  his  own  ;  and  as  the  system  of  Sir  Rob- 
ert Peel  was  really  the  true  and  only 
English  method  of  dealing  with  the  Irish 
difficulty,  it  was  quite  certain  that  the 
Whigs  would  not  only  adopt  it,  but  improve 
upon  it. 


560 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


CHAPTER    LIX. 

1846—1847. 

Progress  of  the  Famine  Carnage— Pretended  Eelief 
Measures— Imprisonment  of  O'Brien— Dissensions 
in  Repeal  Association—Break  up  of  that  Body- 
Ravages  of  Famine — "Labor-Rate  Act" — Useless 
Public  Works — Extermination — Famine  of  1847 — 
How  they  lived  in  England— Advances  from  the 
Treasury— Attempts  of  Foreign  Countries  to  Re- 
lieve the  Famine — Defeated  by  British  Govern- 
ment—  Vagrancy  Act — Parish  Coffins  —  Constant 
Repudiation  of  Alms — An  Englishman's  Petition 
for  Alms  to  Ireland — "  Ingratitude  "  of  the  Irish — 
Death  of  O'Connell— Preparations  to  Insure  the 
Next  Year's  Famine — Emigration — British  Famine 
Policy — New  Coercion  Act  called  for — Famine  in 
Ireland. 

In  the  first  year  of  the  famine,  then,  we 
find  that  the  measures  proposed  by  the 
English  Government  were,  first,  repeal  of 
the  Corn  laws,  which  depreciated  Ireland's 
only  article  of  export ;  second,  a  new 
Coercion  law,  to  torture  and  transport  the 
people  ;  and,  third,  a  grant  of  i^l 00,000  to 
certain  clerks  or  commissioners,  chiefly  for 
their  own  profit,  and  from  which  the 
starving  people  derived  no  benefit  whatever. 
Yet,  Ireland  was  taunted  with  this  grant, 
as  if  it  were  alms  granted  to  her.  Double 
the  sum  (£200,000,)  was,  in  the.  same 
session,  appropriated  for  Battersea  Park,  a 
suburbaiT  place  of  recreation  much  resorted 
to  by  Londoners. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  all  the  employ- 
ment to  be  provided  for  the  poor  under  this 
first  "  Relief  act,"  was  to  be  given  under 
the  order  and  control  of  English  officials  ; 
further,  the  professions  of  "  Government '' 
— that  they  had  taken  all  needful  measures 
to  guard  against  famine — had  made  people 
rely  upon  them  for  everything,  and  thus 
turned  the  minds  of  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands from  work  of  their  own,  which  they 
might  have  attempted  if  left  to  themselves. 
This  sort  of  government  spoou-feeding  is 
highly  demoralizing  ;  and  for  one  who  de- 
rived any  relief  from  it,  one  thousand  neg- 
lected their  own  industry  in  the  pursuit  of  it. 

In  truth,  the  amount  of  relief  offered  by 
these  grants  was  infinitesimally  small,  when 
we  consider  the  magnitude  of  the  calamity, 
and  had  no  other  effect  than  to  unsettle  the 
minds   of  the   peasantry,  and  make   them 


more  careless  about  holding  on  to  their 
farms. 

It  is  true,  also,  that  the  Government  did, 
to  a  certain  small  extent,  speculate  in  Indian 
corn,  and  did  send  a  good  many  cargoes  of 
it  to  Ireland,  and  form  depots  of  it  at 
several  points  ;  but  as  to  this,  also,  their 
mysterious  intimations  had  led  all  the  world 
to  believe  they  would  provide  very  large 
quantities,  whereas,  in  fact,  the  quantity 
imported  by  them  was  inadequate  to  supply 
tlie  loss  of  the  grain  exported  from  any  one 
county  ;  and  a  Government  ship,  sailing  into 
any  liarbor  with  Indian  corn,  was  sure  to 
meet  half  a  dozen  sailing  out  with  Irish 
wheat  and  cattle.  The  effect  of  this,  there- 
fore, was  only  to  blind  the  people  to  the  fact, 
that  England  was  exacting  her  tribute  as 
usual,  famine  or  no  famine.  The  effect  of 
both  combined  was  to  engender  a  dependent 
and  pauper  spirit,  and  to  free  England 
from  all  anxiety  about  "repeal."  A  land- 
less, hungry  patijper  cannot  afford  to  think 
of  the  honor  of  his  country,  and  cares 
nothing  about  a  national  flag. 

How  powerfully  the  whole  of  this  system 
and  procedure  contributed  to  accomplisli  the 
great  end  of  uprooting  the  people  from  the 
soil,  one  can  readily  understand.  Tiie  ex- 
hibitiou  and  profession  of  public  "relief" 
for  the  destitute,  stifled  compunction  in  the 
landlords  ;  and  agents,  bailiffs,  and  police 
swept  whole  districts  with  the  besom  of  de- 
structiou. 

Another  act  had  been  done  by  Sir  Robert 
Peel's  Ministry,  just  before  retiring,  with  a 
view  of  breaking  up  the  Repeal  Association. 
This  was  the  imprisonment  of  Mr.  Smith 
O'Brien  several  weeks  in  the  celhir  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  It  grievously  irritated 
the  enemy  tliat  O'Connell,  O'Brien,  and  the 
Repeal  members,  still  continued  to  absent 
themselves  from  Parliament.  The  House, 
of  Commons  tried  various  methods  of  per- 
suading or  coercing  them  to  Loudon.  Mr. 
Hume  had  written  them  a  friendly  letter, 
imploring  them  to  come  over  to  their 
legislative  duties,  and  he  would  aid  them  in 
obtaining  justice  for  Ireland.  A  "call  of 
the  House "  was  proposed  ;  but  they  de- 
clared beforehand,  that  if  there  were  a  call 
of  the  House  they  would  not  obey  it,  and 
the  Sergeant-at-Arms  must  come  to  Ireland 


IMPEISONMENT    OF    O  BRIEK. 


561 


for  tliera — he  would  find  tliem  in  Concilia- 
tion Hall.  They  were  nominated  on 
English  Railroad  Committees,  and  the 
proper  officer  had  intimated  to  them  the 
fact.  They  replied  that  they  were  attend- 
ing to  more  important  business.  Now, 
when  they  went  over  to  oppose  the  Coercion 
bill,  it  was  understood  that  this  was  to  be 
their  sole  errand,  and  they  were  not  to 
engage  tliemselves  in  the  ordinary  details  of 
legislation.  But  they  were  not  long  in  Lon- 
don before  the  opportunity  was  seized  to 
place  their  names  on  Railway  Committees. 
O'Connell  and  his  son  both  obeyed  the  call. 
O'Brien,  of  course,  refused,  and  was  im- 
prisoned in  the  cellar  for  "  contempt." 

London  and  all  England  were  highly 
pleased  and  entertained.  The  press  was 
brilliant  upon  the  great  "  Brian  Boru  "  in  a 
cellar  ;  and  Mr.  O'Brien  was  usually  after- 
wards termed — with  that  fine  sarcasm  so 
characteristic  of  English  genius — the  "  mar- 
tyr of  the  cellar." 

Instantly  arose  dissension  in  the  Repeal 
Association.  To  approve  and  fully  sustain 
O'Brien's  action  in  refusing  to  serve,  would 
be  to  censure  O'Connell  for  serving.  Li 
that  body  a  sort  of  unsatisfactory  compro- 
mise was  ma'de,  but  the  "  Eighty-Two 
Club,"  where  the  young  party  was  stronger, 
voted  a  warm  address  of  full  approval  to 
O'Brien,  (who  was  a  member  of  the  club,) 
and  dispatched  several  members  to  present 
it  to  him  in  his  dungeon. 

The  divisions  in  O'Connell's  association 
were  soon  brought  to  a  crisis  when  the 
"Whigs  came  in.  O'Connell  instantly  gave 
up  all  agitation  of  the  Repeal  question,  and 
took  measures  to  separate  himself  from 
those  "juvenile  members"  who,  as  he  de- 
clared, Lord  John  Russell  had  asserted 
were  plotting  not  only  to  repeal  the  Union, 
but  to  sever  the  connection  with  England, 
("the  golden  link  of  the  Crown,")  and  that 
by  jthysical  force.  All  this  famous  contro- 
versy seems  now  of  marvelously  small 
moment  ;  but  a  very  concise  narrative  of  it 
may  be  found  in  Mr.  O'Brien's  words,  which 
will  be  enough  :  — 

"  Negotiations  were  opened  between  Mn 

O'Connell  and  the  Whigs  at  Chesham  Place. 

'  Young  Ireland  '  protested,  in  the  strongest 

terms,  against  au  alliance  with  the  Whigs. 
71 


Mr.  O'Connell  took  offence  at  the  language 
used  by  Mr.  Meagher  and  others.  When 
I  arrived  in  Dublin,  after  the  resignation  of 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  I  learned  that  he  contem- 
plated a  rupture  with  the  writers  of  the 
Nation.  Before  I  went  to  the  County  of 
Clare,  I  communicated,  through  Mr.  Ray, 
a  special  message  to  Mr.  O'Connell,  who 
was  then  absent  from  Dublin,  to  the  effect, 
that  though  I  was  most  anxious  to  preserve 
a  neutral  position,  I  could  not  silently 
acquiesce  in  any  attempt  to  expel  the 
Nation  or  its  party  from  the  association. 
Next  came  the  Dungarvan  election,  and  the 
new  "  moral  force "  resolutions.  I  felt  it 
my  duty  to  protest  against  both  at  the 
Kilrush  dinner.  Upon  my  return  to  Dublin, 
I  found  a  public  letter  from  Mr.  O'Connell, 
formally  denouncing  the  Nation;  and  no 
alternative  was  left  me  but  to  declare,  that  if 
that  letter  were  acted  upon,  I  could  not 
cooperate  any  longer  with  the  Repeal 
Association.  The  celebrated  two-day  de- 
bate then  took  place.  Mr.  J.  O'Connell 
opened  an  attack  upon  the  Nation  and 
upon  its  adherents.  Mr.  Mitchel  and  Mr, 
Meagher  defended  themselves  in  language 
which,  it  seemed  to  me,  did  not  transgress 
the  bounds  of  decorum  or  of  legal  safety. 
Mr.  John  O'Connell  interrupted  Mr.  Meagher 
in  his  speech,  and  declared  that  he  could 
not  allow  him  to  proceed  with  the  line  of 
argument  necessary  to  sustain  the  principles 
which  had  been  arraigned.  I  protested 
against  this  interruption.  Mr.  J.  O'Connell 
tlien  gave  us  to  understand  that  unless  Mr. 
Meagher  desisted,  he  must  leave  the  hall. 
I  could  not  acquiesce  in  this  attempt  to 
stifle  a  fair  discussion,  and  sooner  than 
witness  the  departure  of  Mr.  J.  O'Coimell 
from  an  association  founded  by  his  father,  I 
preferred  to  leave  the  assembly."  * 

When  O'Brien  left  the  assembly,  he  was 
accompanied  by  his  friends,  and  there  was 
an  end  of  the  Ri'peal  Association,  save  as  a 
machinery  of  securing  ufBces  for  O'Connell's 
dependents.  Even  for  that  purpose  it  was 
not  efficient  ;  l)ecaiise  it  had  too  clearly 
become  impotent  and  hollow  ;  there  was  no 
danger  in  it,  and  Ministers  would  not  buy  a 
patriot  in  that  market,  unless  at  a  very  low 
figure. 
*  Mr.  O'Brien's  letter  to  Dr.  Milcy  December,  ISiS. 


562 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


In  the  meantime,  the  famine  and  tlie  fever 
raged  ;  many  landlords  regained  possession 
without  so  much  as  an  ejectment,  because 
the  tenant  died  of  hunger ;  and  the  county 
coroners,  before  the  end  of  this  year,  were 
beginning  to  strike  work — they  were  so 
often  called  to  sit  upon  famine-slain  corpses. 
Tlie  verdict — "  Death  by  starvation  " — 
became  so  familiar  tliat  the  county  news- 
papers sometimes  omitted  to  record  it  ;  and 
travelers  were  often  appalled  when  they 
came  upon  some  lonely  village  by  the 
western  coast,  with  the  people  all  skeletons 
upon  their  own  hearths.  Irish  landlords 
are  not  all  monsters  of  cruelty.  Thousands 
of  them,  indeed,  kept  far  away  from  the 
scene,  collected  their  rents  through  agents 
iuid  bailiffs,  and  spent  them  in  England  or 
in  Paris,  But  the  resident  landlords  and 
their  families  did,  in  many  cases,  devote 
themselves  to  the  task  of  saving  their  poor 
people  alive.  Many  remitted  their  rents, 
or  half  their  rents  ;  and  ladies  kept  their 
servants  busy  and  their  kitchens  smoking 
with  continual  preiDaration  of  food  for  the 
poor.  Local  committees  soon  purchased  all 
the  corn  in  the  Government  depots,  (at 
market  price,  however,)  and  distributed  it 
gratuitously.  Clergymen,  both  Protestant 
and  Catholic,  generally  did  their  duty ; 
except  those  absentee  clergymen,  bishops, 
and  wealthy  rectors,  who  usually  reside  in 
England,  their  services  being  not  needed  in 
tile  places  from  whence  they  draw  their 
wealth.  But  many  a  poor  rector  and  his 
curate  shared  their  crust  with  their  suffering 
iieiglibors  ;  and  priests,  after  going  round 
all  day  administering  Extreme  Unction  to 
whole  villages  at  once,  all  dying  of  mere 
starvation,  often  themselves  went  supperless 
to  bed. 

The  details  of  this  frightful  famine,  as  it 
ravaged  those  western  districts,  need  not  be 
narrated.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  in  this 
year,  1846,  aot  less  than  three  hundred 
liiousaiid  perished,  either  of  mere  hunger,  or 
('f  typhus  fever  caused  by  hunger.  But,  as 
it  has  ever  since  been  the  main  object  of 
the  British  Government  to  conceal  the 
amount  of  the  carnage,  (which,  indeed, 
they  ought  to  do  if  they  can,)  we  find  that 
the  Census  Commissioners,  in  their  re- 
port  for    1851,  admit   only   two  thousand 


and  forty-one  "  registered"  deaths  by  famine 
alone, 

A  Whig  Ministry,  however,  was  now  in 
power  ;  and  the  people  were  led  to  expect 
great  efforts  on  the  part  of  Government  to 
stay  the  progress  of  ruin.  In  August,  it 
became  manifest  that  the  potato-crop  of  '46 
was  also  a  total  failure  ;  but  the  products 
otherwise  were  most  abundant — much  more 
than  sufficient  to  feed  all  the  people. 
Again,  therefore,  it  became  the  urgent 
business  of  British  policy  to  promise  large 
"  relief,"  so  as  to  insure  that  the  splendid 
harvest  should  be  allowed  peacefully  to  be 
shipped  to  England  as  before  ;  and  the  first 
important  measure  of  the  Whigs  was  to 
propose  a  renewal  of  the  Disarming  act, 
and  a  further  increase  in  the  police  force. 
Apparently,  the  outcry  raised  against  this 
had  the  effect  of  shaming  Ministers,  for  they 
suddenly  dropped  the  bill  for  this  time. 
But  the  famine  could  not  be  correctly  ad- 
ministered without  a  Coercion  bill  of  some 
sort  ;  so  the  next  year  they  devised  a  ma- 
chinery of  this  kind,  the  most  stringent  and 
destructive  that  had  yet  been  prescribed  for 
Ireland.  In  the  meantime,  for  "relief"  of 
the  famine,  they  brought  forward  their 
famous  Labor-Rate  act. 

This  was,  in  few  words,  an  additional 
Poor-rate,  payable  by  the  same  persons 
liable  to  the  other  Poor-rates ;  the  proceeds 
to  be  applied  to  the  execution  of  such 
public  works  as  the  Government  might  choose; 
the  control  and  superintendence  to  be  in- 
trusted to  Governineat  officers.  Money  was 
to  be,  in  the  meantime,  advanced  from  the 
Treasury,  in  order  to  set  the  people  imme- 
diately to  work  ;  and  that  advance  was  to 
be  repaid  in  ten  years  by  means  of  the  in- 
creased rate.  There  was  to  be  an  appear- 
ance of  local  control,  inasmuch  as  barony 
sessions  of  landlords  and  justices  were  to 
have  power  to  meet,  (under  the  Lord-Lieu- 
tenant's order,)  and  suggest  any  works  they 
might  think  needful,  provided  these  were 
strictly  unproductive  works  ;  but  the  con- 
trol of  all  was  to  be  in  the  Government 
alone. 

Now,  the  class  which  suffered  most  from 
the  potato-blight  consisted  of  those  small 
fanners  who  were  barely  able,  in  ordinary 
years,  to  keep  themselves  above   starvation 


DISSENSIONS    IN   KEPEAL   ASSOCIATIONS. 


563 


after  paying  their  rents.  These  people,  by 
.the  Labor-Rate  act,  had  an  additional  tax 
laid  on  them  ;  and  not  being  able  to  pay  it, 
could  but  quit  their  holdings,  sink  to  the 
class  of  able-bodied  paupers,  and  enrol 
themselves  in  a  gang  of  Government  navvys 
— tlius,  throwing  themselves  for  support 
upon  those  who  still  strove  to  maintain 
themselves  by  their  own  labor  on  their  own 
land. 

In  addition  to  the  proceeds  of  the  new 
Poor-rate,  Parliament  appropriated  a  further 
sum  of  £.50,000,  to  be  applied  in  giving 
work  in  some  absolutely  pauper  districts, 
where  there  was  no  hope  of  ever  raising 
rates  to  repay  it.  iE50,000  was  just  the 
sum  which  was  that  same  year  voted  out  of 
tlie  English  and  Irish  revenue  to  improve 
the  buildings  of  the  British  Museum. 

So  there  was  to  be  more  Poor  law,  more 
commissioners,  (this  time  under  the  title  of 
Additional  Public  Works  Commissioners  ;) 
innumerable  officials  in  the  public  works, 
commissariat  and  constabulary  departments; 
and  no  end  of  stationery  and  red  tape — all 
to  be  paid  out  of  the  rates.  On  the  whole, 
it  was  hoped  that  provision  was  made 
for  stopping 'the  "Irish  howl"  this  one 
season. 

Irishmen  of  all  classes  had  almost  uni- 
versally condemned  the  Poor  law  at  first ; 
so,  as  they  did  not  like  Poor  law,  they  were 
to  have  more  Poor  law.  Society  in  Ireland 
was  to  be  reconstructed  on  the  basis  of 
Poor-rates,  and  a  broad  foundation  of  able- 
bodied  pauperism.  It  did  not  occur  to  the 
English — and  it  never  will  occur  to  them — 
that  the  way  to  stop  Irish  destitution  is  to 
repeal  the  Union,  so  that  Irishmen  might 
make  their  own  laws,  use  their  own  re- 
sources, regulate  their  own  industry.  It 
was  in  vain,  however,  that  anybody  in 
Ireland  remonstrated.  In  vain  that  such 
journals  as  were  of  the  popular  party  con- 
demned the  whole  scheme.  The  Nation  of 
that  date  treats  it  thus  : — 

"  Unproductive  work  to  be  executed  with 
borrowed  money — a  ten  years'  mortgage  of 
a  new  tax,  to  pay  for  cutting  down  hills  and 
filling  them  up  again — a  direct  impost  upon 
lanile(l-pri)prietors  in  the  most  ofifeusive 
form,  to  feed  all  the  rest  of  tlie  pupuliition, 
iiupuverisliing   the   rich   without  benefitting 


the  poor — not  creating,  not  developing,  but 
merely  transferring,  and  in  the  transfer 
wasting  the  means  of  all — perhaps  human 
ingenuity,  sharpened  by  intensest  malignity, 
could  contrive  no  more  deadly  and  unerring 
method  of  arraying  class  against  class  in 
diabolical  hatred,  making  them  look  on 
one  another  with  wolfish  eyes,  as  if  to 
prepare  the  way  for  "  arislocrates  a  la 
lanlenie'^ — killing  individual  enterprise — dis- 
couraging private  im[)rovemeut — dragging 
down  employers  and  employed,  proprietors, 
farmers,  mechanics,  and  cottiers,  to  one  com- 
mon and  irretrievable  ruin." 

It  may  seem  astonishing  that  the  gentry 
of  Ireland  did  not  rouse  themselves  at  this 
frightful  prospect,  and  universally  demand 
the  repeal  of  the  Union.  They  were 
the  same  class,  sons  of  the  same  men,  who 
had,  in  1782,  wrested  the  independence  of 
Ireland  from  tiie  English  Government,  and 
enjoyed  the  fruits  of  that  independence  in 
honor,  wealth,  and  prosperity  for  eighteen 
years  1  Why  not  now  ?  It  is  because,  in 
1782  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  counted  as 
nothing,  now  they  are  numerous,  enfrain 
chised,  exasperated  ;  and  the  Irish  land- 
lords dare  not  trust  themselves  in  Ireland 
without  British  support.  They  looked  on 
tamely,  therefore,  and  saw  this  deliberate 
scheme  for  the  pauperization  of  a  nation. 
They  knew  it  would  injure  themselves  ;  but 
they  took  tlie  injury,  took  insult  along  with 
it,  and  submitted  to  be  reproached  for 
begging  alms,  when  they  demanded  restitu- 
tion of  a  part  of  tiieir  own  means. 

Over  the  whole  island,  for  the  next  hw 
months,  was  a  scene  of  confused  and  waste- 
ful attempts  at  relief — bewildered  barony 
sessions  striving  to  understand  the  volum- 
inous directions,  schedules,  and  specifications, 
under  which  alone  they  could  vote  their 
own  money  to  relieve  the  poor  at  their  own 
doors  ;  but  generally  making  mistakes,  for 
the  unassisted  human  faculties  never  could 
comprehend  those  ten  thousand  books  and 
fourteen  tons  of  paper  ;  insolent  commis- 
sioners and  inspectors  and  clerks  snubbing 
them  at  every  turn,  and  ordering  them  to 
study  the  documents  ;  efforts  on  the  part  of 
the  proprietors  to  expend  some  of  the  rates 
at  least  on  useful  works,  reclaiming  land  or 
the    like,   which    eflorts    were    always    met 


564 


HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 


with  fliit  refusal  and  a  lecture  on  political 
fcononiy,  (for  political  economy,  it  seems, 
declared  that  the  works  must  be  strictly 
useless — as  cutting  down  a  road  where  there 
was  no  hill,  or  building  a  bridge  where 
there  was  no  water — until  many  good  roads 
became  impassable  on  account  of  pits  and 
trenches  ;)  plenty  of  jobbing  and  peculation 
all  this  while  ;  and  the  laborers,  having  the 
example  of  a  great  public  fraud  before  their 
eyes,  themselves  defrauding  their  fraudulent 
employers  —  quitting  agricultural  pursuits 
and  crowding  to  the  public  works,  where 
they  pretended  to  be  cutting  down  hills  and 
filling  up  hollows,  and  with  tongue  in  cheek 
received  half  wages  for  doing  nothing.  So 
the  labor  was  M'asted  ;  the  laborers  were 
demoralized  ;  and  the  luxt  year's  famine  was 
insured. 

Now  began  to  be  a  rage  for  extermina- 
tion beyond  any  former  time  ;  and  many  thou- 
sands of  the  peasants  who  could  still  scrape 
np  the  means,  fled  to  the  sea,  as  if  pursued 
by  wild  beasts,  and  betook  themselves 
to  America.  The  British  army,  also,  re- 
ceived numberless  recruits  this  year,  (for  it 
is  sound  English  policy  to  keep  our  people 
so  low  that  a  shilling  a  day  would  tempt 
them  to  fight  for  the  Devil,  not  to  say  the 
Queen,)  and  insane  mothers  began  to  eat 
their  yonng  children,  who  died  of  famine 
before  them — and  still  fleets  of  ships  were 
sailing  with  every  tide,  carrying  Irish  cattle 
and  corn  to  England.  There  was  also  a 
large  importation  of  grain  from  England 
into  Ireland,  especially  of  Indian  corn  ;  and 
the  speculators  and  ship-owners  had  a  good 
time.  Much  of  the  grain  thus  brought  to 
Ireland  had  been  previously  exported  from 
Ireland,  and  came  back  laden  with  mer- 
chants' profits,  and  double  freights,  and 
insurance,  to  the  helpless  people  who  had 
sowed  and  reaped  it.  This  is  what  com- 
merce and  free  trade  did  for  Ireland  in  those 
days. 

Two  facts,  however,  are  essential  to  be 
borne  in  mind — -first,  that  the  nett  result  of 
this  importation,  exportation,  and  reim- 
portation (though  many  a  ship-load  was 
can-ied  four  times  across  the  Irish  Sea,  as 
prices  "invited"  it,)  was,  that  Enghind 
finally  received  the  harvests  to  the  same 
amount   as    before  ;    aud,  second,  that   she 


gave  Ireland — under  free  trade  in  corn — less 
for  it  than '  ever.  In  other  words,  it  took 
more  of  the  Irish  produce  to  buy  a  piece  of 
cloth  from  a  Leeds  manufacturer,  or  to  buy 
a  rent-receipt  from  an  absentee  proprietor. 

Farmers  could  do  without  the  cloth,  but 
as  for  the  rent-receipts,  these  they  must 
absolutely  buy  ;  for  the  bailiff,  with  his 
police,  was  usually  at  the  door,  even  before 
the  fields  were  reaped  ;  and  he,  and  the  Poor- 
rate  Collector,  and  the  Additional  Poor- 
rate  Collector,  and  the  County-cess  Collector, 
and  the  Process-server  with  decrees,  were 
all  to  be  paid  out  of  the  first  proceeds.  If 
it  took  the  farmer's  whole  crop  to  pay 
them,  which  it  usually  did,  he  had,  at  least, 
a  pocketful  of  receipts,  and  might  see  lying 
in  the  next  harbor,  the  very  ship  that  was 
to  carry  his  entire  harvest  and  his  last  cow 
to  England. 

What  wonder  that  so  many  farmers  gave 
up  the  effort  in  despair,  and  sunk  to 
paupers  ?  Many  Celts  were  cleared  off  this 
year,  and  the  campaign  was,  so  far,  suc- 
cessful. 

The  winter  of  1846-T,  and  succeeding 
spring,  were  employed  in  a  series  of  utterly 
unavailing  attempts  to  use  the  "  Labor-rate 
act,"  so  as  to  afford  some  sensible  relief  to 
the  famishing  people.  Sessions  were  held, 
as  provided  by  the  act,  and  the  landed- 
proprietors  liberally  imposed  rates  to  repay 
such  Government  advances  as  they  thought 
needful  ;  but  the  unintelligible  direetiuns 
constantly  interrupted  them,  and,  in  the 
meantime,  the  peasantry,  in  the  wild,  blind 
hope  of  public  relief,  were  abandoning  their 
farms,  and  letting  the  land  lie  idle. 

Even  the  Tory  or  British  party  in  Ire- 
land furnish  ample  testimony  to  this  deplor- 
able state  of  things.  From  Limerick  we 
learn,  through  the  Dublin  Evening  Mail : — 

"Tliere  is  not  a  laborer  employed  in  the 
county,  except  on  public  works  ;  and  ther^ 
is  every  prospect  of  the  lands  remaining  un- 
tilled  and  unsown  for  the  next  year." 

In  Cork,  vvrites  the  Cork  Constitution  : 
"The  good  intentions  of  the  Government 
are  frustrated  by  the  worst  regulations — I'c- 
gulations  which,  diverting  labor  from  its  le- 
gitimate channels,  left  the  fields  without 
hands  to  prepare  them  for  the  harvest." 

At  a  Presentment  Session  in  Slianagold- 


RAVAGES   OF   FAMINE. 


565 


en,  after  a  hopeless  discussion  as  to  what 
possible  meaning  could  be  lateut  in  the 
Castle  "  instructions,"  and  "  supplemental 
instructions,"  the  Knight  of  Glin,  a  land- 
lord of  those  parts,  said  that,  "  While  on 
tiie  subject  of  mistakes,"  he  might  as  well 
mention,  "on  the  Glin  road,  some  people 
are  filling  up  the  original  cutting  of  a  hill 
with  the  stuff  they  had  taken  out  of  it. 
That's  another  slice  out  of  our  iE450." 

Which  he  and  the  other  proprietors  of 
that  barony  had  to  pay.  For  you  must 
bear  in  mind,  that  all  the  advances  under 
this  act  were  to  be  strictly  loans,  repayable 
by  the  rates,  secured  by  the  whole  value  of  the 
land — and  at  higher  interest  than  the  Gov- 
ernment borrowed  the  money  so  advanced. 

The  innocent  Knight  of  Glin  ascribed 
the  perversions  of  labor  to  "  mistake."  But 
there  was  no  mistake  at  all.  Digging  holes 
and  filling  them  up  again  was  precisely  the 
kind  of  work  prescribed  in  such  case  by  the 
principles  of  political  economy  ;  and  then 
there  were  innumerable  regulations  to  be  at- 
tended to  before  even  this  kind  of  work 
could  be  given.  The  Board  of  Works 
would  have  the  roads  torn  up  with  such 
tools  as  they  approved  of,  and  none  other  ; 
that  is,  with. picks  and  short  shovels,  and 
picks  and  short  shovels  were  manufactured 
in  England,  and  sent  over  by  ship  loads  for 
that  purpose,  to  the  great  profit  of  the  hard- 
ware merchants  in  Birmingham.  Often 
there  were  no  adequate  supply  of  these  on 
the  spot ;  then  the  work  was  to  be  task- 
work, and  the  poor  people,  delving  mac- 
adamized roads  with  spades  and  turf-cutters, 
could  not  earn  as  much  as  would  keep  them 
alive,  though,  luckily,  they  were  thereby  dis- 
abled from  destroying  so  much  good  road. 

That  all  interests  in  the  country  were 
swiftly  rushing  to  ruin  was  apparent  to  all. 
A  committee  of  lords  and  gentlemen  was 
formed,  called  "  Reproductive  Committee," 
to  urge  upon  the  Government  that,  if  tlie 
country  was  to  tax  itself  to  supply  public 
work,  the  labor  ought,  in  some  cases  at 
least,  to  be  employed  upon  tasks  that  might 
be  of  use.  Tliis  movement  was  so  far  suc- 
cessful that  it  elicited  a  letter  from  the 
Castle,  authorizing  such  application,  but 
with  supplemental  instructions,  so  intricate 
and  occult,  that  this  also  was  fruitless. 


And  the  people  perished  more  rapidly 
than  ever.  The  famine  of  1847  was  far  raoro 
terrible  and  universal  than  that  of  the  pre- 
vious year.  The  Whig  Government,  bound 
by  political  economy,  absolutely  refused  to 
interfere  with  market  prices,  and  the  mer- 
chants and  speculators  were  never  so  busy 
on  both  sides  of  the  channel.  In  this  year 
it  was  that  tlie  Irish  famine  began  to  be  a 
world's  wonder  ;  and  men's  hearts  were 
moved  in  the  uttermost  ends  of  the  earth  by 
the  recital  of  its  horrors.  The  London  Il- 
lustrated JVeios  began  to  be  adorned  witli 
engravings  of  tottering  windowless  hovels 
in  Skibbereen,  and  elsewhere,  with  naked 
wretches  dying  on  a  truss  of  wet  straw ;  and  the 
constant  language  of  English  Ministers  and 
members  of  Parliament  created  the  impres- 
sion abroad  that  Ireland  was  in  need  of  alms, 
and  nothing  but  alms  ;  whereas,  Irishmen 
themselves  uniformly  protested  that  what 
they  required  was  a  repeal  of  the  Union,  so 
that  the  English  might  cease  to  devour  their 
substance. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  know  how  the 
English  people  were  faring  all  this  while  ; 
and  whether  "  that  portion  of  the  United 
Kingdom,"  as  it  is  called,  suffered  much  by 
the  famine  in  Ireland  and  in  Europe.  Au- 
thentic data  upon  this  point  are  to  be  found 
in  the  financial  statement  of  Sir  Charles 
Wood,  Chancellor  of  the  E.xchequer,  in  Fel>- 
ruary,  1847.  In  that  statement  he  de- 
clares— and  he  tells  it,  he  says,  with  great 
satisfaction — that  "  the  English  people  and 
working  classes"  were  steadily  growing  more 
comfortable,  nay,  more  luxurious  in  their 
style  of  living.  He  goes  into  particulars, 
even,  to  show  how  rapidly  a  taste  for  good 
things  spreads  amongst  English  laborers, 
and  bids  his  hearers  "  recollect  tiiat  con- 
sumption could  not  be  accounted  for  by  at- 
tributing it  to  the  higher  and  wealthier 
classes,  but  must  have  arisen  from  the  con- 
sumption of  the  large  body  of  the  people 
and  the  working  classes." 

In  the  matter  of  coffee,  they  had  used 
nearly  seven  million  pounds  of  it  more  than 
they  did  in  184  3  ;  of  butter  and  cheese,  they 
devoured  double  as  much  witiiin  the  year 
as  tiiey  had  done  three  years  before  within 
the  same  period.  "  I  will  next,"  says  the 
Chancellor  of   the  E.TChequer,  "  take  cur- 


566 


HISTOBT    OF   IRELAND. 


rants, ''^  (for  currauts  are  one  of  the  neces- 
saries of  life  to  an  English  laborer,  who 
must  have  his  pudding  on  Sunday  at  least ;) 
and  we  find  tliat  the  quantity  of  currants 
used  by  the  "  body  of  the  people  and  work- 
ing classes,"  had  increased,  in  three  years, 
from  two  hundred  and  fifty-four  thousand 
hundred  weight  to  three  hundred  and  fifty- 
nine  thousand  hundred  weight,  by  the  year. 
Omitting  other  things,  we  come  to  the  Chan- 
cellor's statement,  that  since  1843,  the  con- 
sumption of  tea  had  increased  by  five  million 
four  hundred  thousand  pounds.  It  is  unneces- 
sary to  say  they  had  as  much  beef  and  ba- 
con as  they  could  eat,  and  bread  a  discre- 
tion— and  beer  1 

This  statement  was  read  by  Sir  Charles 
Wood,  at  the  end  of  a  long  speech,  in  which 
he  announced  the  necessity  of  raising  an 
additional  loan  to  keep  life  in  some  of  the 
surviving  Irish  ;  and  he  read  it  expressly  in 
order  "  to  dispel  some  portion  of  the  gloom 
which  had  been  cast  over  the  minds  of  mem- 
bers," by  being  told  that  a  portion  of  the 
surplus  revenue  must  go  to  pay  interest  on 
a  slight  addition  to  the  national  debt.  And 
the  gloom  was  dispelled  ;  and  honorable 
members  comforted  themselves  with  the  re- 
flection, that  whatever  be  the  nominal  debt 
of  the  country,  after  all,  a  man  of  the  work- 
ing classes  can  ask  no  more  than  a  good 
dinner  every  day,  and  a  pudding  on  Sundays. 

One  would  not  grudge  the  English  labor- 
er his  dinner,  or  his  tea  ;  and  we  refer  to  his 
excellent  table  only  to  bid  the  reader  re- 
mark that  during  those  same  three  years, 
exactly  as  fast  as  the  English  people  and 
working  classes  advanced  to  luxury,  the 
Irish  people  and  working  classes  sank  to 
starvation  ;  and  further,  that  the  Irish 
people  were  still  sowing  and  reaping  what 
tliey  of  the  sister  island  so  contentedly  de- 
voured, to  the  value  of  at  least  j£n,000,- 
000  sterling. 

As  an  English  farmer,  artizan,  or  laborer, 
began  to  insist  on  tea  in  the  morning  as 
well  as  in  the  evening,  an  Irish  farmer,  arti- 
zan, or  laborer,  found  it  necessary  to  live  on 
one  meal  a  day  ;  for  every  Englishman  who 
added  to  his  domestic  expenditure  by  a  pud- 
ding thrice  a  week,  an  Irishman  had  to  re- 
trench his  to  cabbage  leaves  and  turnip  tops  ; 
as  dyspepsia  creeps  into  England,  dysentery 


ravages  Ireland  ;  "  and  the  exact  correliitive 
of  a  Sunday  dinner  in  England  is  a  coron- 
er's inquest  in  Ireland." 

Ireland,  however,  was  to  have  "  alms." 
The  English  would  not  see  their  useful 
drudges  perish  at  their  very  door  for  want 
of  a  trifle  of  alms.  So  the  Ministry  an- 
nounced in  this  month  of  February,  a  new 
loan  of  ten  millions,  to  be  used  from  time  to 
time  for  relief  of  Irish  famine — the  half  of 
the  advances  to  be  repaid  by  rates — the 
other  half  to  be  a  grant  from  the  treasury 
to  feed  able-bodied  paupers  for  doing  useless 
work,  or  no  work  at  all.  As  to  this  latter 
half  of  the  ten  millions,  English  newspapers 
and  members  of  Parliament  said  that  it  was 
so  much  English  money  granted  to  Ireland. 
This,  of  course,  was  a  falsehood.  It  was  a 
loan  raised  by  the  Imperial  Treasury,  on  a 
mortgage  of  the  taxation  of  the  Three 
Kingdoms  ;  and  the  principal  of  it,  like  the 
rest  of  the  "national  debt,"  was  not  intend- 
ed to  be  ever  repaid  ;  and  as  for  the  interest, 
Ireland  would  have  to  pay  her  proportion 
of  it,  as  a  matter  of  course. 

This  last  act  was  the  third  of  the  "Re- 
lief measures"  contrived  by  the  British  Par- 
liament, and  the  most  destructive  of  all. 
It  was  to  be  put  in  operation  as  a  system 
of  out-door  relief ;  and  the  various  local 
boards  of  Poor  Law  Guardians,  if  they  could 
only  understand  the  documents,  were  to 
have  some  apparent  part  in  its  administra- 
tiou,  but  all,  as  usual,  under  the  absolute 
control  of  the  Poor  Law  Commissioners,  and 
of  a  new  board — namely,  Sir  John  Bur- 
goyne,  an  engineer  ;  Sir  Randolph  Routh, 
Commissary-Geueral ;  Mr.  Twisleton,  a  Poor 
Law  Commissioner  ;  two  Colonels,  called 
Jones  and  M'Gregor,  Police  Inspectors ; 
and  Mr.  Redington,  Under-Secretary. 

In  the  administration  of  this  system  there 
were  to  be  many  thousands  of  officials,  great 
and  small.  The  largest  salaries  were  for  Eng- 
lishmen ;  but  the  smaller  were  held  up  as 
an  object,  of  ambition  to  Irishmen  ;  and  it 
is  very  humiliating  to  remember  what  eager 
and  greedy  multitudes  were  always  canvass- 
ing and  petitioning  for  these. 

lu  the  new  act  of  the  out-door  relief,  thei'e 
was  one  significant  clause.  It  was,  that  if 
any  farmer  who  held  land  should  be  forced  to 
apply  for  aid  under  this  act,  for  himself  and 


CONSTANT  REPUDIATION  OF  ALMS. 


5G7 


liis  family,  he  should  not  have  it  until  he  had 
first  given  up  all  his  land  to  the  landlord — 
except  one  quarter  of  an  acre.  It  was 
called  the  quarter-acre  clause,  and  was 
found  the  most  efficient  and  the  cheapest  of 
all  the  Ejectment  acts.  Farms  were  there- 
after daily  f!!:iven  up,  without  the  formality 
of  a  notice  to  quit,  or  summons  before  Quar- 
ter Sessions. 

On  the  6th  of  March,  there  were  sev- 
en hundred  and  thirty  thousand  heads  of 
families  on  the  public  works.  Provision 
was  made  by  the  last  recited  act  for 
dismissing  these  in  batches.  On  the  10th 
of  April,  the  number  was  reduced  to  five 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  twenty-three. 
Afterwards,  batches  of  a  hundred  thousand 
or  so  were  in  like  manner  dismissed.  Most 
of  tliese  had  now  neither  house  nor  home  ; 
and  their  only  resource  was  in  the  out-door 
relief.  For  this  they  were  ineligible,  if  they 
held  but  one  rood  of  land.  Under  the  new 
law  it  was  able-bodied  idlers  only  who  were 
to  be  fed — to  attempt  to  till  even  a  rood  of 
ground  was  death. 

Steadily,  but  surely,  the  "Government" 
was  working  out  its  calculation ;  and  the 
product  anticipated  by  "political  circles" 
was  likely  to  come  out  about  September, 
in  round  numbers  —  two  millions  of  Irish 
corpses. 

That  "  Government "  had  at  length  got 
into  its  own  hands  all  the  means  and  mate- 
rials for  working  this  problem,  is  now  plain. 
There  was  no  longer  any  danger  of  the  ele- 
ments of  the  account  being  disturbed  by  ex- 
ternal interference  of  any  kind.  At  one 
time,  indeed,  there  were  odds  against  the 
Government  sum  coming  out  right  ;  for 
charitable  people  in  England  and  America, 
indignant  at  the  thought  of  a  nation  perish- 
ing of  political  economy,  did  contribute 
generously,  and  did  full  surely  believe  that 
every  pound  they  subscribed  would  give 
Irish  famine  twenty  shillings  worth  of  bread  ; 
thoy  thought  so,  and  poured  in  their  contri- 
butions, and  their  prayers  and  blessings  with 
them.  , 

In  vain!  "Government"  and  political 
economy  got  hold  of  the  contributions,  and 
disposed  of  them  in  such  fashion  as  to  pre- 
vent their  deranging  the  calculations  of  po- 
litical circles. 


For  example,  the  vast  supplies  of  fooil 
purchased  by  the  "  British  Relief  Associa- 
tion," with  the  money  of  charitable  Chris- 
tians in  England,  were  everywhere  locked 
up  in  Government  stores.  Government,  it 
seems,  contrived  to  influence  or  control  tiie 
managers  of  that  fund  ;  and  thus,  there 
were  thousands  of  tons  of  food  rotting  with- 
in the  stores  of  Haulbowline,  at  Cork  Har- 
bor ;  and  tens  of  thousands  rotting  without. 
For  the  market  must  be  followed,  not  led, 
(to  the  prejudice  of  Liverpool  merchants  !) 
— private  speculation  must  not  be  disap- 
pointed, nor  the  calculations  of  political 
circles  falsified  ! 

All  the  nations  of  the  earth  might  be 
defied  to  feed  or  relieve  Ireland,  beset  by 
such  a  Government  as  this.  America  tried 
another  plan  ; — the  ship  Jamestown  sailed 
into  Cork  Harbor,  and  discharged  a  large 
cargo,  which  actually  began  to  come  into 
consumption  ;  when  lo  !  Free  Trade — anoth- 
er familiar  demon  of  Government  —  Free 
Trade,  that  carried  off  our  own  harvests  of 
tlie  year  before — comes  in,  freights  another 
ship,  and  carries  off  from  Cork  to  Liver- 
pool, a  cargo  against  the  American  cargo. 
For  the  private  speculators  must  be  com- 
pensated ;  the  markets  must  not  be  led ;  if 
these  Americans  will  not  give  England  their 
corn  to  lock  up,  then  she  defeats  them  by 
"  the  natural  laws  of  trade  !  "  So  many 
Briarean  hands  has  Government — so  surely 
do  official  persons  work  their  account. 

Private  charity,  one  might  think,  in  a 
country  like  Ireland,  would  put  out  the  cal- 
culating Government  sadly  ;  but  that,  too, 
was  brought  in  great  measure  under  con- 
trol. The  "Temporary  Relief  act,"  talking 
of  eight  millions  of  money,  {to  be  used  if 
needed,) — distributing,  like  Cuma^an  Sybil, 
its  mystic  leaves  by  the  myriad  and  the  mil- 
lion— setting  charitable  people  everywhere 
to  con  its  pamphlets,  and  compare  clause 
with  clause — putting  everybody  in  terror  of 
its  rates,  and  in  horror  of  its  inspectors — 
was  likely  to  pass  the  summer  bravely.  It 
would  begin  to  be  partly  understood  about 
August,  would  expire  in  September  ; — and 
in  September,  the  "  the  persons  connected 
with  Government"  expected  their  round 
two  millions  of  carcasses. 

A   further   piece   of   the   machinery,  all 


568 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


working  to  tlie  same  great  end,  was  the 
"  Vagrancy  act,"  for  the  punishment  of  va- 
grants— that  is,  of  about  four  millions  of  the 
inhabitants — by  hard  labor,  "  for  any  time 
not  exceedhig  one  month." 

Many  poor  people  were  escaping  to  Eng- 
land, as  deck  passengers,  on  board  the  nu- 
merous steamers,  hoping  to  earn  their  living 
by  labor  there  ;  but  "  Government "  took 
alarm  about  typhus  fever — a  disease  not  in- 
tended for  England.  Orders  in  Council 
were  suddenly  issued,  subjecting  all  vessels 
having  deck  passengers  to  troublesome  exam- 
ination and  quarantine,  thereby  quite  stop- 
ping up  that  way  of  escape  ; — and,  six  days 
afterwards,  four  steamship  companies,  be- 
tween England  and  Ireland,  on  request  of 
tlie  Government,  raised  the  rate  of  passage 
for  deck  passengers.  Cabin  passengers  were 
not  interfered  with  in  any  way  ;  for,  in  fact, 
it  is  the  cabin  passengers  from  Ireland  who 
spend  in  England  five  millions  sterling  per 
annum. 

Whither  now  were  the  people  to  fly  ? 
Where  to  hide  themselves  ?  They  had  no 
money  to  emigrate  ;  no  food,  no  land,  no 
roof  over  them  ;  no  hope  before  them. 
They  began  to  envy  the  lot  of  those  who 
had  died  in  the  first  year's  famine.  The 
poor  houses  were  all  full,  and  much  more 
than  full.  Each  of  them  was  an  hospital 
for  typhus  fever  :  and  it  was  very  common 
for  three  fever  patients  to  be  in  one  bed, 
some  dead,  and  others  not  yet  dead.  Par- 
ishes all  over  the  country  being  exhausted 
by  rates,  refused  to  provide  coffins  for  the 
dead  paupers,  and  they  were  thrown  coffin- 
less  into  holes,  but  in  some  parishes,  (in  or- 
der to  have,  at  least,  the  look  of  decent  in- 
terment,) a  coffin  was  made  with  its  bottom 
hinged  at  one  side,  and  closed  at  the  other 
by  a  latch — the  uses  of  which  are  obvious. 

It  would  be  easy  to  horrify  the  reader 
with  details  of  this  misery  ;  but  let  it  be 
enough  to  give  the  results  in  round  num- 
bers. Great  efforts  were  this  year  made  to 
give  relief  by  private  charity  ;  and  sums 
contributed  in  that  way  by  Irishmen  them- 
selves far  exceeded  all  that  was  sent  from 
all  other  parts  of  the  world  beside.  As  for 
the  ship-loads  of  corn  generously  sent  over 
by  Americans,  it  has  been  already  shown 
how   the   benevolent   object   was  defeated. 


The  moment  it  appeared  in  any  port,  prices 
became  a  shade  lower  ;  and  so  much  the 
more  grain  was  carried  off  from  Ireland 
by  "  free  trade."  It  was  not  foreign  corn 
that  Ireland  wanted — it  was  the  use  of  her 
own  ;  that  is  to  say,  it  was  repeal  of  the 
Union. 

The  arrangements  and  operations  of  the 
Union  had  been  such  that  Ireland  was 
bleeding  at  every  vein  ;  her  life  was  rushing 
out  at  every  pore  ;  so  that  the  money  sent 
to  her  for  charity  was  only  so  much  added 
to  landlords'  rents  and  Englishmen's  profits. 
The  American  corn  was  only  so  much  given 
as  a  handsome  present  to  the  merchants 
and  speculators.   That  is,  the  English  got  it. 

But  no  Irishman  begged  the  world  for 
alms.  The  benevolence  of  Americans,  and 
Australians,  and  Turks,  and  Negro  slaves, 
was  excited  by  the  appeals  of  the  English 
press  and  English  members  of  Parliament ; 
and  in  Ireland,  many  a  cheek  burned  with 
shame  and  indignation  at  our  country  being 
thus  held  up  to  the  world,  by  the  people  who 
were  feeding  on  our  vitals,  as  abject  beg- 
gars of  broken  victuals.  The  Repeal  Asso- 
ciation, low  as  it  had  fallen,  never  sanction- 
ed this  mendicancy.  The  true  nationalists 
of  Ireland,  who  had  been  forced  to  leave 
that  association,  and  had  formed  another 
society,  the  "Irish  Confederation,"  never 
ceased  to  expose  the  real  nature  of  these 
British  dealings — never  ceased  to  repudiate 
and  disavow  the  British  beggarly  appeals  ; 
although  they  took  care  to  express  warm 
gratitude  for  the  well-meant  charity  of  for- 
eign nations  ;  and  never  ceased  to  proclaim 
that  the  sole  and  all-sufficient  "  relief  mea- 
sure "  for  the  country  would  be,  that  the 
English  should  let  us  alone. 

On  the  16th  of  March,  for  example,  a 
meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Dublin  asseml)led, 
by  public  requisition,  at  the  Music  Hall, 
presided  over  by  tlie  Lord  Mayor,  expressly 
to  consider  the  peril  of  the  country,  and  pe- 
tition Parliament  for  proper  remedies.  It 
was  known  that  the  conveners  of  the  meet- 
ing contemplated  nothing  more  than  sug- 
gestions as  to  importing  grain  in  ships  of 
war,  stopping  distillation  from  grain,  and 
other  trifles.  Richard  O'Gorman  was  then 
a  prominent  member  of  the  Irish  Confeder- 
ation ;  and,    being  a  citizen  of  Dublin,  he 


INGRATITUDE       OP    THE   IRISH. 


569 


resolved  to  attend  this  meeting,  and  if 
nobody  else  should  say  the  ripjht  word,  say 
it  himself.  After  soiuc  hfipless  talk  about 
the  "  mistakes"  and  "infatuation"  of  Par- 
liament, and  sujrgestions  for  change  in  va- 
rious details,  O'Gornian  rose,  and  in  a  pow- 
erful and  indignant  speech,  moved  this  res- 
olution :  — 

"That  for  purposes  of  temporary  relief, 
as  well  as  permanent  improvement,  the  one 
great  want  and  demand  of  Ireland  is, 
that  foreign  Legislators  and  foreign  Minis- 
ters shall  no  longer  interfere  in  the  manage- 
ment of  lier  affairs." 

In  this  speech  he  charged  the  Government 
with  being  the  "murderers  of  the  people," 
and  said  : — 

"  Mr.  Fitzgibbon  has  suggested  that  the 
measures  of  Government  may  have  been 
adopted  under  an  infatuation.  I  believe  there 
is  no  infatuation.  I  hold  a  very  different 
opinion  on  the  subject.  I  think  the  British 
Government  are  doing  what  they  intend 
to  do." 

Another  citizen  of  Dublin  seconded  Mr. 
O'Gorman's  resolution,  and  the  report  of 
bis  observations  has  these  sentences  : — 

"  I  have  listened  with  pain  and  disap- 
pointment to  the  proceedings  of  a  meeting 
purporting  to  be  a  meeting  of  the  citizens 
of  Dublin,  called  at  such  a  crisis,  and  to 
deliberate  npon  so  grave  a  subject,  yet 
at  which  the  resolutions  and  speakers,  as 
with  one  consent,  have  carefully  avoided 
speaking  out  what  nine-tenths  of  us  feel  to 
be  the  plain  truth  in  this  matter.  But  the 
truth,  my  lord,  must  be  told — and  the  truth 
is,  that  Ireland  starves  and  perishes,  simply 
because  the  English  have  eaten  us  out  of 
house  and  home.  Moreover,  that  all  the 
legislation  of  their  Parliament  is,  and  will 
be,  directed  to  this  one  end — to  enable  them 
hereafter  to  eat  us  out  of  house  and  home 
as  heretofore.  It  is  for  that  sole  end  they 
have  laid  their  grasp  upon  Ireland,  and  it 
is  for  that,  and  that  alone,  they  will  try  to 
keep  her." 

Greatly  to  the  consternation  of  the  quiet 
and  submissive  gentlemen  who  luul  convened 
the  meeting,  O'Gorman's  resolution  was 
adopted  by  overwhelming  acclnmation. 

Take  another  illustration  of  the  spirit  in 
which  British  charity  was  received  by  the 


Irish  people.  The  harvest  of  Ireland  was 
abundant  and  superabundant  in  1847,  as  it 
had  been  the  year  before.  The  problem  was, 
as  before,  to  get  it  quietly  and  peacefully  over 
to  England.  First,  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  issued  a  form  of  thanksgiving 
for  an  "  abundant  harvest,"  to  be  read  in 
all  churches  on  Sunday,  the  ITth  of  Octo- 
ber. One  Trevelyan,  a  Treasury  Clerk,  had 
been  sent  over  to  Ireland  on  some  pretence 
of  business,  and  the  first  thing  he  did  when 
he  landed  was  to  transmit  to  England 
an  humble  entreaty  that  the  Queen  would 
deign  to  issue  a  Royal  "Letter,"  asking 
alms  in  all  the  churches  on  the  day  of 
thanksgiving.  The  petition  was  complied 
with  ;  the  Times  grumbled  against  these 
eternal  Irish  beggars  ;  and  the  affair  was 
thus  treated  in  the  Nation,  which  certainly 
spoke  foi-  the  people  more  authentically  thau 
any  other  journal : — 

"  Cordially,  eagerly,  thankfully,  we  agree 
with  the  English  Timex,  in  this  one  respect 
— there  ought  to  he  no  alms  for  Ireland. 

"It  is  an  impudent  proposal,  and  ought  to 
be  rejected  with  scorn  and  contumely.  We 
are  sick  of  this  eternal  begging.  If  but 
one  voice  in  Ireland  should  be  raised  against 
it,  that  voice  shall  be  ours.  To-morrow, 
to-morrow,  over  broad  England,  Scotland, 
and  Wales,  the  people  who  devour  our  sub- 
stance from  year  to  year,  are  to  offer 
up  their  canting  thanksgivings  for  our 
'  abundant  harvest,'  and  fling  us  certain 
crumbs  and  crusts  of  it  for  charity.  Now, 
if  any  church-going  Englishman  will  heark- 
en to  us,  if  we  may  be  supposed  in  any  de- 
gree to  speak  for  our  countrymen,  we  put 
up  our  petition  thus  :  Keep  your  alms, 
ye  canting  robbers — button  your  pockets 
upon  the  Irish  plunder  that  is  in  them — - 
and  let  the  begging-box  pass  on.  Neither  as 
loans  nor  as  alms  will  we  take  that  which  is 
our  own.  We  spit  upon  the  benevolence 
that  robs  us  of  a  pound,  and  flings  back  a 
penny  in  charily.  Contribute  now  if  you 
will — these  will  be  your  thanks  ! 

"But  who  has  craved  this  charity? 
Why,  the  Queen  of  England,  and  her  Privy 
Council,  and  two  officers  of  her  Govern- 
ment, named  Trevelyan  and  Bnrgoyne  ! 
No  Irishman,  that  we  know  of,  has  begged 
alms  from  England. 


570 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


"  But  the  English  insist  ou  our  remaining 
beggars.  Charitable  souls  that  they  are, 
they  like  better  to  give  us  charity  than  let 
«s  earn  our  bread.  And  consider  the  time 
when  this  talk  of  alms-giving  begins  :  our 
'  abundant  harvest,'  for  which  they  are  to 
thank  God  to-morrow,  is  still  here  ;  and 
there  has  been  talk  of  keeping  it  here.  So, 
they  say  to  one  another  :  'Go  to  ;  let  us 
promise  them  charity  and  church  subscrip- 
tions— they  are  a  nation  of  beggars — they 
would  rather  have  alms  than  honest  earn- 
ings— let  us  talk  of  alms,  and  they  will  send 
us  the  bread  from  their  tables,  the  cattle 
from  their  pastures,  and  the  coats  from  their 
backs. 

"  We  charge  the  '  Government,'  we 
charge  the  Cabinet  Council  at  Osborne 
House,  with  this  base  plot.  We  tell  our 
countrymen  that  a  man,  named  Trevelyan, 
a  Treasury  Clerk— the  man  who  advised 
and  administered  the  Labor-Rate  act — that 
this  Trevelyan  has  been  sent  to  Ireland 
that  he,  an  Englishman,  may  send  over 
from  this  side  the  channel  a  petition  to  the 
charitable  in  England.  We  are  to  be  made 
to  beg,  whether  we  will  or  no.  The  Queen 
begs  for  us  ;  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
begs  for  us  ;  and  they  actually  send  a  man 
to  Ireland  that  a  veritable  Irish  begging 
petition  may  not  be  a-wanting. 

"  From  Salt  Hill  Hotel,  at  Kingstown, 
this  piteous  cry  goes  forth  to  England. 
'  In  justice,'  Trevelyan  says,  *  to  those  who 
have  appointed  a  general  collection  in  the 
churches  on  the  17  th,  and  still  more  in 
pity  to  the  unhappy  people  in  the  western 
districts  of  Ireland,'  he  implores  his  country- 
nien  to  have  mercy  ;  and  gets  his  letter 
published  in  the  London  papers,  (along 
with  another  from  Sir  John  Burgoyne,)  to 
stimulate  the  cliarity  of  those  good  and 
well-fed  Christians  who  will  enjoy  the  lux- 
ury of  benevolence  to-morrow. 

"  Once  more,  then,  we  scorn,  we  repulse, 
we  curse,  all  English  alms  ;  and  only  wish 
these  sentiments  of  ours  could  reach,  before 
noon  to-morrow,  eveVy  sanctimonious  thanks- 
giver  in  England,  Scotland,  Wales,  and 
Berwick-upon-Tweed." 

In  the  same  number  the  Nation  took  the 
pains  to. collect  and  present  statistics  by 
which  it  appeared  that  every  day,  one  day 


with  another,  twenty  large  steamships,  not 
counting  sailing  vessels,  left  Ireland  for 
England,  all  laden  with  that  "  abundant 
harvest " — for  which  the  English,  indeed, 
might  well  give-  thanks  in  their  churches. 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  if  the 
English  Government  and  people  really  and 
truly  did  endeavor  to  relieve  the  famine  in 
their  sister  country,  that  generosity  met  a 
most  ungrateful  return,  from  a  people,  too, 
who  are  proverbially  warm-hearted. 

For  the  famine  of  1847,  it  is  only  needful 
to  add  that,  during  this  year,  coroners' 
juries  in  several  counties  repeatedly,  on  in- 
quests over  famine-slain  corpses,  found,  upon 
their  oaths,  verdicts  of  "  Willful  Murder 
against  John  Russell,  commonly  called  Lord 
John  Russell,"  he  being  then  the  Queen's 
Prime  Minister, 

The  verdict  was  perfectly  justifiable,  and 
the  crime  quite  manifest ;  but  as  there  was 
no  power  to  bring  the  criminal  over  to 
Ireland  for  trial,  and  as  there  would  have 
been  no  use  in  arraigning  him  before  an 
English  jury,  he  was  never  brought  to 
justice. 

It  is  essential  that  foreign  nations  should 
never  believe,  for  the  future,  (what  the 
English  press  has  diligently  inculcated,) 
that  our  people,  when  smitten  by  famine,  fell 
a-begging,  from  England  or  from  America. 
Let  them  never  hereafter  wonder  when  they 
meet  with  Irishmen  ungrateful  for  the 
"relief  measures" — and,  above  all,  if  Ire- 
land should  again  starve,  (as  she  is  most 
likely  to  do,)  and  should  still  be  under 
British  dominion,  let  them  never  send  her  a 
bushel  of  corn  or  a  dollar  of  money. 
Neither  bushel  nor  dollar  will  ever  reach 
her. 

In  February,  184T,  and  amidst  the  deep- 
est gloom  and  horror  of  the  famine,  O'Con- 
nell,  old,  sick,  and  heavy-laden,  left  Ireland, 
and  left  it  forever.  Physicians  in  London 
recommended  a  journey  to  the  south  of 
Europe,  and  O'Connell  himself  desired  to 
see  the  Pope  before  he  died,  and  to  breathe 
out  his  soul  at  Rome,  in  the  choicest  odor 
of  sanctity.  By  slow  and  painful  stages  he 
proceeded  only  as  far  as  Genoa,  and  there 
died  on  the  15th  of  May. 

For  those  who  were  not  close  witnesses  of 
Irish  politics  in  that  day — who  did  not  seo 


DEATH   OF   O  CONKELL. 


571 


how  vast  this  giant  figure  loomed  iu  Ireland 
and  in  England  for  a  generation  and  a  half 
— it  is  not  easy  to  understand  the  strong 
emotion  caused  by  his  death,  both  in  friends 
and  enemies.  Yet,  for  a  whole  year  before,  he 
had  sunk  low,  indeed.  His  power  had  depart- 
ed from  him  ;  and  in  presence  of  the  terrible 
apparition  of  his  perishing  country  he  had 
seemed  to  sliriuk  and  wither.  Nothing  can  be 
conceived  more  helpless  than  his  speeches  in 
Conciliation  Hall,  and  his  appeals  to  the 
British  Parliament  during  that  time — yet, 
as  I  before  said,  he  never  bogged  alms  for 
Ireland,  he  never  fell  so  low  as  that  ;  and 
the  last  sentences  of  the  very  last  letter  he 
ever  penned  to  the  association  still  proclaim 
the  true  doctrine  : — 

"  It  will  not  be  until  after  the  deaths  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  that  the  regret  will 
arise  that  more  was  not  done  to  save  a 
sinking  nation. 

"How  different  would  the  scene  be  if  we 
had  our  own  Parliament — taking  care  of 
our  own  people — of  our  own  resources.  But, 
alas  !  alas  1  it  is  scarcely  permitted  to  think 
of  these,  the  only  sure  preventatives  of 
misery,  and  the  only  sure  instruments  of 
Irisli  prosperity." 

To  no  Irishman  can  the  wonderful  life  of 
O'Conuell  fail  to  be  impressive — from  the 
day  when,  a  fiery  and  thoughtful  boy,  he 
sought  the  cloisters  of  St.  Omers  for  the 
education  which  penal  laws  denied  him  in  his 
own  laud,  on  through  the  manifold  struggles 
and  victories  of  his  earlier  career,  as  he 
broke  and  flung  off,  with  a  kind  of  haughty 
impatience,  link  after  link  of  the  social  and 
political  chain  that  six  hundred  years  of 
steady  British  policy  had  woven  around 
every  limb  and  muscle  of  his  country,  down 
to  that  supreme  moment  of  the  blackness  of 
darkness  for  himself  and  for  Ireland,  when 
he  laid  down  his  burden  and  closed  his 
eyes.  Beyond  a  doubt,  his  death  was 
hastened  by  the  misery  of  seeing  his  proud 
hopes  dashed  to  the  earth,  and  his  well- 
beloved  people  perishing  ;  for  there  dwelt 
in  that  brawny  frame  tenderness  and  pity 
soft  as  woman's.  To  the  last  he  labored  on 
the  "Belief  Committees"  of  Dublin,  and 
thought  every  hour  lost  unless  employed  in 
rescuing  some  of  the  doomed. 

O'Connell's    body    rests   in   Ireland,  but 


without  his  heart.  He  gave  orders  that  the 
heart  should  be  removed  from  his  body  and 
sent  to  Rome.  The  funeral  was  a  great 
and  mournful  procession  through  the  streetsi 
of  Dublin,  and  it  will  show  how  wide  was 
the  alienation  wliich  divided  him  from  his 
former  confederates,  that  when  O'Brien 
signified  a  wish  to  attend  the  obsequies,  a 
pubHc  letter  from  John  O'Conuell  sullenly 
forbade  him. 

In  the  year  184*1  great  and  successful 
exertions  were  used  to  make  sure  that  the 
next  year  should  be  a  year  of  famine,  too. 
This  was  effected  mainly  by  holding  out  the 
prospect  of  "  out-door  relief" — to  obtain 
which  tenants  must  abandon  their  lands  and 
leave  them  untilled.  A  paragraph  from  a 
letter  of  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  parish  priest  of 
Skibbereen,  contains  within  it  an  epitome 
of  the  history  of  that  year.  It  was  pub- 
lished in  the  Free?nan,  March  r2th  : — 

"The  ground  continues  unsown  and, un- 
cultivated. There  is  a  mutual  distrust 
between  the  landlord  and  the  tenant.  The 
landlord  would  wish,  if  possible,  to  gei  up 
his  land ;  and  the  unfortunate  tenant  \i 
anxious  to  stick  to  it  as  long  as  he  can.  A 
good  many,  however,  are  giving  it  up,  and 
preparing  for  America  ;  and  these  are  the 
substantial  farmers  who  have  still  a  little 
means  left." 

"A  gentleman  traveling  from  Borris-in- 
Ossory  to  Kilkenny,  one  bright  spring 
morning,  counts  at  both  sides  of  the  road, 
in  a  distance  of  twenty-four  miles,  '  nine 
men  and  four  plouglis,'  occupied  in  the 
fields  ;  but  sees  multitudes  of  wan  laborers, 
'  beyond  the  power  of  computation  by  a 
mail-car  passenger,'  laboring  to  destroy  the 
road  he  was  traveling  upon.  It  was  a 
'  public-work.' " — {Dublin  Evening-  Mail.) 

In  the  same  month  of  March — "  The 
land,"  says  the  Mayo  Consiitution,  "  is  one 
vast  waste  :  a  soul  is  not  to  be  seen  working 
on  the  holdings  of  the  poor  farmers  through- 
out the  country,  and  those  who  have  had 
the  prudence  to  plough  or  dig  tlie  ground, 
are  in  fear  of  throwing  in  the  seed." 

When  the  new  "  Out-door  Relief  act" 
began  to  be  applied,  with  its  memorable 
Quarter-acre  clause,  all  this  process  went  on 
with  wonderful  velocity,  and  millions  of 
people  were  soon  left  landless  and  homeless. 


572 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


That  they  should  be  left  landless  and  home- 
less was  strictly  in  accordance  with  British 
policy  ;  but  then  there  was  danger  of  the 
millions  of  outcasts  becoming  robbers  atid 
murderers.  Accordingly,  the  next  point 
was  to  clear  the  country  of  them,  and  di- 
minish the  Poor-rates,  by  emigration. 

For,  though  they  were  perishing  fast  of 
Lunger  and  typhus,  they  were  not  perishing 
fast  enough.  It  was  inculcated  by  the 
English  press  that  the  temperament  and 
disposition  of  the  Irish  people  fitted  them 
peculiarly  for  some  remote  country  in  the 
East,  or  in  the  West  —  in  fact,  for  any 
country  but  their  own — that  Providence  had 
committed  some  mistake  in  causing  them  to 
be  born  in  Ireland.  As  usual,  the  Ti7nes 
was  foremost  iu  finding  out  this  singular 
freak  of  nature  1  Says  the  Times,  (Feb- 
ruary 22,  1847,)  :— 

"  Remove  Irishmen  to  the  banks  of  the 
Ganges,  or  the  Indus — to  Delhi,  Benares, 
or  Trincomalee — and  they  would  be  far 
more  in  their  element  there  than  hi  a 
ariintry  to  which  an  inexorable  fate  has  con- 
fined them." 

Again,  a  Mr.  Murray,  a  Scotch  banker, 
■writes  a  pamphlet  upon  the  proper  measures 
for  Ireland.  "  The  surplus  population  of 
Ireland,"  says  Mr.  Murray,  "  have  been 
trained  precisely  for  those  pursuits  which  the 
unoccupied  regions  of  North  America  re- 
quire." "Which  might  appear  strange — a 
population  expressly  trained,  and  that 
precisely,  to  suit  any  country  except  their 
own  ! 

But  these  are  comparatively  private  and 
individual  suggestions.  Iu  April  of  this 
year,  however,  six  Peers  and  twelve  Com- 
moners, who  call  themselves  Irish,  but  who 
include  amongst  them  such  "  Irishmen  "  as 
Dr.  Whateley  and  ^Ir.  Godley,  laid  a 
scheme  before  Lord  John  Russell,  for  the 
transportation  of  one  million  and  a  half  of 
Irishmen  to  Canada,  at  a  cost  of  nine 
millions  sterling,  to  be  charged  on  "  Irish 
property,"  and  to  be  paid  by  an  income 
tax. 

Again,  within  the  same  year,  a  few 
months  later,  a  "  Select  Committee,"  (and 
a  very  select  one,)  of  the  House  of 
Lords  brings  up  a  report  "  On  Colonization 
from     Ireland."      Their    lordships    report 


that  all  former  committees  on  the  state  of 
Ireland  (with  one  exception,)  had  agreed, 
at  least,  on  this  point — that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  remove  the  "  excess  of  labor."  They 
say  :— 

"  They  have  taken  evidence  respecting  the 
state  of  Ireland,  of  the  British  North  Amer- 
ican Colonies,  (including  Canada,  New 
Brunswick,  Nova  Scotia,  Newfoundland,) 
the  West  India  Islands,  New  South  Wales, 
Port  Philip,  South  Australia,  Yan  Diemen's 
Land,  and  New  Zealand.  On  some  of  these 
points  it  will  be  found  that  their  inquiries 
have  little  more  than  commenced  ;  on 
others,  that  those  inquiries  have  been  carried 
somewhat  nearer  to  completion,  but  in  no 
case  can  it  be  considered  that  the  subject  is 

yet  exhausted 

Tiie  committee  are  fully  aware  that  they 
have  as  yet  examined  into  many  points  but 
superficially,  and  that  some,  as,  for  example, 
the  state  of  the  British  possessions  in 
Southern  Africa,  and  in  the  Territory  of 
Natal,  have  not  yet  been  considered  at  all. 
Neither  have  they  obtained  adequate  inform- 
ation respecting  what  we  sincerely  hope 
may  hereafter  be  considered  as  the  prospering 
settlement  of  Ne'.o  Zealand.  The  important 
discoveries  of  Sir  T.  Mitchell  in  Australia, 
have  also  been  but  slightly  noticed." 

It  appears  that  any  inquiry  into  the 
state  of  Ireland  naturally  called  their  lord- 
ships to  a  consideration  distant  of  latitudes 
and  longitudes. 

Their  lordships  further  declare  that  the 
emigration  which  they  recommend  must  be 
"  voluntary  "  —  and,  also,  that  "  there 
was  a  deep  and  pervading  anxiety  for 
emigration  exhibited  by  the  people  them- 
selves." 

A  deep  and  pervading  anxiety  to  fly,  to 
escape  any  whither  I  From  whom  ?  Men 
pursued  by  wild  beasts  will  show  a  pervad- 
ing anxiety  to  go  anywhere  out  of  reach.  If 
a  country  be  made  too  hot  to  hold  its  in- 
habitants, they  will  be  willing  even  to  throw 
themselves  into  the  sea. 

All  this  while,  that  there  were  from 
four  to  five  millions  of  acres  of  improv- 
able waste  lands  in  Ireland — and  even 
from  the  land  in  cultivation  Ireland  was 
exporting  food  enough  every  year  to  sus- 
tain eight  millions  of  people  in  England. 


BRITISH   FAMINE   POLICY. 


573 


None  of  the  vast  public  schemes  of  emi- 
gration was  adopted  by  Parliament  in  its 
full  extent  ;  though  aid  was,  from  time  to 
time,  given  to  minor  projects  for  that  end  ; 
and  landlords  continued  very  busy  all  this 
year  and  the  next,  shipping  all  their  "  sur- 
plus tenantry "  by  their  own  private  re- 
sources, thinking  it  cheaper  than  to  maintain 
them  by  rates.  The  Poor  Law  Guardians, 
also,  were  authorized  to  transport  paupers, 
and  to  appropriate  part  of  the  rates  to  that 
purpose. 

There  has  now  been  laid  before  the  read- 
er a  complete  sketch,  at  least  in  outline,  of 
the  British  famine  policy — expectation  of 
Government  spoon-feeding  at  the  point 
of  police  bayonets — shaking  the  farmers 
loose  from  their  lands,  employing  them  for  a 
time  on  strictly  useless  public  works — then 
disgorging  them  in  crowds  of  one  hundred 
thousand  at  a  time,  to  beg,  or  rob,  or 
perish — then,  "  out-door  relief,"  administered 
in  quantities  altogether  infinitesimal  in  pro- 
portion to  the  need — then  that  universal 
ejectment,  the  Quarter-acre  law — then  the 
corruption  of  the  middle  class  by  holding 
out  the  prize  of  ten  thousand  new  Govern- 
ment situations — then  the  Vagrancy  act,  to 
make  criminals  T)f  all  houseless  wanderers — 
then  the  "voluntary"  emigration  schemes 
— then  the  omnipresent  police,  hanging 
like  a  cloud  over  the  houses  of  all  "suspect- 
ed persons" — that  is,  all  persons  who  still 
kept  a  house  over  their  heads — then  the 
quarantine  regulations,  and  increased  fare 
for  dedc  passengers  to  England,  thus  de- 
barring the  doomed  race  from  all  escape  at 
that  side,  and  leaving  them  the  sole  al- 
ternative :  America  or  the  grave.  This, 
gives  something  like  a  map  or  plan  of  tlic 
field  as  laid  out  and  surveyed  for  the  final 
conquest  of  the  island. 

The  Irish  landlords  were  now  in  dire  per- 
plexity. Many  of  them  were  good  and  just 
men  ;  but  the  vast  majority  were  fully 
identified  in  interest  with  the  British  Gov- 
ernment, and  desired  nothing  so  much  as  to 
destroy  the  population.  They  would  not 
consent  to  tenant-right  ;  they  dared  not 
trust  themselves  in  Ireland  without  a  Brit- 
ish army.  They  may  have  felt,  indeed, 
that  they  were  themselves  both  injured  and 
insulted    by    the  whole   system  of   English 


legislation  ;  but  they  would  submit  to  any- 
thing rather  than  fraternize  with  the  injured 
Catholic  Celts.  A  few  landlords  and  other 
gentlemen  met  and  formed  an  "  Irish  Coun- 
cil ;"  but  these  were  soon  frightened  into 
private  life  again  by  certain  revolutionary 
proposals  of  some  members,  and  especially 
by  the  very  name  of  tenant-right.  At  last, 
about  the  end  of  this  year,  seeing  that 
another  season's  famine  was  approaching, 
and  knowing  that  violent  counsels  began  to 
prevail  amongst  the  extreme  sjection  of  the 
national  party,  the  landlords,  in  guilty  and 
cowardly  rage  and  fear,  called  on  Parliament 
for  a  new  Coercion  act. 

From  this  moment  all  hope  that  the  land- 
ed gentry  would  stand  on  the  side  of  Ire- 
land against  England  utterly  vanished.  This 
deadly  alliance  between  the  landlords  and  the 
Government  brought  Irish  affairs  to  a  crisis  ; 
broke  up  the  "  Irish  Confederation,"  (com- 
posed of  the  extreme  nationalists,  who 
could  no  longer  exist  in  the  Repeal  Associa- 
tion,) and  provoked  an  attempt  at  insurrec- 
tion. 

Before  going  further,  however,  two  facts 
should  be  mentioned  :  First,  That  by  a  care- 
ful census  of  the  agricultural  produce  of 
Ireland  for  this  year,  1847,  made  by  Cap- 
tain Larcom,  as  a  Government  Commission- 
er, the  total  value  of  that  produce  was 
jE44,958,120  sterling  ;  which  would  have 
amply  sustained  double  the  entire  people  of 
the  island.*  This  return  is  given  in  detail, 
and  agrees  generally  with  another  estimate 
of  the  same,  prepared  by  John  Martin,  of 
Loughorn,  in  the  County  Down — a  gentle- 
mau  whose  name  will  be  mentioned  again  in 
this  narrative.  Second,  That  at  least  five 
hundred  thousand  human  beings  perished 
this  year  of  famine,  and  of  famine-tvphus  ;  ■{" 
and  two  hundred  thousand  more  fled  beyond 
the  sea,  to  escape  famine  and  fever.  Third, 
That  the  loans  for  relief  given  to  the 
Public  Works  and  Public  Commissariat 
Departments,  to  be  laid  out  as  iht-y  should 

*•  In  Thoin's  Official  Almanac  and  Directory,  the 
Government  lias  taken  care  to  suppress  the  state- 
ment of  f^ross  amount. 

t  The  deaths  by  famine  of  the  year  before,  we 
may  set  down  at  three  hundred  thousand.  There  is 
no  possibility  of  ascertaining  the  numbers ;  and  whea 
the  Government  Commissioners  pretend  to  do  so, 
they  intend  deception. 


674 


HISTORY    OF   IKELAND. 


think  proper,  and  to  be  repaid  by  rates 
on  Irish  property,  went  in  the  first  place  to 
maintain  ten  thousand  greedy  officials  ;  and 
that  the  greater  part  of  these  funds  never 
reached  the  people  at  all,  or  reached  them 
hi  such  a  way  as  to  ruin  and  exterminate 
them. 

A  kind  of  sacred  wrath  took  possession 
of  a  few  Irishmen  at  this  period.  They 
"-ould  endure  the  horrible  scene  no  longer, 
and  resolved  to  cross  the  path  of  the  Brit- 
ish car  of  conquest,  though  it  should  crush 
them  to  atoms. 


CHAPTER  LX. 

1847—1848. 

Lord  Clarendon  Viceroy — His  Means  of  Insuring  the 
Shipment  to  England  of  the  Usual  Tribute — Bribes 
the  Baser  Sort  of  Editors — Patronage  for  Catholic 
Lawyers  —  Another  Coercion  Act  —  Projects  for 
Stopping  Export  of  Grain — Arming — Alarm  of  Gov- 
ernment—Whigs Active  in  Coercion — French  Re- 
volution of  February — Confederate  Clubs — Depu- 
tation from  Dublin  to  Paris — O'Brien's  Last  Ap- 
pearance in  Parliament — Trials  of  O'Brien  and 
Meagher — Trial  of  Mitchel — Packing  of  the  Jury 
—Reign  of  Terror  in  Dublin. 

In  the  summer  of  this  year,  1847,  Lord 
Clarendon  was  sent  over,  as  Lord-Lieuten- 
ant, to  finish  the  conquest  of  Ireland — just 
as  Lord  Mountjoy  had  been  sent  to  bring  to 
an  end  the  wars  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign ; 
and  by  the  same  means  substantially — that 
is,  by  corruption  of  the  rich  and  starva- 
tion of  the  poor.  The  form  of  procedure, 
indeed,  was  somewhat  different ;  for  Eng- 
lish statesmen  of  the  sixteenth  century  had 
not  learned  to  use  the  weapons  of  "  amelior- 
ation" and  "political  economy;"  neither  had 
they  yet  established  the  policy  of  keeping 
Ireland  as  a  store-farm  to  raise  wealth  for 
England.  Lord  Mountjoy's  system,  then, 
had  somewhat  of  a  rude  character  ;  and  he 
could  think  of  nothing  better  than  sending 
large  bodies  of  troops  to  cut  down  the  green 
corn,  and  burn  the  houses.  In  one  expedi- 
tion into  Leinster,  his  biographer,  Moryson, 
estimates  that  he  destroyed  "  ten  thousand 
pounds  worth  of  corn,"  that  is,  wheat  ;  an 
amount  which  might  now  be  stated  at 
£200,000  worth.  In  O'Cahan's  country,  in 
Ulster,  as  the  same  Moryson  tells  us,  after 
u  razzia  of  Mountjoy  :   "  We  have  none  left 


to  give  us  opposition,  nor  of  late  have  seen 
any  but  dead  carcasses,  merely  starved  for 
want  of  meat."  So  that  Mountjoy  could 
boast  he  had  given  Ireland  to  Elizabeth, 
"nothing  but  carcasses  and  ashes." 

Lord  Clarendon's  method  was  more  in 
the  spirit  of  the  nineteenth  century,  though 
his  slaughters  were  more  terrible  in  the  end 
than  Mountjoy's.  Again  there  was  growing 
upon  Irish  soil  a  noble  harvest  ;  but  it  had 
been  more  economical  to  carry  it  over  to 
England  by  help  of  free  trade,  than  to 
burn  it  on  the  ground.  The  problem  then 
was,  as  it  had  been  the  last  year,  and 
the  year  before,  how  to  insure  its  speedy 
and  peaceful  transmission.  Accordingly, 
Lord  Clarendon  came  over  with  concilia- 
tory speeches,  and  large  professions  of 
the  desire  of  "Government"  now,  at  last, 
to  stay  the  famine.  Sullen  murmurs  had 
been  heard,  and  even  open  threats  and 
urgent  recommendations,  that  the  Irish  har- 
vest must  not  be  suffered  to  go  another 
year  ;  and  there  were  rumors  of  risings  in 
the  harvest  to  break  up  the  roads,  to  pull 
down  the  bridges,  in  every  way  to  stop  the 
tracks  of  this  fatal  "  commerce  ; "  rumors, 
in  short,  of  an  insurrection.  Some  new  meth- 
od, then,  had  to  be  adopted,  to  turn  the 
thoughts  and  hopes  of  that  too-credulous 
people  once  more  towards  the  "  Govern- 
ment." Lord  Clarendon  recommended  a 
tour  of  agricultural  "lectures,''  the  expense 
to  be  provided  for  by  the  Royal  Agricul- 
tural Society,  aided  by  public  money.  The 
lecturers  were  to  go  upon  every  estate,  call 
the  people  together,  talk  to  them  of  the  be- 
nevolent intentions  of  his  excellency,  and 
give  them  good  advice. 

The  poor  people  listened  respectfully,  but 
usually  told  the  lecturers  that  there  was  no 
use  in  following  that  excellent  agricultur- 
al advice,  as  they  were  all  going  to  be 
turned  out  the  next  spring.  These  lecturers 
published  tlieir  report — a  most  amazing  pic- 
ture of  patient  suffering  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  official  insolence  on  the  other.  One 
Fitzgerald,  a  most  energetic  lecturer,  full 
of  Liebig's  Agricultural  Chemistry,  tells  us  : 
"  They  all  agreed  that  what  I  said  was  just ; 
but  they  always  had  some  excuse,  that  they 
could  not  get  seed,  or  had  nothing  to  live  on 
in  the  meantime." 


LORD    CLARENDON   TICEROT. 


575 


And  a  Mr.  Goode,  who  was  also  iustruct- 
iiig  the  West,  says  : — 

"  The  poor  people  here  appeared  to  be  in 
a  most  desponding  state  :  they  always  met 
me  with  the  argument  that  there  was  no 
use  in  tlieir  working  there,  for  they  were 
going  to  be  turned  out  in  spring,  and  would 
liave  their  houses  pulled  down  over  them. 
I  used  to  tell  tliera  that  I  had  nothing  to  do 
with  that  ;  that  I  was  sent  among  them  by 
some  kind,  intelligent  gentlemen,  barely  to 
tell  them  what  course  to  pursue.'" 

That  was  all.  Lord  Clarendon  had  not 
sent  down  Mr.  Goode  to  lecture  on  leyiant- 
right ;  and  the  people  had  no  business  to 
obtrude  their  Jacobin  principles  upon  a 
Government  "  instructor."  They  might  as 
well  have  prated  to  him  about  repeal  of  the 
Union. 

Another  measure  of  Lord  Clarendon  was 
to  buy  support  at  the  press  with  Secret- 
Service  money.  To  the  honor  of  the  Dublin 
press,  this  was  a  somewhat  difficult  matter. 
The  Government  had,  at  that  time,  only  one 
leading  journal  in  ihe  metropolis  on  which 
it  could  surely  rely — the  Evening  Post — 
Lord  Clarendon  wanted  another  organ, 
and  of  lower  species  ;  for  be  had  work  to 
do  which  the  comparatively  respectable 
Post  might  shrink  from.  He  sought  out  a 
creature  named  Birch,  editor  of  the  World, 
a  paper  which  was  never  named  nor  alluded 
to  by  any  reputable  journal  in  the  city. 
This  Birch  lived  by  hush-money,  or  black- 
mail of  the  most  infamous  kind — that  is, 
extorting  money  from  private  persons,  men 
and  women,  by  threats  of  inventing  and 
publishing  scandalous  stories  of  their  domestic 
circles.  He  had  been  tried  more  than  once 
and  convicted  of  this  species  of  swindling. 
"I  then  offered  him  £100,  if  I  remember 
rightly,"  says  Lord  Clarendon,*  "  for  it  did 
not  make  any  great  impression  on  me  at  the 
time.  He  said  that  would  not  be  sufficient 
for  his  purpose,  and  I  think  it  was  then 
extended  to  about  ^£350."  On  further 
examination,  his  lordship  confessed  tliat  he 
had  paid  Birch  "further  sums" — in  short, 
kept  him  regularly  in  pay  ;  and,  finally,  on 
Birch  bringing  suit  against  him  for  the 
balance  due  for  "  work  and  labor,"  had  paid 

*See  evidence  on  the  trial,  Birch  against  Sir  T. 
Redincton. 


him  in  one  sura  iE2,000,  at  the  same  time 
taking  up  all  the  papers  and  Ittters,  (as  he 
thought,)  which  might  bring  the  transaction 
to  light.  Everybody  can  guess  the  nature  of 
Birch's  work  and  labor,  and  quantum  meruit. 
His  duty  was  to  make  weekly  attacks  of  a 
private  and  revolting  nature  upon  Smith 
O'Brien,  upon  Mr.  Meagher,  upon  Mr. 
Mitchel,  and  every  one  else  who  was  prom- 
inent in  resisting  and  exposing  the  Govern- 
ment measures.  Further,  the  public  money 
was  employed  in  the  gratuitous  distribution 
of  the  World  ;  for  otherwise,  decent  persons 
would  never  have  seen  it. 

It  was  long  afterwards  that  the  public 
learned  how  all  this  subterranean  agency 
had  come  to  light  on  the  trial  of  one  of  the 
suits  which  Birch  was  forced  to  institute  for 
recovery  of  his  wages. 

A  third  measure  of  the  Viceroy  was — 
extreme  liberality  towards  Catholic  lawyers 
and  gentlemen  in  the  distribution  of  patron- 
age ;  that  so  they  might  be  the  more 
effectually  bought  off  from  all  common 
interest  and  sympathy  with  the  "  lower 
orders,"  and  might  stand  patiently  by  and 
see  their  people  slain  or  banished.  Amongst 
others,  Mr.  Monahan,  an  industrious  and 
successful  Catholic  barrister,  was  made 
Attorney-General  for  Ireland — from  which 
the  next  step  was  to  the  bench.  Mr. 
Monahan  became  a  gratefid  and  useful  ser- 
vant to  the  enemies  of  his  country. 

The  summer  of  '47  had  worn  through 
wearily  and  hopelessly.  All  endeavors  to 
rouse  the  landlord  class  to  exertion  entirely 
failed,  through  their  coward  fear  of  an  out- 
raged and  plundered  people  ;  and,  at  last, 
when  out  of  the  vast  multitudes  of  men 
thrown  from  public  works,  houseless  and 
famishing,  a  few  committed  murders  and 
robberies,  or  shot  a  bailiff  or  an  incoming 
tenant,  the  landlords  in  several  counties 
besought  for  a  new  Coercion  and  Arms  act ; 
so  as  to  make  that  code  more  stringent  and 
inevitable.  Lord  John  Russell  was  but  too 
happy  to  comply  wilii  the  demand  ;  but  the 
landlords  were  to  give  something  in  exchange 
for  this  security. 

Addresses  of  confidence  were  voted  by 
Grand  Juries  and  county  meetings  of  land-! 
lords.  Tlie  Irish  gentry  almost  uiianiinous- 
ly  vuluutecrea   addresses  denuunciug  repeal 


576 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


and  repealers,  and  pledging  themselves  to 
maintain  the  Union.  At  the  same  time 
ejectment  was  more  active  than  ever,  and  it 
is  not  to  be  denied  that  amongst  the  myriads 
of  desperate  men  who  then  wandered  house- 
less, there  were  some  who  would  not  die 
tamely.  Before  taking  their  last  look  at 
the  sun,  they  could,  at  least,  lie  in  wait  for 
the  agent  who  had  pulled  down  their  houses 
and  turned  their  weeping  children  adrift ; 
him,  at  least,  they  could  send  to  perdition 
before  them. 

The  crisis  was  come.  The  people  no 
longer  trusted  the  ameliorative  professions 
of  their  enemies  ;  and  there  were  some  who 
zealously  strove  to  rouse  them  now  at  last, 
to  stand  up  for  their  own  lives  ;  to  keep 
the  harvest  of  '47  within  the  four  seas  of  Ire- 
land ;  and  by  this  one  blow  to  prostrate 
Irish  landlordism,  and  the  British  Empire 
along  with  it. 

This  was  a  perilous,  and,  perhaps,  an 
utterly  desperate  enterprize,  while  England 
was  at  peace  with  all  the  world,  and  at  full 
liberty  to  hurl  the  whole  mass  of  her  mili- 
tary power  upon  a  small  island  which  she 
already  held  with  so  firm  a  grasp.  Even 
those  who  counseled  armed  resistance  were 
fully  conscious  of  the  desperation  of  that 
course,  but  honestly  thought  that  any 
death — especially  death  in  just  war — was 
better  than  the  death  of  a  dog,  by  hunger. 

In  the  meantime,  the  beautiful  metropolis 
of  Ireland  was  extremely  gay  and  brilliant. 
After  two  years'  frightful  famine  —  and 
when  it  was  already  apparent  that  the  7iext 
famine,  of  1847-48,  would  be  even  more 
desolating — you  may  imagine  that  Dublin 
City  would  show  some  effect  or  symptom  of 
such  a  national  calamity.  Singular  to 
relate,  that  city  had  never  before  been  so 
gay  and  luxurious  ;  splendid  equipages  had 
never  before  so  crowded  the  streets  ;  and 
the  theatres  and  concert-rooms  had  never 
been  filled  with  such  brilliant  throngs.  In 
truth,  the  rural  gentry  resorted  in  greater 
numbers  to  the  metropolis  at  this  time — 
some  to  avoid  the  sight  and  sound  of  the 
misery  which  surrounded  their  country 
seats,  and  which  British  laws  almost  ex- 
pressly enacted  they  should  not  relieve  ;  some 
to  get  out  of  reach  of  an  exasperated  and 
houseless   peasantry.      Any    stranger,  arri- 


ving in  those  days,  guided  by  judicious 
friends  only  through  fa:shionable  streets  and 
squares,  introduced  only  to  proper  circles, 
would  have  said  that  Dublin  must  be  the 
prosperous  capital  of  some  wealthy  and 
happy  country. 

The  new  Poor  law  was  now  on  all  hands 
admitted  to  be  a  failure  ; — that  is,  a  failure 
as  to  its  ostensible  purpose  ;  for  its  real  pur- 
pose, reducing  the  body  of  the  people  to 
"  able-bodied  pauperism,"  it  had  been  no 
failure  at  all,  but  a  complete  success.  Near- 
ly ten  millions  sterling  had  now  been  ex- 
pended under  the  several  relief  acts  ; — ex- 
pended mostly  in  salaries  to  officials  ;  the 
rest  laid  out  in  useless  work,  or  in  providing 
rations  for  a  shoi't  time  to  induce  small 
farmers  to  give  up  their  land  ;  which  was 
the  condition  of  such  relief.  Instead  of 
ten  millions  in  three  years,  if  twenty  millions 
had  been  advanced  in  the  first  year,  and  ex- 
pended on  useful  labor,  (that  being  the  sum 
which  had  been  devoted  promptly  to  turn- 
ing wild  the  West  India  negroes,)  the 
whole  famine-slaughter  might  have  been 
averted,  and  the  whole  advance  would  have 
been  easily  repaid  to  the  Truasury.* 

Long  before  the  Government  Commis- 
sioners had  proclaimed  their  law  a  failure, 
the  writers  in  the  Nation  had  been  endea- 
voring to  turn  the  minds  of  the  people 
towards  the  only  real  remedy  for  all  their 
evils — that  is,  a  combined  movement  to  pre- 
vent the  export  of  provisions,  and  to  resist 
process  of  ejectment.  This  involved  a  de- 
nial of  rent  and  refusal  of  rales ;  involved, 
in  otlier  words,  a  root  and  branch  revolu- 
tion, socially  and  politically. 

Such  revolutionary  ideas  could  only  be 
justified  by  a  desperate  necessity,  and  by 
the  unnatural  and  fatal  sort  of  connection 
between  Irish  landlords  and  Irish  tenants. 
The  peasantry  of  England,  of  Scotland, 
and  of  Ireland,  stand  in  three  several  rela- 
tions towards  the  lords  of  their  soil.  In 
England  they  are  simply  the  emancipated 
serfs   and    villeins   of    the   feudal   system ; 


*  Of  the  £10,000,000  advanced  by  the  Treasury, 
three  millions  had  been  repaid  by  rates  in  1854. 
What  may  have  been  refunded  since,  it  is  not  easy 
to  learn  with  any  accuracy.  The  accounts  between 
Ireland  and  the  Lnperial  Treasury  are  kept  is 
England. 


PBOJECTS   FOR   STOPPINa   EXPORT    OF    GRAIN. 


577 


never  knew  any  other  form  of  social  polity, 
nor  any  other  lords  of  the  soil,  since  the 
Norman  conquest.  As  England,  however, 
prosecuted  her  conquests  by  degrees  in  the 
other  two  kingdoms,  she  found  the  free 
Celtic  system  of  clanship  ;  and  as  rebellion 
after  rebellion  was  crushed,  her  statesmen 
insisted  upon  regarding  the  chiefs  of  clans 
as  feudal  lords,  and  their  clansmen  as  their 
vassals  or  tenants.  In  Scotland,  the  chiefs 
gladly  assented  to  this  view  of  the  case, 
and  the  Mac  Galium  More  became,  nothing 
loath,  Duke  of  Argyle,  and  owner  of  the 
territory  which  had  been  the  tribe  lands  of 
his  clan.  Owing  mainly  to  the  fact  that 
estates  in  Scotland  were  not  so  tempting  a 
prey  as  the  rich  tracts  of  Ireland — and 
partly  owing  also  to  the  Scottish  people 
having  generally  become  Protestants  on  the 
change  of  religion — there  was  but  little 
change  in  the  ruling  families  ;  and  the  Scot- 
tish clansmen,  now  become  "tenantry,"  paid 
their  duties  to  the  heads  of  their  own  kin- 
dred as  before.  So  it  has  happened  that  to 
this  day  there  is  no  alienation  of  feeling,  or 
distinction  of  race,  to  exasperate  the  lot  of 
the  poor  cultivators  of  the  soil. 

In  Ireland,  wherever  the  chiefs  turned  Pro- 
testant, and  chose  to  accept  "grants"  of 
their  tribe-lands  at  the  hands  of  British 
kings,  (as  the  De  Burghs  and  O'Briens,) 
much  the  same  state  of  things  took  place 
for  a  while.  But  Ireland  never  submitted 
to  English  dominion  as  Scotland  has  done  ; 
and  there  were  continual  "  rebellions,"  (so 
the  English  termed  our  nationarl  resistance,) 
followed  by  extensive  confiscations.  Many 
hundreds  of  great  estates  in  Ireland  have 
thus  been  confiscated  twice,  and  three  times  ; 
and  the  new  proprietors  were  Englishmen, 
and,  in  a  portion  of  Ulster,  Scotchmen. 
These,  of  course,  had  no  common  interest 
or  sympathy  with  the  people,  whom  they 
considered  and  called,  "  the  Irish  enemy." 
Still,  while  Ireland  had  her  own  Parliament, 
and  the  landlords  resided  at  home,  the  state 
of  affairs  was  tolerable  ;  but  when  the  Act 
of  "Union,"  in  1800,  concentrated  the  pride 
and  splendor  of  the  empire  at  London,  and 
made  Englaiid  the  great  field  of  ambition 
and  distinction,  most  of  our  grandees  re- 
sided out  of  Ireland,  kept  agents  and  bail- 
iffs there,  wrung  the  utmost  fartliiiig  out 
73 


of    the   defenceless    people,    and    spent   it 
elsewhere. 

Now,  it  never  would  have  entered  the 
mind  of  any  rational  or  just  man,  at  this 
late  date,  to  call  in  question  the  title  to 
long-ago  confiscated  estates  ;  nor,  suppos- 
ing those  titles  proved  bad,  would  it  have 
been  possible  to  find  the  right  owners.  But 
when  the  system  was  found  to  work  so 
fatally — when  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
people  were  lying  down  and  perishing  in  the 
midst  of  abundance,  and  superabundance, 
which  their  own  hands  had  created,  society 
itself  stood  dissolved.  That  form  of  so- 
ciety was  not  only  a  failure,  but  an  intoler- 
able oppression,  and  cried  aloud  to  be  cut 
up  by  the  roots  and  swept  away. 

Those  who  thought  thus,  had  reconciled 
their  minds  to  the  needful  means — that  is, 
a  revolution,  as  fundamental  as  the  French 
revolution,  and  to  the  wars  and  horrors  in- 
cident to  that.  The  horrors  of  war,  they 
knew,  were  by  no  means  so  terrible  as  the 
horrors  of  peace  which  their  own  eyes  had 
seen  ;  they  were  ashamed  to  see  their  kins- 
men patiently  submitting  to  be  starved  to 
death,  and  longed  to  see  blood  flow,  if  it 
were  only  to  show  that  blood  still  flowed  in 
Irish  veins. 

The  enemy  began  to  take  genuine  alarm 
at  these  violent  doctriiies  —  especially  as 
they  found  that  the  people  were  taking  them 
to  heart ;  and  already,  in  Clare  County, 
mobs  were  stopping  the  transport  of  grain 
towards  the  seaports.  If  rents  should  cease 
to  be  levied,  it  was  clear  that  not  only  would 
England  lose  her  five  millions  sterling  j?er 
annum  of  absentee  rents,  but  mortgagees, 
fundholders,  insurance  companies,  and  the 
like,  would  lose  dividends,  interests,  bonus, 
and  profits.  There  was  then  in  England  a 
gentleman  who  was  in  the  habit  of  writing 
able  but  sanguinary  exhortations  to  Minis- 
ters, with  the  signature  "  S.  G.  0."  His 
addresses  appeared  in  the  Times,  and  were 
believed  to  influence  considerably  the  coun- 
sels of  Government.  In  November,  1841, 
this  "  S.  G.  0."  raised  tlie  alarm,  and  call- 
ed for  piompL  coercion  in  Ireland.  Here 
is  one  sentence  from  a  letter  of  his  reverence 
— for  "  S.  G.  0."  was  a  clergyman  : — • 

"  Lord  John  may  safely  believe  me  when 
I  say  that  the  prosperity  — nay,  almost  the 


57S 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


very  existence  of  many  insurance  societies, 
the  positive  salvation  from  utter  ruin  of 
many,  very  many  mortgagees,  depends  on 
some  instant  steps  to  make  life  ordinarily 
secure  in  Ireland  ;  of  course,  I  only  mean 
life  in  that  class  of  it  in  which  individuals 
effect  insurances  and  give  mortgages." 

In  short,  his  reverence  meant  high  life. 
Lord  Clarendon,  as  Parliament  was  not 
then  sitting,  issued  an  admonitory  address, 
wherein  he  announced  that : — 

"  The  constabulary  will  be  increased  in 
all  disturbed  districts,  (whereby  an  addi- 
tional burden  will  be  thrown  upon  the  rates,) 
military  detachments  will  be  stationed  wher- 
ever necessary,  and  efficient  patrols  main- 
tained ;  liberal  rewards  will  be  given  for  in- 
formation," &c. 

In  the  meantime,  large  forces  were  con- 
centrated at  points  where  the  spirit  of  re- 
sistance showed  itself  ;  for  a  sample  of  which 
we  take  a  paragraph  from  the  Tipperary 
J^ree  Press: — 

"  A  large  military  force,  under  the  civil 
authority,  has  seized  upon  the  produce  of 
such  farms  in  Boytonrath,  as  owed  reut  and 
arrears  to  the  late  landlord,  Mr.  Roe,  and 
the  same  will  be  removed  to  Dublin,  and 
sold  there,  if  not  redeemed  within  fourteen 
days.  There  are  two  hundred  soldiers  and 
their  officers  garrisoned  in  the  mansion  house 
at  Rockwell." 

.  Whereupon,  the  Nation  urged  the  people 
to  begin  calculating  whether  ten  times  the 
whole  British  army  would  be  enough  to  act 
as  bailiffs  and  drivers  everywhere  at  once  ; 
OI-,  whether,  if  they  did,  the  proceeds  of  the 
distress  miglit  answer  e.xpectation.  In  fact, 
it  was  obvious  that  if  the  enemy  should  be 
forced  to  employ  their  forces  in  this  way 
over  the  island — to  lift  and  carry  the  whole 
harvests  of  Ireland,  and  that  over  roads 
broken  up  and  bridges  broken  down  to  ob- 
struct them,  and  with  the  daily  risk  of  meet- 
ing bands  of  able-bodied  paupers  to  dispute 
their  passage — the  service  would  soon  have 
been  wholly  demoralized,  and  after  three 
months  of  such  employment,  the  remnant 
of  the  army  might  have  been  destroyed. 

Parliament  was  called  hastily  together. 
Her  Majesty  told  the  Houses  that  there 
were  atrocious  crimes  in  Ireland — a  spirit 
of  insubordination,  an  organized  resistance  to 


"legal  rights  ;"  and,  of  course,  that  she  re- 
quired "  additional  powers  "  for  the  protec- 
tion of  life — that  is,  high  life. 

The  meaning  of  this  was  a  new  Coercion 
bill.  It  was  carried  without  delay,  and 
with  unusual  unanimity  ;  and  it  is  instructive 
here  to  note  the  difference  between  a  Whig 
in  power,  and  a  Whig  out.  When  Sir 
Robert  Peel  had  proposed  his  Coercion  bill 
the  year  before,  it  had  been  vehemently  op- 
posed by  Lord  John  Russell  and  Lord  Grey, 
It  was  time  to  have  done  with  coercion, 
they  had  said  ;  Ireland  had  been  "  misgov- 
erned : "  there  had  been  too  many  Arms 
acts;  it  was  "justice"  that  was  wanted 
now,  and  they,  the  Whigs,  were  the  men  to 
dispense  it.  Earl  Grey,  speaking  of  the 
last  Coercion  bill,  (it  was  brought  in  by  the 
other  party,)  said,  emphatically,  {see  delate 
in  the  Lords,  March  23,  1846,)  "  that  mea- 
sures of  severity  had  been  tried  long 
enough  ; "  and  repeated  with  abhorrence, 
the  list  of  coercive  measures  passed  since 
1800,  all  without  effect ;  how,  in  1800,  the 
Habeas  Corpus  act  was  suspended,  the  act 
for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  being 
still  in  force  ;  how  coercion  was  renewed  in 
1801  ;  continued  again  in  1804  ;  how  the 
Insurrection  act  was  passed  in  1807,  which 
gave  the  Lord-Lieutenant  full  and  legal 
power  to  place  any  district  under  martial 
law,  to  suspend  trial  by  jury,  and  make  it  a 
transportable  offence  to  be  out  of  doors 
from  sunset  to  sunrise  ;  how  this  act  remain- 
ed in  force  till  1810  ;  how  it  was  renewed 
in  1814 — continued  in  '15,  '16,  '17 — reviv- 
ed HI  '22,  and  continued  through  23,  '24, 
and  '25  ;  —  how  another  Insurrection  act 
was  needed  in  1833,  was  renewed  in  '34, 
and  expired  but  five  years  ago.  "  And 
again,"  continued  this  Whig,  "  again  in 
1846,  we  are  called  on  to  renew  it  1"  Hor- 
rible I — revolting  to  a  Liberal  out  of  place  I 
"We  must  look  further,"  continued  Earl 
Grey  —  vociferating  from  the  Opposition 
bench — "  we  must  look  to  tlie  root  of  the 
evil  ;  the  state  of  law  and  the  hal)its  of  the 
people,  in  respect  to  the  occupation  of  land, 
are  almost  at  the  roots  of  the  disorder  ; — 
it  was  undeniable  that  the  clearance  system 
prevailed  to  a  great  extent  in  Ireland  ;  and 
that  such  things  conld  take  place,  he  cared 
not  how  large  a  pojMilation  might  be  suf« 


■WHIGS   ACTIVE  IN   COERCION. 


579 


fered  to  grow  up  in  a  particular  district, 
was  a  disgrace  to  a  civilized  country." 
I  And  Lord  John  Russell  in  the  Commons 
had  said,  on  the  same  occasion:  "If  they 
were  to  deal  with  the  question  of  the  crimes, 
they  were  bound  to  consider  also  whether 
there  were  not  measures  that  might  be  in- 
troduced which  would  reach  the  causes  of 
those  crimes" — and  he  horrified  the  House 
by  an  account  he  gave  them  of  "  a  whole 
village  containing  two  hundred  and  seventy 
persons,  razed  to  the  ground,  and  the  entire 
of  that  large  number  of  indviduals  sent 
adrift  on  the  high  road,  to  sleep  under  the 
hedges,  without  even  being  permitted  the 
privilege  of  boiling  their  potatoes,  or  ob- 
taining shelter  among  the  walls  of  the 
houses."  Disgusting  ! — to  a  Whig  states- 
man in  opposition  1 

Now,  these  very  same  men  had  had  the  en- 
tire control  and  government  of  Ireland  for  a 
year  and  a  half.  Not  a  single  measure  had 
been  proposed  by  them  in  that  time  to  reach 
"  the  cause  of  those  crimes  ;  "  not  a  single 
security  had  been  given  "  in  respect  of  the 
occupation  of  land  ; "  not  one  check  to  that 
terrible  "clearance  system,"  which  was  "a 
disgrace  to  a  civilized  country."  On  the 
contrary,  every  measure  was  carefully  cal- 
culated to  accelerate  the  clearance  system  ; 
and  the  Government  had  helped  that  sys- 
tem ruthlessly  by  the  employment  of  their 
troops  and  police.  They  had  literally  swept 
the  people  off  the  laud  by  myriads  upon 
myriads  ;  and  now,  when  their  relief  acts 
were  admittedly  a  failure,  and  when  mul- 
titudes of  homeless  peasants,  transformed 
into  paupers,  were  at  length  making  the 
landed  men,  and  mortgagees,  and  Jews,  and 
insurance  officers,  tremble  for  their  gains — 
the  Liberal  Whig  Ministry  had  nothing  to 
propose  but  more  jails,  more  handcuffs,  more 
transportation. 

The  new  Coercion  bill  was  in  every  re- 
spect like  the  rest  of  the  series  ;  in  Ireland, 
tiiese  bills  are  all  as  much  like  one  another 
as  one  policeman's  carabine  is  like  anotliei-. 
Disturbed  districts  were  to  be  proclaimed  by 
the  Lord-Lieutenant.  He  might  proclaim  a 
whole  county,  or  the  whole  thirty-two  coun- 
ties. Once  proclaimed,  everybody  in  that 
district  was  to  be  within  doors,  (whether  he 
hisd  a  house  or  not,)  Irora  dusk  till  morning. 


Any  one  found  not  at  home,  to  be  arrested 
and  transported.  If  arms  were  found  about 
any  man's  premises,  and  he  coidd  not  prove 
that  they  were  put  there  without  his  knowl- 
edge— arrest,  imprisonment,  and  transport- 
ation. All  the  arms  in  the  district  to  be 
brought  in  on  proclamation  to  that  efft^ct, 
and  piled  in  the  police  offices.  Lord-Lieu- 
tenant to  quarter  on  the  district  as  many  ad- 
ditional police,  inspectors,  detectives,  and 
sub-inspectors,  as  he  might  think  fit ; — offer 
such  rewards  to  informers  as  he  might  think 
fit  ; — and  charge  all  the  expense  upon  the 
tenantry,  to  be  levied  by  rates — no  part  of 
these  rates  to  be  charged  to  the  landlords — 
constabulary  to  collect  them  at  the  point  of 
the  bayonet ; — and  these  rates  to  be  in  ad- 
dition to  Poor-rates,  cess,  tithe,  (rent-charge,) 
rent,  and  imperial  taxes. 

The  passage  of  the  Coercion  bill  at  the 
instance  of  the  landlords,  and  the  break-up 
of  the  Irish  Confederation,  occasioned  the 
establishment  of  the  United  Irishman,  an 
avowed  organ  of  insurrection.  Events  for 
a  time  moved  rapidly.  Soon  there  burst  in 
upon  ns  news  of  the  February  revolution 
in  Paris,  and  the  flight  of  King  Louis 
Philippe  ;  for  between  the  French  people 
and  the  Irish  there  has  always  been  an  elec- 
tric telegraph,  whose  signals  never  fail  ;  and 
British  statesmen  had  not  forgotten  that  it 
was  the  first  great  French  revolution  which 
cost  them  the  war  of  '9H.  The  February 
revolution,  also,  at  once  obliterated  the  feuds 
of  the  Irish  Confederation.  Nobody  would 
now  be  listened  to  there,  who  proposed  any 
other  mode  of  redress  for  Irish  grievances 
than  the  sword.  A  resolution  was  brought 
up,  with  the  sanction  of  the  committee,  and 
passed  with  entluisiastic  acclamation,  that 
the  confederate  clubs  should  become  armed 
and  officered,  so  that  each  man  should 
know  his  right-hand  and  his  left-hand  com- 
rade, and  the  man  whose  word  he  should 
obey.  All  the  second-rate  cities,  as  well  as 
Dublin,  and  all  the  country  towns,  were  now 
full  of  chibs,  which  assumed  military  and  rev- 
olutionary names —  the  "  Sarsfield  Club," 
the  "  Emmet  Club,"  and  so  forth  ;  and  the 
business  of  arming  proceeded  with  ccm- 
nieudable  activity.  Such  young  men  as 
could  afford  it,  provided  themselves  with 
rifles  and  bayonets  ;  those  who  had  not  the 


580 


HISTORY   OF   IBELAND. 


nieaus  for  this,  got  pike-heads  made,  and 
there  was  much  request  for  ash  poles. 
What  was  still  more  alarming  to  the  enemy, 
the  soldiers  in  several  garrisons  were  giving 
unmistakable  symptoms  of  sharing  in  the 
general  excitement  ;  not  Irish  soldiers  alone, 
but  English  and  Scottish,  who  had  Chartist 
ideas.  A  large  part  of  the  circulation  of 
the  Uniied  Irishman,  in  spite  of  all  the 
exertions  of  the  officers,  was  in  military 
barracks. 

Undoubtedly,  it  behooved  the  British 
Government,  if  it  intended  to  hold  Ireland, 
to  adopt  some  energetic  measures  ;  and,  as 
it  certainly  did  so  intend,  these  measures 
were  not  wanting. 

New  regiments  were  poured  into  Ireland, 
of  course  ;  and  Dublin  held  an  army  of  ten 
thousand  men,  infantry,  cavalry,  artillery, 
and  engineers.  The  barrack  accommoda- 
tions being  insufficient,  many  large  buildings 
■were  taken  as  temporary  barracks  ;  the 
deserted  palaces  of  the  Irish  aristocracy — 
as  Aldborough  House  on  the  northeast — 
the  deserted  halls  of  manufactures  and  trade 
in  "  The  Liberty,"  and  the  Linen  Hall,  were 
occupied  by  detachments.  The  Bank  of 
Ireland — our  old  Parliament  House — had 
cannon  mounted  over  the  entablatures  of  its 
stately  Ionic  colonnades  ;  and  the  vast  and 
splendid  Custom  House,  not  being  now 
needed  for  trade,  (our  imports  being  all 
from  the  "  sister  country,"  and  our  exports 
all  to  the  same,)  was  quite  commodious 
as  a  barrack  and  arsenal.  The  quiet 
quadrangles  of  Trinity  College  were  the 
scene  of  daily  parades  ;  and  the  loyal  board 
of  that  institution  gave  up  the  wing  which 
commands  Westmoreland  street.  College 
street,  and  Dame  street,  to  be  occupied  by 
troops.  Superb  squadrons  of  hussars,  of 
lancers,  and  of  dragoons,  rode  continually 
through  and  around  the  city  ;  infantry 
practiced  platoon-firing  in  the  squares  ; 
heavy  guns,  strongly  guarded,  were  forever 
rolling  along  the  pavement ;  and  parties  of 
horse  artillery  showed  all  mankind  how 
quickly  and  dexterously  they  could  wheel  and 
aim,  and  load  and  fire  at  the  crossings  of 
the  streets.  These  military  demonstrations, 
and  the  courts  of  "Law,"  constituted  the 
open  and  avowed  powers  and  ageni-ies  of  the 


But  there  was  a  secret  and  subterranean 
machinery.  The  editor  of  the  World  was 
now  on  full  pay,  and  on  terras  of  close 
intimacy  at  the  Castle  and  Viceregal  Lodge. 
His  paper  was  gratuitously  furnished  to  all 
hotels  and  public-houses  by  means  of  Secret 
Service  money.  Dublin  swarmed  with  de- 
tectives ;  they  went  at  night  to  get  their 
instructions  at  the  Castle,  from  Colonel 
Brown,  head  of  the  police  department  ;  and 
it  was  one  of  their  regular  duties  to  gain  ad- 
mittance to  the  Clubs  of  the  Confederation, 
where  it  afterwards  appeared  that  they  had 
been  the  most  daring  counselors  of  treason 
and  riot. 

Frankly,  and  at  once,  the  Confederation 
accepted  the  only  policy  thereafter  possible, 
and  acknowledged  the  meaning  of  the 
European  Revolutions.  On  the  15th  of 
March,  O'Brien  moved  an  Address  of  Con- 
gratulation to  the  victorious  French  people  ; 
and  ended  his  speech  with  these  words  : — 

"  It  would  be  recollected  that  a  short 
time  ago  he  thought  it  his  duty  to  deprecate 
all  attempts  to  turn  the  attention  of  the 
people  to  military  affiiirs,  because  it  seemed 
to  him  that,  in  the  then  condition  of  the 
country,  the  only  efiect  of  leading  the 
people's  mind  to  what  was  called  '  a  guerrilla 
warfare,'  would  be  to  encourage  some  of 
the  misguided  peasantry  to  the  commission 
of  murder.  Therefore,  it  was  that  he  de- 
clared he  should  not  be  a  party  to  giving 
such  a  recommendation  ;  but  the  state  of 
affairs  was  totally  different  now,  and  he  had 
no  hesitation  in  declaring  that  he  thought 
the  minds  of  intelligent  young  men  should 
be  turned  to  the  consideration  of  such 
questions  as,  how  strong  places  can  be 
captured,  and  weak  ones  defended  —  how 
supplies  of  food  and  ammunition  can  be  cut 
off  from  an  enemy — and  how  they  can  be 
secured  to  a  friendly  force.  The  time  was 
also  come  when  every  lover  of  his  country 
should  come  forward  openly,  and  proclaim 
his  willingness  to  be  enrolled  as  a  member 
of  a  national  guard.  No  man,  however, 
should  tender  his  name  as  a  member  of  that 
national  guard  unless  he  was  prepared  to  do 
two  things — one,  to  pre.serve  the  state  from 
anarchy  ;  the  other,  to  be  ready  to  die  for 
the  defence  of  his  country." 

Two  days  after  this  meeting  was   Saint 


O  BEIEN  S  LAST  APPEARANCE  m  PARLIAMENT. 


581 


Patrick's  Day.  A  meeting  of  the  citizens  of 
Dublin  was  announced  for  that  anniversary, 
to  adopt  an  address,  frona  Dublin  to  Paris, 
but  was  adjourned  for  two  or  three  days  to 
allow  time  for  negotiations  to  unite  all 
repealers  of  the  two  parties  in  the  demon- 
stration. Lord  Clarendon,  doubtless  under 
the  advice  of  his  Privy-Councillor  of  the 
World,  thought  it  would  be  a  good  oppor- 
tunity to  strike  terror  by  a  military  display. 
He  pretended  to  apprehend  that  Saint 
Patrick's  Day  would  be  selected  for  the 
first  day  of  Dublin  barricades  ;  and  the 
troops  were  kept  under  arms — the  cavalry, 
•with  horses  ready  saddled  in  all  the  bar- 
racks, waiting  for  the  moment  to  crush 
the  first  movement  in  the  blood  of  our 
citizens. 

The  meeting  was  adjourned  ;  but  there 
was  no  intention  of  abandoning  it.  O'Brien 
had  offered,  even  in  case  of  a  Proclamation 
forbidding  it,  to  attend  and  take  the  chair  ; 
and  what  he  promised,  the  enemy  well  knew 
he  would  perform. 

The  meeting  was  held  without  interrup- 
tion ;  but  it  was  well  known  that  the  public 
buildings,  and  some  private  houses,  were 
filled  with  detachments  under  arms.  These 
addresses,  both  -from  the  Confederation  and 
from  the  city,  were  to  be  presented  in  Paris 
to  the  President  of  the  Provisional  Govern- 
ment, M.  de  Lamartine  ;  and  O'Brien, 
Meagher,  and  an  intelligent  tradesman,  of 
high  character  and  independence  of  mind, 
named  Hollywood,  were  appointed  a  deputa- 
tion to  Paris. 

All  this,  it  was  evident,  could  not  go  on 
long.  The  Clubs  were,  in  the  meantime, 
rapidly  arming  themselves  with  rifles  ;  and 
blacksmiths'  forges  were  prolific  of  pike- 
heads.  The  Confederates  hoped,  and  the 
Government  feared,  that  no  armed  collision 
would  be  made  necessary  until  September, 
when  the  harvest  would  be  all  cut,  and  when 
the  commissariat  of  the  people's  war,  the 
cause  of  the  war,  and  the  prize  of  the  war, 
would  be  all  bound  up  in  a  sheaf  togeth- 
er. But  the  foe  to  be  dealt  with  was  no 
weak  fool.  The  Government  understood 
these  views  thoroughly,  and  resolved  to  pre- 
cipitate the  issue  somehow  or  other.  One 
morning,  after  that  meeting  of  Dublin 
citizens,    three    men,    Smith    O'Brien,  Mr. 


Meagher,  and  Mr.  Mitchel,  were  waited  on 
by  a  police-magistrate  and  requested  to 
give  bail  that  they  would  stand  their  trial  on 
a  charge  of  sedition.  The  ground  of  prose- 
cution in  the  two  former  cases  was  the 
language  held  at  the  meeting  of  the  Irish 
Confederation,  (quoted  above  in  part.)  In 
the  third  case,  there  were  two  distinct 
indictments,  for  two  articles  in  the  United 
Irishman. 

Before  the  trials.  O'Brien  and  Meagher 
went  to  France  and  presented  their  address 
to  the  Provisional  Government.* 

On  their  return,  O'Brien  walked  into  the 
British  Parliament,  and  found  that  august 
body  engaged  in  discussing  a  new  bill  "  for 
the  further  security  of  Her  Majesty's 
Crown."  Ministers,  in  fact,  had  determined 
to  meet  the  difficulty  by  a  new  "law,"  the 
Treason-felony  law,  by  which  the  writing 
and  printing,  or  open  and  advised  speak- 
ing, of  incitements  to  insurrection  in  Ireland 
should  be  deemed  "  felony,"  punishable  by 
transportation.  The  bill  was  introduced  by 
the  Whigs,  and  was  warmly  supported 
by  the  Tories  ;  Sir  Robert  Peel  declaring 
that  what  Ireland  needed  was  to  make  her 
national  aspirations  not  only  a  crime,  but 
an  ignominious  crime ;  so  as  to  put  this 
species  of  offence  on  a  footing  with  arson, 
or  forgery,  or  waylaying  with  intent  to 
murder.  O'Brien  rose  to  address  the 
House,  and  never,  since  first  Parliament 
met  in  Westminster,  was  heard  such  a  chorus 
of  frantic  and  obscene  outcries. 

He  persisted,  however,  and  made  himself 
heard  ;  and  those  to  whom  the  name  and 
fame  of  that  good  Iiishmnn  are  dear,  will 
always  remember  with  pride  that   his  last 

*  These  were  mere  addresses  of  con.cjrfitnliition  and 
of  sympathy.  De  Lamartine  made  a  liiglily  poetic, 
but  rather  unmeaning  reply  to  them.  He  lias  since, 
in  his  history,  violently  misrepresented  them  ;  beinjr, 
in  fact,  a  mere  Ans;lo-Frencliman.  Mr  O'Brien  has 
already  convicted  him  of  these  misrepresentations. 
We  content  ourselves  here  with  pronouncing  the  two 
following  sentences  poetic  fictions:  "  Les  Irlandais, 
unis  aux  chartistes  anglais,  se  precipitnient  sur  le 
continent  et  cherchaient  des  complicites  insurrec- 
tionnelles  en  France,  a  la  fois  parmi  les  demagoguea 
an  nom  de  la  liberie,  et  parmi  les  chefs  du  parti  Cath- 
olique  au  nom  du  Catholicisme."  And  again  :  "  L'- 
Angleterre  n"attendait  pas  avec  moins  do  sollicitude 
la  reception  que  ferait  Laniarline  aux  insurges  Ir- 
landais, partis  de  Dublin  pou-  venir  demander  dea 
enconragemeuU  et  des  armei  a  la  Rppubli«(ue  fran- 
gaise." 


682 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


Utterance  in  the  London  Parliament  was 
one  of  haughty  defiance,  in  the  name  of  liis 
oppressed  and  phindered  country.  He 
avowed  that  he  had  advised  his  country- 
men to  arm,  and  fight  for  their  right  to 
live  upon  their  own  soil  ;  and  he  added, 
amidst  the  liorrible  yells  of  the  House  :  — 

"  I  conceive  that  it  is  the  peculiar  duty 
of  the  Irish  people  to  obtain  the  possession 
of  arms  at  a  time  when  you  tell  them  you 
are  prepared  to  crush  their  expression  of 
opinion,  not  by  argument,  but  by  brute 
force." 

The  bill  was  passed  into  "  Law,"  by  im- 
mense majorities  ;  and,  thereafter,  an  Irish 
repealer  of  the  Union  was  to  be  a  "  felon." 
O'Brien  returned  to  Dublin.  The  deputies 
were  received  by  a  multitudinous  and  en- 
thusiastic meeting  in  the  Dublin  Music  Hall, 
and  Meagher  presented  to  the  citizens  of 
Dublin,  with  glowing  words,  a  magnificent 
flag,  the  Irish  Tricolor,  of  Green,  White, 
and  Orange,  surmounted  by  a  pike-head. 

The  trials  came  on.  They  were  to  be 
before  special  juries,  struck  by  the  process 
before  described.  O'Brien  and  Meagher 
were  first  tried,  and  as  their  "sedition"  had 
been  so  open  and  avowed — and  as  the  Whig 
Ministers  were  extremely  reluctant  to 
pack  juries  if  they  could  help  it — the  Crown 
officers  left  on  each  of  the  two  juries  cm 
repealer.  It  was  enough.  A  true  repealer 
knew  that  no  Irishman  could  commit  any 
offence  against  a  foreign  Queen  ;  and  in 
each  case  the  one  repealer  stood  out,  refused 
to  convict,  though  he  should  be  starved  to 
death  ;  and  the  traversers,  amidst  cheering 
multitudes,  were  escorted  triumphantly  from 
the  Four  Courts  to  the  Confederate  Com- 
mittee Rooms,  where  they  addressed  the 
people,  and  promised  to  repeat  and  improve 
upon  all  their  seditions.  Tlie  excitement  of 
the  country  was  intense.  The  defeat  of 
the  "  Government"  was  celebrated  all  over 
the  country  by  bonfires  and  illuminations, 
and  the  clubs  became  more  diligent  in 
arming  themselves  ;  but  Mr.  Monahan,  the 
Attorney-General,  foamed  and  raged. 

Next  came  the  two  trials  of  Mr.  Mitehel  ; 
and  it  was  very  evident  to  the  Government 
that  there  must  be  no  possibility  (jf  mistake 
or  miscarriage  here.  The  time,  indeed, 
was  become  exceedingly  dangerous,  and  the 


people  rapidly  rising  into  that  state  of  high 
excitement  in  which  ordinary  motives  and 
calculations  fail,  and  a  single  act  of  despera* 
tion  may  precipitate  a  revolution.  As 
usual  in  such  cases,  the  British  Government 
had  recourse  to  brutality,  in  order  to  strike 
terror.  Police  magistrates  were  ordered  to 
arrest  parties  of  young  men  practising  at 
targets  in  the  neighborhood  of  country 
towns,  and  march  them  in  custody  through 
the  streets.  Men  in  Dublin  were  seized 
upon  and  dragged  to  jail  on  the  charge  of 
saying  "  halt"  to  the  clubmen  marching  to 
a  public  meeting — it  was  "training  iu 
military  evolutions  "  under  the  act ;  and  one 
young  man  was  actually  brought  to  trial, 
and  transported  for  seven  years,  on  an 
indictment  charging  him,  for  that  he  had, 
in  a  private  room  in  Dublin,  said  to  thirteen 
other  young  men,  then  and  there  ranged  in 
line,  these  fatal  words  :  "  Right  shoulders 
forward,"  contrary  to  the  peace  of  our  lady, 
the  Queen,  and  so  forth. 

On  the  two  juries  being  struck  for  the 
trial  of  Mr.  Mitehel,  it  was  at  once  evident 
that  upon  each  of  them  would  be  one  or 
two  men  who  desired  the  independence  of 
their  country  ;  and,  perhaps,  one  or  two 
others  of  whom  the  Castle  could  not  be 
perfectly  sure.  But,  as  the  new  "  Treason- 
felony"  act  had  now  become  law,  the 
Government  suddenly  abandoned  the  two 
prosecutions  already  commenced,  and  arrest- 
ed Mr.  Mitehel  on  a  charge  of  treason  under 
the  new  act. 

On  this  occasion  it  was  determined  to  pro- 
ceed, not  by  a  special,  but  by  a  common  jury  ; 
which  latter  method,  as  was  supposed,  gave 
the  sheriff  more  clear  and  unquestioned 
power  of  fraudulently  packing  the  jury. 
For  the  jury  was  to  be  closely  packed,  of 
course.  Lord  John  Russell  and  Mr. 
Macauley,  who  had  been  in  opposition  in 
1844,  and  who  had  then  so  earnestly  de- 
nounced the  packing  of  juries  in  Ireland, 
were  now  in  oSice  ;  were  responsible  for  the 
government  of  the  country,  and  understood 
perfectly  that  upon  the  careful  packing  of  this 
jury  depended  the  Queen's  Government  in 
Ireland.  The  judges  had  already  appointed 
the  day  for  holding  the  conmiission  to  try 
cases  in  Dublin  ;  and  the  sheriff  had  sum- 
moned his  select  hundred  and  fifty  jurors 


TRIALS    OF    O  BRIEN,    MEAGHER,    AND    MITCHEL. 


583 


to  try  the  cases  ;  but  after  the  arrest  of 
this  new  prisoner,  and  when  the  sherifif  knew 
tliat  important  business  was  to  be  done,  he 
altered  his  list,  and  summoned  a  new  set,  so 
tlrat  all  was  ready  for  the  trial. 

In  the  meantime,  Lord  Clarendon  was 
bnsily  getting  up,  through  the  Grand 
Masters  of  the  Orangemen,  loyal  addresses, 
and  declarations  against  "  rebels "  and 
"  traitors."  In  fact,  the  Orange  farmers 
and  burghers  of  the  North  were  fast  be- 
coming diligent  students  of  the  United  Irish- 
man, and  although  they  and  their  Order 
bad  been  treated  with  some  neglect  of  late 
both  by  England  and  by  the  Irish  aristo- 
cracy they  were  now  taken  into  high  favor, 
and  arms  were  very  secretly  issued  to  some 
of  their  lodges  from  Dublin  Castle.* 

But  this  needed  prudence  ;  for  Protestant 
Repeal  Associations  had  been  formed  in 
Dublin,  in  Drogheda,  and  even  in  Lurgan, 
a  great  centre  of  Orangeism.  To  counteract 
the  pi'ogress  we  had  made  in  this  direction, 
the  aristocracy  and  the  clergy  were  incessant 
in  their  efforts,  and  the  Protestants  were 
assured  tl]at  if  Ireland  should  throw  off  the 
dominion  of  Queen  Victoria,  we  would  all 
instantly  become  vassals  to  the  woman  who 
sitteth  upon  -Seven  Hills. 

The  Viceroy,  at  the  same  time,  took  care 
to  frighten  the  moneyed  citizens  of  Dublin 
and  other  towns  by  placards  warning  them 
against  the  atrocious  designs  of  "  Commun- 
ists "  and  "Jacobins,"  whose  only  object, 
his  lordship  intimated,  was  plunder.f 

Whether  the  Whigs  and  "  Liberals  "  who 
then  ruled  the  English  Councils  were  really 
desirous  to  give  a  fair  trial  to  their  political 
enemy,  or  whether  they  only  pretended  this 
desire — or  what  communications  took  place 
on  the  subject  between  Downing  street  and 
the    Castle — we    cannot    certainly    know  ; 

*  This  was  quite  unknown  to  the  public  at  the 
time  :  one  case  of  it  only  ever  came  clearly  to  light. 
It  was  a  shipment  of  five  hundred  stand  of  arms  to 
the  Belfast  Orangemen. 

t  These  placards  may  he  attributed  to  Lord  Claren- 
don, without  scruple.  They  were  printed  by  the 
Government  printer,  and  paid  for  out  of  our  taxes. 
But  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  Viceroy,  if  charged 
with  these  things,  would  deny  them,  because  they 
were  done  through  a  third  party — perhaps,  Birch. 
In  like  manner,  he  denied  all  knowledge  of  the 
Bhipment  of  muskets  to  the  Belfast  Orangemen— they 
were  sent,  however,  from  his  Castle,  and  through  a 
Bubordinate  official  of  his  household. 


but  we  find  that  only  two  days  before  this 
most  foul  pretence  of  a  trial,  Lord  John 
Russell,  in  answer  to  questions  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  declared  that  he  had  written 
to  "his  noble  friend,"  (Lord  Clarendon,) 
that  "  he  trusted  there  would  not  arise  any 
charge  of  any  kind  of  unfairness,  as  to  the 
composition  of  the  juries  ;  as  for  his  own 
part,  he  would  rather  see  those  parties 
acquitted,  than  that  there  should  be  any 
such  unfairness."  \ 

Lord  Clarendon,  however,  informed  him 
that  for  this  once  he  could  not  adhere  to  the 
Whig  maxims — that  a  conviction  must  be 
had,  fer  fas  et  nefas. 

The  venerable  Robert  Holmes,  brother- 
in-law  of  the  Emmets,  defended  the  prison- 
er ;  but  no  defence  could  avail  there.  Of 
course,  he  challenged  the  array  of  jurors,  on 
the  ground  of  fraud  ;  but  the  Attorney- 
General's  brother,  Stephen  Monahan,  clerk 
in  the  Attorney-General's  office,  and  also  one 
Wheeler,  clerk  in  the  Sheriff's  office,  had 
been  carefully  sent  out  of  the  city  to  a  dis- 
tant part  of  Ireland  ;  and  Baron  Lefroy 
was  most  happy  to  avail  himself  of  the  de- 
fect of  evidence  to  give  his  opinion  that  the 
panel  was  a  good  and  honest  panel.  The 
Crown  used  its  privilege  of  peremptory 
challenge  to  the  very  uttermost  ;  every  Cath- 
olic, and  most  Protestants,  who  answered  to 
their  names,  were  ordered  to  "  stand  by." 
There  were  thirty-nine  challenges  ;  and  of 
these  but  nineteen  were  Catholics,  all  the 
Catholics  who  answered  to  their  names  were 
promptly  set  aside,  and  twenty  other  gentle- 
men, who,  although  Protestants,  were  sus- 
pected of  national  feeling — that  is  to  say, 
the  Crown  dared  not  go  to  trial  before  the 
people.  Catholic  or  Protestant.  The  twelve 
men  finally  obtained  by  this  sifting  process 
had  amongst  them  two  or  three  Englismen  ; 
the  rest  were  faithful  slaves  of  the  Castle, 
and  all  Protestants,  of  the  most  Orange 
dye. 

Of  course,  there  was  a  "  verdict "  of 
guilty  ;  and  a  sentence  of  fourteen  years' 
transportation.  The  facts  charged  were 
easily  proved  ;  they  were  patent,  notorious, 
often  repeated,  and  perfectly  deliberate  ; 
insomuch,  that  jurymen  who  felt  themselves 

$  Debate  of  23d  May. 


584 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


to  be  subjects  of  the  Queen  of  England, 
could  not  do  otherwise  than  convict.  On 
tl»e  other  hand,  any  Irish  nationalist  must 
acquit.  Never  before  or  since  have  the 
Government  of  the  foreign  enemy  and  the 
Irish  people  met  on  so  plain  an  issue.  Never 
before  was  it  made  so  manifest  that  the 
enemy's  Government  maintains  its  suprem- 
acy over  Ireland,  by  systematically  break- 
ing the  "  law,"  even  its  own  law,  defiling 
its  temples  of  justice,  and  turning  the  judges 
of  the  land  into  solemn  actors  in  a  most  im- 
moral kind  of  play. 

An  armed  steamer  waited  in  the  river,  on 
the  day  of  Mr.  Mitchel's  sentence ;  the 
whole  garrison  of  Dublin  was  under  arms, 
on  pretence  of  a  review  in  the  Park  ;  a 
place  was  secretly  designated  for  the  prison- 
er's embarkation  below  the  city,  where 
bridges  over  a  canal,  and  over  the  entrance 
to  the  Custom  House  docks  could  be  raised, 
in  order  to  prevent  any  concourse  of  the 
people  in  that  direction  ;  and,  two  or  three 
hours  after  the  sentence,  Mr.  Mitchel  was 
carried  off,  and  never  saw  his  country  any 
more. 

The  enemy  were  themselves  somewhat 
surprised  at  the  ease  with  which  they  had 
borne  him  out  of  the  heart  of  Dublin,  at 
noon-day,  in  chains  ;  and  evidently  thought 
they  would  have  but  small  trouble  in  crush- 
ing any  attempt  at  insurrection  afterwards. 
The  confederates  waited  until  "the  time" 
should  come  ;  and  some  of  them,  indeed, 
were  fully  resolved  to  make  an  insurrection 
in  the  harvest ;  yet,  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, "  the  time"  never  came.  The  indi- 
vidual desperation  of  Dillon,  Meagher, 
O'Gorman,  Leyne,  Reilly,  could  achieve 
nothing  while  the  people  were  dispirited 
both  by  famine  and  by  long  submission  to 
insolent  oppression.  "  When  will  the  time 
come  ?  "  exclaimed  Martin,  "  the  time  about 
which  your  orators  so  boldly  vaunt,  amid 
the  fierce  shouts  of  your  applause  ?  If  it 
come  not  when  one  of  you,  selected  by  your 
enemies  as  your  cliampion,  is  sent  to  perish 
among  thieves  and  murderers,  for  the  crime 
of  loving  and  defending  his  native  land — 
then  it  will  never  come — veverj^ 

During  the  trial,  Dublin  was  under  a 
complete  reign  of  terror.  Reilly  was  ar- 
rested  on   the   charge   of    saying   to   men 


of  his  club,  when  turning  into  their  place  of 
meeting — "left  wheel.''  It  was  a  term  of 
military  drilling,  though  the  clubmen  were 
without  weapons.  He  was  kept  in  a  sta- 
tion-house all  night ;  and  bail  was  refused 
in  the  morning.  lu  the  course  of  the  day 
he  was  fully  committed  for  trial,  and  bail 
was  taken.  During  the  whole  week,  the 
whole  large  force  of  the  city  police  had  or- 
ders to  stop  all  processions,  to  arrest  citi- 
zens, on  any  or  on  no  charge  ;  and  gene- 
rally to  "  strike  terror."  In  the  meantime, 
every  day  was  bringing  in  more  terrible 
news  of  the  devastation  of  the  famine,  and 
evictions  of  the  tenantry.  "  On  Friday," 
says  the  Tipperary  Vindicator,  (describing 
one  of  these  scenes,)  "  the  landlord  appear- 
ed upon  the  ground,  attended  by  the  sheriff 
and  a  body  of  policemen,  and  commenced 
the  process  of  ejectment,"  i&c.  On  that 
morning,  and  at  that  spot,  thirty  persons 
were  dragged  out  of  their  houses,  and  the 
houses  pulled  down.  One  of  the  evicted 
tenants  was  a  widow — "  a  solvent  tenant 
comes  and  offers  to  pay  the  arrears  due  by 
the  widow  ;  but  a  desire  on  Mr.  Scully's 
part  to  consolidate,  prevented  the  arrange- 
ment." 

The  same  week,  a  writer  in  the  Cork  Ex- 
aminer, writing  from  Skibbereen,  says  : — 

"  Our  town  presents  nothing  but  a  mov- 
ing mass  of  military  and  police,  conveying 
to  and  from  the  Court  House  crowds  of  fa- 
mine culprits.  I  attended  the  court  for  a 
few  hours  this  day.  The  dock  was  crowded 
with  the  prisoners,  not  one  of  whom,  when 
called  up  for  trial,  was  able  to  support  him- 
self iu  front  of  the  dock.  The  sentence  of 
the  court  was  received  by  each  prisoner 
with  apparent  satisfaction.  Even  transport- 
ation appeared  to  many  to  be  a  relaxation 
from  their  sufferings." 

On  Tuesday,  of  the  same  week — it  being 
then  well  known  that  the  Crown  would  pack 
their  jury — a  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Dub- 
lin was  held  at  the  Royal  Exchange,  to  pro- 
test ;  and  Mr.  John  O'Connell  went  so  far 
as  to  move  this  resolution  :  "  Resolved, 
That' we  consider  the  right  of  trial  by  a  jury 
as  a  most  sacred  inheritance  :  in  the  security 
of  person,  property,  and  character."  Tlie 
meeting  then  proceeded  to  protest  against 
"  the  practice  of  arranging  juries  to  obtaia 


EECONSTITUTION    OF   THE   IRISH    CONFEDERATION. 


585 


convictions "  Diirinj^  the  same  week  the 
poor  houses,  hospitals,  jails,  and  many  bijpild- 
ings  taken  temporarily  for  the  purpose,  were 
overflowing  with  starving  wretches  ;  and 
fevered  patients  were  occupying  the  same 
bed  with  famished  corpses  ; — but  on  every 
day  of  the  same  week  large  cargoes  of  grain 
and  cattle  were  leaving  every  port  for  Eng- 
land. The  Orangemen  of  the  North  were 
holding  meetings  to  avow  hostility  to  repeal- 
ers and  to  "Jezebel,"  and  eagerly  crying, 
"  To  hell  with  the  Pope  !  "  Thus  British 
policy  was  in  full  and  successful  operation  at 
every  point,  on  the  day  when  the  Government 
seized  on  its  first  victim,  under  a  new  law 
specially  made  for  his  case,  and  carried  him 
off  in  fetters,  under  the  false  pretence  of  a 
trial  and  conviction. 


CHAPTER    LXI. 

1818—1849. 

Beconslitution  of  the  Irish  Confederation — New  Na- 
tional Journals  Established  —  The  Tfihune — The 
Felon  —  New  Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus  — 
Numerous  Arrests — O'Brien  Attempts  Insurrection 
— Ballingarry — -Arrest  and  Trial  of  O'Brien  and 
Others — Conquest  of  the  Island — Destruction  of  the 
People — Incumbered  Estates  Act — Its  Effects — Xo 
Tenaut-Right — "  Rate-in- Aid  " — Queen's  Visit  to 
L'eland  —  Places  Given  to  Catholics  —  Catholic 
Judges— Their  Office  and  Duty — Ireland  "  Prosper- 
ous " — Statistics  of  the  Famine  Slaughter — De- 
struction ot  Three  Millions  of  Souls — Flying  from 
"Prosperity." 

The  fierce  enthusiasm  of  the  Irish  Con- 
federates appeared  to  be  redoubled  after 
the  removal  of  the  first  convicted  "  felon." 
They  hoped,  at  least,  that  if  they  were  re- 
strained from  action  then,  it  was  to  some 
good  end,  with  some  sure  and  well-defin- 
ed purpose  ;  and,  assuredly,  there  were 
many  thousands  of  men  then  in  Ireland 
who  longed  and  burned  for  that  end  and 
that  purpose,  to  earn  an  honorable  death. 
How  the  British  system  disappointed  them 
even  of  an  honorable  death,  remains  still  to 
be  told.  A  man  may  die  in  Ireland  of 
hunger,  or  of  famine-typhus,  or  of  a  broken 
heart  ;  but  to  die  for  your  country — the 
death  dulce  et  decorum — to  die  on  a  fair 
field,  fighting  for  freedom  and  honor — to  die 
the  death  ever  of  a  defeated  soldier,  as 
Hofer  died  ;  or  so  much  as  to  mount  the 
74 


gallows,  like  Robert  Emmet,  to  pay  the 
penalty  of  a  glorious  "  treason  " — even  this 
was  an  mthanasia  which  British  policy  conld 
no  longer  afford  to  an  Irish  Nationalist. 

Yet,  with  all  odds  against  them — with 
the  Irish  gentry  thoroughly  corrupted  or 
frightened  out  of  their  senses,  and  with  the 
"Government"  enemy  obviously  bent  ou 
treating  our  national  aspiration  as  an  igno- 
minious crime,  worthy  to  be  ranked  only 
with  the  offences  of  bnrglars  or  pickpockets 
— still,  there  were  men  resolved  to  dare  the 
worst  and  uttermost  for  but  one  chance  of 
rousing  that  down-trodden  people  to  one 
manful  effort  of  resistance  against  so 
grievous  a  tyranny.  The  Irish  Confedera- 
tion reconstituted  its  council,  and  set  itself 
more  diligently  than  ever  to  the  task  of 
inducing  the  people  to  procure  arras,  with  a 
view  to  a  final  struggle  in  the  harvest. 
And  as  it  was  clear  there  was  nothing  the 
enemy  dreaded  so  much  as  a  bold  and  honest 
newspaper,  which  would  expose  their  plots 
of  slaughter,  and  turn  their  liberal  pro- 
fessions inside  out,  it  was,  before  all  things, 
necessary  to  establish  a  newspaper  to  take 
the  place  of  the  United  Irishman. 

It  was  a  breach  as  deadly  and  imminent 
as  ever  yawned  in  a  beleaguered  wall  ;  but 
men  were  found  prompt  to  stand  in  it. 
Within  two  weeks  after  Mitchel's  trial,  the 
Irish  Tribune  was  issued,  edited  by  O'Dogh- 
erty  and  Williams,  with  Antisell  and  Savage 
as  contributors.  In  two  weeks  more,  oa 
the  24th  of  June,  came  forth  another,  and, 
perhaps,  the  ablest  of  our  revolutionary 
organs — the  Irish  Fdon.  Its  editor  and 
proprietor  was  John  Martin,  a  quiet  country 
gentleman  of  the  County  Down,  who  had 
been  for  years  connected  with  all  national 
movements  in  Ireland — the  Repeal  Asso- 
ciation, the  Irish  Confederation — but  who 
had  never  been  roused  to  the  pitch  of 
desperate  resistance  till  he  saw  the  bold  and 
dashing  atrocity  of  the  enemy  on  occasion 
of  Mitchel's  pretended  trial  and  conviction. 
He  came  at  last,  along  with  many  other 
quiet  men,  to  the  conclusion  that  the  nation 
must  now  set  its  back  to  the  wall.  James 
Fintan  Lalor,  one  of  the  most  powerful 
writers  of  his  day,  came  up  from  Kildare 
County  to  aid  in  conducting  the  Felon,  and 
for  five  weeks  thereafter,  "  Treason-felo  ly  " 


586 


HISTOKY   OF   IRELAND. 


continued  to  be  taught  and  enforced  with 
great  boldness  and  ability.  But  six  weeks 
would  have  been  too  much  for  the  patience 
of  the  Government.  The  police  were 
ordered  to  forcibly  stop  the  sale  of  papers 
by  vendors  in  the  streets  ;  and  warrants 
were  issued  for  the  arrest  of  all  the  editors — 
Martin,  Dufiy,  O'Dogherty,  and  Williams. 
The  country  was  beginning  to  bristle  with 
pikes  ;  men  were  praying  for  the  whitening 
of  the  harvest  ;  and  it  was  plain  that, 
before  the  reign  of  "Law  and  Order" 
should  begin,  other  terrible  examples  must 
be  made  ;  other  juries  must  be  packed  ; 
then,  after  that,  a  Whig  "Government" 
M'ould  surely  begin  to  deal  with  Ireland  in 
a  conciliatory  spirit  ! 

Throughout  all  these  scenes  the  horrible 
famine  was  raging  as  it  had  never  raged 
before — the  police  and  military,  both  in 
towns  and  in  the  country,  were  busily  em- 
ployed in  the  service  of  ejecting  tenants — 
pulling  down  their  houses — searching  out 
and  seizing  hidden  weapons — and  escorting 
convoys  of  grain  and  provisions  to  the  sea- 
side, as  through  an  enemy's  country. 
Yet,  rumors  began  to  grow  and  spread, 
(much  exaggerated  rumors,)  of  a  very 
general  arming  amongst  the  peasantry  and 
the  clubmen  of  the  towns  ;  and  the  police 
had  but  small  success  in  their  searches 
for  arms  ;  for,  in  fact,  these  were  carefully 
built  into  stone  walls,  or  carried  to  the 
grave-yards,  with  a  mourning  funeral 
escort,  and  buried  in  cofBns,  shrouded  in 
well-oiled  flannel,  "  in  hope  of  a  happy 
resurrection." 

The  enemy  thought  it  wisest  not  to  wait  for 
the  harvest,  and  resolved  to  bring  matters 
to  a  head  at  once.  Accordingly,  they 
asked  Parliament  to  suspend  the  Habeas 
Corpus  act  in  Ireland,  so  as  to  enable  them 
to  seize  upon  any  person  or  number  of 
persons  whom,  they  might  think  dangerous, 
and  throw  them  into  prison  without  any 
charge  against  them.  Parliament  passed 
the  bill  at  once  ;  and,  in  truth,  it  is  an 
ordinary  procedure  in  Ireland. 

Instantly,  numerous  warrants  were  placed 
in  the  hands  of  the  omnipresent  police  ;  and 
in  every  town  and  village  in  Ireland  sudden 
arrests  were  made.  The  enemy  had  taken 
care  to  inform    themselves   who   were    the 


leading  and  active  confederates  all  over  the 
island,  the  Presidents'  and  Secretaries  of 
Clubs,  and  zealous  organizers  of  drilling  and 
pike  exercise.  These  were  seized  from  day 
to  day,  sometimes  with  circumstances  of 
brutality,  (which  was  useful  to  the  enemy  in 
"striking  terror,")  and  thrust  into  dun- 
geons, or  paraded  before  their  fellow- 
citizens  in  chains.  Martin  and  the  other 
editors  were  in  Newgate  Prison,  awaiting 
transportation  as  felons.  Warrants  were 
out  against  O'Brien  and  Meagher. 

Well,  ike  time  had  come  at  last.  If  Ire- 
land had  one  blow  to  strike,  now  was  her 
day.  Queen  Victoria  would  not  wait  till 
the  autumn  should  place  in  the  people's 
hands  the  ample  commissariat  of  their  war, 
and  decreed  that  if  they  would  fight,  they 
should,  at  least,  fight  fasting.  O'Brien  was 
at  the  house  of  a  friend  in  Wexford  County 
when  he  heard  of  the  suspension  of  the 
Habeas  Corpus,  and  that  a  warrant  had 
been  issued  for  his  own  arrest.  He  was 
quickly  joined  by  Dillon  and  Meagher — 
Doheny  and  MacManus,  with  some  others, 
betook  themselves  to  the  Tipperary  hills, 
and  "  put  themselves  upon  the  country." 
O'Gorman  hurried  to  Limerick  and  Clare, 
to  see  what  preparation  existed  there  for  the 
struggle,  and  to  give  it  a  direction.  Reilly 
and  Smith  ranged  over  Kilkenny  and 
Tipperary,  eagerly  seeking  for  insurrection- 
ary fuel  ready  to  be  kindled,  and  sometimes 
in  communication  with  O'Brien  and  his 
party,  at  other  times  alone.  To  O'Brien, 
an  account  of  his  character,  his  services,  and 
his  value  to  the  cause,  the  leadership  seemed 
to  be  assigned  by  common  consent. 

It  is  very  easy  for  those  who  sat  at  home 
in  those  days,  to  criticise  the  proceedings  of 
O'Brien,  and  the  brave  men  who  sought, 
in  his  company,  for  an  honorable  chance 
of  throwing  their  lives  away.  But,  it  must 
be  obvious,  from  the  narrative  of  the  three 
years'  previous  famine,  what  a  hopeless  sort 
of  material  for  spirited  national  resistance 
was  then  to  be  found  in  the  rural  districts 
of  Ireland.  Bauds  of  exterminated  pea- 
sants, trooping  to  the  already  too  full 
poor  houses  ;  straggling  columns  of  hunted 
wretches,  with  their  old  peoi)le,  wives,  and 
little  ones,  wending  their  way  to  Cork  or 
Waterford,  to   take  shipping  for  America  ; 


O  BKIEN   ATTEMPTS    INSURRECTION. 


587 


the  people  not  yet  ejected  frightened  and 
desponding,  with  no  interest  in  the  land 
they  tilled,  no  property  in  the  house 
above  their  heads,  no  food,  no  arms,  with 
the  slavish  habits  bred  by  long  ages  of 
oppression  gronnd  into  their  souls,  and  that 
momentary  prond  flush  of  passionate  hope 
kindled  by  O'Connell's  agitation,  long  since 
dimmed  and  darkened  by  bitter  hunger  and 
hardship.  It  was  no  easy  task  to  rouse 
such  a  people  as  this.  But  there  is  in  the 
Irish  nature  a  wonderful  spring  and  an  in- 
tense vitality,  insomuch  that  the  chances  of 
a  successful  insurrection  in  '48  may  have 
been  by  no  means  desperate.  At  any  rate, 
O'Brien  and  his  comrades  were  resolute  to 
give  the  people  a  chance,  knowing  full  well 
that  though  they  should  be  mown  down  in 
myriads  by  shot  and  steel,  it  would  be  a 
better  lot  than  poor  houses  and  famine- 
graves. 

It  is  needful,  here,  to  speak  of  the  Irish 
priesthood,  and  the  part  which  they  took  in 
that  last  agony  of  our  country.  Hitherto, 
there  has  not  been  occasion  to  say  much  of 
the  CathoKc  Church,  though  it  makes  so 
potent  an  element  in  Irish  life,  for  the 
reason  that  in  all  vehement  popular  move- 
ments it  always  follows  the  people,  and 
never  leads — unless  the  movement  be  strong 
and  sweeping  enough  to  command  and 
coerce  the  clergy,  the  clergy  keep  aloof  from 
it  altogether.  Instinctively  the  Church 
adheres  to  what  is  established,  and  opposes 
violent  action.  Thus,  in  O'Connell's  Repeal 
agitation,  several  Bishops  held  themselves 
neutral  ;  and  hundreds  of  priests,  as  was 
w^ell  known,  were  zealous  repealers  against 
their  will  ;  only  because  the  popular  passion 
was  too  strong  for  them  to  resist.  After- 
wards, however,  many  of  the  Catholic 
clergy  had  come  over  to  the  "  Young  Ire- 
land "  party.  Some  of  them,  indeed,  being 
more  Irishmen  than  Romans,  did  from 
the  first  fully  sympathize  with  the  na- 
tional aspirations  of  their  island — did  pro- 
foundly feel  her  wrongs,  and  burn  to  redress 
or  avenge  them.  When  the  final  scene 
opened,  liowever,  and  the  whole  might  of 
the  empire  was  gatiiering  itself  to  crush  us, 
the  clergy,  as  a  body,  were  found  on  the  side 
of  the  Government,  and  cannot  be  severely 
blamed  for  it,  as  they  were  convinced  of  the 


utter   hopelessness  of  the  struggle  at  that 
time. 

O'Brien,  Dillon,  and  Meagher,  with  some 
few  followers,  and  without  arms  or  stores, 
taking  the  field  against  the  potent  monarchy 
of  England,  were,  indeed,  but  a  forlorn  hope. 
They  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  had  a  plan. 
O'Brien  resolutely  refused  to  commence  a 
struggle,  which  he  felt  to  be  for  man's  dearest 
rights,  by  attacking  and  plundering  the 
estates  and  mansions  of  the  gentry — who, 
however,  were  then  generally  fortified  and 
barricaded  in  their  own  houses,  to  hold  the 
country  for  the  enemy. 

For  several  days  he  went  from  place  to 
place,  attended  by  his  friends,  followed 
sometimes  by  two  or  three  hundred  people, 
half-armed,  always  expecting  to  meet  a  party 
with  a  warrant  for  his  arrest  ;  in  which  case 
it  would  be  war,  both  defensive  and  offensive, 
to  the  last  extremity.  All  around  him 
were  country  mansions  of  nobles  and  gentle- 
men who  had  openly  avowed  themselves,  (in 
their  "  Addresses  of  Confidence,")  for  the 
English,  and  against  their  own  people,  who 
had  publicly  branded  him  as  a  rebel,  and 
offered  their  lives  and  fortunes  for  the  work 
of  crushing  him  ;  and  he,  an  outlaw,  de- 
clined to  exact  contributions  from  thera  to 
feed  his  followers  and  hold  them  together. 
All  this  was  resolved  and  done  from  the 
purest  and  most  conscientious  motives, 
undoubtedly  :  but  it  was,  perhaps,  not  the 
best  mode  of  commencing  a  revolution. 

All  this  while,  from  day  to  day,  crowds 
of  stout  men,  many  of  them  armed,  flocked 
to  O'Brien's  company  ;  but  they  uniformly 
melted  off,  as  usual — partly  compelled  by 
want  of  provisions,  partly  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  clergy.  The  last  time  he  had 
any  considerable  party  together,  was  at 
Ballingarry,  where  forty-five  armed  police 
had  barricaded  themselves  in  a  strong  stone 
house,  under  the  command  of  a  certain 
Captain  Trant,  who  certainly  had  the  long- 
expected  warrant  to  arrest  O'Brien,  but 
who  was  afraid  to  execute  it  until  after  the 
arrival  of  some  further  reinforcement.  O'- 
Brien went  to  one  of  the  front  windows, 
and  called  on  Captain  Trant  to  surrender. 
Trant  demanded  half  an  hour  to  consider. 
During  this  half  hour  some  of  the  crowd 
had    thrown    a    few    stones    througli    the 


588 


HISTOSr    OP   IKELAND. 


windows  ;  and  Captain  Trant,  seeing  that 
the  people  could  not  be  controlled  much 
lon;^er  by  O'Brien,  gave  orders  to  fire. 
O'Brien  rushed  between  the  people  and  the 
window,  climbed  on  the  window,  and 
once  more  called  upon  the  police  to  sur- 
render. At  the  first  volley  from  the  house 
two  men  fell  dead,  and  others  were  wounded, 
and  tlie  crowd  on  that  side  fell  back,  leaving 
O'Brien  almost  alone  in  the  garden  before 
the  house. 

Trant  was  shortly  afterwards  reinforced 
by  the  force  he  expected.  Mr,  O'Brien's 
followers  were  by  this  time  scattered  and 
gone.  He  scarce  made  an  effort  even  to 
provide  for  his  own  safety,  and  was  soon 
arrested. 

In  fact,  there  was  no  insurrection.  The 
people  in  those  two  or  three  counties  did  not 
believe  that  he  meant  to  fight  ;  and  nothing 
would  persuade  them  of  that  but  some 
desperate  enterprise.  Yet,  they  were  all 
ready  and  willing  ;  and,  indeed,  are  at  all 
times  ready  and  willing  to  fight  against 
a  dominion,  which  represents  to  them  nearly 
all  that  they  know  of  evil  in  this  world. 

From  the  first  moment  that  the  repeal  of 
the  Habeas  Corpus  act  placed  the  liberties 
of  Irishmen  at  the  disposal  of  Lord  Clar- 
endon, the  police  received  secret  orders 
to  arrest  all  leading  confederates,  both  in 
town  and  country.  A  return  was  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  next  year,  1849,  made  to 
Parliament  of  the  number  of  persons,  and 
their  names,  who  were  imprisoned  under 
that  law.  There  were  one  hundred  and 
eighteen  of  them  ;  including  most  of  the 
very  men  on  whom  O'Brien  might  reason- 
ably have  relied  to  sustain  his  movement. 
They  were  all  imprisoned  in  various  jails, 
without  any  charge,  or  one  word  of  explan- 
ation ;  removed  in  batches  from  one  prison 
to  some  other,  in  a  distant  part  of  the 
island,  with  no  other  object,  apparently, 
but  to  exhibit  them  in  chains,  and  strike  a 
wholesome  terror  into  all  spectators. 

To  arrive  at  an  accurate  list  and  due 
selection  of  leading  confederates,  Lord 
Clarendon  employed  without  scruple,  both 
Post  Office  spying  *  and  the  regular  service 
of  detectives. 

*  The  return  on  this  subject  laid  before  Parliament 
ooly  briags  down  the  letter-spies  as  far  as  Lord  De 


Certain  "  trials "  ensued  in  the  usual 
style.  First,  the  editors  were  brought  to 
trial  under  the  new  "Treason-felony"  act; 
and  O'Brien  and  his  immediate  comrades, 
under  the  Common  Law,  for  the  crime  of 
"  high  treason,"  having  appeared  in  arms 
against  the  "  Government."  The  Govern- 
ment would  gladly  have  dispensed  with 
these  trials,  and  removed  their  captives  out 
of  the  way  by  a  more  summary  process. 
But  they  must  not  forget  that  they  were  a 
"  liberal  "  Government,  and  had  a  reputa- 
tion to  support  before  the  world.  Ireland 
was  not  Naples,  but,  indeed,  a  far  more  mis- 
erable country,  and  political  offenders  could 
by  no  means  be  suffered  to  perish  by  long 
confinement  in  subterranean  dungeons  with- 
out trial.  But,  then,  arose  the  question  of 
juries  ;  and  the  "  Government "  knew  full 
well  that  no  jury  in  Ireland  impartially  em- 
paneled according  to  law,  and  really  repre- 
senting the  nation,  would  convict  one  of 
those  men  for  any  offence  whatsoever. 

They  could  not  refuse  a  trial ;  but  one 
thing  they  could  do,  which  the  King  of 
Naples  had  not  yet  learned — they  could 
pack  the  juries.  No  doubt  it  was  painful 
to  have  to  pack  juries  again.  Whig  repu- 
tation could  ill  endure  it.  But  they  hoped 
this  would  be  the  last  time.  They  knew 
that  in  the  eyes  of  Englishmen,  the  extreme 
urgency  of  the  occasion  would  justify  this 
one  last  tremendous  fraud.  When  we  say, 
"  in  the  eyes  of  Englishmen,"  the  reader 
will  understand  that  we  mean  the  ruling 
classes  of  Englishmen — namely,  the  landed 
interests,  and  the  monied  and  mercantile  in- 
terests ;  in  short,  those  Englishmen  whose 
opinions  and  interests  are  alone  consulted 
in  the  government  of  that  country.  To 
them  it  was  an  absolute  necessity  of  their  ex- 
istence that  Irish  national  movements  should 
be  crushed  down  by  any  means  and  all 
means. 

The  Whig  Government,  in  fact,  felt 
that  if  they  satisfied  the  men  of  rank 
and  money  in  England,  they  did  the  whole 
duty  of  Whigs  ;  and  the  men  of  rank  and 
money  were  eagerly  crying  out  to  have  the 

Grey,  in  1843.  But  as  the  report  on  the  occasion  de- 
clared the  Post  Of6ce  espionnage  a  needful  branch 
of  adniinistrati«n  in  Ireland,  it  may  be  assumed, 
without  scruple,  that  it  was  resorted  to  not  only  by 
Lord  Clarendon,  but  by  every  Viceroy  since. 


ARREST   AND   TRIAL    OF   O  BRIEN   AND    OTHERS. 


589 


last  embers  of  that  long  uatioual  struggle 
stamped  out. 

O'Brien,  Meagher,  MacManus,  and  0'- 
Donohoe  were  to  have  their  trial  before  a 
special  commissioa  iu  Clonrael,  the  capital 
of  Tipperary.  Oa  the  details  of  these 
trials  we  need  uot  dwell  ;  because  they 
were  on  the  same  pattern  with  other  scenes 
of  this  same  kind  already  narrated.  The 
officials  of  the  Crown  showed  a  stern,  dog- 
ged determination  to  disregard  every  re- 
monstrance, to  refuse  every  application,  and 
to  do  the  work  intrusted  to  them  in  the 
most  coarse,  insolent,  and  thorough-going 
style.  For  example,  Mr.  Whiteside,  O'- 
Brien's counsel,  reminded  the  Court  "that, 
in  England,  persons  charged  with  high 
treason  are  allowed  a  copy  of  the  jurors' 
panel,  and  a  list  of  the  witnesses  to  be 
examined  on  the  part  of  the  Crown." 
Here  is  one  extract  from  the  report  of  the 
"trial":— 

"  Tlie  learned  counsel  put  it  to  the  Court, 
whether  Mr.  O'Brien,  under  trial  in  a 
country  said  to  be  nnder  the  same  Govern- 
ment and  laws  as  England,  should  not  have 
the  same  privilege  which  he  would  enjoy,  as 
a  matter  of  right,  if  he  happened  to  be 
tried  on  the  other  side  of  the  channel. 

"The  Court  decided  that  the  prisoner 
was  not  entitled  to  the  privilege." 

When  the  clerk  read  tlie  names  of  the 
jury-panel,  Mr.  O'Brien,  of  course,  chal- 
lenged the  array,  on  tlie  ground  of  fraud  ; 
and,  of  course,  the  Court  ruled  against  him. 

"  Mr.  Whiteside  stated  that  it  made  little 
difference  whether  his  client  were  tried  by 
a  jury  selected  from  a  panel  thus  consti- 
tuted, or  taken  and  shot  through  the  head 
on  the  high  road.  No  less  than  one  hun- 
dred Catholics  had  been  struck  off  the 
panel,  and  so  few  left  on,  that  Mr.  O'- 
Brien's right  to  challenge  was  now  little 
better  than  a  farce.  This  objection  was 
also  overruled — Chief  Justice  Blackbnrne 
having  decided  that  the  panel  was  properly 
made  out." 

O'Brien,  whose  mind  was  made  up  to 
meet  any  fate,  stood  in  the  dock  during 
this  nine  days'  trial,  with  a  haughty  calm- 
ness. What  thoughts  passed  through  that 
proud  heart  as  the  odious  game  proceeded, 
no  human  eye  will  ever  read  ;  but  of  one 


thing  we  may  be  sure — his  grief,  shame,  and 
indignation  were  not  for  himself,  but  for  the 
down-trodden  country  where  such  a  scene 
could  be  enacted  in  the  open  day,  and 
against  the  will  of  nine-tenths  of  its  in- 
habitants. 

There  followed,  in  due  course,  the  usual 
barbarous  death-sentence  : — 

"That  sentence  is,  that  you,  William 
Smith  O'Brien,  be  taken  from  hence  to 
the  place  from  whence  you  came,  and  be 
thence  drawn  on  a  hurdle  to  the  place 
of  execution,  and  be  there  hanged  by  the 
neck  until  you  are  dead  ;  and  that  after- 
wards your  head  shall  be  severed  from  your 
body,  and  your  body  divided  into  four 
quarters,  to  be  disposed  of  as  Her  Majesty 
shall  think  fit.  And  may  the  Lord  have 
mercy  on  your  soul." 

He  hears  it  unmoved  as  a  statue  ;  inclines 
his  head  in  a  stately  bow  ;  politely  takes 
leave  of  his  counsel,  and  returns  to  bis 
prison. 

Again,  and  again,  and  again,  the  same 
process  was  performed  in  all  its  parts. 
MacManus  was  next  tried,  then  O'Donohoe, 
then  Meagher  ;  their  juries  were  all  carefully 
packed  ;  they  were  all  sentenced  to  be 
hanged  ;  and  they  all  met  the  announce- 
ment of  their  fate  as  men  ought.  For 
more  than  a  month  these  trials  went  on, 
from  day  to  day  ;  and  it  was  the  23d  of 
October  when  the  last  sentence  was  pro- 
nounced. A  strong  garrison  of  cavalry,  in- 
fantry, and  artillery  occupied  the  town,  and 
inclosed  the  scene  with  a  hedge  of  steel. 
Outside,  the  people  muttered  deep  curses, 
and  chafed  with  impotent  rage.  A  few 
daring  spirits,  headed  by  O'Mahony,  once 
contemplated  an  attack  and  rescue  ;  but 
the  people  had  been  too  grievously  frightened, 
and  too  effectually  starved  by  the  Govern- 
ment, to  be  equal  to  so  dashing  an  exploit  ; 
and  so  that  solemn  and  elaborate  insult  was 
once  more  put  upon  our  name  and  nation  ; 
and  the  four  men  who  had  sought  to  save 
their  people  from  so  abject  a  condition,  lay 
undisturbed  in  Clonmel  jail,  sentenced  to 
death.  And  whosoever  has  studied  even  the 
imperfect  sketch  given  in  these  pages  of  the 
potent  and  minutely-elaborated  system  of 
oppression  that  pressed  upon  that  nation  at 
every    point,    and   tied   down    every   limb, 


590 


HISTOBT   OF   IRELAND. 


watching  over  every  man,  woman,  and  child, 
at  their  uprising  and  dowulying,  so  as  to  be 
enabled  to  foresee  and  to  baffle  even  the 
slightest  approach  to  combination  for  a  na- 
tional purpose  *  — will  assuredly  not  wonder 
at  the  ntter  and  abject  helplessness  of  the 
nation,  in  presence  of  so  cruel  an  outrage. 

The  newspaper  editors  were  still  to  be 
"  tried."  In  the  months  of  October  and 
November,  1848,  Duffy,  of  the  Nation, 
Williams  and  O'Doherty,  of  the  Tribune, 
and  jNIartin,  of  the  Felon,  were  successively 
brought  up  for  trial  in  the  City  Court 
House,  of  Green  street.  Their  newspapers 
liad  been  suppressed  weeks  before,  their 
ofiQces  broken  up,  their  types,  and  presses, 
and  books  seized.  O'Doherty  and  Martin 
were  "  convicted  "  by  well-packed  juries,  con- 
taining not  a  single  Catholic.  In  the  cases  of 
Duffy  and  Williams,  the  enemy  ventured 
to  leave  one  or  two  Catholics  on  the  juries. 
Williams  was  acquitted  ;  Duffy's  jury  dis- 
agreed, and  he  was  retained  in  prison  till 
a  more  tractable  jury  could  be  manufactured. 
Again  he  was  brought  to  trial,  and  again 
the  jury  disagreed.  Still  he  was  kept  in 
custody,  though  his  health  was  rapidly  fail- 
ing ;  and,  at  last,  when  all  apprehension  of 
trouble  seemed  to  be  over,  and  the  more 
dangerous  conspirators  were  disposed  of,  the 
"  Government "  yielded  to  a  memorial  on 
his  behalf,  and  abandoned  the  prosecution. 

In  the  matter  of  those  sentenced  to  death, 
Ministers,  after  much  deliberation,  decided 
on  sparing  their  lives,  and  commuting  their 
punishment  to  transportation  for  life.  This 
was  done  under  the  false  pretence  of  clem- 
ency ;  but  it  was,  in  truth,  the  most  refined 
cruelty  ;  it  was,  moreover,  illegal — there 
being  no  law  to  authorize  such  a  commuta- 
tion. The  prisoners,  therefore,  objected 
through  their  counsel  ;  they  had  no  use  for 
life  under  such  circumstances  ;  and  demand- 
ed to  have  the  extreme  benefit  of  the  law. 
Ministers,  however,  were  resolved  to  be 
merciful — introduced  an  act  into  Parlia- 
ment, empowering  the  Queen  to  transport 

*■  We  may  once  more  refer  to  the  memorable  words 
of  an  Englisli  Attorney-General's  description  of  the 
British  regime  in  Ireland  :  "  Notice  is  taken  of  every 
person  that  is  able  to  do  either  good  or  hurt.  It  is 
known  not  only  now  they  live,  and  what  they  do, 
but  it  is  foreseen  what  they  purpose  or  intend  to 
do." 


them — had  it  passed  at  once — and  imme- 
diately shipped  them  off  to  herd  with  felons 
in  the  penal  colony  of  Yan  Diemen's  Land. 
O'Doherty  a-nd  Martin  having  been  origin- 
ally sentenced  to  ten  years'  transportation, 
were  sent  away  at  the  same  time,  but  in  an- 
other ship ;  and  for  more  than  five  years,  iu 
the  most  degrading  bondage,  they  expia- 
ted the  crime  of  "  not  having  sold  their 
country." 

A  few  unconcerted  and  desperate  at- 
tempts were  made  in  Munster,  by  O'Ma- 
hony  and  Savage,  by  Brennan  and  Gray, 
to  draw  the  people  together,  and  achieve 
some  one  daring  act,  which  might  awak- 
en the  insurrectionary  spirit.  They  all 
failed,  or  were  easily  suppressed.  The 
clergy  were  now  decidedly  and  actively  in 
the  interest  of  "  law  and  order  ; "  that  is, 
iu  the  interest  of  England  ;  and  the  more 
regular  police  were  on  the  alert  by  day 
and  night,  and  the  island  bristled  with 
forty  thousand  bayonets.  "  Tranquillity 
reigned  in  Warsaw."  John  O'Connell,  in 
Conciliation  Hall,  pointed  to  the  sad  fate 
of  those  who  had  disregarded  the  counsels 
of  the  "Liberator" — entreated  the  people 
to  sustain  him  in  his  moral  and  peaceful 
appeals  to  Parliament ;  and  promised  that 
Ireland  should  be,  at  some  early  day,  "  first 
flower  of  the  earth  and  first  gem  of  the 
sea." 

What  to  do  now  with  this  Ireland,  thus  fal- 
len under  the  full  and  peaceful  possession  of 
her  "  sister  island,"  was  the  subject  of  seri- 
ous thought  in  England.  The  famine  was 
still  slaying  its  tens  of  thousands  ;  and  the 
Government  emigration  scheme  was  draw- 
ing away  many  thousands  more  and  shoot- 
ing them  out  naked  and  destitute  on  the 
shores  of  the  St.  Lawrence  ;  so  that  it 
was  hoped  the  "Celts"  would  soon  be 
thinned  out  to  the  proper  point.  The  very 
danger  so  lately  escaped,  however,  brought 
home  to  the  British  Government,  and  to 
the  Irish  landlords,  the  stern  necessity  of 
continued  extermiuation.  It  was  better, 
they  felt,  to  have  too  few  hands  to  till  the 
ground,  than  too  many  for  the  security 
of  law  and  order. 

A  plan  for  a  new  "  Plantation  of  Ire- 
land" was  promulgated  by  Sir  Robert  Peel 
— that  is,  for  rci)lucing  the  Irish  with  good 


INCUMBERED    ESTATES   ACT. 


591 


Anglo-Saxons.  Tliis  project  for  a  new 
Plantation  in  Ireland  was  anxiously  revolv- 
ed in  the  Councils  of  the  Government.  It  be- 
gan to  be  believed  that  the  peasant  class, 
being  now  almost  sufficiently  thinned  out — 
nnd  the  claim  of  tenants  to  some  sort  of 
right  or  title  to  the  land  they  tilled,  having 
been  successfully  resisted  and  defeated — 
that  the  structure  of  society  in  Ireland  hav- 
ing been  v?ell  and  firmly  planted  upon 
a  basis  of  able-bodied  pauperism,  (which  the 
English,  however,  called  "  independent  la- 
bor,") the  time  was  come  to  effect  a  trans- 
fer of  the  real  estate  of  the  island  from 
Irish  to  English  hands.  This  grand  idea 
afterwards  elaborated  itself  into  the  famous 
"  Incumbered  Estates  act." 

The  conquest  of  the  island  was  now  re- 
garded in  England  as  effectually  consum- 
mated —  England,  great,  populous,  and 
wealthy,  with  all  the  resources  and  vast 
patronage  of  an  existing  government  in  her 
hands — with  a  magnificent  army  and  navy 
— with  the  established  course  and  current 
of  commerce  steadily  flowing  in  the  precise 
direction  that  suited  her  interests — wltli  a 
powerful  party  on  her  side  in  Ireland  itself, 
\)Ound  to  her  by  lineage  and  by  interest — 
and,  above  {ill,  with  her  vast  brute  mass  ly- 
ing between  us  and  the  rest  of  Europe,  en- 
abling her  to  intercept  the  natural  sympa- 
thies of  other  struggling  nations,  to  inter- 
pret between  us  and  the  rest  of  mankind, 
and  represent  the  troublesome  sister  island 
exactly  in  the  light  in  which  she  wished  to 
be  regarded — England  prosperous,  potent, 
and  at  peace  with  all  the  earth  besides — 
had  succeeded,  (to  her  immortal  honor  and 
glory,)  in  anticipating  and  crushing  out  of 
sight  the  last  agonies  of  resistance  in  a 
small,  poor,  and  divided  island,  which  she 
had  herself  made  poor  and  divided,  care- 
fully disarmed,  almost  totally  disfranchised, 
and  almost  totally  deprived  of  the  benefits 
of  that  very  British  "  law "  against  which 
we  revolted  with  such  loathing  and  horror. 
England  had  done  this  ;  and  whatsoever 
credit  and  prestige,  whatsoever  profit  and 
jiower  could  be  gained  by  such  a  feat,  she 
has  them  all.  "  Now,  for  the  first  time 
tliese  six  hundred  years,"  said  the  London 
Tiims,  "  England  has  Ireland  at  her  mercy, 
and  can  deal  wiUi  her  as  she  pleases." 


It  was  an  opportujiity  not  to  be  lost,  for 
interests  of  British  civilization.  Parliamtnt 
met  late  in  January,  1849.  The  Queen,  in 
her  " speech,"  lamented  that  ''another  fail- 
ure of  the  potato  crop  had  caused  severe 
distress  in  Ireland  ;"  and,  thereupon,  asked 
Parliament  to  continue,  "  for  a  limited  pe-  , 
riod,"  the  extraordinary  powers  ;  that  is-,  the 
power  of  proclaiming  any  district  under 
martial  law,  and  of  throwing  suspected  per- 
sons into  prison,  without  any  charge  against 
them.     The  act  was  passed,  of  course. 

Then,  as  the  famine  of  1848  was  fully  as 
grievous  and  destructive  as  any  of  the  pre- 
vious famines — as  the  rate-payers  were  im- 
poverished, and,  in  most  of  the  unions, 
could  not  pay  the  rates  already  due — and 
were  thus  rapidly  sinking  into  the  condition 
of  paupers  ;  giving  up  the  hopeless  effort 
to  maintain  themselves  by  honest  industry, 
and  throwing  themselves  on  the  earnings  of 
others  ;  as  the  poor  houses  were  all  filled  to 
overflowing,  and  the  exterminated  people 
were  either  lying  down  to  die  or  crowding 
into  the  emigrant  ships — as,  in  short,  the 
Poor  law,  and  the  New  Poor  law,  and  the 
Improved  Poor  law,  and  the  Supplementary 
Poor  law,  had  all  manifestly  proved  a  "  fail- 
ure." Lord  John  Russell's  next  step  was 
to  give  Ireland  more  Poor  laws. 

The  expression  failure  must,  however,  be 
qualified  as  before.  They  were  a  failure 
for  their  professed  purpose — that  of  relieving 
the  famine  ;  but  were  a  complete  success 
for  their  real  purpose — that  of  uprooting 
the  people  from  the  land,  and  casting  them 
forth  to  perish.  Irishmen  have  not  much 
faith  in  the  "  Government "  statistics  of 
their  country  ;  but  as  it  is  well  to  see  how 
much  the  enemy  was  willing  to  admit,  we 
give  some  details  from  a  report  furnished  in 
'48  by  Captain  Larcom,  luider  the  orders 
of  Government,  and  founded  on  local  reports 
of  police  inspectors.  The  main  facts  are 
epitomized  thus,  for  one  year  : — 

"In  the  number  of  farms,  of  from  one  to 
five  acres,  the  decrease  has  been  twenty- 
four  thousand  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  ; 
from  five  to  fifteen  acres,  twenty-seven 
tliousand  three  hundred  and  seventy-nine  ; 
from  fifteen  to  thirty  acres,  four  thousand 
two  hundred  and  seventy-four ;  \\\\\\st  of 
farms  above  thirty  acres  the  increase  has  been 


592 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


three  thousand  six  hundred  and  seventy. 
Seventy  thousand  occupiers,  with  their  fami- 
lies, numbering  about  three  hundred  thou- 
sand, were  rooted  out  of  the  land. 

"  In  Leinster,  the  decrease  in  the  number 
of  holdings  not  exceeding  one  acre,  as  com- 
pared with  the  decrease  of  '47,  was  three 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  forty-nine  ; 
above  one,  and  not  exceeding  five,  was  four 
thousand  and  twenty-six  ;  of  five,  and  not 
exceeding  fifteen,  was  two  thousand  five  hun- 
dred and  forty-six  ;  of  fifteen  to  thirty,  three 
hundred  and  ninety-one  ;  making  a  total  of 
ten  thousand  six  hundred  and  seventeen. 

"  In  Munster,  the  decrease  in  the  hold- 
ings, under  thirty  acres,  is  stated  at  eighteen 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  fourteen  ;  the 
increase  over  thirty  acres,  one  thousand 
three  hundred  and  ninety-nine. 

"  In  Ulster,  the  decrease  was  one  thousand 
five  hundred  and  two  ;  the  increase,  one 
thousand  one  hundred  and  thirty-four. 

"In  Connaught,  where  the  labor  of  ex 
termination  was  least,  the  clearance  has 
been  most  extensive.  There,  in  particular, 
the  roots  of  holders  of  the  soil  were  never 
planted  deep  beneath  the  surface,  and 
consequently  were  exposed  to  every  ex- 
terminator's hand.  There  were  in  1847, 
thirty-five  thousand  six  hundred  and  thirty- 
four  holders  of  from  one  to  five  acres.  In  the 
following  year  there  were  less  by  nine  thou- 
sand seven  hundred  and  three  ;  there  were 
seventy-six  thousand  seven  hundred  and  seven 
holders  of  from  five  to  fifteen  acres,  less  in  one 
year  by  twelve  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
ninety-one  ;  those  of  from  fifteen  to  thirty 
acres  were  reduced  by  two  thousand  one 
hundred  and  twenty-one  ;  a  total  depopula- 
tion of  twenty-six  thousand  four  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  holders  of  land,  exclusive  of  their 
families,  was  effected  in  Connaught  in  one 
year." 

On  this  report  it  may  be  remarked  that 
it  was  a  list  of  killed  and  wounded  in  one 
year  of  carnage  only — and  of  one  class  of 
people  only.  It  takes  no  account  of  the 
dead  in  that  multitudinous  class  thinned  the 
most  by  famine,  who  had  no  land  at  all,  but 
lived  by  the  labor  of  their  hands,  and  who 
were  exposed  before  the  others,  as  having 
nothing  but  life  to  lose.  As  for  the  land- 
lords,   already    incumbered    by   debt,    the 


pressure  of  the  Poor-rates  was  fast  breaking 
them  down.  In  most  cases^  they  were  not 
so  much  as  the  receivers  of  their  owa 
rents,  and  had  no  more  control  over  the 
bailiffs,  sheriffs,  and  police,  who  plundered 
and  chased  away  the  people,  than  one 
of  the  pillars  of  their  own  grand  entrance- 
gates. 

The  slaughter  by  famine  was  enormous 
this  season.  Here  is  one  paragraph  from 
amongst  the  commercial  reports  of  the 
Irish  papers,  which  will  suggest  more  than 
any  labored  narrative  could  inculcate  : — 

"  Upwards  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  ass 
hides  have  been  delivered  in  Dublin  from 
the  County  Mayo,  for  exportation  to 
Liverpool.  The  carcasses,  owing  to  the 
scarcity  of  provisions,  had  been  used  as 
food  1" 

But  those  who  could  afford  to  dine  upon 
famished  jackasses  were  few,  indeed.  Dur- 
ing this  winter  of  1848-9,  hundreds  of 
thousands  perished  of  hunger.  During  this 
same  winter,  the  herds  and  harvests  raised 
on  Irish  ground  were  floating  off  to  England 
on  every  tide — and,  during  this  same  winter, 
ahuost  every  steamship  from  England  daily 
carried  Irish  paupers,  men,  women,  and 
children,  away  from  Liverpool  and  Bristol 
to  share  the  good  cheer  of  tlieir  kinsmen  at 
home. 

It  was  in  this  state  of  things  that  Lord 
John  Russell,  having  first  secured  a  con- 
tinued suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus  act, 
proposed  an  additional  and  novel  sort  of 
Poor-rate  for  Ireland.  It  was  called  the 
"  Rate-in-Aid."  That  is  to  say.  Poor  Law 
Unions  which  were  still  solvent,  and  could 
still  in  some  measure  maintain  their  own 
local  poor,  were  to  be  rated  for  relief  of  such 
unions  as  had  sunk  under  the  pressure. 
Assuming  that  Ireland  and  England  aj'e 
two  integral  parts  of  an  "  United  Kingdom," 
(as  we  are  assured  they  are,)  it  seems  hard 
to  understand  why  a  district  in  Leinster 
should  be  rated  to  relieve  a  pauper  territoij 
in  Mayo — and  a  district  in  Yorkshire  not. 
Or  to  comprehend  why  old  and  spent  Irish 
laborers,  who  had  given  the  best  of  their 
health  and  strength  to  the  service  of  Eng- 
land, should  be  shipped  off  to  Ireland  to 
increase  and  intensify  the  pauperism  and 
despair.     But  so  it  was :  the  maxim  was, 


INCtJMBEEED    ESTATES    ACT. 


593 


that  "  the  property  of  Ireland  must  support 
the  poverty  of  Ireland  ;  "  without  considera- 
tion of  the  fact  that  the  property  of  Ireland 
was  all  this  time  supporting  the  luxury  of 
England. 

The  next  measure  passed  in  the  same 
session  of  Parliament  was  the  "  Incumbered 
Estates  act" — the  act  of  Twelfth  and 
Thirteenth  Victoria,  chap.  77.  Under 
this,  a  royal  commission  was  issued,  consti- 
tuting a  new  court  "  for  the  sale  of  In- 
cumbered Estates ; "  and  the  scope  and 
intent  of  it  were  to  give  a  short  and  sum- 
mary method  of  bringing  such  estates  to 
sale,  on  petition  either  of  creditors  or  of 
owners.  Before  that  time  the  only  mode  of 
doing  this  was  through  the  slow  and  ex- 
pensive proceedings  of  the  Court  of 
Chancery  ;  and  the  number  of  incumbered 
landlords  had  grown  so  very  large  since  the 
famine  began,  their  debts  so  overwhelming, 
and  their  rental  so  curtailed,  that  the  Lon- 
don Jews,  money-brokers,  and  insurance 
oflBces,  required  a  speedier  and  cheaper 
method  of  bringing  their  property  to,  the 
hammer.  What  ought  to  be  fully  under- 
stood is,  that  this  act  was  not  intended  to 
relieve,  and  did  not  relieve,  anybody  in 
Ireland  ;  but 'that,  under  pretence  of  facili- 
tating legal  proceedings,  it  contemplated  a 
sweeping  confiscation  and  new  plantation  of 
the  island.  The  English  press  was  already 
complacently  anticipating  a  peaceable  trans- 
fer of  Irish  land  to  English  and  Scotch 
capitalists,  and  took  pains  to  encourage 
them  to  invest  their  money  under  the  new 
act.  Ireland,  it  was  now  declared,  had  be- 
come tranquil  ;  "the  Celts  were  gone;  " 
and  if  any  trouble  should  arise,  there  was 
the  Habeas  Cor-pus  Suspension  act ;  and 
tlie  horse,  foot,  and  artillery,  and  the  juries. 
Singular  to  relate,  however,  the  new  act  did 
not  operate  satisfactorily  in  that  direction. 
Ellgli^h  capitalists  had  a  wholesome  terror 
of  Tipperary,  and  of  the  precarious  tenure 
by  wiiieh  an  Irish  landlord  holds  his  life  ; 
insonmch  that  the  great  bulk  of  the  sales 
made  by  the  commissioners  were  made  to 
Irishmen  5  and  in  the  official  return  of  the 
operations  of  the  Court,  up  to  October, 
1851,  it  appears  that  while  the  gross 
amount    produced  by    the   sales    had  been 

more  than  three  and  ii  half  millions  sterliu":, 
75 


there  had  only  been  fii'ty-two  Englisii 
and  Scottish  purchasers  to  the  amount  of 
£319,486.* 

Seeing  this  imperfect  progress  in  the  new 
plantation  of  Ireland,  Ministers,  in  March, 
1850,  introduced  a  supplemental  bill.  The 
Solicitor-General  who  moved  it  was  even  so 
incautious  as  to  admit  the  motive.  "  They 
had  devised  a  plan,"  he  said,  "  which,  it 
was  hoped,  would  induce  capitalists  from 
England  to  take  an  interest  in  these  sales." 
The  plan  was  a  mere  financial  operation, 
creating  a  species  of  debentures  chargeable 
on  the  land,  and  passing  current  like  any 
other  stock  or  scrip  ;  but  it  need  not  be  de- 
scribed in  detail  ;  for  the  plan  was  aban- 
doned, and  it  is  only  men1,ioned  here  to 
exhibit  the  policy  of  England  as  indicated 
by  the  Solicitor-General. 

Down  to  the  25th  May,  1857,  there  had 
been  given  orders  for  sale  to  the  number  of 
three  thousand  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
seven  ;  the  property  had  been  sold  to  seven 
thousand  two  hundred  and  sixteen  pur- 
chasers, of  whom  six  thousand  nine  hundred 
and  two  were  Irish — the  rest  English, 
Scotch,  or  other  foreigners.  The  estates 
already  sold  brought  upwards  of  twenty 
millions  sterling,  which  was  almost  all 
distributed  to  creditors  and  other  parties 
Interested.  The  result  to  Ireland  was 
simply  this — about  one-fifteenth  part  of  the 
island  had  changed  hands  ;  had  gone  from 
one  landlord  and  come  to  another  landlord  ; 
the  result  to  the  great  tenant  class  was 
simply  nil.  The  new  landlord  came  over 
them  armed  with  the  power  of  life  and 
death,  like  his  predecessor  ;  but  he  had  no 
local  or  personal  attachment  which  in  some 
cases  used  to  mitigate  the  severity  of  land- 
lord rule — and  he  was  bound  to  make  inter- 
est on  his  investment.  The  estates,  there- 
fore, have  been  broken  up,  on  an  average, 
into  one-half  their  former  size,  and  this  has 
been  much  dwelt  upon  as  an  "ameliora- 
tion ; "  but  we  have  yet  to  learn  that  small 
landlords  are  more  mild  and  merciful  than 
great  ones.  On  the  whole,  the  "  Incum- 
bered Estates  act "  has  benefitted  only  the 
money-lenders  of  England. 

As  to  "  tenant-right,"  the  salutary  custom 
expl, lined  before,  and  which  did  once  prac- 

*  Almanac  und  Directory,  1852. 


594 


HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 


tically  secure  to  the  tenantry  in  some  por- 
tions of  Ulster,  a  permanency  of  tenure  on 
payment  of  their  rent,  our  Parliamentary 
patriots  liave  been  agitating  for  it,  begging 
for  it,  conferring  with  Ministers  about  it, 
eating  public  dinners,  making  speeches,  and 
soliciting  votes  on  account  of  it  ;  but  they 
have  never  made,  and  are  never  likely 
to  make,  an  approach  by  one  hair's-breadth 
to  its  attainment.  It  is  absolutely  essential 
to  the  existence  of  the  British  Empire  that 
the  Irish  peasant  class  be  kept  in  a  condition 
which  will  make  them  entirely  manageable 
— easy  to  be  thinned  out  when  they  grow 
too  numerous,  and  an  available  materiel  for 
armies.  It  is  a  necessity  for  the  British 
commercial,  social,  and  Governmental  sys- 
tem— but  this  is  not  said  by  way  of  com- 
plaint. Those  who  are  of  opinion  that  Brit- 
ish civilization  is  a  blessing,  and  a  light 
to  lighten  the  world,  will  easily  reconcile 
themselves  to  the  needful  condition.  Those 
who  deem  it  the  most  base  and  horrible 
tyrainiy  that  has  ever  scandalized  the  earth, 
will  probably  wish  that  its  indispensable  prop 
• — Ireland — were  knocked  from  under  it. 

In  the  meantime,  neither  the  Incumbered 
Estates  act,  noi'  any  other  act,  made  or  to 
be  made  by  an  English  Parliament,  has 
ilone  or  aimed  to  do  anything  towards 
giving  the  Irish  tenant-at-will  the  smallest 
interest  in  the  laud  he  tills  ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  the  whole  course  of  the  famine- 
legislation  was  directed  to  the  one  end 
of  shaking  small  lease-holders  loose  from 
the  soil,  and  converting  them  into  tenants- 
at-will,  or  into  "  independent  laborers,"  or 
able-bodied  paupers,  or  lean  corpses.  Un- 
derstand, further,  that  the  condition  of  an 
Irish  "tenant-at-will"  is  unique  on  the  face 
of  the  globe,*  is  utterly  unintelligible  to 
most  civilized  Europeans,  and  is  only  to  be 
found  within  the  sway  of  that  Constitution 
which  is  the  envy  of  surrounding  nations. 
The  Gtruian,  Yon  Raumer,  making  a  tour 
ill  Irt'land,  thus  tries  to  explain  the  thing: — 

"  IIow  shall  I  translate  tmanls-al-uill  ? 
Wegjogbare  ?  Expellable  ?  Serfs  ?  But 
i;i  the  ancient  days  of  vassalage,  it  consisted 
rather  in  keeping  the  vassals  attached  to 

.  *  Paralleled  in  some  sort  only  by  the  ryots  of  India 
^another  people  privileged  to  enjoy  the  blessings 
of  British  rul«. 


the  soil,  and  by  no  means  in  driving  them 
away.  An  ancient  vassal  is  a  lord  com- 
pared with  the  present  tenant-at-will,  to 
whom  the  law  affords  no  defence.  Why 
not  call  them  Jagahare  [chaseable)?  But 
this  difference  lessens  the  analogy — that  for 
hares,  stags,  and  deer,  there  is  a  season 
during  which  no  one  is  allowed  to  hunt 
them — whereas  tenants-at-will  are  hunted 
all  the  year  round.  And  if  any  one  would 
defend  his  farm,  (as  badgers  and  foxes  are 
allowed  to  do,)  it  is  here  denominated 
rebel!  ion  y 

In  1849,  it  was  still  believed  that  the  de- 
population had  not  proceeded  far  enough  ; 
and  the  English  Government  was  fully  de- 
termined, having  so  gracious  an  opportu- 
nity, to  make  a  clean  sweep.  One  of  the 
provisions  of  Lord  John  Russell's  Rale-in- 
Aid  bill  was  for  imposing  an  additional  rate 
of  two  shillings  and  sixpence  in  the  pound, 
to  promote  emigration.  During  the  two 
years,  1848-9,  the  Government  Census  Com- 
missioners admit  nine  thousand  three  hun- 
dred and  ninety-five  deaths  by  famine  alone  ; 
a  number  which  would  be  about  true  if  mul- 
tiplied by  twenty  five.  In  1850,  they  were 
nearly  seven  thousand,  as  admitted  by  the 
same  authorities  ;  and  in  the  first  quarter 
of  1851,  six  hundred  and  fifty-two  deaths 
by  hunger,  they  say,  "  are  recorded." 

In  the  very  midst  of  all  this  havoc,  in 
Angust,  1849,  Her  Majesty's  Ministers 
thought  the  coast  was  clear  for  a  royal  visit. 
The  Queen  had  long  wished,  it  was  said,  to 
visit  her  people  of  Ireland  ;  and  the  great 
army  of  persons,  who,  in  Ireland,  are  paid 
to  be  loyal,  were  expected  to  get  up  the  ap- 
pearance of  rejoicing.  Of  course,  there 
were  crowds  in  the  streets  ;  and  the  natural 
courtesy  of  the  people  prevented  almost 
everything  which  could  grate  upon  the  lady's 
ear,  or  offend  her  eye.  One  Mr.  O'Reilly, 
indeed,  of  South  Great  George's  street, 
hoisted  on  the  top  of  his  house  a  large  black 
banner,  displaying  the  crownless  harp  ;  and 
draped  his  windows  with  black  curtains, 
showing  the  words  famine  and  "pestilence ; 
but  the  police  burst  into  his  house,  tore 
down  the  flag  and  the  curtains,  and  thrust 
the  proprietor  into  jail. 

On  the  whole,  the  Viceroy's  precautions 
against  any  show  of  disaffection,  were  com- 


QUEENS   TISIT    TO    IRELAND. 


595 


plete  Hiul  successful.  Nine  out  of  ten  citi- 
zens of  Dublin  eagerly  hoped  that  Her  Ma- 
jesty would  make  this  visit  the  occasion  of 
a  "  pardon  "  to  O'Brien  and  his  comrades. 
Lord  Clarendon's  organs,  therefore,  and  his 
thousand  placemen,  and  agents  of  every 
grade,  diligently  whispered  into  the  public 
ear,  that  the  Queen  would  certainly  pardon 
the  state  prisoners,  if  she  were  not  insulted 
by  repeal  demonstrations — in  short,  if  there 
was  not  one  word  said  about  those  individu- 
als. Tlie  consequence  was,  that  no  whisper 
was  heard  about  repeal,  nor  about  the  state 
prisoners. 

Although  there  was  no  chance  of  tenant- 
right,  no  chance  of  Ireland  being  allowed  to 
manage  her  own  affairs — yet,  towards  Cath- 
olics, of  the  educated  classes,  there  was 
nmch  liberality.  Mr.  Wyse  was  sent  as  an 
ambassador  to  Greece  ;  Mr.  More  O'Ferrall 
was  made  Governor  of  Malta  ;  many  bar- 
risters, once  loud  in  their  patriotic  devotion 
at  Conciliation  Hall,  were  appointed  to  com- 
missionerships  and  other  offices,*  and  Ire- 
land became  "  tranquil "  enough.  For  result 
of  the  whole  long  struggle,  England  was 
left,  for  a  time,  more  securely  in  possession 
than  ever  of  the  property,  lives,  and  in- 
dustry of  the  Irish  nation.  She  had  not 
parted  with  a  single  atom  of  her  plunder, 
nor  in  the  slightest  degree  weakened  any  of 
her  garrisons,  either  military,  civil,  or  eccle- 
siastical. Her  "Established  Church"  re- 
mained in  full  force — tlie  wealthiest  church 
in  the  world,  quartered  upon  the  poorest 
people,  who  abhor  its  doctrine,  and  regard 
its  pastors  as  ravening  wolves.  It  had, 
indeed,  often  been  denounced  in  the  London 
Parliament,  by  Whigs  out  of  place  ;   Mr. 

*  By  degrees,  considerable  numbers  of  Catholic 
barristers  have  been  admitted  to  the  judicial  bench, 
(ultliough  never  to  the  rank  of  Chancellor  )  They 
usually  earned  this  promotion  by  jiolitical  services  ; 
and  they  have  proved,  in  fact,  the  most  useful  ser- 
vants to  the  English  Government,  in  carrying  on  the 
infamous  transactions  which  pass  for  trials  of  "  poli- 
tical offenders  "  in  Ireland.  They  sit  by  gravely  and 
c(miplacently,  and  see  juries  packed  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  better  and  braver  men  than  those  judges  ever 
were  They  know  that  the  object  of  the  odious 
fraud  over  which  they  preside,  is  to  perpetuate  Brit- 
i^h  dominion  over  their  unhappy  country— uiihapp^' 
in  nothing  more  than  in  having  given  birth  to  ihtni. 
They  know,  further,  that  the  operation  and  intent  of 
tbat  British  domination  are  to  plunder  and  to  exter- 
minate their  countrymen,  their  kinsmen,  their  own 
flesh  and  blood.     .Vnd  they  have  deliberately  elected 


Roebuck  had  called  it  "  the  greatest  eccle- 
siastical enormity  in  Europe  ; "  Mr.  Mac- 
auley  had  termed  it  "  the  most  utterly  ab- 
surd and  indefensible  of  all  the  institutions 
now  existing  in  the  civilized  world."  But 
we  have  already  learned  what  value  there  is 
in  the  liberal  declarations  of  Whigs  out  of 
place.  Once  in  place  and  power,  they  felt 
that  the  "  enormity "  of  the  Established 
Church,  absurd  and  indefensible  as  it  was, 
constituted  one  of  their  greatest  and  surest 
holds  upon  the  Irish  aristocracy,  to  whose 
younger  sons  and  dependents,  it  affords  a 
handsome  and  not  too  laborious  livelihood. 

The  Orangemen,  also,  were  still  maintain- 
ed in  full  force.  They  are  all  armed  ;  for 
no  bench  of  magistrates  will  refuse  a  good 
Protestant  the  liberty  of  keeping  a  gun  ;  and, 
lest  they  might  not  have  enough,  the  Gov- 
ernment sometimes  supplies  arms  for  distri- 
bution among  the  lodges.  The  police  and 
detective  system  continued  to  be  more  high- 
ly organized  than  ever  ;  and  the  Government 
Board  of  "  National  "  Education,  more  dili- 
gently than  ever  inculcated  the  folly  and  vice 
of  national  aspi.'-ations. 

Yet  Ireland,  we  are  told,  has  been,  since 
the  famine,  improving  and  prosperous.  Yes  ; 
it  cannot  be  denied,  that  two  millions  and  a 
half  of  the  people  having  been  slain,  or 
driven  to  seek  safety  by  flight,  the  surviv- 
ors began  to  live  better  for  a  time.  There 
was  a  smaller  supply  of  labor,  with  the 
same  demand  for  it — therefore,  wages  were 
higher.  There  was  more  cattle  and  grain 
to  export  to  England,  because  there  were 
fewer  mouths  to  be  fed  ;  and  England,  (in 
whose  hands  are  the  issues  of  life  and  death 
for  Ireland,)  can  afford  to  let  so  many  live. 

their  side — against  their  countrymen  and  kinsmen, 
and  with  the  mortal  enemies  of  their  countrymen. 
In  other  words,  they  have  sold  their  country  and 
themselves;  and  the  special  service  which  they  ura 
expected  to  do — the  job  which  they  sit  on  that  bench 
to  put  through— is  precisely  to  countenance  this  very 
fraud  and  villany  of  jury-packing— to  grace  it  witli 
their  robes  and  ermine — to  preside  with  dignified 
gravity  while  the  Sheriff  and  Attorney-General  do 
their  wicked  business — looking  all  the  while  as  if  it 
were  a  solemn  inquest  they  are  holding — and  then, 
with  feeling  voice,  and  in  a  high  moral  tone,  and 
with  the  solemn  prate  usual  on  such  occasions,  to 
sentence  to  death  or  exile,  a  man  who  has  7iot  been 
tried  ;  a  man,  too,  whom  they  are  forced  to  respect, 
even  in  their  own  depraved  hearts,  while  they  hypo- 
critically lecture  him  upon  his  own  enormous  iniqui- 
ties. 


596 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


Upper  classes,  and  lower  classes,  merchants, 
lawyers,  state-officials,  civil  and  military,  are 
indebted  for  all  that  they  have,  for  all 
that  they  are,  or  hope  for,  to  the  sufferance 
find  forbearance  of  a  foreii^ai  and  hostile  na- 
tion. This  being  the  case,  the  prosperity 
of  Ireland,  even  such  ignominious  prosper- 
ity as  it  is,  has  no  guarantee  or  security. 

A  few  statistics  may  fitly  conclude  this 
part  of  the  subject. 

The  census  of  Ireland  in  1841  gave  a 
population  of  eight  millions  one  hundred  and 
eeventy-five  thousand  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five.  At  the  usual  rate  of  increase, 
tliere  must  have  been,  in  1846,  when  the 
famine  commenced,  at  least  eight  millions 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  ;  at  the 
same  rate  of  increase,  there  ought  to  have 
been,  in  1851,  (according  to  the  estimate  of 
the  Census  Commissioners,)  nine  millions 
eighteen  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
ninety-nine.  But  in  that  year,  after  five 
seasons  of  artificial  fiimine,  there  were  found 
alive  only  six  millions  five  hundred  and 
fifty-two  thousand  three  hundred  and 
eighty-five — a  deficit  of  about  two  millions 
and  a  half.  Now,  what  became  of  those 
two  millions  and  a  half  ? 

The  "Government"  Census  Commission- 
ers, and  compilers  of  returns  of  all  sorts, 
whose  principal  duty  it  has  been,  since  that 
fatal  time,  to  conceal  the  amount  of  the 
liavoc,  attempt  to  account  for  nenrly  the 
whole  deficiency  by  emigation.  In  Thomas 
Official  Almanac,  we  find  set  down  on  one 
side,  the  actual  decrease  from  1841  to  18.51, 
(that  is,  without  taking  into  account  the 
increase  by  births  in  that  period,)  one 
million  six  hundred  and  twenty-three  thou- 
sand one  hundred  and  fifty-four.  Against 
this,  they  place  their  own  estimate  of  the 
emigration  during  those  same  ten  years, 
which  they  put  down  at  one  million  five 
hundred  and  eighty-nine  thousand  one 
hundred  and  thirty-three.  But,  in  the  first 
place,  the  decrease  did  not  begin  till  1846 
— there  had  been  till  then  a  rapid  increase 
in  the  population — the  Government  returns, 
then,  not  only  ignore  the  increase,  but  set 
the  emigration  of  ten  years  against  the  de- 
population of  five.  This  will  not  do  ;  we 
must  reduce  their  emigrants  by  one-half, 
say  to  six  hundred   thousand — and  add  to 


the  depopulation  the  estimated  increase  up 
to  1846,  say  half  a  million.  This  will  give 
upwards  of  two  millions,  whose  disappear- 
ance is  to  be  accounted  for  —  and  six 
hundred  thousand  emigrants  in  the  otl>er 
column.  Balance  unaccounted  for,  a  million 
and  a  half. 

This  is  without  computing  those  who 
were  born  in  the  five  famine  years  ;  whom 
we  may  leave  to  be  balanced  by  the  deaths 
from  natural  causes  in  the  same  period. 

Now,  that  million  and  a  half  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  were  carefully  pru- 
dently, and  peacefully  slam  by  the  English 
Government.  They  died  of  hunger  in  the 
midst  of  abundance,  which  their  own  hands 
created ;  and  it  is  quite  immaterial  to 
distinguish  those  who  perished  iu  the 
agonies  of  famine  itself  from  those  who  died 
of  typhus  fever,  which  in  Ireland  is  always 
caused  by  famine. 

Further,  this  was  strictly  an  artificial 
famine — that  is  to  say,  it  was  a  famine 
which  desolated  a  rich  and  fertile  island, 
that  produced  every  year  abundance  and' 
superabundance  to  sustain  all  her  people 
and  many  more.  The  English,  indeed,  call 
that  famine  a  dispensation  of  Providence  ; 
and  ascribe  it  entirely,  to  the  blight  of  the 
potatoes.  But  potatoes  failed  in  like  man- 
ner all  over  Europe,  yet  there  was  no 
famine  save  in  Ireland.  The  British  ac- 
count of  the  matter,  then,  is,  first,  a  fraud  ; 
second,  a  blasphemy.  The  Almighty,  in- 
deed, sent  the  potato  blight,  but  the  English 
created  the  famine. 

And,  lastly,  it  has  been  shown,  in  the 
course  of  this  narrative,  that  the  depopula- 
tion of  the  country  was  not  only  encouraged 
by  artificial  means,  namely,  the  Out-door 
Relief  act,  the  Labor-rate  act,  and  the 
emigration  schemes,  but  that  extreme  care 
and  diligence  were  used  to  prevent  relief 
coming  to  the  doomed  island  from  abroad  ; 
and  that  the  benevolent  contributions  of 
Americans  and  other  foreigners  were  turned 
aside  from  their  desired  objects — not,  let 
us  say,  in  order  that  none  should  be  saved 
alive,  but  that  no  interference  should 
be  made  with  the  principles  of  political 
economy. 

The  Census  Commissioners  close  one  of 
their  late  reports  with  these  words  : — 


DEPOPULATION —  EMIGRATION, 


6S7 


"  In  conclusion,  we  feel  it  will  be  gratify- 
ing to  yonr  excellency  to  find  that,  although 
the  population  has  been  diminished  in  so 
remarkable  a  manner,  by  famine,  disease, 
and  emigration,  and  has  been  since  decreas- 
ing, the  results  of  the  Irish  census  are,  on 
the  whole,  satiafactoryP 

The  commissioners  mean  to  say  that, 
although  there  are  fewer  men  and  women, 
there  are  more  cattle  and  hogs  for  the 
English  markets. 

But  the  depopulation  of  the  country  by 
no  means  ended  with  the  famine.  Between 
1851  and  1861,  during  which  period  of  ten 
years  there  was  no  officially-declared  famine, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  Ireland  was  continually 
felicitated  by  English  Viceroys  and  states- 
men upon  her  returning  prosperity,  we  find 
that  the  diminution  of  the  people  steadily 
proceeded,  so  that,  in  1861,  the  Census 
Commissioners  found  alive  upon  the  Irish 
soil  only  five  millions  seven  hundred  and 
si.\ty-four  thousand  five  hundred  and  forty- 
three  individuals — less  by  three  millions  of 
souls  than  the  population  in  1845.  This 
destruction  of  people  is  to  be  accounted  for 
only  in  part  by  emigration,  although 
eu]igration  was  very  large  in  all  those  years. 
But,  there  is  mo  fact  better  established  in 
social  and  economic  science  than  that  emi- 
gration never  does  thin  the  people  of  .any 
country  to  anything  like  its  apparent 
amount ;  because,  in  a  healthy  condition 
of  society,  the  loss  from  this  cause  is 
compensated  by  the  greater  increase  of 
])eople  at  home.  But  the  cruel  truth  is, 
that  society  in  Ireland  is  in  ruins  ;  it  has  no 
longer  any  recuperative  energy.  British 
civilization  has  taken  so  powerful  and  deadly 
a  hold  of  it,  that  not  only  do  the  people  fly 
in  multitudes  from  the  terrible  "  prosperity" 
of  their  country,  but  those  who  remain  and 
strive  to  hold  their  ground  are  perishing 
where  they  stand. 


CHAPTER  LXII. 

1850—1851. 

Depopnlation— Emigration  — "  Plea  for  the  Celtic 
Race" — Decay  of  the  Irish  Electoral  Body — Act 
to  Amend  Kepreseutation — "  Papal  Aggression  " 
— llage  in  England— Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill — 
Never  Enforced — And  Why — Orange  Outrage  in 
Down  County — "Dolly's  Brae" — Style  of  Orange 
Processions— Condition  of  the  Country — Further 
Emigration — Still  more  Extermination — Crime  and 
Outrage — Plenty  and  Prosperity  in  England — 
Conclusion. 

In  1851  the  island  of  Ireland  still  con- 
tained six  and  a  half  millions  of  people  ; 
which  was  much  too  large  a  pophlation  to 
be  compatible  with  English  policy.  It  has 
been  seen,  in  an  earlier  page  of  this 
narrative,  that  the  British  Government  and 
Parliament  had  been  long  anxiously  occu- 
pied, even  before  the  first  symptom  of  the 
"  famine,"  in  devising  the  best,  cheapest, 
and  readiest  mode  of  getting  rid  of  what 
was  constantly  called  the  "  surplus  popula- 
tion "  of  Ireland.  In  fact  and  practice,  the 
migration  of  the  poorer  people  had  beta 
proceeding  on  a  considerable  and  still  in- 
creasing scale  for  many  years.  I^o  seasoa 
passed  in  which  thousands  of  Irishmen, 
wearied  and  worn  out  by  the  struggle 
against  remediless  misery  and  hopeless  ag- 
gression, did  not  bid  adieu  to  tlieir  dear 
native  country,  to  seek  a  happier  future  in 
some  distant  land.  The  general  use  of 
steam  in  ocean  navigation  had  also  greatly 
facilitated  the  movement  of  emigration,  by 
shortening  distances  and  bringing  continents 
nearer  to  one  another.  The  whole  amount 
of  the  emigration  from  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  for  the  year  1815,  was  but  two 
thousand  and  eighty-one  persons  ;  but  in 
1852  it  amounted  to  one  hundred  and 
seventy-six  times  that  number — namely, 
three  hundred  and  sixty-eight  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  sixty  four.* 

In  1835,  a  Parliamentary  Commission 
reported  that  there  were  in  Ireland  two 
millions  three  hundred  and  eighty  thousand 
persons  always  in  danger  of  perisliing  by 
hunger  ;  and  the  island  (althougii  the  most 
fertile  country  in  all  the  earth,)  being  even 

*  General  Report  of  the  Emigration  Commission- 
ers, 1861.    Appendix. 


598 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


then  periodically  visited  by  terrible  dearths 
and  famine,  it  may  have  been  natural  to  con- 
clude that  it  would  be  doing  Ireland  a 
signal  service  to  multiply  the  means  of  emi- 
gration ;  but  in  carrrying  out  this  idea,  the 
Government  was  resolved  to  bring  the 
whole  movement  of  emigration,  as  well '  as 
everything  else  that  was  Irish,  under  its 
own  control,  as  far  as  possible.  During  the 
fifteen  years  which  preceded  the  famine, 
(1831-1846,)  Ireland  alone  had  furnished 
more  than  eight  hundred  thovisand  emigrants 
out  of  the  total  emigration  from  the  three 
kingdoms.  The  exact  numbers  are  eight 
hundred  and  nine  thousand  two  hundred 
and  forty-four,  making  an  annual  average 
of  fifty-three  thousand  nine  hundred  and 
forty-nine  ;  and  the  number  for  all  the  three 
kingdoms  during  the  same  period  was  one 
million  one  hundred  and  seventy-one  thousand 
four  hundred  and  eighty-five.*  Yet,  the 
excess  of  births  over  both  deaths  and  emigra- 
tions continued  to  make  a  sensible  increase 
in  the  population  ;  and  in  the  very  same 
year  (1841,)  in  which  had  occurred  the 
largest  ccodus  during  that  period,  the  census 
showed  that  the  population  of  the  island  was 
greater  than  it  had  ever  been  before,  and 
greater  than  it  has  ever  been  since  officially 
declared,  namely,  eight  millions  one  hundred 
and  seventy-five  thousand  one  hundred  and 
twenty-four.  | 

Tliis  result,  showing  the  nullity  of  emigra- 
tion as  all  agency  of  depleting  a  population, 
might  have  been  more  surprising  if  it  had 
not  been  long  foreseen.  Far  from  derang- 
ing the  calculations  of  economic  science,  it 
;;onfirmed  the  conclusions  of  the  best  econ- 
omists. No  writer,  native  or  foreign,  who 
has  treated  of  Irish  affairs,  has  estimated 
with  more  sagacity  the  actual  condition  and 
necessities  of  our  country  than  the  illustri- 
ous Frencii  publicist,  M.  Gustave  de  Beau- 
mont.     Studying,  in    1839,  the   condition 

*  Reports  of  Commissioners  of  Emigration,  in 
Thorn's  Official  Livectory.  We  often  cite  this  sta- 
tistical annual,  prepared  by  authority  of  the  British 
Government.  But  (on  that  very  account,)  it  is  un- 
trustworthy, unless  when  it  bears  necessarily  or 
unintentionally  against  the  Government,  and  it  is 
only  for  such  evidence  that  we  have  recourse  to  it. 

t  But,  in  1845,  (when  no  census  was  taken,)  the 
])opulation  must  have  amounted  almost  to  nine  mil- 
lions. This  fact  is  too  often  overlooked,  and  by  tlie 
enemy's  Government  purposely  ignored,  for  obvious 
reasous. 


of    Ireland,  and   considering  whether    the 
favorite  British  prescription  of  emigration 
could  in  any  great  measure  cure  the  miseries 
which    he   had  witnessed   in   the    country, 
M.  de  Beaumont    applied    himself  to   the 
solution    of    these    questions :     1st.    What 
should  be  the  proportions  of  the  emigration 
if  it  were  to  materially  affect  the  situation 
of  the  people  ?  2d.  Would  emigration  upon 
such  a  scale  be  possible  ?    3d.  Supposing  it 
possible,   would  it  be  a  radical  solution  of 
the  difficulty  ?     The  advocates  of  wholesale 
emigration    (all     of     them     Englishmen,) 
answered  the  first  question  by  estimating  at 
two  millioas — or  from  two  to  four  millions — 
the  number  of  persons  who  must  quit  Ire- 
land, in  order  to  create  at  once  so  sensible  a 
void  in  the  population  as  should  leave  the 
rest  at  ease.     The  second  question,  then, 
was  easy  to  answer — that  on  so  vast  a  scale 
the  project  was  simply  impossible,  for  want 
of  sufiieient  means  of  transport.     For  sup- 
posing that  each  emigrant  vessel  carried  a 
thousand    passengers,  there    must   be  em- 
ployed in  the  operation  two  thousand  ships. 
This   would   put  in  requisition    the    whole 
British    merchant   uavy,  and    withdraw   it 
from    the    commerce   of    the  world    for  a 
project   iu   itself    chimerical  ;  for  it  would 
have  been  impossible  to   provide  funds  for 
the  needful  expenses  ;  and  no  country,  not 
even  the  United   States,  could  be  expected 
to  receive  such  an  invasion  en  masse,  and 
provide    the    unhappy    invaders   with    the 
means    and   opportunity   of    earning    their 
bread   by  their   labor.     But,  assuming  all 
these  difficulties  overcome,  then  arose  M.  de 
Beaumont's  third  question :  Was  it  certain 
that,    the   system  of  land-tenure  remaining 
the  same,  emigration  would  cure  the  evils  of 
the  country,  and  effect  a  social  transforma- 
tion?    On  this   point,  our   very  intelligent 
foreign  visitor  found  it  easy  to  demonstrate 
that  the  removal  of  one-third,  or  even  half, 
of    the    population    would    be   no   radical 
remedy.     The  difficulty  for  Ireland,  as  he 
plainly  saw,  was  not  to  make  the  land  pro- 
duce a  sufficiency  of  food  for  all  its  people, 
but  lay  altogether  in  the  system  of  land- 
tenure.     "  For,"  says  the  author,  "  if  it  be 
one  of  the  settled   principles  of  land  pro- 
prietors, that   the  farmer    should  have  no 
other  profit  out  of  his  cultivation  but  just 


"plea   rOR   THfe   CELTIC   RACE." 


599 


what  is  strictly  necessary  for  his  siil)sistence; 
and  if  it  be  the  g-eneral  custom  to  apply  this 
system    rigorously,  so  that   every  improve- 
ment in  the  farmer's  way  of  living  brings 
with  it  necessarily   a   rise   in  his  rent — on 
tills  hypothesis,  which,  for  those  who  know 
Ireland,  is  a  sad  reality,  what  would  be  the 
advantage  of  a  diminution    of  the  popula- 
tion ?"  *      "Thus,"    he    continues,    "after 
many  thousands  of  the  Irish  shall  have  dis- 
appeared,   the   lot  of  the    remainder    will 
probably  be  no  way  altered — they  still  may 
remain  as  miserable  as  they  were   before 
It    has    been  seeu,   in    the   preceding    in- 
quiry, that  with  but  one-third  of  its  present 
inhabitants,   Ireland  was  a  century  ago  as 
indigent  as  in  our  own  day,  being  subjected 
then,  as  at  present,  to  the  same  causes  of 
misery,    independent   of  numbers."     M.  de 
Beaumont  here  refers  to  the  authority  of 
Swift   and   of  Berkeley,  which    sufficiently 
establishes  the    misery  of  Ireland  in  their 
days. 

In  all  this  investfgation  the  singularity  is, 
that  M.  de  Beaumont,  knowing  the  wealth 
and  fertility  of  Ireland,  and  how  she  not 
only  produced  every  year  more  than  her 
people  could  consume,  but  also  exported 
immense  qna-iitities  of  her  produce,  did  not 
come  at  once  to  the  conclusion,  and  pro- 
claim his  conclusion — that  Ireland  and  the 
Irish  are  under  the  control  of  mortal  ene- 
mies, whose  single  policy  is  to  abolish  the 
Irisli  race  off  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Another  calm  and  diligent  inquirer,"|' 
after  giving  an  account  of  the  immense 
schemes  of  wholesale  emigration,  remarks  : 
"  It  is  in  view  of  these  sad  teachings  of  the 
past  that  the  most  sincere  and  intelligent 
friends  of  Ireland  counseled  the  British 
Government,  rather  to  expend  in  vast  works 
of  drainage  and  cultivation,  the  suras  esti- 
mated as  required  for  the  transport  of  emi- 
grants. Lord  Devon's  Commission  calcul- 
ated that  the  emigration  of  one  hundred 
thousand  persons  per  annum,  if  effected  at 
the  public  expense,  and  putting  the  cost  at 
the  moderate  amount  of  six  pounds  sterling 
for  each  person,  would  cost  £600,000  a 
year  ; — a  sum  which,  annually  applied  to  the 


*  M.  de  Beaumont  H.    108. 
t  The  Abbe  Perraud.    Eludes  sur  V  Irlandc  con- 
temporaine. 


purchase  and  improvement  of  unproductive 
lands,  would  undoubtedly  permit  the  Irish 
to  live  at  home,  and  rescue  them  from  the 
necessity  of  going  into  exile  to  save  thoir 
lives."  Here  the  Abbd  Perraud  also  seems 
to  misapprehend,  or  else  shrinks  from  utter- 
ing the  horrible  fact— that  the  object  of  all 
British  policy  in  Ireland  is  now,  and  ever 
has  been,  to  make  it  impossible  for  the 
Irish  to  live  at  home.  In  the  writings  of 
foreigners,  even  the  most  acute,  and  most 
friendly  to  Ireland,  there  is  a  steady- 
almost  stolid — persistence  in  assuming  that 
British  statesmen,  if  they  only  knew  how, 
would  hasten  to  redress  the  ills  of  Irelatid. 
For  this  reason,  and  for  this  alone,  has  the 
real  history  of  Ireland  remained  a  puzzle 
and  a  secret  to  even  the  most  intelligent 
inquirers  from  other  countries.  They  m;iv 
as  well  understand  at  once,  that  the  key  of 
the  whole  mystery  is  this  one  fundamental 
truth — the  single  policy  of  England  towards 
Ireland  is,  as  it  always  has  been,  to  extir- 
pate the  Irish  nation.  This  maxim,  well 
borne  in  mind,  everything  becomes  simple 
enough. 

In  1841,  the  number  of  inhabited  houses 
in  all  Ireland,  according  to  the  official  cen- 
sus,J  was   one   million   three  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  thousand   eight   hundred  and 
thirty-nine.   In  1851,  it  was  one  million  forty- 
six  thousand  two  hundred  and  ninety-four. 
But  this  decrease  between  those  two  periods 
of  the  census  does  not  by  any  means  repre- 
sent the  actual  amount  of  destruction  ;  be- 
cause  from    1841,  (the   census   year,)  till 
1845,  the  population  had  been  rapidly  in- 
creasing, (as  has  been  observed  in  a  former 
chapter.)    When  the  "  famine"  commenced, 
in  1846,  we  may  fairly  assume  that  the  in- 
habited houses  amounted  to  one  million  and 
a  half;  the  decrease,  then,  in   1851,   must 
be   set    down  at,  almost  half  a  mil/ion  of 
houses  or  cabins,  giving  shelter  on  an  aver- 
age   to    five    human    beings   each.      These 
figures  are  in  themselves  sufficient  to  give 
a  ghastly  idea  of  the  agony  of  Ireland,  and 
of  the  too  cruel  efficiency  of  the  methods 
so  steadily  pursued  for  the  extirpation  of  its 
native  inhabitants.    "The  Celts  were  gone," 


i  See    Thorn's   Official  Almanac  aiid  Directory, 
1861. 


600 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


or  rapidly  going  ;  and  this  not  the  result  of 
(Mnigmtion,  as  we  have  seen,  but  of  mere 
hunger  and  hardship.  The  system,  and  the 
motives  and  operation  of  the  system  became 
at  length  so  clear  and  plain,  that  Mr.  Isaac 
Butt,  a  Protestant  barrister,  (O'ConnelFs 
opponent  in  the  famous  Corporation  Debate 
upon  Repeal,)  published  some  years  later, 
(1866,)  a  work  entitled  "A  Plea  for  the 
Celtic  Race,^'  ufghig  the  impolicy,  even  in 
the  interest  of  England,  of  entirely  abolish- 
ing the  whole  breed.* 

It  is  no  way  surprising,  then,  to  find  that 
the  number  of  persons  in  all  Ireland  qualified" 
to  vote  for  county  representatives  in  Parlia- 
ment, had  dwindled  down  on  January  1, 
1850,  to  considerably  less  than  one  thou- 
sand for  each  county  ;  or  twenty-seven 
thousand  one  hundred  and  eighty  for  the 
thirty-two  counties.  The  great  County  of 
Mayo  had  but  two  hundred  electors  ;  and 
these  almost  all  landed  proi)rietors.  This 
caimot  be  surprising  to  those  who  have  fol- 
lowed the  narrative  of  that  long,  wasting 
war  systematically  made  on  the  race  of 
small  farmers — first  by  the  abolition  of  the 
forty-shilling  franchise  ;  then  by  the  "  con- 
solidation "  of  farms  ;  by  the  frequent  eject- 
ment acts  ;  by  the  stimulus  given  to  exter- 
mination and  emigration  ;  finally,  by  the 
Poor  laws  and  the  famine. 

The  condition  of  the  county  representa- 
tion, therefore,  had  become  so  scandalous, 
that  Ministers,  in  1850,  judged  it  needful 
to  extend,  somehow  or  other,  the  numbers 
quMlified  to  vote.  But  here  arose  a  difficulty 
— there  were  no  more  freeholders  ;  that 
cItrs  had  been  too  effectually  shaken  loose 
frctm  the  soil,  impoverished,  and  extirpated. 

*  We  give  two  suggestive  passages  from  this  per- 
formance :  "  Whatever  may  be  tlie  difficulties  that 
attend  the  discussion  of  the  question,  any  man  who 
can  contribute  ever  so  little  to  its  investigation  does 
fciome  service  to  his  country.  To  say  that  the  land 
'question  is  the  most  important  part  of  all  Irish  pub- 
lic questions,  but  feebly  expresses  its  magnitude.  It 
would  be  nearer  the  truth  to  say,  that  it  forms  the 
whole,  ^^^lile  the  "unsatisfactory  relations"  be- 
tween the  owners  and  occupiers  of  the  soil  continue, 
ttiere  can  never  be  peace  or  prosperity  in  the  land. 
Loi  tliese  relations  be  placed  on  a  satisfactory  basis, 
aid  all  other  questions  will  very  soon  adjust  them- 
s''ivefi.  The  question,  however,  is  not  exclusively  of 
Irish  intrrest  It  is  true  that,  so  far  as  Ireland  is 
ooneerned,  it  involves  nothing  less  than  the  contin- 
Tied  existence  in  their  own  land  of  the  old  Irish  race. 
Bot,  in  the  face  of  troubles  which  are  gathering  and 


Many  thousands  of  them  who  had  escaped 
death,  were  by  this  time  digging  canals  and 
railways  in  America.  It  was  evident  that 
nothing  like  an  apparently  adequate  repre- 
sentation could  be  looked  for,  based  upon 
the  old  and  respectable  condition  of  a  free- 
hold estate  in  land.  But  it  occurred  to 
Lord  John  Russell  to  found  the  franchise 
upon  the  Poor-rates;  thus  connecting  this 
ancient  privilege  of  freemen  with  the  odious 
and  destructive  sj-stem  of  pubhc  pauperism, 
which  had  been  forced  upon  the  island 
against  its  will,  and  had  been  corroding  its 
people  so  fatally  ever  since. 

Accordingly,  a  bill  was  introduced  to 
"  amend  "  the  representation,  both  in  coun- 
ties and  in  boroughs.  The  Irish  Official 
Directory  thus  shortly  states  the  facts  : — 

"  The  number  of  electors  under  the  Re- 
form act  was,  in  1832,  ninety-eight  thou- 
sand eight  hundred  and  fifty-seven  ;  on 
January  1,  1850,  the  constituency  had  dim- 
inished to  sixty-one  thousand  and  thirty-six 
— twenty-seven  thousand  one  hundred  and 
eighty  in  the  counties,  and  thirty-three 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty-six  in  tlie 
cities  and  boroughs.  The  act  13th  and  14th 
Yic,  chap.  69,  was  passed  in  1850,  to  amend 
the  representation  ;  and  in  addition  to  those 
persons  previously  qualified  to  register  and 
vote  in  county  elections,  occupiers  of  tene- 
ments rated  in  the  last  Poor-rate  at  a  net  an- 
nual value  of  £12  and  upwards,  are  entitled 
to  vote  in  elections  for  counties,  subject 
to  registration,  in  accordance  with  the  act, 
and  to  certain  limitations  therein  ;  also 
owners  of  cetain  estates  of  the  rated  net 
annual  value  of  j£5.  But  no  persons  are  to 
be  entitled  to  vote  in  counties  in  respect  of 

darkening  over  Europe,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say, 
that  the  continuance  of  England's  greatness  may  de- 
pend upon  her  being  able  to  satisfy  and  conciliate 
that  race  in  their  native  land. 

"  English  statesmen  must  ask  themselves  whether 
the  British  Empire  can  afford  to  lose  the  hardy  and 
bold  population,  portion  of  which  every  month  is  now 
transferring  itself  to  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 
They  must  seriously  reflect  on  the  danger  which 
arises  from  sending  a  hostile  and  embittered  Irish 
colony  to  the  American  continent.  All  the  emigrants 
who  are  now  leaving  the  country  carry  with  them 
the  most  determined  liatred  of  British  power.  Those 
whom  they  leave  behind  sympathize  in  their  feelings, 
and  whenever  tlie  opportunity  occurs,  the  Irish 
abroad  and  a  large  portion  of  the  Insh  at  home  will 
be  ready  to  aid  any  attempt  that  can  strike  a  blow 
at  that  power. 


"PAPAI.    AGGKESSION     RAGE   IN   ENGLAND. 


601 


tenements  in  virtne  of  which  they  may  be 
entitled  to  vote  in  boron<:^hs.  In  boroughs, 
occupiers  rated  in  the  hist  Poor-rate  at  £8 
and  upwards  are  entitled  to  vote,  subject  to 
registration  and  certain  limitations  in  the 
act.  By  the  13th  and  14th  Vic,  chap.  68, 
the  polling  at  contested  elections  is  to  con- 
tinue in  counties  for  two  days  only,  and  in 
cities  and  boroughs  for  one  day  only  ;  the 
returning  officer  is  to  provide  booths,  so 
that  not  more  than  six  himdred  voters  shall 
poll  at  each  booth  for  a  county,  and  two 
hundred  for  a  city  or  borough.  The  num- 
ber of  electors  registered  under  the  new  act, 
on  January  1,  1851,  was  one  hundred  and 
sixty-three  thousand  five  hundred  and  forty- 
six,  being  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  thou- 
sand two  hundred  and  forty-five  in  the  coun- 
ties, and  twenty-eight  thousand  three  hun- 
dred and  one  in  the  cities  and  boroughs." 

This  enlargement  of  the  electoral  basis 
was  undoubtedly  a  seeming  advantage — as- 
suming that  the  Irish  representation  in  a 
British  Parliament  is  a  thing  desirable.  But 
it  was  not  in  the  nature  of  the  Whigs,  nor, 
indeed,  of  the  Tories,  to  concede  to  Ireland 
even  an  apparent  advantage,  and  not  ac- 
company the  "  boon "  with  an  outrage. 
Lord  John  -Russell  flung  us  the  Franchise 
act  with  one  hand,  and  with  the  other  a 
new  Coercion  law,  and  the  "  Ecclesiastical 
Titles  act."  As  for  the  former,  it  was  only 
the  usual  atrocity  ;  this  time  under  the 
title  of  an  "  Act  for  the  better  Prevention 
of  Crime  and  Outrage  in  Ireland  ; "  with 
the  customary  powers,  to  proclaim  districts, 
to  quarter  police  on  them,  to  search  for 
arms,  to  keep  everybody  at  home  after  sun- 
set, and  to  transport  delinquents.  There  was 
nothing  uncommon  in  this  ;  and  the  uncom- 
mon and  exceptional  thing  for  Irishmen 
would  have  been  to  find  themselves  living 
under  the  civil  laws  of  the  land.  But  the 
other  measure,  .(Ecclesiastical  Titles  bill,) 
needs  further  notice. 

In  the  summer  of  this  year,  1850,  arrived 
in  England  a  most  startling  document  ; 
nothing  less  than  a  Papal  Brief,  direct 
from  Rome,  directing  the  English  Catholic 
"  Vicars  Apostolic " — who  were  Bishops, 
in  fact,  possessing  all  episcopal  jurisdiction 
— to  assume  the  true  titles  of  their  Sees,  as 
Bishop  of  Hexham,  Bishop  of  Birmingham, 
76 


and  so  forth  ;  and  further  appointing  the  il- 
lustrious Doctor  Wiseman  a  Cardinal   and 
first  Archbishop  of  Westminster.     The  soil 
of  Protestant  England  was  thus  mapped  out 
by  a  foreign  prince  into  separate  governments, 
(dioceses,)  and  placed  under  the  control  of 
certain  Popish  priests  ;  in  utter  disdain  of 
the  exclusive  rights  of  the  Anglican  Church 
and  of  the  Queen  as  its   Pope  and   head. 
Here   was   papal  aggression  !     Immediate- 
ly arose  a   vehement  "  No-popery "  excite- 
ment   throughout    England.      It    is    true, 
that  the    Pope  herein    exercised    the   un- 
doubted jurisdiction  which  he  possessed  in 
things  spiritual  over  his  Church  ;  and  which 
he  had  long  notoriously  exercised  under  other 
names  and  forms.     Still,  it  was  against  the 
"law" — that   is,  against  some  of  the  old 
penal  laws,  yet  unrepealed,  but  always  vio- 
lated,  to  introduce  into   Great  Britain  or 
Ireland  any  Papal  Bull,  Brief,  Rescript,  or 
writing  whatsoever.    And  then  the  high  tone 
assumed  (necessarily)  by  the  Pope,  in  his 
Brief,  and  by  Cardinal  Wiseman  in  promul- 
gating it,  appeared  to  the  enlightened  mind 
of  Protestant  England,  to  amount  to  noth- 
ing less  than  Jezebel  herself,  formally  enter- 
ing in  and  taking  possession. 

At  once  there  was  a  shout  of  alarm  and 
wrath,  from  all  the  ends  of  England  and 
Scotland,  to  which  the  Irish  Orangemen,  of 
course,  contributed  their  best  vociferation. 
County  meetings  were  held,  all  over  Eng- 
land, to  denounce  this  audacious  "  Papal 
aggression  ; "  and  platforms,  pulpits,  and 
press  rung  for  months  with  the  old  and  well- 
worn  denunciations  against  Jezebel,  the  Sac- 
rifice of  the  Mass,  and  the  whole  mystery 
of  iniquity  generally.  Lord  John  Russell, 
a  statesman  who  hated  Catholics  and  their 
religion,  with  all  the  venom  of  his  small, 
shriveled,  and  spiteful  soul,  and  who  was 
distressed  besides  by  the  late  concession  of 
franchise  to  certain  Catholics  in  Ireland, 
Lord  John  Russell,  though  Prime  Min- 
ister of  the  Queen,  was  not  above  the  paltry 
task  of  stimulating  this  ignoble  rage.  He 
selected  the  4  th  of  November,  the  day  be- 
fore the  anniversary  of  the  "  Gunpowder 
Plot,"  to  publish  in  the  newspapers  a  letter 
to  the  Bishop  of  Durham,  expressing  alarm 
and  indignation,  "  but  less  alarm  than  indig- 
nation," at  the  daring  invasion  of  England 


602 


HISTORT   OF   IRELAND. 


by  the  Pope  of  Rome  ;  enlarging  upon  the 
enormity  of  Catholic  doctrines,  and  terming 
Catholic  worship  "  snperstitious  mummery." 
His  lordship,  however,  though  he  saw  great 
cause  for  apprehension,  assured  the  Bishop 
that  the  noble  Protestant  State  of  England 
should  never,  never  be  yielded  up  into  the 
hands  of  a  foreign  priest.  Next  day  was 
the  fifth,  when  Guy  Fawkes  is  always  burned 
in  effigy.  This  time  there  was  in  many 
towns  of  England,  and  especially  in  London, 
au  astonishing  uproar  of  "  No-Popery " 
zeal  ;  multitudinous  processions  celebrated 
the  occasion  ;  orators  spouted  out  of  Fox's 
Martyrs,  (taking  care  to  say  nothing  of  the 
martyrs  that  Protestants  had  made,)  and 
the  ignorant  masses  were  inflamed  to  mad- 
ness by  pictures  of  the  racks  and  pincers 
which  they  were  assured  were  shortly  to  be 
introduced  into  England,  under  the  new 
Papal  Bull.  Instead  of  Guy  Fawkes,  they 
burned  effigies  of  the  Pope,  of  the  Yirgin, 
of  Cardinal  Wiseman  ;  and  swore  deep  oaths, 
under  the  influence  of  deep  potations,  that 
they  would  all  die,  with  the  Bible  on 
their  bosoms,  before  they  would  submit  to 
the  tyranny  of  the  Propaganda  and  the 
pincers  of  the  Inquisition.  It  would  have 
been  an  insane  action,  on  the  part  of  any 
Catholic  priest,  to  allow  himself  to  be  seen 
in  the  streets  upon  that  evening. 

The  conclusion  of  this  affair  of  "  Papal 
Aggression  "  belongs  to  the  following  year, 
1851  ;  but  we  may  here  anticipate  a  little. 
Lord  John  Russell  lost  no  time  in  availing 
himself  of  the  stupid  fanaticism  of  his 
countrymen.  Parliament  met  again  in 
February,  1851 ;  he  made  the  chief  feature 
in  the  Queen's  speech  this  very  affair  of  the 
Pope's  Bull  ;  and  made  her  earnestly  recom- 
mend to  Parliament  efficient  action  upon  so 
important  a  subject.  A  bill  was  at  once  intro- 
duced by  his  lordship,  absolutely  prohibiting 
the  assumption  of  the  title  of  any  existing 
See,  or  of  any  title  whatsoever,  from  any 
'place  iu  the  United  Kingdom,  under  a 
penalty  of  iClOO  for  each  such  offence. 
This  was  an  extension  of  the  provisions  of 
the  Catholic  Relief  act  of  1829,  which  im- 
posed the  same  penalty  on  the  assumption  of 
the  title  to  any  existing  See  only.  That 
prohibition  in  Ireland,  and  the  penalty  at- 
tached   to   it,   had    been    always    entirely 


neglected  and  ignored  by  the  Catholic  hier- 
archy ;  and  the  Catholic  Archbishop  of 
Armagh  signed  himself  Archbishop  of  Ar- 
magh and  Primate  of  All  Ireland,  just  as 
the  other  one  did.  In  the  new  ecclesiastical 
division  of  England,  however,  care  had 
been  taken  to  avoid  giving  to  Catholic 
Bishops  the  precise  titles  of  Protestant  Sees 
— except  in  one  instance — and,  therefore, 
it  became  necessary  for  the  legislators 
against  Papal  Aggression  to  extend  the 
prohibitiou  and  penalty  to  all  territorial 
titles  whatsoever,  derived  from  any  place  in 
the  three  kingdoms. 

The  new  bill,  which  was  intended  to  be 
highly  stringent  and  menacing — a  new  and 
formidable  bulwark  to  the  Reformation  in 
England — was  only  on  its  passage  when 
Lord  John  Russell's  Government  went  out, 
and  the  Tories,  under  Lord  Derby,  came  in. 
It  made  no  difference  iu  this  case.  The 
bill  to  repress  "  Papal  Aggression  "  was  not 
only  taken  up  by  the  new  administration, 
but  was  eventually  passed,  with  amendments, 
extending  the  penalty  to  the  introduction  of 
any  document  or  rescript  from  Rome,  as 
well  as  the  one  lately  arrived,  and  further 
empowering  and  inviting  any  common  in- 
former to  prosecute.  The  bill  was  carried 
through  all  its  stages  by  immense  majorities, 
English  Whigs  and  English  Tories  being 
once  more  an  unit  on  this  vital  matter  ; 
and,  thereafter,  it  was  not  only  to  be  illegal 
for  the  Archbishop  of  Westminster  to  sign 
himself  Archbishop  of  Westminster,  but  for 
the  Archbishop  of  Armagh  to  take  the  title 
of  his  undoubted  office,  under  the  penalty  of 
£100  for  each  offence. 

On  the  passage  of  this  bill,  it  was  really 
believed  by  ignorant  Protestants,  that  a 
new  and  mighty  bulwark  had  been  set  up 
against  the  Pope,  and  that  the  "  Reforma- 
tion "  was  at  length  secured.  Much  to  the 
surprise  of  these  ignorant  Protestants,  no 
notice  whatever  was  taken  of  the  new  law 
by  English  Bishops  or  by  Irish  Bisliops. 
Indeed,  Doctor  MacHale,  the  bold  Arch- 
bishop of  Tuani,  who  has  the  spirit  of  a 
patriot  and,  if  need  be,  of  a  martyr,  took 
an  early  occasion  of  publicly  violating  the 
new  law,  by  reading  in  his  cathedral  the 
actual  rescript  of  the  Pope,  and  inviting  any 
informer,  or  priest-hunter,  who  might  wish 


ECCLESIASTICAL    TITLES   BILL "DOLLYS   BRAE. 


G03 


to  earn  a  hundred  pounds,  to  institute  a 
prosecution  against  him.  Tlie  law  was 
never  executed  in  a  single  instance.  Doctor 
Newman  signed  his  name  in  public  docu- 
ments as  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  West- 
minster, and  the  Archbishop  of  Armagh 
continued  to  style  himself  Primate  of  All 
Ireland.  The  "Law"  stands  on  record 
upon  the  scandalous  chronicle  of  English 
legislation  as  a  mere  impotent  example  of 
Ko-Popery  spite. 

Why  was  this  law,  passed  by  immense 
majorities,  and  with  every  appearance  of 
determination,  never  enforced  in  a  single 
case  ?  Why  were  not  the  Catholic  Bishops 
prosecuted  under  its  provisions  ?  The 
answer  is  too  obvious — the  Irish  Catholic 
bishops  have  been  so  useful  to  the  British 
Government,  ever  since  the  Union,  in  pre- 
serving the  "  peace  of  the  country  ;"  that 
is,  its  perpetual  subjugation  to  England, 
that  it  was  not  safe  to  make  enemies  of 
them.  Ou  this  subject  we  may  trust  the 
Rev.  Father  Perraud,  who  thus  expresses 
himself  in  his  able  work  ou  Ireland.  *  "  It 
is  useless  to  conceal  the  fact  ;  it  is  not 
the  regiments  encamped  in  Ireland  ;  it  is 
not  the  militia  of  twelve  thousand  peelers 
distributed  over  the  whole  of  the  surface  of 
the  land,  which  prevents  revolt  and  preserves 
the  peace.  During  a  long  period,  especially 
in  the  last  century,  the  excess  of  misery  to 
which  Ireland  was  reduced,  had  multiplied, 
even  in  the  most  Catholic  counties,  the  secret 
societies  of  the  peasantry.  At  this  very 
moment,  it  is  said,  America  is  making  great 
efforts  to  entice  patriotic  young  men  into 
those  obscure  associations  in  which  men 
swear  hatred  to  governmenls,  in  which  are 
prepared  the  conspiracies*  against  public 
institutions,  in  which  are  silently  organized 
social  wars.  ,  .  But,  who  have  ever 
been  so  energetic  in  resistance  to  secret 
societies  as  the  Irish  episcopacy  ?  Who 
have  denounced  these  illegal  associations 
with  the  most  persevering,  powerful, 
and  formidable  condemnation?  On  more 
than  one  occasion  the  Bishops  have  even 
hazarded  their  popularity  in  this  way  ; 
they  could  at  a  signal  have  armed  a  million 

*  Etudes  sur  V  Irland  coniemporaine.    Par  le  R. 
P.  Adolphe  Perraud.    Paris :  18G2. 


combatants  against  a  persecuting  govern- 
ment ;    and  that  signal  Ihey  refused  to  gireP 

Passing  over  the  various  singular  mis- 
statements of  the  reverend  writer — that 
secret  societies  in  Ireland  swear  hatred  to 
governments  in  general,  instead  of  the  Eng- 
lish Government  alone — that  they  conspire 
against  "  public  institutions "  generally, 
instead  of  the  institutions  of  famine  and 
packed  juries,  and  the  rest  of  our  British 
institutions — and  that  they  organize  "  so- 
cial war,"  instead  of  war  against  the 
English  troops  —  passing  over  these  errors 
one  thing  is,  at  least,  evident  from 
the  pages  of  the  Fere  Perraud — that  the 
Catholic  Bishops  take  credit  to  themsel- 
ves for  preserving  British  institutions  and 
British  Government  in  Ireland. f  It  is 
possible  that  they  are  entitled  to  this  credit, 
such  as  it  is.  And  herein  lies  the  reason 
why  they  were  never  prosecuted  under  the 
"  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill."  The  English 
Government  did  not  enforce  its  own  law, 
because  it  dared  not.  | 

The  Parliamentary  session  of  1850  is 
further  notable  as  the  occasion  of  a  dis- 
cussion upon  the  Orange  outrage  at  Dolly's 
Brae,  near  Castlewellan,  in  the  County 
Down.  The  transaction  had  taken  place  in 
the  July  of  the  year  before,  at  the  usual 
celebration  of  the  Orange  anniversary.  It 
happened  in  this  manner :  The  Orangemen 
of  various  districts  of  that  region  had  as- 
sembled, marching  by  various  routes,  at  the 
splendid  demesne  called  Tollymore  Park, 
the  seat  of  the  Earl  of  Roden,  one  of  the 
highest  dignitaries  of  their  Order.  One  of 
the  parties  had  marched  through  an  ex- 
clusively Catholic  district,  and  in  the  true 
spirit  of  the  anniversary,  had  insulted  the 
peaceable  people  with  the  flaunting  of  their 
Orange  banners  and  lilies,  and   by  playing 

t  M.  Perraud  had  made  two  visits  to  Ireland,  ia 
order  to  collect  materials  for  his  valuable  work  ;  had 
communicated  freely  with  the  Catholic  Bishops  ;  and 
must  be  supposed  to  speak  for  them  in  claiming 
merit  for  them  on  account  of  their  loyal  efforts. 

i  It  is  observable  that  Father  Perraud  speaks  of 
the  Bishops  as  denouncing  "  illegal  associations." 
But  there  is  no  society  in  Ireland  so  illegal  as  the 
Catholic  I^piscopacy.  No  White-Boy,  Young  Ire- 
lander,  or  "Fenian,"  ever  more  deliberately  broke 
the  law  than  those  Bishops  habitually  do,  in  taking 
the  title  of  their  Sees,  and  in  reading  Rescripts  from 
Rome. 


604 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


before  tlie  poor  cabins  tlie  tuue  of  "  Croppies 
Lie  Down."  *  After  the  muster  at  Tolly- 
more  Park,  a  dinner,  and  some  drink,  and  a 
speech  from  Lord  Roden  concerning  the 
Mystery  of  Iniquity,  and  the  duty  of  all 
good  Protestants  —  if  they  were  to  be 
martyred  for  their  faith— at  least  to  die  with 
their  Bibles  clasped  to  their  bosoms,  it  was 
determined  to  march  back  by  way  of  Dolly's 
Brae.  One  Beers,  a  very  ignorant  Orange 
magistrate,  accompanied  them.  Violent 
proceedings  were  expected  to  occur  upon  the 
passage  by  Dolly's  Brae,  and  might  have 
been  prevented  by  Lord  Roden  and  other 
magistrates  present  at  the  banquet,  if  they 
had  used  their  influence  to  prevent  the 
march  by  that  particular  road  ;  but  it  was 
thought  advisable  to  give  the  Papists  a 
lesson  ;  and  the  Lodges  started  for  Dolly's 
Brae.  It  appeared,  on  the  subsequent  in- 
vestigation, that  so  strong  was  the  reason 
to  apprehend  disturbance  as  to  induce  some 
magistrates  to  send  forward  a  strong  force 
of  police.  On  the  arrival  of  the  Orange- 
men in  the  townland,  it  was  found  that 
most  of  the  inhabitants  were  gathered  near 
the  road.side,  whether  for  mutual  protection 
or  for  active  resistance  to  the  Orange  march 
in  that  direction,  did  not  clearly  appear ; 
but   the  latter  motive  was  unlikely,  as  the 

*  The  usual  Orange  style  is  thus  described  by  one 
•who  knew  the  North  of  Irehind  well :  "  In  some 
districts  of  tliat  country,  Protestants  are  tlie  majority 
of  the  people  ;  the  old  policy  of  the  "  government"' 
has  been  to  arm  the  Protestants  and  disarm  the  Cath- 
olics. The  magistrates  at  all  sessions  are  Orange- 
men or  high  British  loyalists.  In  those  districts, 
therefore,  Catholics  lead  the  lives  of  dogs — lie  down 
in  fear  and  rise  up  with  foreboding ;  their  worship 
is  insulted,  and  their  very  funerals  are  made  an  occas- 
ion of  riot.  One  of  tlie  July  anniversaries  comes 
round— the  days  of  Aughrim  and  tlie  Boyne  ;  the 
pious  Evangelicals  must  celebrate  those  disastrous 
but  hard  fought  battles  where  William  of  Nassau, 
•with  his  army  of  French  Huguenots,  Danes,  and 
Dutchmen,  overthrew  the  power  of  Ireland,  and 
made  the  noble  old  Celtic  race  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water  even  unto  this  day.  Lodges  as- 
semble at  some  central  point,  with  drums  and  fifes 
plajing  the  "  Protestant  boys."  At  the  rendezvous 
are  the  Grand  Masters,  with  their  sashes  and  aprons 
—a  beautiful  show.  Procession  formed,  they  walk 
in  Lodges,  each  with  its  banner  of  orange  or  purple, 
and  garlands  of  orange  lilies  borne  high  on  poles. 
Most  have  arras,  yeomanry-muskets  or  pistols,  or 
aucient  swords,  wlietted  for  the  occasion.  Thej'  ar- 
rive at  some  other  town  or  village,  dine  in  the  pub- 
lic-houses, drink  the  "  glorious,  pious  and  immortal 
memory  of  King  William,"  and  "To  Hell  witli  tlie 
Pope;"  re-form  their  procession  after  dinner,  and 


Catholics  were  quite  unarmed,  save  with  a 
few  scythes  and  hayforks.  An  immediate 
collision  took  place,  of  course.  The  chief 
of  police  led  his  men  at  once  into  the  scene 
of  disorder,  ascertaining  to  his  own  satis- 
faction, as  usual,  that  the  Catholics  were 
solely  to  blame,  and  were  the  atrocious 
aggressors,  he  directed  all  the  efforts  of  his 
force  against  them.  In  short,  by  the  joint 
operations  of  the  armed  Orangemen  and 
the  armed  police,  the  unarmed  Papists  were 
victoriously  defeated  ;  several  corpses  were 
left  upon  the  field,  and  most  of  the  houses 
were  burned  or  wrecked. 

Such  was  the  day  of  Dolly's  Brae.  A 
lawyer  was  sent  down  from  Dublin  as  a 
"  Commissioner,"  on  the  usual  pretence  of 
examining  into  the  facts,  and  collecting  the 
evidence  ;  and  it  appears  that  his  report 
was  not  so  gro.ssly  partial  as  had  been  ex- 
pected ;  for  Lord  Clarendon  could  not 
avoid  the  plain  necessity  of  dismissing  from 
the  Coramis.«ion  of  the  Peace  both  Lord 
Roden  and  Beers.  It  was  on  this  report 
that  the  debate  arose  in  Parliament,  and 
many  severe  judgments  were  expressed  of  the 
conduct  of  the  Irish  Government  in  en- 
couraging and  arming  such  a  banditti  as  the 
Orangemen.  Lord  Clarendon,  who  attend- 
ed in  his  place  in  the  House  of  Peers  upon 

then  comes  the  time  for  Protestant  action.  They 
march  through  a  Papist  towuland  :  at  every  house 
they  stop,  and  play  "  Croppies  lie  down !"  and  the 
Boyne  Water,  tiring  a  few  shots  over  the  house  at 
the  same  time.  The  doors  are  shut— the  family  in 
terror — the  father  standing  on  the  floor  with  knitted 
brows  and  teeth  clenclied  through  the  nether  lip, 
grasping  a  pitchfork,  (for  the  police  long  since  found 
out  and  took  away  his  gun.)  Bitter  memories  of  the 
feuds  of  ages  darken  his  soul — Outside,  with  taunt- 
ing music,  and  brutal  jests  and  laughter,  stand  iu 
their  ranks  the  Protestant  communicants.  The  old 
grandmother  can  endure  no  longer :  she  rushes  out 
with  gray  hair  streaming,  and  kneels  on  the  road  be- 
fore them,  she  clasps  her  old  thin  hands,  and  curses 
them  in  the  name  of  God  and  his  Holy  Mother. 
Loud  laughs  are  the  answer,  and  a  shot  or  two  over 
the  house,  or  in  through  the  window.  The  old  crone 
in  frantic  exasperation  takes  up  a  stone  and  hurls  it 
with  feeble  hand  against  the  insulting  crew.  There ; 
the  first  assault  is  committed ;  everything  is  lawful 
now  :  smash  go  the  unglazed  windows  and  their 
frames ;  zealous  Protestants  rush  into  the  house  rag- 
ing; the  man  is  shot  down  at  his  own  threshold  ;  the 
cabin  is  wrecked ;  and  the  procession,  playing 
"  Croppies  lie  down!"  proceeds  to  another  Popish 
den. 

"So  the  Reformation  is  vindicated.  The  names 
of  Ballyvarley  and  Tullyorier  will  rise  to  the  lips  of 
many  a  man  who  reads  this  description." 


CONDITION    or   THE   COUNTRr. 


605 


this  occasion,  defended  his  proceedings  as 
he  best  could  ;  and  in  particular,  he  most 
emphatically  denied  that  in  1848  he  had 
furnished  arms  to  Orange  Lodges.  He 
snid  that,  in  fact,  a  certain  Captain 
Kennedy  (at  the  time  of  the  debate  serving 
in  India,)  had  given  money  out  of  his  own 
pocket  to  provide  arms  for  Lodges  ;  but 
be,  Lord  Clarendon,  was  quite  innocent 
of  any  such  proceedings.  It  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  say  that  nobody  believed  his 
lordship.  What  had  been  charged  vi-as,  that 
not  money,  but  arms,  had  been  sent  from 
Dublin  Castle  to  Belfast  for  distribution 
amongst  Orangemen  ;  and,  besides,  if  the 
money  given  by  Captain  Kennedy  came,  in 
fact,  out  of  the  Secret  Service  fund,  Lord 
Clarendon,  as  the  distributor  of  that  fund 
in  Ireland,  would  have  felt  it  his  right  and 
his  duty  to  deny  the  fact  when  charged. 
It  is  an  ofBeial  necessity  ;  because,  other- 
wise, there  would  be  nothing  secret  nor 
sacred  in  Secret  Service  money. 

It  only  remains  to  be  mentioned,  that 
no  person  was  ever  brought  to  justice 
for  the  predetermined  massacre  of  Dolly's 
Brae, 

At  this  point — the  middle  of  the  current 
century — tie  present  history  closes.  It 
leaves  in  full  operation  the  whole  system  of 
British  rule  in  Ireland.  Every  department 
of  Irish  life  was  brought  under  complete 
subordination  to  English  interests  ;  and  the 
arrangements  seemed  to  be  perfect  for  pre- 
venting national  aspirations  or  national  in- 
terests in  Ireland  from  ever  again  becoming 
a  disturbing  element  in  the  course  of  im- 
perial policy.  The  Celtic  population  was 
securely  put  in  the  way  of  steady  diminu- 
tion.* The  famine  was  past  ;  and  the 
people  were  continually  called  on  by  the 
smooth-spoken  Viceroy,  to  rejoice  in  the  re- 
turn of  prosperity  ;  yet  there  was  still  a 
multitudinous  rush  to  the  sea,  in  order  to 
escape  from  such  prosperity.  The  emigra- 
tion from  Ireland,  in  1851,  amounted  to 
two  hundred  and  fifty-seven  thousand  three 
hundred  and  seventy-two.  The  number  of 
paupers  relieved  in  the  poor  houses  in  1850, 
was  eight  hundred  and  five  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  two,  without  counting  nearly 

*  It  is  now,  (1868,)   considerably  under  six  mil- 
lions. 


four  hundred  thousand  who  were  receiving 
"  out-door  relief."  No  attempt  had  been 
made  to  secure  to  the  tenant  by  just  laws 
any  right  whatsoever  in  the  improvements 
he  might  make  on  his  farm.  Extermination 
of  peasantry  was  not  only  the  practice  but 
the  fashion  ;  and  ruthless  consolidation  of 
farms  had  come  to  be  thought  the  criterion 
of  high  intelligence,  and  even  philanthropy 
in  an  Irish  proprietor  ;  because  it  proved 
that  he  had  studied  the  "  Devon  Commis- 
sion" report,  and  appreciated  the  conclu- 
sions of  the  Commissioners. 

In  the  same  year,  1850,  the  Government 
was  holding  in  its  own  hands,  by  means  of 
the  Savings  Banks,  the  earnings  and  sav- 
ings of  poor  Irish  people  to  the  amount  of 
£1,291,798  ;  so  that  every  industrious  ar- 
tizan  and  careful  maid-servant  who  had 
made  a  deposit,  was  directly  interested  to 
the  amount  of  such  a  deposit,  in  maintain- 
ing what  is  called  "  the  peace  of  the  coun- 
try," that  is  to  say,  submitting  implicitly  to 
the  British  system,  and  influencing  others  to 
submit. 

The  Established  Church  and  the  police 
were  flourishing  ;  the  Orangemen  were  as 
insolent  and  ferocious  as  they  had  ever 
been  ;  and  the  Coercion  act  (for  suppression 
of  "  Crime  and  Outrage,")  was  always 
ready  in  the  Castle,  to  be  launched  at 
a  moment's  warning  against  any  barony  or 
county  in  the  land.  Yet  the  truth  is,  that 
Ireland  was  at  that  time  remarkably  free 
from  crimes  and  outrages,  (except  those 
perpetrated  against  her  people,)  and  it  is  in- 
structive to  remark,  that  crimes  and  out- 
rages were  at  the  same  time  steadily  on  the 
increase  in  England  and  Scotland.  A 
speech  in  Parliament  of  Lord  John  Russell, 
contains  a  wonderful  revelation  upon  this 
poiut.f  His  lordship  stated,  that  in  one 
year,  (1857,)  the  convictions  in  Great  Brit- 
ain were  —  for  "shooting,  stabbing,  and 
wounding,"  two  hundred  and  eight  ;  for 
highway  robbery,  three  hundred  and  seven- 
ty-eight ;  for  burglary  and  housebreaking, 
one  thousand  and  thirty.four  ;  for  forgery, 
one  hundred  and  eighty-four  ;  a  catalogue 
which  could  by  no  means  be  matched  in 
Ireland.       However,    those     English    and 

t  It  is  cited  by  Sir  Archibald  Alison,  in  Chapter  66 
of  his  History. 


606 


HISTORY    OF   IRELA^^). 


Scotch  crimes  and  outrages  were  not  done 
in  assertion  of  public  riglit,  or  resistance  of 
public  wrong  ;  that  is  to  say,  tliey  were 
real  crimes  and  outrages  ;  they  did  not 
alarm  the  higiier  classes  ;  and  had  seldom 
any  social,  political,  or  religious  character. 
Tlierefore,  it  never  entered  into  the  mind  of 
Government  or  Parliament  to  apply  their 
"  Crime  and  Outrage  act "  to  England  or 
Scotland.  In  other  words,  the  series  of 
Coercion  laws  for  Ireland  have  always  been 
proposed  and  passed  under  a  false  pretence  ; 
they  are  not  to  prevent  crime,  but  to  keep 
the  people  forever  helpless  in  the  hands  of 
their  mortal  enemies.  They  are  not  mea- 
sures for  reformation  of  society,  but  engines 
and  arms  for  perpetuation  of  British  rule  in 
Ireland. 

While  our  country  was  so  rapidly  sinking 
to  beggary,  and  diminishing  in  population, 
it  may  be  useful  to  cast  a  glance  at  the 
progress  of  the  other  island.  This  cannot 
be  done  better  than  by  quoting  a  passage 
from  Alison,  \chajp.  56,)  in  which  he  gives  a 
general  view  of  English  affairs  during  a 
period  of  four  years:  "From  1848,"  he 
says,  "to  1853,  the  effects  of  free-trade  were 
displayed,  undisturbed  by  any  other  or 
counteracting  influences.  Plenty  had  again 
returned,  and  spread  its  sunshine  over  the 
land.  The  harvest  of  1847  had  been  so 
favorable,  that  at  Lord  John  Russell's  su"'- 
gestion,  a  public  thanksgiving  was  offered 
up  for  it  ;*  and  this  blessing  continued  un- 
abated in  a  sensible  degree  throughout  the 
period."  The  same  historian  proceeds  to 
give  statements  exhibiting  the  enormous 
development  of  English  commerce  and  wealth 
during  the  same  period  of  four  years,  by 
reason  of  the  gold  discoveries  in  California 
and  in  Australia.  But  nothing  of  all  that 
prosperity  is  for  Ireland.  Having  scarcely 
any  manufactures,  she  has  no  commerce, 
e.xcept  her  fatal  commerce  with  England, 
under  that  "free-trade"  which  cheapens  all 
which  she  has  to  sell,  and  makes  dearer  to 
that  precise  amount  everything  which  she  is 
forced  to  buy. 

It  may,  therefore,  be  affirmed  that  in  or 

*  The  harvest  of  1S47  was  also  very  abundant  in 
Ireland,  and  it  was  one  of  the  deadliest  years  of 
famine  The  English  oflered  thanksgivings  to  God 
for  the  Irish  harvests,  and  then  devoured  them. 


about  the  year  1850,  Ireland  became  thor- 
oughly subjugated,  without  almost  a  hope 
of  escape.  Everything  was  fitted  to  the 
hand  of  her  enemy,  and  that  enemy  made 
most  unrelenting  use  of  the  advantage. 

The  Catholic  bishops  counseled  obedience 
and  submission ;  the  formidable  kind  of 
"agitation"  devised  by  O'Connell  had  be- 
come altogether  impossible  :  because  in  the 
first  place  the  very  material  for  it,  (the 
"surplus  population,'')  had  been  swept  off 
the  face  of  the  earth,  and  besides  the  English 
Government  had  now  so  firm  a  hold  of  the 
poor,  through  "  Crime  and  Outrage  acts," 
police  and  poor-laws,  that  it  w^as  more  diffi- 
cult than  formerly  to  move  the  masses. 

Parliamentary  efforts,  or  rather  pretences 
of  effort,  were  made  from  time  to  time,  to 
obtain  ameliorations  of  some  grievance  or 
other.  Tliese  pretences  of  effort,  if  they 
really  tended  to  any  good  for  Ireland,  were 
always  defeated,  or  rather  indeed,  spurned 
by  Parliament  with  disdain  and  insult,  as  it 
was  always  known  they  would  be  :  and  the 
total  result  of  those  Parliamentary  move- 
ments may  be  defined  as  consisting  of  a  fevy 
places  distributed  to  rhetorical  patriots. 
Tims,  far  from  the  Irish  representation  in 
Parliament  serving  as  means  of  asserting 
Irish  rights  or  interests,  it  helps  to  rivet  the 
chains  of  our  unhappy  island,  by  opening  a 
market  overt,  where  patriots  may  be  pur- 
chased, (while  still  vociferating  for  justice  to 
Ireland,)  and  so  silenced  forever. 

Whatever  has  been  effected  for  the  good 
of  the  Irish  people,  whether  to  promote  their 
moral  and  intellectual  culture,  or  even  to 
aid  them  in  saving  their  lives,  has  been  done 
exclusively  by  themselves.  Two  wonderful 
examples  of  this  nature  must  be  mentioned: 
Jirst,  the  establishment  of  the  Catholic  Uni- 
versity ;  and  second,  the  immense  fund  which 
has  been  systematically  contributed  for  some 
years  by  Irish  people  settled  in  the  United 
States  to  aid  their  friends  in  escaping  from 
British  government. 

It  has  already  been  seen,  in  the  course  of 
this  history,  what  rigorous  means  were  used 
during  the  last  century  to  prevent  the  Cath- 
olic people,  under  the  heaviest  penalties, 
from  being  educated  at  all  ;  and  how  the 
extraordinary  eagerness  for  education  on 
the  part  of  those  people  had  impelled  them 


KATIONAL   SCHOOLS — CATHOLIC   tTNIVERSITY. 


607 


to  seek  in  foreign  scliools  and  universities 
the  instruction  wliich  none  dared  to  give 
them  at  home  ;  although  there  were  both 
great  risk  and  enormous  expense  incurred  in 
tiiese  efforts  to  obtain  contraband  learning. 
It  was  the  true  English  horror  of  "  French 
principles,''  about  the  time  of  the  great 
French  Revolution,  which  caused  the  penal 
laws  against  education  to  be  relaxed  ;  but 
no  measures  were  taken  by  the  enemy's 
government  to  supply  the  place  of  that  con- 
tinental education  for  many  years  after,  and 
when  at  last  the  "National  Schools"  were 
established,  and,  later  still,  when  the  three 
"Queen's  Colleges"  were  built  and  endow- 
ed, it  was  found  that  the  National  Schools 
were  so  constituted  as  to  be  extremely  un- 
national,  or  anti-national  ;  and  that  the 
Queen's  Colleges  were  still  more  adroitly 
arranged  to  wean  Catholic  students  both 
from  national  sentiment,  and  from  the  faith 
and  morals  of  their  church.  Such,  at  least, 
was  the  judgment  of  the  majority  of  the 
Irish  bishops  and  clergy ;  and  when  we 
reflect  upon  the  two  chairs  of  history  and 
moral  philosophy,  which  must  exist  in  every 
university,  and  on  the  effect  of  training  up 
Catholic  youth  in  the  British  principles  upon 
these  subjects,  jand  causing  them  to  regard 
human  life  and  mstory  from  a  strictly  British 
point  of  view,  it  cannot  be  matter  of  wonder 
if  the  Catholic  hierarchy  lifted  its  voice 
against  the  new  plans  of  education  imposed 
on  us  by  a  London  Parliament.  In  short, 
there  was  a  necessity  to  provide  some  other 
and  better  system  for  the  collegiate  educa- 
tion of  Catholic  youth,  and  therefore,  in  the 
year  1854,  pursuant  to  a  recommendation 
coming  from  Rome,  the  Irish  bishops  form- 
ally instituted  a  free  Catholic  University, 
destined,  like  the  Church  (whose  offspring  it 
was,)  to  subsist  only  upon  the  charity  of 
the  faithful,  and  to  be  completely  independ- 
ent of  the  State.  Yet  all  this  while  the 
wealthy  Protestant  Corporation  of  Trinity 
College  was  maintained  in  splendor  by 
estates  plundered  from  Catholic  monasteries, 
and  the  "Queen's  Colleges"  were  kept  up 
at  the  public  cost,  to  which  the  Catholics, 
as  tax-payers,  of  course  had  to  contribute 
their  full  share.  There  was  nothing,  in- 
deed, new  in  all  this:  they  had  been  long 
used  to   maintain  schools  and  churches  for 


others,  and  to  find  the  means  of  providing 
for  their  own  religious  services,  and  instruc- 
tion also,  as  best  they  could. 

The  Board  of  the  Catholic  University  of 
Dublin  consists  of  the  four  archbishops,  nnd 
two  other  prelates  for  each  province.  The 
institution  comprises  five  faculties  :  those  ot 
theology,  law,  medicine,  belles-lettres,  and. 
science.  Its  government  is  carried  on  by  a 
committee  of  archbishops  and  bishops,  meet- 
ing once  a  year.  The  immediate  and  ordi- 
nary administration  is  conducted  by  the 
"Senate"  of  the  university,  consisting  of 
the  rector  and  vice-rector,  the  secretary,  the 
professors,  the  superiors  of  certain  institu- 
tions dependent  on  the  University,  and  the 
Fellows.*  A  yearly  collection,  made  in 
every  diocese,  provides  for  the  expenses  of 
the  foundation.  The  spirit  and  zeal  with 
which  this  great  national  enterprize  has  been 
sustained,  form  an  admirable  illustration  of 
the  unselfish  devoted ness  of  the  Irish  people 
to  an  object  which  they  believe  to  be  good, 
or  in  other  words,  anti-English.  In  the  year 
1859,  they  had  already  bestowed  freely — 
and  given  their  blessing  along  with  it — the 
considerable  sum  of  £80,000  sterling,  for 
promotion  of  this  noble  object  ;  and  every 
year,  even  in  the  poorest  chapels  among  the 
mountains  of  remote  parishes,  the  appeal  of 
the  parish  priest  in  favor  of  an  institution 
blessed  by  the  Pope  and  the  bishops,  brings 
forth  an  offering  even  from  the  poorest. 

All  this  great  work  has  been  done,  it  is 
true,  in  contravention  of  the  views  and 
policy  of  the  British  Government,  not  only 
without  its  help,  but  under  the  frown  of  its 
displeasure.  The  Catholic  University  has 
no  charter  of  incorporation,  and  no  legal 
right  to  confer  degrees  in  arts  or  laws.  In 
the  eyes  of  the  Government,  it  is  but 
a  private  association,  tolerated  but  not 
recognized,  as  indeed  the  Catholic  Church 
itself  is. 

Another  strange  and  admirable  example 
of  the  generous  zeal  of  the  Irish  people  in 
resisting  the  utter  destruction  of  their  race, 
is  seen  in  the  regular  and  systemized  aid 
furnished    by    Irish   citizens:   of  the   United 

*  Rules  and  Jiegtdaiions.  §  7.  The  institutions 
dependent  on  the  Catholic  University  are  those  of 
St.  Patricia,  St.  Lawrence,  (Flarcourt  street,)  Carmel 
and  Corpus  Christi. 


603 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


States,  to  assist  their  friends  and  relatives 
in  withdrawing  themselves  from  the  domi- 
nation of  England,  and  establishing  them- 
selves in  a  free  country.     The  emigration  of 
what  is  called  the  "  surplus  population  "  of 
Ireland,  has  been  aided  and  furthered   in 
several  ways.     The  landed-proprietors,  with 
a   view  to   facilitate   the   consolidation   of 
farms,  and   also  to  reduce  the  burden    of 
poor-rates  in  their  respective  "  unions,"  have 
largely  contributed  to  help  the  emigration 
of  the  poor  people  whom  they  themselves 
exterminate  ;  but  this  is  a  matter  of  private 
arrangement,  and   no  data   exist  for  even 
approximating  to  the  amount  supplied  from 
this  source.     In  1848  the  Poor-Law  Unions 
were  invited  by  the  Government  to  cooper- 
ate in  the  movement  of  deportation,  in  order 
to  furnish  a  gratuitous  passage  to  such  poor 
persons  as  had  no  other  resource  than  ex- 
patriation.     But   this   was   to   be   at   the 
expense  of  the  Irish  rate-payers,  and  was, 
moreover,  to  be  in  strict  accordance  with 
the  views  of  the  British  Government  itself. 
The  emigration,  thus  promoted,  was,  there- 
fore, to  be  almost  entirely  to  the  British 
Colonies,  especially  Australia.     From  1847 
to   1859  inclusive,   the   unions   contributed 
about  JBI 00,000  to  the  cost  of  emigration, 
removing  from  Ireland  about  25,000  persons. 
But  this  was  a  trifle  :  the  great  rush  of 
emigrants  was  to  the  United  States,  and  the 
cost   of   the   immense    exodus   was   mainly 
provided  for  by  the  savings  of  Irish  citizens 
already  settled  in  that  Republic. 

The  Colonial  Land  and  Emigration  Com- 
missioners, in  their  twelfth  report,  state  that 
tliey  do  not  believe  that  "The  emigration 
will  be  arrested  by  anything  short  of  a  great 
improvement  in  the  position  of  the  laboring 
population  in  Ireland;  all  those  obstacles 
wiiich  in  ordinary  cases  would  be  opposed 
to  so  wholesale  an  emigration,  appear  in  the 
case  of  the  Irish  to  be  smoothed  away.  The 
misery  which  they  have  for  many  years  en- 
dured, has  destroyed  the  attachment  to  their 
native  soil,  the  numbers  who  have  already 
emigrated  and  prospered,  remove  the  appre- 
hension of  going  to  a  strange  and  untried 
country,  while  the  want  of  means  is  rem- 
edied by  the  liberal  contributions  of  their 
relations  and  friends  who  have  preceded 
them.    The  contributions  so  made,  either  in ; 


the  form  of  prepaid  passages,  or  of  money 
sent  home,  and  which  are  almost  exclusively 
provided  by  the  Irish,  were  returned  to  us, 
as  in 

1848,  upwards  of. £4fi0,000 

1849,  "  640,000 

1850,  "  957,000 

1851,  "  990,000 

And  although  it  is  probable  that  all  the 
money  included  in  these  returns  is  not  ex- 
pended in  emigration,  yet  as  we  have  reason 
to  know  that  much  is  sent  home  of  which 
these  returns  show  no  trace,  it  seems  not 
unfair  to  assume  that  of  the  money  expend- 
ed in  Irish  emigration  in  each  of  the  last 
four  years,  a  very  large  proportion  was  pro- 
vided from  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic." 

The  Abbe  Perraud,  in  his  Etudes  sur  V 
Irlande  Coiitem.'poraine,  says  :  "  From  the 
returns  furnished  by  American  bankers,  the 
Emigration  Commissioners  give  the  precise 
amount  of  those  remittnnces  of  money  ;  but 
for  North  America  only.  The  total  for 
thirteen  years,  (1848-61,)  is  JEll,674,596 
sterling.  These  statistics  apply,  indeed,  to 
the  emigrants  from  the  three  kingdoms ; 
but  as  the  Irish  are  in  the  immense  majority, 
so  it  is  the  Irish  who  remit  the  far  larger 
proportion  of  the  money."  It  must  be  add- 
ed, that  the  reports  made  up  by  American 
bankers,  can  represent  only  a  portion  of  the 
remittances  from  Irish  citizens  to  their 
friends  at  home,  because  much  money  is 
sent  through  other  channels,  which  cannot 
enter  into  those  returns.  On  the  whole, 
however,  it  is  evident  that  the  strong  natural 
affection  of  the  Irish  for  their  parents  and 
relatives,  and  their  constant  and  ardent  de- 
sire to  deliver  them  from  an  odious  bondage, 
have  in  this  instance  materially  served  the 
policy  of  the  British  Government,  which  is, 
to  get  rid  of  the  Celtic  enemy  by  any  and 
by  all  means. 

And,  for  the  present,  the  policy  of  that 
Govertmient  seems  to  "be  eminently  success- 
ful. The  Celtic  Irish  in  Ireland  have  greatly 
diminished  in  numbers,  and  are  still  diminish- 
ing. Yet  there  is  another  aspect  of  this 
aflair  :  a  vast  mass  of  Irish  power  and  Irish 
passion  has  been  gathering  and  growing  iu 
the  United  States,  all  of  it  cherishing  a 
mortal  hatred  of  the  British  Empire,  and  a 
fierce  thirst  of  vengeance  on  their  enemies, 
as  well  as  a  loving  and  generous  desire  to 


CONCLUSION. 


eo9 


emancipate  their  native  country  from  the 
bitter  thraldom  of  so  many  ages.  From 
the  Celtic  Irish  on  the  American  continent, 
arises  one  universal  cry  of  execration  against 
Englisli  dominion  and  English  ideas.  With 
independent  means,  a  fair  career  for  industry, 
and  an  increased  and  still  increasing  acquaint- 
ance with  the  story  of  their  native  country, 
there  has  grown  up  in  their  hearts  an  intense 
desire  to  right  the  wrongs  of  centuries,  to 
lift  up  their  kinsfolk  and  ancient  clansmen 
out  of  the  abject  misery  in  which  British 
policy  requires  them  to  be  kept,  and  to  see 
their  countrymen  in  fair  and  full  possession 
of  the  lovely  land  where  Providence  has 
placed  them.  This  is  a  dangerous  matter 
for  the  British  Empire. 

For  the  present,  indeed,  it  may  seem,  that 
by  the  operation  of  all  the  well-devised  ar- 
rangements for  getting  rid  of  the  Irish 
people,  what  used  to  be  called  the  "  Irish 
Difficulty "  has  become  more  manageable  ; 
the  "  Irish  Enemy,"  if  not  wholly  destroyed, 
is  at  least  disarmed  and  bound.  No  way  of 
redress  is  left  open  except  a  violent  revolu- 
tion ;  and  for  this  the  people  of  Ireland  and 
their  kinsmen  in  America  only  await  the 
opportunity  of  a  war  which  shall  tax  the 
strength  of  their  enemy. 

A-  tabular  summary  of  the  financial  con- 
dition of  the  country,  (as  furnished  by  her 
enemy,)  up  to  the  year  1852,  may  fitly 
close  this  story.  It  is  to  be  observed  upon 
these  official  returns,  that  we  have  no  means 
of  cheeking  them,  because  our  books  are 
kept  in  England.  Yet  one  or  two  remarks 
are  obvious  :— 

Most  Irishmen  are  of  opinion  that  they 
do  not  receive  value  for  the  charge  on  ac- 
count of  "Army,  Navy,  and  Ordnance;" 
believing,  in  fact,  that  the  money  would  be 
much  better  spent  in  destroying  those  British 
services     [  Tabular  Summary,  see  next  page.^ 


CONCLUSION. 


The  compiler  of  this  continuation  of  the 
Abhd  MacGeoghegan's  History  of  Ireland, 
purposely  stops  short  of  the  most  recent 
events  which  have  agitated  that  country, 
and  disquieted  and  exasperated  England 
The  time  for  relating  the  history  of  those 
events  has  not  yet  arrived.  It  may  be  said, 
however,  that  a  powerful  illustration  has 
been  thereby  given  to  the  fact,  that  while 
England  is  at  peace  with  other  powerful 
nations,  it  is  extremely  difficult,  if  not  im- 
possible, to  make  so  much  as  a  serious 
attempt  at  a  national  insurrection,  in  the 
face  of  a  government  so  vigilant  and  so 
well  prepared. 

The  high  patriotic  enthusiasm  that  im- 
pelled many  brave  Irishmen  in  America  to 
fly  across  the  Atlantic  and  devote  to  the 
rescue  of  their  country  that  art  of  war 
which  they  had  learned  chiefly  to  that  end, 
their  experience  in  training  men,  the  gal- 
lantry of  the  peasants,  their  extensive  secret 
organizations — all  seemed  to  break  and  dis- 
solve away  in  the  very  hour  of  highest  hope 
and  resolve.  All  honor  be  to  the  men  w^ho 
made  the  daring  effort,  and  staked  their 
lives  upon  it.  Whatever  judgment  may  be 
formed  of  others,  they,  at  least,  "  stood  the 
cast  their  rashness  played,"  and  the  best  of 
them  are  expiating  in  dungeons  the  crime 
of  loving  their  country  and  striving  to 
serve  her — just  as  Irishmen  have  generally 
expiated  that  offence  for  many  ages.  Yet 
no  cause  is  Utterly  lost  so  long  as  it  can 
inspire  heroic  devotion.  No  country  is  hope- 
lessly vanquished  whose  sons  love  her  better 
than  their  lives. 


77 


610 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


Account  of  the  Income  and  Expenditure  of  Ireland,  in  the  Years  ending  5th  January,  from  1847 
to  1852,  inclusive ;  showing  the  whole  of  the  Ways  and  Means  provided  within  the  same  period, 
together  with  the  application  thereof. — [House  of  Commons  Papers,  No.  628,  184:9  ;  No.  600, 
1850  i  No.  477,  1851  ;  No.  504,  1852.] 


.  p 

m     ;>> 

-^  p. 

Ordnance,    . 
Miscellaneous, 
Other  Payments 

i<>§ 

0    0 

other  Receipts  :- 
Repayment  of  X 

and  other  Pubi 
Moneys  Repaid 

Miscellaneous 

3b 

2 

bB 
^  p 

2. 5: 

►t3  0  iT3  CO  H  0 

'si 

1^ 

(t  ^  t-l  ft  p^ 

H 

a   "-1   S3 

:  s 

0 

.    B 

0 

E 

1 

m 

is'- 

ill 
il; 

0   c  35 
Cft2 

g-'  i 

ft     '^ 

H 

H 

1  ftB 

&^| 
II' 

S'  °° 
*  !?' 

.    1. 

'g  s  -®  3  ? 

•    c 

S 

3 

3 

5- 

o 
> 

•  S5 
B 

■  S- 

ID 

.      W 
M 
0 
C 

'1 

n 
•t 

•  ? 

n> 

•  3 
ft 
0 

le  Ways  and  Means  provided  : — 
edemption  of  Exchequer  Bills,  pe 
I.,  cap.  48  (Deficiency  Bill.s,) . 
through  the  Excise  in  Ireland,  t 
in  England,     .... 

0 
£ 

X 

§ 

B 

0 

•  0 

.  B 

a 

n 

•  1 
0 

•  p. 

s- 

c 

.  a 

p" 

T .  '  . 

•  i 

p 

•  0 

•i 

S" 

•  0 

•i 

•  3 

B 

S" 

B 

0 

e 

0 

n> 

0 

0 

B 

1 

a 
ft 

C 

w 
►13 

0 

H 

0 

£ 

M 

B 

0 
B 
S" 

s  I-  < 

.  ^  g 

2       a> 

0.    p, 

-I'l 

«■  B 

V  B 
^  — 

w 

•  & 

to 

•  S 
p 

n 
0 

.  B 

0 

£ 
0 

>-t 

a 
p 

w 

•"I 

i 

•    a  0 

.      .  28 

-     iS 

.  • .  j-i 

B" 

-         •             g 
0 

s. 

5" 

5< 

0 
0 

.       M» 

.    0  .    1 

•    *-i 

.   0 

• 

TO 

«n 

*> 

»> 

M 

M 

— 

S" 

«- 

^-•ts 

V 

-^           *1 

-1 

^^ 

»-  -■ 

■^ 

"to 

S  CO 

"if- 

CO 

-3 

CO 

Or'n-'tO 

00 

0           OD 

o» 

to 

C-.  0 

If- 

0   |L1 

co 

ot 

to 

CO 

to  -4  OS  CI 

tt» 

CO 

tJ          r" 

p 

p 

CO  CI  CO  CO 

p 

_lO  0, 

p 

p     p 

p 

p> 

p  p  ;-4  p 

o 

"— '         00 

00 

0 

to 

"rf-  ':=  "to  "to 

"if* 

s?" 

"to 

"00     "0 

"ot 

"co 

"0 

"0  '-4  "=  "0 

OC 

OS 

•-'      1 

0 

Oi  0  *-  00 

0 

01 

CO         If- 

0 

CO 

c»      1 

0  OS  0-.  *. 

J—*         Ct 

p-"      1 

CO 

■^ 

CO  0  0  0 

c^ 

c  0 

CI 

»- 

to 

to       1 

0  OS  0  CO 

y^ 

.^ 

,_, 

t_l 

^^ 

1-1 

)_1 

I-*       I-* 

t-1 

^ 

to 

CO        00 

CO 

01 

CO 

eoo  0  0 

OS 

01  CO 

to 

to        -1 

00 

-a 

ot 

0  0  !*■  .4 

_ 

,_, 

._. 

,_, 

a. 

-3 

0         «D 

0 

to 

o» 

0000 

0 

0  0 

-J 

0      to 

0 

If- 

0  »-  CI  CO 

aC 

tf^ 

*« 

to 

„ 

Ol 

p 

J-lp 

'3 

CO        w 

^ 

CO 

a 

to 

■^ 

co"co 

"0 

It- 

-J 

"Iq 

Ol"-i"o 

cc         CD 

CI 

#- 

0 

lo-O 

0 

1^  If- 

*-         CO 

0 

to 

01  CV  CI  0 

l*» 

^5 

.*'         CO 

p 

^^ 

,to_>- 

p 

p 

to  j^ 

^ 

p     .IX 

*- 

p 

p  -4  to  p 

'- 

V         CI 

w 

Yo 

"0 

"c;  00 

"0 

"c: 

"o'ci 

"^ 

"i-i       to 

'i_l 

1.4 

"oi 

"b  'to  0  "i-> 

»-• 

0 

c;i       ^^' 

CO         1 

0 

It-  CI 

0 

to 

to 

a>      1  -J 

ot 

CO          1 

0  to  CO  CO 

OC 

01 

CO         1- 

*•      1 

to 

0  0 

0 

H- 

to  1— ' 

CI 

0      «- 

to 

<»      1 

0  OS  H-  to 

00 

(_l 

^^ 

t^ 

^^ 

)_1 

l-l  HA 

e* 

cc 

-J      en 

!!>■ 

f-* 

-J 

to  0 

0 

I-* 

*-  -4 

CO 

ot      01 

09 

CO 

00 

0  to  too 

,„. 

^      >-* 

,_! 

(.J 

,_t 

,_! 

s. 

=s 

>l>- 

-^ 

o> 

coo 

0 

c 

cc  M 

c 

0         M 

0 

^ 

It- 

Oft-icn 

or 

«. 

Jf- 

_to 

_K^ 

c, 

p 

Hip 

'f^ 

00      bd 

"to 

o> 

01 

(S> 

"co 

to'ce 

"^ 

CO 

00 

"to 

oi'co'o 

c 

(2      tp 

«>■ 

If- 

to 

CI  CO 

to 

If- 

If-  to 

0 

0 

«  CO  IOCS 

th 

0 

C5 

_C.1 

jf-^- 

J-* 

pi-" 

p 

p      *- 

*■ 

p 

1^ 

^t-:,^^ 

00 

"co      '*' 

~'zj\ 

"00 

"0 

"to*. 

"0 

"ct 

"to  Ct 

"00 

0     "to 

"»- 

"if- 

"00 

"0 'to  "to  "-4 

CO 

ij       c-> 

Ot          1 

to 

CO 

^-  0 

0 

t- 

0      1- 

CO          1 

:^ 

-I     1 

to 

C-.  0 

0 

^  01 

to 

0     -a 

CO 

-.4 

CI          1 

0  it  K-  to 

u 

,_» 

,_, 

I..1 

I-"  1— • 

t~t 

l-l  l-l 

e<» 

0 

CO         Ol 

a> 

0 

to 

coo 

0 

e-. 

to  If- 

0 

o>      to 

-a 

cs 

'"' 

0  OC  CO  0> 

l-l 

?■ 

ll>. 

<o       -5 

*■ 

CO 

-q 

to  0 

0 

'- 

lt--4 

If- 

CO        0 

t^. 

00 

o» 

0  OS  to  -1 

oT 

t-1     _»(^ 

-.*" 

_IO 

^ 

p 

p 

^^ 

*,--» 

"0      >-; 

"0 

Ot 

Ot 

Ok 

CO 

to  "is 

"l-i 

o> 

00 

1.4 

g'to'to 

•{^ 

to       ^0 

*■ 

Oi 

to 

to 

CO  00 

If- 

0 

|0  C  CO  1»- 

t*> 

en      0 

to 

Jf- 

_CT 

p 

^a 

p     J- 

p 

J" 

CS  to  --  l-l 

00 

<c      bo 

c« 

"co 

"to 

"0 

If- 

"to      "l-» 

CO 

CO 

00 

M 

to      n- 

-4       1 

CO 

<=  1 

0 

10 

to  0 

co 

1  J       ot 

CO        1 

0  -t  *•  to 

0      — 

-1       1 

CO 

o> 

CO    1 

0 

CO 

l-l  1.^ 

00       01 

I-* 

a: 

C  t-  03  to 

H* 

H* 

,_1 

)_. 

^..1 

— 

l-l 

et 

«5 

00       0 

►?* 

0 

ll>. 

^ 

0 

0 

00  l-f 

CO 

CO         O) 

CO 

Ot 

-4 

0  to  00  l-< 

a. 

to 

0      I-- 

0 

*" 

0 

"^ 

0 

0 

0  to 

to 

CO        h- 

CO 

0 

H* 

0  f  CO  en 

'^ 

_*- 

*■ 

JO 

^u 

p 

"pl 

p 

".-' 

%J 

Oi        "It* 

V 

0 

oa 

«4 

"to 

to"co 

"*_! 

It- 

"o 

"C5 

it-"co'oo 

ti     0 

ce 

01 

a 

00 

00 

C  -J 

to 

CO 

to 

0 

th 

t-t      « 

to 

0 

00 

If- 

CO 

top 

a>     p 

p 

p 

_t5  to  J.4 

CO 

CO 

"to 

'0 

0 

0 

"go  to 

Oi 

0     "-a 

"to 

CO 

~-4 

"-  '—  'to 

to       Ot 

-5      1 

H-    1 

0 

CO  to 

K- 

0      If- 

If. 

cc  to  00 

03 

-"' 

—      to 

to        1 

to 

to 

to  1 

0 

00 

o>  to 

co 

CO         l-l 

0 

-4 

If-         1 

1     —  to  CD 

0* 

w 

■■a 

00         •- 

to 

to 

"^ 

u 

0 

ot 

l-l  1^ 

to 

ot         OS 

CO 

CO 

to 

h-cn  to 

St, 

00 

CO         Ct 

to 

CO 

to 

0 

0 

00 

00 

01        CO 

0 

b3 

.4 

h-  0  0 

;^^ 

*.u 

ii>- 

CO 

CO 

fcO 

H^ 

Jf- 

_eo 

h'l-' 

0 

-J         00 

y^ 

14 

CO 

o> 

ej> 

"to 

00  "co 

'0 

ce 

a 

"2 

*."co"cn 

~q       ^ 

0 

*- 

0 

(O 

M- 

Ct  to 

^ 

C5 

l<> 

t.^ 

0 

0 

I-* 

_CT 

p 

*-*. 

p 

J*"    .r* 

.1-* 

P 

00 

pj-p  »- 

o< 

kf.-       t-l 

00 

"V'j 

*- 

"co 

"0 

"co 

to  0 

'at 

"*.    "1- 

00 

"^ 

"0 

"o'ci'tolo 

01 

CO         CO 

00        1 

It- 

10 

00   1 

0 

-J  to 

01      to 

to 

to       1 

Q  05  I-*  OS 
C  H-  1—00 

cc 

00          1 

CI 

w 

to  1 

0 

0 

to  -4 

CO 

to       CO 

1"* 

CO 

to        1 

^^ 

,_, 

l_J 

1^ 

l-f      »-* 

M 

^ 

c» 

00         -5 

^~t 

o> 

-J 

*. 

0 

«- 

-a  -4 

Ot 

0>         M 

00 

CO 

M 

0  OT  OS  01 

00 

M      -a 

a> 

- 

td 

00 

0 

CO 

10  !-• 

00 

a     ^ 

CO 

CO 

0 

0  MOI  -4 

ft- 

APPENDIX    No.    1 


THE    ARTICLES    OF    UNION. 


RESOLVEn,  1.  That  in  order  to  promote  and  se«- 
cure  the  essential  interests  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  and  consolidate  the  strength,  power,  and 
resources  of  the  British  Empire,  it  will  be  advis- 
able to  concur  in  such  measures  as  may  best  tend 
to  unite  the  two  kingdoms  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  into  one  kingdom,  in  such  manner,  and 
on  such  terms  and  conditions  as  may  be  estab- 
lishf'd  by  the  acts  of  tlie  respective  Parliaments 
of  Grent  Britain  and  Ireland. 

Resolved,  2.  That  for  the  purpose  of  establish- 
ing an  Union  upon  the  basis  stated  in  the  resolu- 
tion of  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  of  Great 
Britain,  communicated  by  His  Majesty's  command 
in  the  message  sent  to  this  House  by  his  excellen- 
cy tlie  Lord-Lieutenant,  it  would  be  fit  to  propose 
as  tlie  first  article  of  Union,  that  the  kingdoms  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  shall  upon  the  first  day 
of  January,  which  shall  be  in  the  year  of  Our 
Lord,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  one,  and 
forever  after,  be  united  in  one  kingdom,  by  the 
name  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Gieat  Britain 
and  Ireland,  and  that  the  royal  style  and  titles 
appertaining  to  the  Imperial  Crown  of  the  said 
United  Kingdom  and  its  dependencies,  and  also 
the  ensigns,  armorial  flags,  and  banners  thereof, 
shall  be  such  as  His  Majesty  by  his  royal  proclam- 
ation, under  the  Great  Seal  of  the  United  King- 
dom shall  be  pleased  to  appoint'. 

Resolved,  i5.  That  for  the  same  purpose,  it 
would  be  tit  to  propose,  that  the  succession  to 
the  Imperial  Crown  of  the  said  United  Kingdom, 
and  of  the  dominions  thereunto  belonging,  shall 
continue  limited  and  settled  in  the  same  manner, 
as  the  s\iccession  to  the  Imperial  Crown  of  the 
said  kingdoms  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  now 
stands  limited  and  settled,  according  to  the  e.xist- 
ing  laws,  and  to  the  terms  of  the  Union  between 
England  and  Scotland. 

Resolved.  4.  fhat  for  the  same  purpose,  it 
would  be  fit  to  propose,  that  the  said  United 
Kingdom  be  represented  in  one  and  the  same 
I'arliainent,  to  be  styled  the  Parliament  of  the 
Uniied  Kingdom  <»f  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

Resolved.  5.  That  for  the  same  purpose,  it 
Would  be  fit  to  propose,  that  the  charge  arising 
from  the  payment  of  the  interest  and  sinking 
fund,  for  the  reduction  of  the  principal  of  the 
del)t  incurrt'd  in  either  kingdom  before  the  Union, 
shall  continue  to  be  separately  defrayed  by  Great 
Biitain  and  Ireland  respectively. 

'I'hat  fur  the  space  of  twenty  years  after  the 
Union  skall  take  place,  the  contribution  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  respectively,  towards  the  ex- 
penditure of  the  United  Kingdom  in  each  year, 
shall  be  defrayed  in  the  proportion  of  fifteen 
parts  for  Great  Britain  and  two  parts  for  Ireland, 
tiiat  at  the  exi>iiation  of  the  said  twenty  years. 
Uie  future  expenditure  of  ilie  United  Kingdom, 
other  than  the  interest  and  charges  of  the  debt  to 
which  either  country  sli;dl  be  separately   liable. 


shall  be  defrayed  in  such  proportion  as  the  said 
United  Parliament  shall  deem  just  and  reason- 
able, upon  a  comparison  of  the  real  value  of  th^i 
exports  and  imports  of  the  respective  countries, 
upon  an  average  of  the  three  years  next  preced- 
ing the  period  of  revision,  or  on  a  comparison  of 
the  value  of  the  quantities  of  the  following  arti- 
cles consumed  within  the  respective  countries,  on 
a  similar  average,  viz..  beer,  spirits,  sugar,  wine, 
tea,  tobacco,  luid  malt ;  or  according  to  the  aggre- 
gate proportion  resulting  from  both  these  consid- 
erations combined,  or  on  a  comparison  of  the 
amount  of  income  in  each  country,  estimated 
from  the  produce  for  the  same  periods  of  a  gen- 
eral tax.  if  such  shall  have  been  imposed  on  the 
same  descriptions  of  income  in  both  countries, 
and  that  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdoms 
shall  afterwards  proceed  in  like  manner,  to  revise 
and  fix  the  said  proportions  according  to  the  same 
rules  or  any  of  them,  at  periods  not  more  distant 
than  twenty  years,  nor  less  than  seven  years  from 
each  other,  unless  previous  to  any  siich  period 
the  United  Parliament  shall  have  declared  as 
hereinafter  provided,  that  the  general  expenses  of 
the  empire  shall  be  defrayed  indiscriminately  by 
equal  taxes,  imposed  on  the  like  articles  in  both 
countries. 

Resolved,  6.  That  for  defraying  the  said  ex- 
penses, according  to  the  rules  above  laid  down, 
the  revenues  of  Ireland  shall  hereafter  constitute 
a  consolidated  fund,  upon  which  charges  equal  to 
the  interest  of  the  debt  and  sinking  fund,  shall, 
in  the  fir.st  instance  be  charged,  and  the  remain- 
der shall  be  applied  towards  defraying  the  pro- 
portion of  the  general  expense  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  to  which  Ireland  may  be  liable  in  each 
year. 

That  the  proportion  of  contribution  to  which 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  will  by  th-se  articles 
be  liable,  shall  be  raised  by  such  taxes  in  each 
kingdom  respectively,  as  the  Parliament  of  the 
United  Kingdom  shtiU  from  time  to  time  deem  tit, 
provided  always,  that  in  regulating  the  taxes  in 
each  country  by  which  their  respective  proportion 
sliall  be  levied,  no  article  in  Ireland  shall  be 
lialile  to  be  ta.xed  to  any  amount  exceeding  that 
which  will  be  thereafter  payable  in  England  on 
the  like  articles. 

Re.-iolved,  7.  That  if  at  the  end  of  any  year, 
any  surplus  shall  accrue  from  the  revenues  of 
Ireland,  after  defraying  the  interest,  sinking  fund, 
and  proportioned  contribution,  and  separate 
charges  to  which  the  said  country  is  liable,  eith- 
er taxes  shall  be  taken  off  the  amount  of  such 
surplus,  or  the  surplus  shall  be  applied  by  the 
United  Parliament  to  local  purposes  in  Ireland,  or 
to  make  gocjd  atiy  deficiency  which  may  arise  in 
her  revenues  in  time  of  peace,  or  invested  by  the 
commissioners  of  the  national  debt  of  Ireland  iu 
I  lie  funds,  to  uccuniulate  for  the  benefit  of  Ire- 
land, at  compound  interest,  in  case  of  contribu- 


612 


APPENDIX. 


tioii  in  time  of  war.  Prtn'idfd,  The  snrplnssoto 
accuiruilale.  shiill  at  no  future  period  be  sutfered 
to  exceed  the  .sum  of  tive  millions. 

Besolvnl,  8.  Tbat  all  monies  hereafter  to  be 
raised  by  loan  in  peace  or  war.  for  the  service  of 
the  United  Kingdom  by  the  Parliament  thereof, 
8hall  be  considered  to  be  a  joint  debt,  and  the 
charges  thereof  shall  be  borne  by  the  respective 
countries  in  the  proportion  of  their  respective 
contributions.  Provided,  Tiiat  if  at  any  time  in 
raising  the  respective  contributions  hereby  fixed 
for  each  kingdom,  the  Parliament  of  the  United 
Kingdom  shall  judge  it  lit  to  raise  a  greater  pro- 
jiortion  of  such  respective  contributions  in  one 
kingdom  within  the  year  than  in  the  other,  or  to 
Het  apart  a  greater  proportion  of  sinking  fund  for 
the  liquidation  of  the  whole,  or  any  part  of  the 
loan  raised  on  account  of  the  one  country  than 
tiiat  raised  on  account  of  the  other  country,  then 
such  part  of  the  .said  loan  for  the  liquidation  of 
Tvhich  different  provisions  have  been  made  for  the 
respective  countries,  .shall  be  kept  distinct,  and 
shall  be  borne  by  each  separately,  and  only  that 
part  of  the  said  loan  be  deemed  joint  and  com- 
mon, for  the  reduction  of  which,  the  respective 
countries  shall  have  made  provision  in  the  pro- 
portion of  their  respective  contributions. 

Resolved,  9.  That  if  at  any  future  day,  the  sep- 
arate debt  of  each  kingdom  respectively  shall 
Lave  beeu  liquidated,  or  the  values  of  their  re- 
spective debts  (estimated  according  to  the  amount 
of  the  interest  and  annuities  attending  the  same, 
of  the  sinking  fund  applicable  to  the  reduction 
thereof,  and  the  period  within  which  the  whole 
capital  of  such  debt  shall  appear  to  be  redeem- 
able by  such  .sinking  fund.)  shall  be  to  each  other, 
in  the  same  proportion  with  the  respective  con- 
tributions of  each  kingdom  respectively,  or  where 
the  amount  by  which  the  value  of  the  larger  of 
tjuch  debts  shall  vary  from  such  proportion,  shall 
not  exceed  one  hundredth  part  of  the  said  value  ; 
and  if  it  .shall  appear  to  the  United  Parliament, 
that  the  respective  circumstances  of  the  two 
countries  will  thenceforth  admit  of  their  contri- 
buling*indiscriminately,  by  equal  taxes  impo.'ied 
on  the  same  articles  in  each,  to  the  future  general 
expeu.se  of  the  United  Kingdom,  it  shall  be  com- 
petent to  the  said  United  Parliament  to  declare, 
that  all  future  expense  thenceforth  to  be  incurred, 
together  with  the  interest  and  charges  of  all  joint 
debts  contracted  previous  to  such  declaration, 
fchaii  be  defrayed  indiscriminalely  liy  equal  taxes 
imposed  on  the  same  articles  in  each  country,  and 
iLeucelorth  from  time  to  time  as  circumstances 
may  require  to  impose  and  apply  such  taxes  ac- 
cordingly, subject  only  to  such  j)urticular  exemp- 
tions or  abatements  in  Ireland,  and  that  part  of 
Great  Britain  called  Scotland,  as  circumstances 
may  appear  from  time  to  time  to  demand,  that 
from  the  period  of  such  declaration,  it  shall  no 
longer  be  necessary  to  regulate  the  contribution 
of  the  two  countries  towards  the  future  general 
expenses,  according  to  any  of  the  rules  hereinbe- 
fore provided. 

Provided,  nevertheless.  That  the  interest  or 
charges  which  may  remain  on  account  of  any 
part  of  the  separate  debt  with  which  either  coi\n- 
try  is  chargeable,  and  which  shall  not  be  liquidat- 
ed or  consolidated  proportionately  as  above,  shall, 
until  extinguished,  continue  to  be  defrayed  by 
separate  taxes  in  each  country. 

Resolved,  10.  That  a  sum  not  less  than  the  sum 
which  has  been  granted  by  tlie  I'arliauu'ut  of  Ire- 
land, on  the  average  ot  six  years,  as  premiums 


for  the  internal  encouragement  of  agriculture  ot 
manufacture,  or  for  the  maintaining  institutions 
for  pious  and  charitable  purposes,  shall  be  ap- 
plied for  the  period  of  twenty  years  after  the  Un- 
ion to  such  local  purpo.ses,  in  such  manner  as  the 
Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  shall  direct. 

Resolved.  11.  That  from  and  after  the  first  day 
of  January,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  one, 
all  public  revenue  arising  from  the  territorial  de- 
pendencies of  the  United  Kingdom,  shall  be  ap- 
plied to  the  general  expenditure  of  the  empire,  in 
the  proportions  of  the  respective  contributions  of 
the  two  countries. 
'    Resolved,    12.   That  for  the  same  purpose  it 

would  be  fit  to  propose  that lords 

spiritual  of  Ireland,  and  ....  lords  tem- 
poral of  Ireland,  shall  be  the  number  to  sit  and 
vote  on  the  part  of  Ireland  in  the  House  of  Lords 
of  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and 
one  hundred  commoners  (two  for  each  county  of 
Ireland,  two  for  the  city  of  Cork,  one  for  the  Uni- 
versity of  Trinity  College,  and  one  for  each  of 
the  thirty-one  most  considerable  cities,  towns, 
and  boroughs,)  be  the  number  to  sit  and  vote  ou 
the  part  of  Ireland,  in  the  House  of  Commons  in 
the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom. 

Resolved,  13.  Tbat  such  acts  as  shall  be  passed 
in  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  previous  to  the  Un- 
ion, to  regulate  the  mode  by  which  the  lords  spir- 
itual and  temporal  and  the  commons  to  serve  in 
the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  on  the 
part  of  Ireland,  shall  be  summoned  or  returned 
to  the  said  Parliament,  shall  be  considered  as 
forming  part  of  the  treaty  of  Union,  and  shall  be 
incorporated  in  the  act  ol  the  respective  Parlia- 
ments, by  which  the  said  Union  shall  be  ratified 
and  established. 

Resolved,  14.  That  all  questions  touching  the 
election  of  members  to  sit  on  the  part  of  Ireland 
in  the  House  of  Commons  of  the  United  King- 
dom, shall  be  heard  and  decided  in  the  same 
manner  as  questions  touching  such  eh  ctions  in 
Great  Britain  now  are,  or  at  any  time  hereafter 
shall  by  law  be,  heard  and  decided,  subject  never- 
theless, to  such  particular  regulations  in  respect 
of  Ireland,  as  from  local  circumstances  the  Par- 
liament of  the  said  United  Kingdom  may  from 
time  to  time  deem  expedient. 

Resolved,  lr>.  Thai  the  qualifications  in  respect 
of  property  of  the  members  elected  on  the  part 
of  Ireland  to  sit  in  the  House  of  Commons  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  shall  be  respectively  the  same 
as  are  now  provided  by  law.  in  cases  of  elections 
lor  counties,  and  cities,  and  boroughs.  resj)ective- 
ly.  in  that  part  of  Great  Britain  called  England, 
unless  any  other  provision  shall  hereafter  be 
inaile  in  that  respect  by  act  of  the  Parliament  of 
the  United  Kingdom. 

Resolved,  IG.  That  when  His  Majesty,  his  heirs, 
or  successors,  shall  declare  his.  her.  or  their  plea- 
sure, Ibr  holding  the  first  or  any  subsequent  Par- 
liament of  the  United  Kingdom,  a  proclamation 
shall  issue  under  the  Great  Seal  of  the  Utiited 
Kingdom,  to  cause  the  lonls  spiritual  and  tempo- 
ral and  commons  who  are  to  serve  in  the  ParJia- 
n;ent  thereof  on  the  part  of  Ireland,  to  be  returned 
in  such  manner  as  by  any  act  of  this  present 
session  of  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  shall  be  pro- 
vided ;  and  that  the  lords  spiritual  and  temporal 
and  Commons  of  Great  Britain  shall  together  with 
the  lords  spiritual  and  temporal  and  commons  so 
returned  as  aforesaid,  on  the  part  of  Ireland,  con- 
stitute the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  of  the  United 
Kingdom. 


APPENDIX. 


613 


Besolved,  17.  That,  if  His  Majesty  on  or  before 
the  first  day  of  January,  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  one.  on  which  day  the  Union  is  to 
take  place,  shall  declare,  under  the  Great  Seal 
of  Great  Britain,  that  it  is  expedient  that  the 
lords  and  commons  of  the  present  Parliament 
of  Great  Britain  should  be  members  of  the  re- 
spective Houses  of  tiie  tirst  Parliament  of  the 
United  Kingdom  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain, 
then  tiie  .said  lords  and  commons  of  the  present 
Parliament  of  Great  Britain  shall  accordingly  be 
the  members  of  the  respective  Houses  of  the  first 
Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  on  the  part  of 
Great  Britain,  and  they,  together  with  the  lords 
Kpiritnal  and  temporal  and  commons  so  summon- 
ed and  returned  as  above  on  the  part  of  Ireland, 
ehall  be  the  lords  spiritual  and  temporal  and 
commons  of  the  first  Parliament  of  the  United 
Kingdom  ;  and  such  first  Parliament  may,  (in  that 
case.)  if  not  sooner  dissolved,  continue  to  sit  so 
long  as  the  present  Parliament  of  Great  Britain 
may  now  by  law  continue  to  sit,  and  that  every 
one  of  the  Lords  of  Parliament  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  and  every  meml)er  of  the  House  of 
Commons  of  the  United  Kingdom  in  the  tirst  and 
all  succeeding  Parliaments,  shall,  until  the  Parlia- 
ment of  the  United  Kingdom  shall  otherwise 
provide,  take  the  oaths,  and  make  and  subscribe 
the  declaration,  which  are  at  present  by  law  en- 
joined to  be  taken,  made  and  subscribed  by  the 
lords  and  commons  of  the  Parliament  of  Great 
Britain. 

Eesolved.  18.  That  for  the  same  purpose  it  would 
be  tit  to  propose  that  the  churches  of  that  part  of 
Great  Britain  called  England,  and  of  Ireland, 
should  be  united  into  one  Church,  and  the  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  deans  and  clergy  of  the  churches 
of  England  and  Ireland  shall,  from  time  to  time, 
be  summoned  to  and  entitled  to  sit  in  convocation 
of  the  United  Church  in  the  like  manner,  and 
subject  to  tht;  same  regulations  as  are  at  present 
by  law  established,  with  respect  to  the  like  orders 
of  the  Chtirch  of  England,  and  the  doctrine, 
worship,  discipline  and  government  of  the  United 
Church  shall  be  preserved  as  now  by  law  estab- 
lished for  the  Church  of  England;  and  the  doctrine, 
worship,  discipline  and  government  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland  shall  likewise  be  preserved  as  now  by 
law  established  for  the  Church  of  Scotland.  And 
that  tije  continuance  and  preservation  forever  of 
the  said  United  Cburch,  as  the  Established  Church 
of  that  part  of  the  United  Kingdom  called  England 
and  Ireland,  shall  be  deemed  and  taken  to  be  an 
essential  and  fundamental  condition  of  the  treaty 
of  Union. 

Resolved,  19.  That  for  the  same  purpose,  all  laws 
in  force  at  the  time  of  the  Union,  and  all  courts 
of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  within  the 
respective  kingdoms,  shall  remain  as  now  by  law 
established,  subject  only  to  such  alterations  and 
regulations,  from  time  to  time,  as  circumstances 
may  appear  to  the  Parliament  of  the  United  King- 
dom to  require,  provided  that  all  writs  of  error 
and  appeals  depending  at  the  time  of  the  Union, 
or  hereafter  to  be  brought,  and  which  might  now 
be  finally  decided  by  the  House  o4  Lords  of  either 
kingdom,  shall  from  and  after  the  Union  be  finally 
decided  by  the  House  of  Lords  of  the  Uuiteil 
Kingdom  ;  and  provided,  that  from  and  after  the 
Union  there  shall  remain  in  Ireland  an  instance 
Court  of  Admiralty,  for  the  determination  of 
causes,  civil  and  maritime  only  ;  and  that  all  laws 
at  present  in  furce  in  either  kingdom,  which  shall 
be  contrary  to  any  of  the"  provisions  whicli  may 


be  enacted  by  any  act  for  carrying  this  article  inte 
effect,  be  from  and  after  the  Union  repealed. 

Resolved,  20.  That  for  the  same  purpose  it  would 
be  fit  to  propose  that  His  Majesty's  subjects  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  shall,  from  and  after 
the  first  day  of  January,  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  one.  be  entitled  to  the  same  privi- 
leges, and  be  on  the  same  footing  as  to  encourage- 
ment and  bounties  on  the  like  articles,  being 
the  growth,  produce  or  tnanufacture  of  either 
kingdom  respectively  and  generally  in  respect 
of  trade  and  navigation  in  all  ports  and  place.s 
in  the  United  Kingdom  and  its  dependencies; 
and  that  in  all  treaties  made  by  His  Majesty, 
his  heirs  and  successors,  with  any  foreign  power, 
His  Majesty's  subjects  of  Ireland  shall  have  the 
same  privileges,  and  be  on  the  same  footing  as 
His  Majesty's  subjects  of  Great  Britain. 

Resolved,  21.  That  froiu  the  first  day  of  January, 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  one.  all  prohibi- 
tions and  bounties  on  the  export  of  articles,  the 
growth  or  manufacture  of  either  country  to  the  other 
shall  cease  and  determine  ;  and  that  the  said  articles 
shall  thenceforth  be  exported  from  one  country  to 
the  other  without  duty  or  bounty  on  such  export. 

Resolved,  22.  That  all  articles,  the  growth,  pro- 
duce or  manufacture  of  either  Kingdom,  not  here- 
inafter enumerated  as  subject  to  specific  duties, 
shall  from  henceforth  be  imported  into  each  coun- 
try from  the  other  free  from  duty,  other  than  such 
countervailing  duty  as  shall  be  annexed  to  the 
several  articles  contained  in  the  Schedule  No.  1  ;'^ 
and  that  the  articles  hereinafter  enumerated  sh;ill 
be  subject  for  the  period  of  twenty  years  from 
the  Union,  on  importation  into  each  country  from 
the  other,  to  the  duties  specified  in  tha  Schedule 
No,  II.*  annexed  to  this  article,  viz. : 
Apparel,  Millinery, 

Brass  wrought,  Paper,  stained, 

Cabinet  Ware,  Pottery, 

Coaches  and  carriages,     Saddlery, 
Copper,  wrought,  Silk,  manufactured, 

Cottons,  Stockings, 

Glass,  Thread,  bullion  for  lace, 

Haberdashery,  pearl,  and  spangles. 

Hats,  Tin  plates,  wrought  iron. 

Lace,  gold  and  silver ;         and  hardware. 

gold  and  silver  threads 

And  that  the  woolen  manufacture  shall  pay  on 
importation  into  each  country,  the  duties  now 
payable  on  importation  into  Ireland  ;  salt  and 
hops  on  importation  into  Ireland,  duties  not  ex- 
ceeding those  which  are  now  paid  in  Ireland  ;  and 
coals  on  importation  to  be  subject  to  burdens  not 
exceeding  those  to  which  they  are  now  subject. 

That  calicos  and  muslins  be  subject  and  liable 
to  the  duties  now  payable  on  the  same,  until  the 
fifth  day  of  January  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  eight ;  and  from  and  after  the  said  day,  the 
said  duties  shall  be  annually  reduced  in  such  pro- 
portion, and  at  such  periods  as  shall  hereal'ter  be 
enacted,  so  as  that  the  said  duties  shall  stand  at  ten 
per  cent,  from  and  after  the  fifth  day  of  January, 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixteen,  until  the 
fifth  day  of  Januaiy,  which  shall  be  in  the  year 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  twenty  one  ;  and 
that  Cotton,  yarn,  and  cotton  twist,  shall  also  bo 
subject  and  liable  to  the  duties  now  payable  upon 
the  same,  until  the  filth  day  of  January,  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  eight,  and  from  and 
after  the  said  day.  the  said  duties  shall  be  annually 
reduced  at  such  times,  and  in  such  proportions,  as 

*  Tbis  refers  to  Scliedules  annexed  to  the  resolutioas, 
as  orieiuul.j  lutroduced. 


614 


APPENDIX. 


tixaW  be  hereafter  enacted,  so  as  that  all  duties 
shall  cease  on  the  said  articles  from  and  after  the 
tifth  day  of  January,  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  sixteen. 

Resolved.  23.  That  any  articles  of  the  growth, 
produce  or  manufacture  of  either  country,  which 
are  or  may  be  subject  to  internal  duty,  or  to  duty 
on  the  materials  of  which  they  are  composed,  may 
be  made  subject  on  their  importation  into  each 
country  respectively  from  the  other,  to  such  couu- 
tervailinif  duty  as  shall  appear  to  be  just  and 
reasonable  in  respect  to  such  internal  duty  or 
duties  on  the  materials  ;  and  that  for  the  said  pur- 
poses the  articles  specified  in  the  said  Schedule 
No.  I.  should,  upon  importation  into  Ireland,  be 
subject  to  the  duty  which  shall  be  set  forth  therein, 
liable  to  be  taken  otf,  dimiuished  or  increased  in 
the  manner  herein  specified  ;  and  that  upon  the 
like  export  of  the  like  articles  from  each  country 
to  the  other  respectively,  a  drawback  shall  be 
given,  equal  in  amouut  to  the  countervailing  duty, 
payable  on  the  articles  hereinbefore  specified,  on 
tbe  import  into  the  same  country  with  the  other; 
and  that  in  like  manner,  in  future,  it  .shall  be  com- 
petent to  the  United  Parliament  to  impose  any 
new  or  additional  countervailing  duties,  or  to  take 
otf  or  dimiuish  such  existing.countervailing  duties 
as  may  appear  on  like  principles  to  be  just  and 
reasonable,  in  respect  of  any  future  or  additional 
internal  duty  ou  any  article  of  the  growth  or 


manufacture  of  either  country,  or  of  any  new 
additional  duty  on  any  materials  of  which  such 
article  may  be  composed,  or  any-  abatement  of 
the  same  ;  and  that  when  any  such  new  or  addi- 
tional countervailing  duty  shall  be  so  imposed  on 
the  import  of  any  article  into  either  country  from 
the  other,  a  drawback  equal  in  amount  to  such 
countervailing  duty,  shall  be  given  in  like  manner 
on  the  export  of  every  such  article  respectively 
from  the  same  country. 

Uesolved,  24.  That  all  articles,  the  growth,  pro- 
duce or  manufacture  of  either  kingdom,  when  ex- 
ported through  the  other,  shall  in  all  cases  be  ex- 
ported subject  to  the  same  charges  as  if  they  had 
been  exported  directly  from  the  country  of  which 
they  were  the  growth,  produce,  or  manufacture. 

Eesolved,  25.  That  all  duty  charged  on  the  im- 
port of  foreign  or  colonial  goods  into  either 
country,  shall,  on  their  export  to  the  other,  be 
either  drawn  back,  or  the  amount,  if  any  be  re- 
tained, shall  be  placed  to  the  credit  of  the  country 
to  which  they  shall  be  so  exported,  so  long  as  the 
general  expenses  of  the  empire  shall  be  defrayed 
by  proportional  contributions.  Provided,  Nothing 
herein  shall  extend  to  take  away  any  duty,  bounty 
or  prohibition  which  exists  with  respect  to  corn, 
meal,  malt,  flour,  and  biscuit,  but  that  the  same 
may  be  regulated,  varied  or  repeated,  from  time 
to  time,  as  the  United  Parliament  shall  deem  ex- 
pedient. 


ORIGINAL  RED  LIST, 

Or  the  Members  who  voted  against  the  Union  in  1799,  and  1800,  with  observations. 

Those  names  with  a  ( * )  affixed  to  them,  are  County  Members  ;  those  with  a  ( f )  City  Members ; 
and  those  with  a  ( § )  Borough  Members.  Those  in  Italics  chaacjkd  sii/es,  and  got  either  Money  or 
Offices. 


1.*  Honorable  A.  Acheson 

•Z.*  William  C.  Alcock    .     . 

o.*  Mervyu  Archdall      .     . 

4.§  W.  II.  Armstrong     .     . 

5.*  tSir  Ricliard  Butler  .     . 

6.*  John  BagiceU  .     .     .     . 

7.§  Peter  liurrowes    .     .     . 

8.*  Joint  Baijicell,  Jun.  .     . 

9.t  Jolm  Ball 

lO.j  Charles  Ball     .     .     .     . 

ll.f  Sir  Jonah  Barriugton   . 

12.§  Charles  Bushe.     .     .     . 

IS.f  John  C.  Beresford    .    . 

14.  Arthur  Brown      .     .     . 


15.§  William  Blakeney    .     , 
It).*    William  Burton   .     .     . 

17.*   H.  V.  Brooke. 
18.§  Blayney  Balfour. 
19.1^  David  Bubington     .     . 
20.t   Hon.  James  Butler  . 

21."   Col.  J.  Maxwell  Barry 

22.§    William  Ba^vodl .     . 


OBSKKVATION. 

Son  to  Lord  Gosford. 

County  W'exford. 

County  Fermanagh. 

Refused  all  terms  from  Government.  " 

Changed  sides.    See  Black  List. 

Changed  sides  twick.     See  Black  List. 

Now  Judge  of  the  Insolvent  Court ;   a  steady  Anti-Unionist 

Changed  sides.    See  Black  List. 

Member  for  Drogheda — incorruptible. 

Brother  to  the  preceding. 

King's  Counsel — Judge  of  the  Admiralty — refused  all  terms. 

Afterwards  Solicitor-General  and  Chief  Justice  of  Ireland — incor- 
ruptible. 

Seceded  from  Mr.  Ponsonby  in  1799.  on  his  declaration  of  indepen- 
dence.    That  secession  was  fatal  to  Ireland. 

Member  for  the  University,  changed  sides  in  1800;  was  appointed 
Prime  Sergeant  by  Lord  Castlereagh,  through  Mr.  Under-Sec- 
retary Cooke — of  all  others  the  most  open  and  palpable  case. 
See  Black  List. 

A  Pensioner,  but  opposed  Government. 

Sold  his  Borough,  Carlow,  to  a  Unionist  (Lord  Tullamore,)  but  re- 
mained staunch  himself. 


Connected  with  Lord  Bel  more. 

(Now  Marquis  of  Ormonde.)  voted  in  1800  against  a  Union,hnt  with 

Government  on  Lord  Corry's  motion. 
(Now  Lord  Farnham.)  nephew  to  the  Speaker. 
Changed  sides  twjck,  concluded  as  a  Unionist.     See  Black  List. 


APPENDIX. 


615 


NAMKS. 

23*  Viscount  Corry 


24.t   Robert  Ci-owe 


25.*   Lord  Clements 
2^.*   Lord  Cole  .     . 


27.§  Hon.  Lowry  Cole    .    . 

28."  K.  Shapland  Carew  .     . 

29, t  lion.  A.  Creighton    .     . 

SO.f  Hon.  J.  Ore'ujhton     .    . 

'61.*  Joseph  Edward  Cooper. 

32. t  Jamts  Cune     .... 

83.*  Lord  Caulfield     .     .    . 


34. t   Henry  Codding;ton. 
35. §  George  Crookshank  , 
36.*   Denis  B.  Daly  .    .     . 
37.t   Noah  Dalway. 
38.*   Richard  Dawson. 
39.*   Arthur  Dawsou   .     . 
40.*   Franci.s  Dobbs     .     . 


41. t   John  Egan 


42.  R.  L.  Edgeworth. 

43.t  George  Evans. 

44.*  Sir  John  Freke,  Bart,  . 

45.*  Frederick  Falkiner  .     . 

46.§  Rt.  Hon.  J.  Fitzgerald . 


47.*  William  C.  Fortescue, 

(Poisoned  by  accident.) 
48.*   Rt.  Hon.  John  Foster    . 
49.*   Hon.  Thomas  Foster. 
50.*   Sir  T.  Fetherston,  Bart. 
51.*    Arthur  French     .    .    . 

62.§  Chichester  Fortescue .    . 


53.§   William  Gore  .... 
64.^  Hamilton  Georges   .     . 

5.5.5  Rt.  Hon.  Henry  Grattan 
5ii.§  Thomas  Goold     .     . 
57. t   Hans  Hamilton    .     . 
68.1    Edward  Hardman    . 
69. §  Francis  Hardy     .     . 

f.0.§  Sir  Joseph  Hoare     . 
61."    William  Hoare  Hume 
62. §  Edward  Hoare     .     . 

fi3.§  Bartholomew  Hoare 
t)4.S  Ale.xaiider  Hamilton 
65. §  Hon.  A.  C  Hamilton. 
66.§  Sir  F.  Hopkins,  Bart. 

67.t   H.  Irwin. 
68.*    Gilbert  King. 
69  t    Charles  King. 
70.*    Hon.  Robert  King. 
71.*   Lord  Kingsborough 
72.     Hon.  George  Knox  . 
7o.t    Francis  Knox .     .     . 
74.*   Rt.  Hon.  Henry  King 
7o.t    Major  King      .     .     . 
7().§  Giistavin  Lambert   . 
77.*   David  Latouche,  jun., 
78. &  Robert  Latouche 
79.§  John  Latouche,  sen., 


OBSERVATIONS. 

(Now  Lord  Belmore,)  dismissed  from  his  regiment  by  Lord  Corn- 

wallis — a  zealous  leader  of  the  Opposition. 
A  Barrister,  bribed  by  Lord  Castlereagh.    See  his  Letter  to  Lord 

Belvidere. 
(Now  Lord  Leitfim.) 
(Now  Lord  Enni.skillen,)  wtforiunately  dissented  from  Mr.  Ponsoi*- 

by's  motion  for  a  declaration  of  independence  in  1799,  loJiertby 

the  Union  was  revived  and  carried. 
A  General ;  brother  to  Lord  Cole. 

Changed  sides,  and  became  a  Unionist.    See  Black  List. 

Changed  sides.    See  Black  List. 

Changed  sides.    See  Black  List. 

(Now  Earl  Charlemont,)  son  to  Earl  Charlemont,  a  principal  leader 
of  the  Opposition. 

A  son  of  the  Judge  of  the  Common  Plea."?. 

Brother-in-law  to  Mr.  Ponsonby  ;  a  most  active  Anti-Unionist. 


Formerly  a  Banker,  father  to  the  late  Under-Secretary. 

Famous  for  his  Doctrine  on  the-Millennium ;  an  entudsia.stic  Anti- 
Unionist. 

King's  Council,  Chairman  of  Kilmainham ;  offered  a  Judge's  seat, 
but  could  not  be  purchased,  though  far  from  rich. 


(Now  Lord  Carberry.) 

Though  a  distressed  person,  could  not  be  purchased. 

Prime  Sergeant  of  Ireland  ;  could  not  be  bought,  and  was  dismissed 

from  his  high  ofiBce  by  Lord  Cornwallis  ;   father  to  Mr.  Vesey 

Fitzgerald. 
One  of  the  three  who  inconsiderately  opposed  Mr.  Ponsonby,  and 

thereby  carried  the  Union. 
Speaker ;  the  chief  of  the  Opposition  throughout  the  whole  contest 

Changed  sides.     See  Black  List. 

Unfortunately  coincided  with  Mr.  Fortescue  in  1799,  against  Mr. 
Ponsonby. 

King  at  Arms  ;  brmight  over  in  1800,  by  Lord  Castlereagh  ;  voted 
both  sides  ;   ended  a  Unionist. 

Bought  by  Lord  Castlereagh  in  1 800. 

A  distressed  man.  but  coidd  not  be  purchased  ;  father-in-law  to  Un- 
der-Secretary Cooke. 

Now  Sergeant,  brought  into  Parliament  by  the  Anti-Unionists. 
Member  for  Dublin  County. 
City  of  Drogheda  ;  the  Speaker's  friend. 

Author  of  the  Life  of  Charlemont  ;  brother-in-law  to  the  Bishop  of 
Down. 

Wicklow  County. 

Though  very  old,  and  stone  blind,  attended  all  the  debates,  and  sat 

up  all  the  nights  of  debate. 
King's  Counsel. 
King's  Counsel ;  son  to  the  Baron. 

Prevailed  on  to  take  money  to  vacate,  in  1800,  and  let  in  a 
Unionist. 


(Now  Earl  Kingston.) 

Brother  to  Lord  Northland ;  lukewarm. 

Vacated  his  seat  for  Lord  Castlereagh. 


See  Mr.  Crowe's  Letter. 


He  opened  the  Bishop  of  Clogher's  Borough  in  1800. 
Brother  to  Countess  Talbot. 
A  Banker. 

Ditto. 

Ditto. 


616 


APPENDIX. 


OBSERVATIONS. 


8&.§  John  Latouche,  jun..  .  . 
81.'   Charles  Powell  Leslie. 

Hi*   Edward  Lee 

83.t   Sir  Thomas  Lighton,  Bart., 
84*   Lord  Maxwell    .... 
B&.*   Alexander  Montgomery. 
86.§  Sir  J.  M'Cartney,  Bart.,  . 

87.§  William  Thomas  Mansel . 
88. 1  Sieplien  Moore  .... 
&'i.^  John  Moore. 
90.  Arthur  Moore  .... 
91.*  Lord  Mathew  .... 
92.§  Thomas  Mahon. 

93. §  John  Metge 

94.^  Richard  Neville  .... 

95.§  Thomas  Neweuham    .     . 

96.*  Charles  O'Hara .... 
97.*  Sir  Edward  O'Brien  .  . 
98.§  Col.  Hugh  O'Douuel  .     . 

99.6  James  Moore  O'Donnel  . 
10O.§  Hon.  W.  O'Callaghan  .  . 
101.  Henry  Osborn  .... 
102.*  Right  Hon.  Geo.  Ogle  . 
103.§  Joseph  Preston ....  . 
104."   John  Preston     .... 

105.*  Rt.  Hon.  Sir  J.  Parnell   . 

106.6  Henry  Parnell.* 
107.6  W.  C.  Pluiiliet  .... 
108.*  Rt.  Hon.  W.  B.  Ponsonby 
109.§  J.  B.  Ponsonby  .... 
110.§  Major  V/.  Ponsonby  .  . 
111.*  Rt.  Hon.  G.  Ponsonby  . 
112.*  Sir  Lawrence  Parsons 
113.§  Richard  Power  .... 

114.*   Ahal  Earn 

115.*    Gustavus  Rochfort     .     . 

•1164  John  S   Rochfort    .    .    . 
117.    Sir  Wm.  Richardson. 

1 1 8.§  John  Reily 

119.     William  E.  Reily. 
120.6  Charles  Ruxton. 
121.^  William  P.  Ruxton. 
122.*   Clot  worthy  Rowley .     .    . 
123.6    William  Rowley      .    ,     . 

124.§  J.  Rowley 

125.*   Francis  Saunderson. 

12H.*   William  Smyth  .... 

127.*   James  Stewart. 

]  2a§  Hon.  W.  J.  SlieffingtoQ. 

129.'    Francis  Savage. 

130.6  Francis  Synge. 

13K6  Henry  Ste.wart. 

132.§  Sir  R.  St.  George.  Bart. 

133.^  Hon.  Benj.  Stratford  .    . 

134.*   Nathaniel  Sneyd. 

135.*    Thomas  Stannus     .     .     . 

Robert  Shaw 

Rt.  Hon.  Wm.  Saurin .    . 

William  Tighe. 

Henry  Tighe. 

John  Taylor. 

Thomas  Townshend. 


A  Banker. 


Member  for  the  County  of  Waterford  ;  zealous. 

A  Banker. 

Died  Lord  Farnham. 

Much  distressed,  but  could  not  be  bribed  ;  nephew,  by  aflBnity,  to 

the  Speaker. 
Actually  purcluised  by  Lord  Castlereagh. 
Changed  sides  on  Lord  Corry's  motion. 

Now  Judge  of  the  Common  Pleas  ;  a  staunch  Anti-Unionist. 
(Now  Earl  Llaudaff,)  Tipperary  County. 

Brother  to  the  Baron  of  the  Exchequer. 

Had  been  a  dismissed  treasury  officer ;  sold  his  vote  to  be  reinstated, 
changed  sides.     See  Black  List. 

The  Author  of  various  Works  on  Ireland;  one  of  the  steadiesJ 
Anti-Unionists. 

Sligo  County. 

Clare  County. 

A  most  ardent  Anti-Unionist ;  dismissed  from  his  regiment  of  Mayo 
militia. 

Killed  by  Mr.  Bingham  in  a  duel. 

Brother  to  Lord  Lismore. 

Could  not  be  bribed;  his  brother  was. 

We.xlord  County. 

An  eccentric  character  ;  coutd  not  be  purchased. 

Of  Belintor,  was  purchased  by  a  title,  (Lord  Tara,)  and  his  brother, 
a  Parson,  got  a  living  of  £700  a  year. 

Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  dismissed  by  Lord  Castlereagh;  in- 
corruptible. 

Now  Lord  Plunket. 

Afierwards  Lord  Ponsonby. 

Afterwards  Lord  Pon.sonliy. 

A  General,  killed  at  Waterloo. 

Afterwards  Lord  Chancellor;  died  of  apoplexy. 

Kings  County  ;  now  Earlof  Rosse  ;  made  a  remarkably  fine  speech. 

Nephew  to  the  Baron  of  the  Exchequer. 

Changed  sides. 

County  Westmeath  ;  seduced  by  Government,  and  changed  sides  in 

Ib'OO.     See  Black  List. 
Nephew  to  the  Speaker. 

Changed  sides.    See  Black  List. 


Changed  sides. 
Changed  sides. 
Changed  sides. 

Westmeath. 


See  Black  List. 
See  Black  List. 
See  Black  List 


Now  Lord  Aldborough ;    gained  by  Lord  Castlereagh ;    changed 
sides.    See  Black  List. 

Changed  sides.  Lord  Portarlington's  Member.    See  Black  List. 

A  Banker. 

Afterwards  Attorney-General ;  a  steady  but  calm  Anti-Unionist. 


*  Sir  John  Parnell  was  one  of  the  ablest  supporters  of  Government  of  his  day.  His  son  has  taken  assiduously  a 
more  extensive  and  deeper  tield  of  business  in  liiiance,  but  in  auj  oUier  point,  public  or  private,  has  no  advautago 
over  hiB  father. 


APPENDIX. 


617 


142.' 


NAMKS. 

Son.  Bichard  Trench. 


1 13.*  Hon.  R.  Taylor. 
Ii4.§  Charles  Vereker 
145.§  Owen  Wynne. 
]4t;.*   John  Waller. 
147.^  E.  D.  Wilson. 
148.*    Thomas  Whaley 


149.' 
150.* 


Nicholas  Westby. 
John  Wolfe    .    . 


OBSKKVATIONS. 

Voted  against  the  Union  in  1799  ;  was  gained  by  Lord  Castlereagh, 
whose  relative  he  married,  and  voted  for  it  in  1800;  was 
created  an  Earl,  and  made  an  Ambassador  to  Holland ;  one  of 
the  Vienna  Carvers  ;  and  a  Dutch  Marquess. 

(Now  Lord  Gort,)  City  Limerick. 


First  voted  against  the  Union  ;  purchased  by  Lord  Castlereagh ;  he 
was  Lord  Clare's  brother-in-law.    See  Black  List 

Member  for  the  County  Wicklow  ;  Colonel  of  the  Kildare  Militia  ; 
refused  to  vote  for  Government,  and  was  cashiered  ;  could  not 
be  purchased. 


ORIGINAL    BLACK    LIST. 


1.  R.  Aldridge  .    . 

2.  Henry  Alexander 


3.  Richard  Archdall  , 

4.  William  Bailey  .     , 

5.  Rt.  Hon.  J.  Beresford 

6.  J.  Beresford.  jun., . 


7.  Marcus  Beresford 

8.  J.  Bingham*  .     . 


9.  Joseph  H.  Blake    . 

10.  Sir  J.  G.  Blackwood 

11.  Sir  John  "Blaquiere 

12.  Anthony  Botet  .    . 

13.  Colonel  Burton.     . 

14.  Sir  Eichard  Butler 


15.  Lord  Boyle 


16.  Rt.  Hon.  D.  Brown 

17.  Stewart  Bruce   .     . 

18.  George  Burdet .     . 

19.  George  Bunbury    . 

20.  Arthur  Brown  .     . 


21. 
22. 


BagweU,  sen., , 
Bagwell,  jun., 


23.  William  Bagwell 

24.  Lord  Castlereagh 

25.  George  Cavendish 
2(5.  Sir  H.  Cavendish 

27.  Sir  R   Chinnery 

28.  James  Cane   .     . 

29.  Thomas  Casey  . 

80.  Colonel  C.  Pope 

81.  General  Cradock 
32.  James  Crosby   . 


33.  Edward  Cooke 


OBSERVATIONS. 

An  English  Clerk  in  the  Secretary's  oflSce ;  no  connection  with 
Ireland. 

Chairman  of  Ways  and  Means  ;  cousin  of  Lord  Caledon  ;  bis  broth- 
er made  a  Bishop  ;  himself  a  Colonial  Secretary  at  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope. 

Commissioner  of  the  Board  of  Works. 

Commissioner  of  the  Board  of  Works. 

First  Commissioner  of  Revenue  ;  brother-in-law  to  Lord  Clare. 

Then  Purse-bearer  to  Lord  Clare,  afterwards  a  Parson,  and  now 
Lord  Decies. 

A  Colonel  in  the  Army,  son  to  the  Bishop,  Lord  Clare's  nephew. 

Created  a  Peer  ;  got  £8,000  for  two  seats  ;  and  £15.000  compensa- 
tion for  Tuam.  This  gentleman  first  offered  himself  lor  sale  to 
the  Anti-Uuionist :  Lord  Clanmorris. 

Created  a  Peer — Lord  Wallscourt,  &c. 

Created  a  Peer — Lord  Dufferin. 

Numerous  Offices  and  Pensions,  and  created  a  Peer — Lord  De  Bla- 
quiere. 

Appointed  Commissioner  of  the  Barrack  Board,  £500  a  year. 

Brotiier  to  Lord  Conyngham  5    a  Colouel  in  the  Army. 

Purchased  and  changed  sides ;  voted  against  the  Union  in  1799,  and 
for  it  in  1800.     Cash. 

Son  to  Lord  Shannon  ;  they  got  an  immense  sum  of  money  for  their 
seats  and  Boroughs  ;  at  £15,000  each  Borough. 

Brother  to  Lord  Sligo. 

Gentleman  Usher  at  Dublin  Castle  ;   now  a  Baronet. 

Commissioner  of  a  Public  Board.  £500  per  annum. 

Commissioner  of  a  Public  Board.  £500  per  annum. 

Changed  sides  and  principles,  and  was  appointed  Sergeant ;  in  1799 
opposed  the  TJnion,  and  supported  it  in  1800;  be  was  Senior 
Fellow  of  Dublin  University  ;  lost  his  seat  the  ensuing  election, 
and  died. 

Changed  twice  ;  got  half  the  patronage  of  Tipperary ;  his  son  a 
Dean,  &c.,  &c. 

Changed  twice  ;  got  the  Tipperary  Regiment,  &c. 

His  brother. 

The  Irish  Minister. 

Secretary  to  the  Treasury  during  pleasure ;  son  to  Sir  Henry. 

Receiver  General  during  pleasure  ;  deeply  indebted  to  the  Crown. 

Placed  in  office  after  the  Union. 

Renegaded.  and  got  a  pension. 

A  Commission  of  Bankrupts  under  Lord  Clare  ;  made  a  City  Mag- 
istrate. 

Renegaded  ;  got  a  Regiment,  and  the  patronage  of  his  county 

Returned  by  Government ;  much  military  rank  ;  now  Lord  Howden. 

A  regiment  and  the  patronage  of  Kerry,  jointly  ;  seconded  the  Ad- 
dress. 

Under-Secretary  at  the  Castle. 


*  The  Author  of  this  work  was  deputed  to  learn  from  Mr.  Bingham  what  his  expectations  from  fiovernraent  for  his 
■eats  were  ;    he  proposed  to  take  from  the  (ippositiou  £8,000  for  his  two  Beats  for  Tuam,  and  oppose  the  Union.     Gov* 
ernmeut  afterwards  added  a  Peerajie  and  £15,000  for  the  Borough. 
78 


618 


APPENDIX. 


31 


NAMES. 

Charles  H.  Coote 


35.  Rt.  Hon.  I.  Corry  . 

3(5.  Sir  J.  Cotter .    .    . 

37.  Richard  Cotter. 

38.  Hon.  H.  Creighton  ) 

39.  Hon.  J.  Creighton  J 

40.  W.  A.  Crosbie    .     . 

41.  James  Cuffe  •     .    . 


42.  General  Dunne . 


43.  William  Elliot  .    .     . 

44.  General  Eustace    .     . 

45.  Lord  C.  Fitzgerald 

4fi.  Rt.  Hon.  W.  Fitzgerald. 

47.  Sir  C.  Fortescue     .     . 

48.  A.  Fergusson    .    •    . 

49.  Luke  Fox      .... 


50.  William  Fortescue 


51.  J.  Galbraith  .    . 

52.  Henry  D.  Grady* 
63.  Richard  Hare    . 


54.  William  Hare    . 

55.  Col.  B.  Henniker 


56.  Peter  Holmes    . 

57.  George  Hatton  . 

58.  Hon.  J   Hutchinson 

59.  Hugh  Howard  .     . 

60.  Wm.  Handcock,  (Athlone.) . 


61.  John  Hobson     . 

62.  Col.  G.  Jackson 

63.  Denham  Jephson 

64.  Hon.  G.  Jocelyn 


OBSERVATIONS. 

Obtained  a  Regiment  (which  was  taken  from  Colonel  Warburton,) 
patronage  of  Queens  County,  and  a  Peerage,  (Lord  Castle- 
coote.)  and  £7.500  in  cash  for  his  interest  at  the  Borough  of 
Maryborough,  in  which,  in  fact,  it  was  proved  before  the  Com- 
missioners that  Sir  Jonah  Barrington  had  more  interest  than 
his  Lordship. 

Appointed  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  on  dismissal  of  Sir  John 
Parnell. 

Privately  brought  over  by  cash. 

Renegaded  (see  Red  List)  privately  purchased. 

Comptroller  to  the  Lord-Lieutenant's  Household. 

Natural  son  to  Mr.  Cuffe  of  the  Board  of  Works,  his  father  created 

Lord  Tyrawly. 
Returned  for  Maryborough  by  the  united  influence  of  Lord  Castle- 

coote  and  Government,  to  keep  out  Mr.  Barrington  ;  gained 

the  election  by  only  one. 
Secretary  at  the  Castle. 
A  Regiment. 
Duke  of  Leinster's  brother  ;  a  Pension  and  a  Peerage  ;  a  Sea  Officer 

of  no  repute. 

Renegaded  (see  Red  List)  Officer,  King  at  Arms. 

Got  a  place  at  the  Barrack  Board,  £500  a  year  and  a  Baronetcy. 

Appointed  Judge  of  Common  Pleas;  nephew  by  marriage  to 
Lord  Ely. 

Got  a  secret  Pension,  out  of  a  fund  (£3,000  a  year.)  intrusted  by 
Parliament  to  the  Irish  Government,  solely  to  reward  Mr.  Rey- 
nolds, Cope.  <!tc.,  &c.,  and  those  who  informed  against  rebels. 

Lord  Abercoru's  Attorney  ;  got  a  Baronetage. 

First  Counsel  to  the  Commissioners. 

Put  two  members  into  Parliament,  and  was  created  Lord  Ennismore 
for  their  votes. 

His  son. 

A  regiment,  and  paid  £3,500  for  his  Seat  by  the  Commissioners  of 
Compensation. 

A  Commissioner  of  Stamps.  '• 

Appointed  Commissioner  of  Stamps. 

A  General — Lord  Hutchinson. 

Lord  Wicklow's  brother,  made  Postmaster-General. 

An  extraordinary  instance  ;  he  made  and  sang  songs  against  the 
Union  in  1799,  at  a  public  dinner  of  the  Opposition,  and  made 
and  sang  songs  for  it  in  1800  ;  he  got  a  Peerage. 

Appointed  Storekeeper  at  the  Castle  Ordnance. 

A  Regiment. 

Master  of  Horse  to  the  Lord- Lieutenant. 

Promotion  in  the  Army,  and  his  brother  consecrated  Bishop  of  Lis- 
more. 


65.  William  Jones. 

66.  Theophilus  Jones  ....    Collector  of  Dublin. 

67.  Major-General  Jackson  .     .     A  Regiment. 

68.  William  Johnson    ....    Returned   to  Parliament  by  Lord  Castlereagh,  as  he  himself  de- 

clared, "  to  put  an  end  to  it ;"  appointed  a  Judge  since. 

69.  Robert  Johnson     ....    Seceded  from  his  patron,  Lord  Dowushire,  and  was  appointed  a 

Judge. 

70.  John  Keane A  Renegade  ;  got  a  Pension  ;  See  Red  List. 

71.  James  Kearny Returned  by  Lord  Clifton  being  his  Attorney  ;  got  an  officak 

72.  Henry  Kemmis      ....     Son  to  the  Crown  Solicitor. 

73.  William  Knot Appointed  a  Commissioner  of  Appeals  £800  a  year. 

74.  Andrew  Knox. 

75.  Colonel  Keatinge. 

76.  Rt.  Hon  Sir  H.  Langrishe  .     A  Commissioner  of  the  Revenue,  received  £15,000  cash  for  his  pat- 
ronage at  Knoctopher. 

.     .    Commissioner  of  Stamps,  paid  £1,500  for  his  patronage. 
.    .    Usher  at  the  Castle,  paid  £1,500  for  his  patronage. 
.     .     Created  a  Peer ;  Lord  Longuevilie. 

.    .    Appointed  to  the  office  of  Ship  Entries  of  Dublin  taken  from  Sir 
Jonah  Barrington. 


77.  T.  Lingray,  sen., 

78.  T.  Lindsay,  jun., 

79.  J.  Longfieid.     . 

80.  Capt.  J.  Longfieid 


*  This  gentleman  was  known  to  be  entirely  indisposed  to  a  Union,  but  peculiar  circumstances  prevented  liim 
Imperatively  but  honorably  from  following  bis  own  impression.  Sir  Jonah  Barrington  communicated  to  .\ir.  George 
lonsonby  these  causes,  as  he  thought  it  but  justice  to  Mr.  Grady,  who,  on  some  occasions,  did  not  couce&l  his  seuii- 
Saents,  and  acted  I'airly, 


619 


81. 


NAMKS. 

Lord  Loflus     . 


82.  General  Lake  .... 

83.  Rt.  Hon.  David  Latouche, 

84.  General  Lofttis     .     .     . 

85.  Francis  M'Namara    .     . 

86.  Ross  Malion     .... 

87.  Richard  Martin    .     .     . 

88.  Rt.  Hon.  Monk  Mason  . 

89.  H.  D.  Massy     .... 

90.  Thomas  Mahon. 

91.  A.  E.  jM'Naghten  .     .     . 
y2.  Stephen  Moore     •     .    . 

93.  N.  M.  Moore. 

94.  Rt.  Hon.  Lodge  Morris 
1)5.  Sir  R.  Musgrave  .     .     . 

96.  James  M'Cleland  .     .     . 

97.  Col.  C.  M'Donnel .    .    . 

98.  Richard  Magenness  .     . 
<I9.  Thomas  Nesbit     .     .     . 

100.  <S'tV  \V.  G.  Xnccomai,  Bar 

101.  Richard  Neville  .     .     . 

102.  William  Odell .     .     .     . 

103.  Charles  Osborne  .     .     . 

104.  C.  M.  Ormsby  .... 

105.  Admiral  Pakenham  .     . 
IOC.  Col.  Pakenham     .     .     . 

107.  H.  S.  Prittie    .... 

108.  R.  Pennefather. 

109.  T.  Prendergast     .     .    . 

110.  Sir  Richard  Quin  .  . 

111.  Sir  Boyle  Roche  .  .  . 

112.  R.  Rntledge. 

113.  Hon.  C.  Rowley  .  .  . 

114.  Hon.  H.  Skeffington  .  . 

115.  William  Smith     .  .  . 

116.  H.  M.Sandlord    .  .  . 

117.  Edmond  Stanley  .  .  . 

118.  John  Staples. 

119.  John  Stewart   .... 

120.  John  Stratton. 

121.  Hon.  JB.  Stratford  .  . 

122.  Hon.  J.  Stratford  .  . 


1 23.  Richard  Sharkey . 

124.  Thomas  Stannus. 

125.  J.  Savage. 

126.  Rt.  Hon.  J.  Toler 

127.  Frederick  Trench 

128.  Hon.  R.  Trench    . 

129.  Charles  Trench    . 


130. 
13L 


Richard  Talbot. 
P.Tottenham  . 


132.  Lord  Tyrone 


133. 
134. 
loo. 
136. 


Charles  Tottenham 
Townsend 


Roliert  Tighe  . 

Robert  Uniack 
137.  James  Verner . 
1.38.  J.  0.  Vandeleur 

139.  Colonel  Wemysa 

140.  Henry  Westenraw 


OnSEKVATIO.NS. 

Son  to  Lord  Ely,  Postmaster-General ;  got  £30,000  for  their  Bor- 
oughs, and  created  an  English  Marqui.s. 

An  Englishman  (no  connection  with  Ireland;)  returned  by  Lord 
Castlereagh,  solely  to  vote  for  the  Union. 

A  General ;  got  a  Regiment ;  cousin  to  Lord  Ely. 
Cash  and  a  private  pension,  paid  by  Lord  Castlereagh. 
Several  appointments  and  places  by  Government. 
Commissioner  of  Stamps. 
A  Commissioner  of  Revenue. 
Received  £4,000  cash. 

Appointed  a  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  &c. 
A  Postmaster  at  will. 

Created  a  Peer. 

Appointed  Receiver  of  the  Customs,  £1,200  a  year. 

A  Barrister — appointed  Solicitor  General,  and  then  a  Baron  of  the 

Exchequer. 
Commi.ssioner  of  Imprest  Accounts,  £.500  per  annum. 
Commissioner  of  Imprest  Accounts,  £500  per  annum. 
A  Pensioner  at  will. 

Bought,  (see  Memoir  ante,)  and  a  Peerage  for  his  wife. 
Renegaded  ;  reinstated  as  Teller  of  the  Exchequer. 
A  Regiment,  and  Lord  of  the  Treasury. 
A  Barrister;  appointed  a  Judge  of  the  King's  Bench. 
Appointed  First  Council  Commissioner. 
Master  of  the  Ordnance. 
A  Regiment ;  killed  at  New  Orleans. 
A  Peerage — Lord  Dunalley. 

An  office  in  the  Court  of  Chancery,  £500  a-year ;  his  brother  Crown 

Solicitor. 
A  Peerage. 
Gentleman  Usher  at  the  Castle. 

Renegaded,  and  appointed  to  office  by  Lord  Castlereagh. 

Clerk  of  the  Paper  Office  of  the  Castle,  and  £7,.500  for  his  patronage. 

A  Barrister  :  appointed  a  Baron  of  the  E.xchequer. 

Created  a  Peer  ;  Lord  Mount  Sandford. 

Appointed  Commissioner  of  Accounts. 

Appointed  Attorney-General,  and  created  a  Baronet. 

Renegaded  to  get  £7.500,  his  half  of  the  compensation  for  Baltinglass. 
Paymaster  of  Foreign  Forces,  £1,300  a-year,  and  £7,500  for  Bal- 
tinglass. 
An  obscure  Barrister ;  appointed  a  County  Judge. 
Renegaded. 

Attorney-General ;  his  wife,  an  old  woman,  created  a  Peeress  ;  him- 
self made  Chief  Justice  and  a  Peer. 

Appointed  a  Commissioner  of  the  Board  of  "Works. 

A  Barrister ;  created  a  Peer,  and  made  an  Ambassador.  See  Red 
List. 

His  brother ;  appointed  Commissioner  of  Inland  Navigation — a  new 
office  created  by  Lord  Cornwallis,  for  rewards. 

Compensation  for  patronage  ;  cousin,  and  politically  connected  with 
Lord  Ely. 

104  offices  in  the  gift  of  his  family  ;  proposed  the  Union  in  Parlia- 
ment, by  a  speech  written  in  tlie  crown  of  his  hat. 

In  office. 

A  Commissioner. 

Commissioner  of  Barracks. 

A  Commissioner;  connected  with  Lord  Clare. 

Called  the  Prince  of  Orange. 

Coramis-sioner  of  the  Revenue  ;  his  brother  a  Judge. 

Collector  of  Kilkenny. 

Father  of  Lord  Rossmore,  who  is  of  the  very  reverse  of  liis  father's 
politics. 


APPENDIX    No.    Ill, 


AN  ACT  FOR  THE  UNION   OF   GREAT  BRITAIN  AND   IRELAND. 

2d    JULY,    1800. 


"Whereas.  In  pursuance  of  His  Majesty's  most 
gracious  recommi'ndatio|i  to  the  two  houses  of 
Parliament  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  respec- 
tively, to  consider  of  such  measures  as  might  best 
tend  to  strengthen  and  consolidate  the  connection 
between  the  two  kingdoms,  the  two  houses  of 
the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  and  the  two 
houses  of  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  have  several- 
ly agreed  and  resolved  that,  in  order  to  promote 
and  secure  the  essential  interests  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  and  to  consolidate  the  strength, 
power,  and  resources  of  the  British  empire,  it  will 
be  advisable  to  concur  in  such  measures  as  may 
be.st  tend  to  unite  the  two  kingdoms  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  into  one  kingdom,  in  such 
manner,  and  on  such  terms  and  conditions,  as  may 
be  established  by  the  acts  of  the  respective  Par- 
liaments of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

And  whereas,  in  furtherance  of  the  said  resolu- 
tion, both  houses  of  the  said  two  Parliaments 
respectively  have  likewise  agreed  upon  certain 
articles,  for  effectuating  and  establishing  the  said 
purposes,  in  the  tenor  following  : — 

Artici.k  I.  That  it  be  the  first  article  of  the 
Union  of  the  kingdoms  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  that  the  said  kingdoms  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  shall,  upon  the  first  day  of  January, 
which  shall  be  in  the  year  of  Our  Lord  oue  thou- 
sand eight  hundred  and  one,  and  forever  after, 
be  united  inio  one  kingdom,  by  the  name  of  The 
United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  ; 
and  that  the  royal  style  and  titles  appertaining  to 
the  imperial  crown  of  the  said  United  Kingdom 
and  its  dependencies  ;  and  also  the  ensigns,  armo- 
rial flags  and  banners  thereof,  shall  be  such  as  His 
Majesty,  by  his  royal  proclanuition  under  the 
Great  Seal  of  the  United  Kingdom,  shall  be 
pleased  to  appoint. 

Article  II.  That  it  be  the  second  article  of 
Union,  that  the  succession  to  the  imperial  crown 
of  the  said  United  Kingdom,  and  of  the  dominions 
thereunto  belonging,  shall  continue  limited  and 
settled  in  the  same  manner  as  the  succession  to 
the  imperial  crown  of  the  said  Ivingdoms  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  now  stands  limited  and  settled, 
according  to  the  existing  laws,  and  to  the  terms 
of  Union  between  I]ngland  and  Scotland. 

Article  HI.  lliat  it  be  the  third  article  of  Union, 
that  the  said  United  Kingdom  be  represented  in 
one  and  the  same  Parliament,  to  be  styled  "  The 
Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland." 

Article  IV.  That  it  be  the  fourth  article  of 
Union,  tliut  four  lords  spiritual  of  Ireland  by  ro- 
tation of  sessions,  and  twenty-eight  lords  temporal 
of  I'reland  elected  for  life  by  the  peers  of  Ireland, 
shall  be  the  number  to  sit  and  vote  on  the  part  of 
Ireland  in  the  House  of  Lords  of  the  Parliament 
of  the  United  Kingdom  ;  and  one  hundred  com- 
moners (two  for  each  county  of  Ireland,  two  for 
the  city  of  Dublin,  two  for  the  city  of  Cork,  oue 


for  the  University  of  Trinity  College,  and  one  for 
each  of  the  thirty-one  most  considerable  cities, 
towns,  and  boroughs.)  be  the  number  to  sit  and 
vote  on  the  part  of  Ireland  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons of  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom. 

That  such  act  as  shall  be  passed  in  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Ireland  previous  to  the  Union,  to  regulate 
the  mode  by  which  the  lords  spiritual  and  temporal 
and  the  commons,  to  serve  in  the  Parliament  of 
the  United  Kingdom  on  the  part  of  Ireland,  shall 
be  summoned  and  returned  to  the  said  Parliament, 
shall  be  considered  as  forming  part  of  the  treaty 
of  Union,  and  shall  be  incorporated  in  the  acts 
of  the  respective  Parliaments  by  which  the  said 
Union  shall  be  ratified  and  established. 

That  all  questions  touching  the  rotation  or  elec- 
tion of  lords  spiritual  or  temporal  of  Ireland  to 
sit  in  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom,  shall 
be  decided  by  the  Hou.se  of  Lords  thereof ;  and 
whenever,  by  reason  of  an  equality  of  votes  ia 
the  election  of  any  such  lords  temporal,  a  com- 
plete election  shall  not  be  made  according  to  the 
true  intent  of  this  article,  the  names  of  those 
peers  for  whom  such  equality  of  votes  shall  be  so 
given,  shall  be  written  on  pieces  of  paper  of  a 
similar  form,  and  shall  be  put  into  a  glass,  by  the 
clerk  of  the  Parliaments  at  the  table  of  the  House 
of  Lords  whilst  the  house  is  sitting  ;  and  the  peer 
or  peers  whose  name  or  names  shall  be  first  drawn 
out  by  the  clerk  of  the  Parliaments,  shall 'be 
deemed  the  peer  or  peers  elected  as  the  case  may 
be. 

That  any  person  holding  any  peerage  of  Ireland 
now  subsisting,  or  hereafter  to  be  created,  shall 
not  thereby  be  disqualified  from  being  elected  to 
serve  if  he  shall  so  think  fit.  or  from  serving  or 
continuing  to  serve,  if  he  ehall  so  think  fit,  for 
any  county,  city,  or  borough  of  Great  Britain,  in 
the  House  of  Commons  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
unless  he  shall  have  been  previously  elected  as 
above,  to  sit  in  the  House  of  Lords  of  the  United 
Kingdom  ;  but  that  so  long  as  such  peer  of 
Ireland  shall  so  continue  to  be  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  he  shall  not  be  entitled  to 
the  privilege  of  peerage,  nor  be  capable  of  being 
elected  to  serve  as  a  peer  on  the  part  of  Ireland, 
or  of  voting  at  any  such  election  ;  and  that  he 
shall  be  liable  to  be  sued,  indicted,  proceeded 
against,  and  tried  as  a  commoner,  for  any  offence 
with  which  he  may  be  charged. 

That  it  shall  be  lawful  for  His  Majesty,  his  heirs 
and  successors,  to  create  peers  of  that  part  of  the 
United  Kingdom  called  Ireland,  and  to  uuike  pro- 
motions in  the  peerage  thereof,  after  the  Union; 
Provided.  That  no  new  creation  of  any  such  peers 
shall  take  place  after  the  Union  until  three  of  the 
peerages  of  Ireland,  Avhich  shall  have  been  exist- 
ing at  the  time  of  the  Union,  shall  have  become 
extinct ;  and  upon  such  extinction  of  three  peer- 
ages, that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  His  Majesty,  his 
heirs  and  successors,  to  create  one  peer  of  /hat 


APPENDIX. 


621 


part  of  the  United  Kingclom  called  Ireland  ;  and 
in  like  manner  so  often  as  three  peerap^es  of  that 
part  of  the  United  Kingdom  called  Ireland  shall 
become  extinct,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  His  Majesty 
his  heirs  and  successors,  to  create  one  other  peer 
of  the  said  part  of  the  United  Kingdom  ;  and  if 
it  shall  happen  that  the  peers  of  that  part  of 
the  United  Kingdom  called  Ireland  shall,  by  ex- 
tinction of  peerages  or  otherwise,  be  reduced  to 
the  number  of  one  hundred,  exclusive  of  all  such 
peers  of  that  part  of  the  United  Kingdom  called 
Ireland,  as  sliall  hold  any  peerage  of  Great  Britain 
subsisting  at  the  time  of  the  Union,  or  of  the 
United  Kingdom  created  since  the  Union,  by 
which  such  peers  shall  be  entitled  to  an  hereditary 
seat  in  the  House  of  Lords  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
then  and  in  that  case  it  shall  and  may  be  lawful 
for  His  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors,  to  create 
one  peer  of  that  part  of  the  United  Kingdom 
called  Ireland  as  often  as  any  one  of  such  one 
hundred  peerages  shall  fail  by  extinction,  or  as 
often  as  any  one  peer  of  that  part  of  the  United 
Kingdom -called  Ireland  shall  become  entitled,  by 
descent  or  creation,  to  an  hereditary  seat  in  the 
House  of  Lords  of  the  United  Kingdom  ;  it  being 
the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  this  article,  that 
at  all  times  after  the  Union  it  shall  and  may  be 
lawful  for  His  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors, 
to  keep  up  the  peerage  of  that  part  of  the  United 
Kingdom  called  Ireland  to  the  number  of  one 
hundred,  over  and  above  the  number  of  such  of 
the  said  peers  as  shall  be  entitled  by  descent  or 
creation  to  an  hereditary  seat  in  the  House  of 
Lords  of  the  United  Kingdom. 

That  if  any  peerage  shall  at  any  time  be  in 
abeyance,  such  peerage  shall  be  deemed  and 
taken  as  an  existing  peerage ;  and  no  peerage 
shall  be  deemed  extinct,  unless  on  default  of 
claimants  to  the  inheritance  of  such  peerage  for 
the  space  of  ©ne  year  from  the  death  of  the  person 
who  shall  have  been  last  possessed  thereof;  and 
if  no  claim  shall  be  made  to  the  inheritance  of 
such  peerage,  in  such  form  and  manner  as  may 
from  time  to  time  be  prescribed  by  the  House  of 
Lords  of  the  United  Kingdom,  before  the  expira- 
tion of  the  said  period  of  a  year,  then  and  in 
that  case  such  peerage  shall  be  deemed  extinct ; 
Provided,  That  nothing  herein  shall  exclude  any 
person  from  afterwards  putting  in  a  claim  to  the 
peerage  so  deemed  extinct ;  and  if  such  claim 
shall  be  allowed  as  valid,  by  judgment  of  the 
House  of  Lords  of  the  United  Kingdom,  reported 
to  His  Majesty,  such  peerage  shall  be  considered 
as  revived ;  and  in  case  any  new  creation  of  a 
peerage  of  that  part  of  the  United  Kingdom 
called  Ireland  shall  have  taken  place  in  the  inter- 
val, in  consequence  of  the  supposed  extinction 
of  such  peerage,  then  no  new  right  of  creation 
shall  accrue  to  His  Majesty,  his  heirs  or  succes- 
sors, in  consequence  of  the  next  extinction  which 
shall  take  place  of  any  peerage  of  that  part  of 
the  United  Kingdom  called  Ireland. 

That  all  questions  touching  the  election  of 
members  to  sit  on  the  part  of  Ireland  in  the 
House  of  Commons  of  the  United  Kingdom  .shall 
be  heard  and  decided  in  the  same  manner  as 
questions  touching  such  elections  in  Great  Britain 
now  are  or  at  any  time  hereafter  shall  by  law  be 
heard  and  decided ;  subject  nevertheless  to  such 
particular  regulations  in  respect  to  Ireland  as, 
fiom  local  circumstances,  the  Parliament  of  the 
United  Kingdom  may  from  time  to  time  deem 
expedient. 

That  the  qualifications  in  respect  of  property 


of  the  members  elected  on  the  part  of  Ireland  to 
sit  in  the  House  of  Commons  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  shall  be  respectively  the  same  as  are 
now  provided  l)y  law  in  the  cases  of  elections  for 
counties  and  cities,  and  boroughs  respectively  in 
that  part  of  Great  Britain  called  England,  unless 
any  other  provision  shall  hereaiter  be  made  in 
that  respect  by  act  of  Parliament  of  the  United 
Kingdom. 

That  when  His  Majesty,  his  heirs  or  successors, 
shall  declare  his.  her,  or  their  pleasure  for  holding 
a  first  or  any  subsequent  Parliament  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  a  proclamation  shall  issue,  under  the 
Great  Seal  of  the  United  Kingdom,  to  cause  the 
lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  and  commons,  who 
are  to  serve  in  the  Parliament  thereof  on  the  part 
of  Ireland,  to  be  returned  in  such  manner  as  by 
any  act  of  this  present  session  of  the  Parliament 
of  Ireland  shall  be  provided  ;  and  that  the  lords 
spiritual  and  temporal  and  commons  of  Great 
Britain  shall,  together  with  the  lords  spiritual  and 
temporal  and  commons  so  returned  as  aforesaid 
on  the  part  of  Ireland,  constitute  the  two  houses 
of  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom. 

That  if  His  Majesty,  on  or  before  the  first  day 
of  January,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  one, 
on  which  day  the  Union  is  to  take  place,  shall 
declare,  under  the  Great  Seal  of  Great  Britain, 
that  it  is  expedient  that  the  lords  and  commons 
of  the  present  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  should 
be  the  members  of  the  respective  houses  of  the 
first  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  on  the 
part  of  Great  Britain  ;  then  the  said  lords  and 
commons  of  the  present  Parliament  of  Great 
Britain  shall  accordingly  be  the  members  of  the 
respective  houses  of  the  first  Parlitment  of  the 
United  Kingdom  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain  ; 
and  they,  together  with  the  lords  spiritual  and 
temporal  and  commons,  so  .summoned  and  return- 
ed as  above  on  the  part  of  Ireland,  shall  be  the 
lords  spiritual  and  temporal  and  commons  of  the 
first  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  ;  and  such 
first  Parliament  may  (in  that  case)  if  not  sooner 
dissolved,  continue  to  sit  so  long  as  the  present 
Parliament  of  Great  Britain  may  by  law  now  con- 
tinue to  sit,  if  not  sooner  dissolved  :  Provided 
always,  That  until  an  act  shall  have  passed  in  the 
Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom,  providing  in 
what  cases  persons  holding  oiBces  or  places  of 
profit  under  the  crown  of  Ireland,  shall  be  incapa- 
ble of  being  members  of  the  House  of  Commons 
of  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom,  no 
greater  number  of  members  than  twenty,  holding 
such  offices  or  places  as  aforesaid,  shall  be  capable 
of  sitting  in  the  said  House  of  Commons  of  the 
Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom;  and  if  such 
a  number  of  members  shall  be  returned  to  serve 
in  the  said  house  as  to  make  the  whole  number  of 
members  of  the  said  house  holding  such  ofBces  or 
places  as  aforesaid  more  than  twenty,  then  and  in 
such  case  the  seats  or  places  of  such  members  as 
shall  have  last  accepted  such  offices  or  places 
shall  be  vacated,  at  the  option  of  such  members, 
so  as  to  reduce  the  number  of  members  holding 
such  offices  or  places  to  the  number  of  twenty  ; 
and  no  penson  holding  any  such  office  or  place 
shall  be  capable  of  being  elected  or  of  sitting  in 
the  said  house,  while  there  are  twenty  persons 
holding  such  offices  or  places  sitting  in  the  said 
house ;  and  that  every  one  of  the  lords  of  parlia- 
ment of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  every  member 
of  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
in  the  first  and  all  succeeding  Parliaments,  shall, 
until  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  shall 


622 


APPENDIX. 


Otherwise  provide,  take  tht!  oaths,  and  make  and 
subscribe  the  declaration,  and  take  and  subscribe 
the  oath  now  by  law  enjoined  to  be  taken,  made, 
and  subscribed  by  the  lords  and  commons  of  the 
Parliament  of  Great  Britain. 

That  the  lords  of  Parliament  on  the  part  of 
Ireland,  iu  the  House  of  Lords  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  shall  at  all  times  have  the  same  privi- 
leges of  Parliament  which  shall  belong  to  the 
lords  of  Parliament  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain  ; 
and  the  lords  spiritual  and  temporal  respectively 
on  the  part  of  Ireland  shall  at  all  times  have  the 
same  rights  in  respect  of  their  sitting  and  voting 
upon  the  trial  of  peers,  as  the  lords  spiritual  and 
temporal  respectively  on  the  part  of  Great 
Britain  ;  and  that  all  lords  spiritual  of  Ireland 
shall  have  rank  and  precedency  next  and  imme- 
diately after  the  lords  spiritual  of  the  same  rank 
and  degree  of  Great  Britain,  and  shall  enjoy  all 
privileges  as  fully  as  the  lords  spiritual  of  Great 
Britain  do  now  or  may  hereafter  enjoy  the  same 
(the  right  and  privilege  of  sitting  in  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  the  privileges  depending  thereon,  and 
particularly  the  right  of  sitting  on  the  trial  of 
peers,  excepted) ;  and  tliat  the  persons  holding 
any  temporal  peerages  of  Ireland,  existing  at  the 
time  of  the  Union,  shall,  from  and  after  the  Union, 
liave  rank  and  precedency  next  and  immediately 
afrer  all  the  persons  holdmg  peerages  of  the  like 
orders  and  degrees  in  Great  Britain,  subsisting  at 
the  time  of  the  Union  ;  and  that  all  peerages  of 
Ireland  created  after  the  Union  shall  have  rank 
and  precedency  with  the  peerages  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  so  created,  according  to  the  dates  of 
their  creations ;  and  that  all  peerages  both  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  now  subsisting  or  here- 
after to  be  created,  shtiU  iu  all  other  respects,  from 
the  date  of  the  Union,  be  cousidered  as  peerages 
of  the  United  Kingdom ;  and  that  the  peers  of 
Ireland  shall,  as  peers  of  the  United  Kingdom,  be 
eued  and  tried  as  peers,  except  as  aforesaid,  and 
shall  enjoy  all  privileges  of  peers  as  fully  as  the 
peers  of  Great  Britain ;  the  right  and  privilege  of 
sitting  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  privileges 
depending  thereon,  and  the  right  of  sitting  on  the 
trial  of  peers,  only  excepted. 

Article  V.  That  it  be  the  fifth  article  of  Union, 
that  the  churches  of  England  and  Ireland,  as  now 
by  law  established,  be  united  into  one  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  to  be  called.  The  United  Church 
of  England  and  Ireland;  and  that  the  doctrine, 
worship,  discipline,  and  government  of  the  said 
United  Church  shall  be  and  shall  remain  in  full 
force  Ibrever,  as  the  same  are  now  by  law  estab- 
lished for  the  Church  of  England;  and  that  the 
continuance  and  preservation  of  the  said  United 
Church  as  the  Established  Church  of  England  and 
Ireland,  shall  be  deemed  and  taken  to  be  an  essen- 
tial and  fundamental  part  of  the  Union  ;  and  that 
in  like  manner  the  doctrine,  worship,  discipline, 
and  government  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  shall 
remain  and  be  preserved  as  the  same  are  now  es- 
tablished by  law,  and  by  the  acts  for  the  Union  of 
the  two  kingdoms  of  England  and  Scotland. 

Article  VI.  That  it  be  the  sixth  article  of  Union, 
that  His  Majesty's  subjects  of  Great  Britain  and 
Iieland  shall,  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  Jan- 
uary, one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  one,  be 
entitled  to  the  same  privileges,  and  be  on  the  same 
footing,  as  to  eucouiagements  and  bounties  on  the 
like  articles  being  th.  giowth,  produce  or  mauu- 
lacture  of  either  country  respectively,  and  gener- 
ally iu  respect  of  trade  and  navigation  in  all 
poits  and  places  in  the  United  Kiujjdom  and  its 


dependencies ;  and  that  in  all  treaties  made  by 
His  Majesty,  his  heirs  and  successors,  with  any 
foreign  power.  His  Majesty's  suVyects  of  Ireland 
shall  have  the  same  privileges,  and  be  on  the  same 
footing,  as  His  Majesty's  subjects  of  Great  Britain. 
That,  from  the  first  day  of  January,  one  thou- 
sand eight  hundred  and  one,  all  prohibitions  and 
bounties  on  the  export  of  articles,  the  growth, 
produce,  or  manufacture  of  either  cotmtry,  to  the 
other,  shall  cease  and  determine ;  and  that  the 
said  articles  shall  thenceforth  be  exported  from 
one  country  to  the  other,  without  duty  or  bounty 
on  such  export. 

That  all  articles,  the  growth,  produce,  or  manti- 
facture  of  either  country,  (not  hereinafter  enume- 
rated as  subject  to  specific  duties,)  shall  from 
thenceforth  be  imported  into  each  country  from 
the  other,  free  from  dtity,  other  than  such  counter- 
vailing duties  on  the  several  articles  enumerated 
in  the  Schedule  Number  One.  A.  and  B.,  hereunto 
annexed,  as  are  therein  specified,  or  to  such  other 
countervailing  ditties  as  shall  hereafter  be  impos- 
ed by  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom,  in 
the  manner  hereinafter  provided ;  and  that,  for 
the  period  of  twenty  years  from  the  Union,  the 
articles  enumerated  in  the  Schedule  Number  Two, 
hereunto  annexed,  shall  be  subject  on  importation 
into  each  country  from  the  other,  to  the  duties 
specified  in  the  said  Schedule  Number  Two  ;  and 
the  woolen  manufactures,  known  by  the  names  of 
Old  and  2\'eio  Drapery,  shall  pay,  on  importation 
into  each  country  from  the  other,  the  duties  now 
payable  on  importation  into  Ireland :  Salt  and 
hops,  on  importation  into  Ireland  from  Great 
Britain,  duties  not  exceeding  those  which  are 
now  paid  on  importation  into  Ireland  ;  and  coals 
on  importation  into  Ireland  from  Great  Britain 
shall  be  subject  to  burdens  not  exceeding  those 
to  which  they  are  now  subject. 

That  calicoes  and  muslins  shall,  on  their  impor- 
tation into  either  country  from  the  other,  be  sub- 
ject and  liable  to  the  duties  now  payable  on  the 
same,  on  the  importation  thereof  from  Great 
Britain  into  Ireland,  until  the  fifth  day  of  Jantu\ry, 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eight ;  and  from 
and  after  the  said  day,  the  said  dttties  shall  be 
annually  reduced,  by  equal  proportions,  as  near 
as  may  be  in  each  year,  so  as  that  the  said  duties 
shall  stand  at  ten  per  centum  from  and  after  the 
fifth  day  of  January,  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  sixteen,  until  the  fifth  day  of  Jaimary,  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  twenty-one  ;  and  that 
cotton  yarn  and  cotton  twist  shall,  on  their  impor- 
tation into  either  country  frotu  the  other,  be 
subject  and  liable  to  the  duties  now  payable  upon 
the  same  on  the  importation  thereof  from  Great 
Britain  into  Ireland,  until  the  fifth  day  of  January, 
one  thousand  eight  hutidred  and  eight,  and  from 
and  after  the  said  day,  the  said  duties  shall  be 
annually  reduced  by  equal  proportions  as  near 
as  may  be  in  each  year,  so  that  as  that  all  duties 
shall  cease  on  the  said  articles  from  and  after  the 
fifth  day  of  January,  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  sixteen. 

That  any  articles  of  the  growth,  produce,  or 
mauulacture  ot  either  country,  which  are  or  may 
be  subject  to  internal  duty,  or  to  duty  on  the 
materials  of  which  they  are  com])osed,  may  be 
made  subject,  on  their  importation  into  each 
country  respectively  from  the  other,  to  such 
countervailing  duty  as  shall  appear  to  be  just  and 
reasonable  in  respect  of  such  internal  duty  or 
duties  on  the  materials  ;  atid  that  for  the  said 
purposes  the  articles  specified  in  the  .said  Schedule 


APPENDIX. 


623 


Number  One,  A.  and  B.  shall  be  subject  to  the 
duties  set  forth  therein,  liable  to  be  taken  off, 
diminished,  or  increased,  in  the  manner  herein 
Fjieeitied  ;  and  that  upon  the  export  of  the  said 
articles  from  each  country  to  the  other  respective- 
ly, a  drawback  shall  be  given  equal  in  amount  to 
the  countervailing  duty  payable  on  .such  articles 
on  the  import  thereof  into  the  same  country  from 
the  other  ;  and  that  in  like  manner  in  future  it 
shall  be  competent  to  the  United  Parliament  to 
impose  any  new  or  additional  countervailing 
duties,  or  to  take  off,  or  diminish  such  existing 
countervailing  duties  as  may  appear,  on  like 
principles,  to  be  just  and  reasonable  in  respect  of 
any  future  or  additional  internal  duty  on  any 
article  of  the  growth,  produce,  or  manufacture  of 
either  country,  or  of  any  new  or  additional  duty 
on  any  materials  of  which  such  article  may  be 
composed,  or  of  any  abatement  of  duty  on  the 
fiame  ;  and  that  when  any  such  new  or  additional 
countervailing  duty  shall  be  so  imposed  on  the 
impurt  of  any  article  into  either  country  from  the 
other,  a  drawback,  equal  in  amount  to  such  coun- 
tervailing duty,  shall  be  given  in  like  manner  on 
the  export  of  every  such  article  respectively  from 
the  same  country  to  the  other. 

That  all  articles,  the  growth,  produce,  or  manu- 
facture of  either  country,  when  exported  through 
the  other,  shall  in  all  cases  be  exported  subject  to 
the  same  charges  as  if  they  had  been  exported 
directly  from  the  country  of  which  they  were  the 
growth,  produce,  or  manufacture. 

That  all  duty  charged  on  the  import  of  foreign 
or  colonial  goods  into  either  country,  shall  on 
their  export  to  the  other,  be  either  drawn  back, 
or  the  amount,  if  any  be  retained,  shall  be  placed 
to  the  credit  of  the  country  to  which  they  shall  be 
80  exported. -so  long  as  the  expenditure  of  the 
United  Kingdom  shall  be  defrayed  by  proportion- 
•  al  contributions :  Provided  always.  That  nothing 
herein  shall  extend  lo  take  away  any  duty,  bounty, 
or  prohibition,  which  exists  with  respect  to  corn, 
meal,  malt,  flour,  or  biscuit;  but  that  all  duties, 
bounties,  or  prohibitions,  on  the  said  articles,  may 
be  regulated,  varied,  or  repealed,  from  time  to 
time,  as  the  United  Farliament  shall  deem  expe- 
dient. 

Article  VII.  That  it  be  the  seventh  article  of 
Union,  that  the  charge  arising  from  the  payment 
of  the  interest,  and  the  sinking  fund  for  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  principal,  of  the  debt  incurred  in 
either  kingdom  before  the  Union,  shall  continue 
to  be  separately  defrayed  by  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  respectively,  except  as  hereinafter  pro- 
vided. 

That  for  the  space  of  twenty  years  after  the 
Union  shall  take  place,  the  contribution  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  respectively,  towards  the  ex- 
penditure of  the  United  Kingdom  in  each  year, 
sliall  be  defrayed  in  the  proportion  of  fifteen  parts 
for  Great  Britain  and  two  parts  for  Ireland ;  and 
that  at  the  expiration  ot  the  said  twenty  years, 
the  luture  expenditure  of  the  United  Kingdom 
(Other  than  the  interest  and  charges  of  the  debt 
to  which  either  country  shall  be  separately  liable,) 
siiali  be  defrayed  in  such  proportion  as  the  Par- 
lianieut  of  tlie  United  Kingdom  shall  deem  just 
and  reasonable  upon  a  comparison  of  the  real 
value  of  the  exports  and  imports  of  the  respective 
countries,  upon  an<iverage  of  tlie  three  years  next 
preceding  the  period  of  revision  ;  or  on  a  com- 
parison of  the  value  of  the  quantities  of  tlie 
lollowiug  articles  consumed  within  the  respective 
countries,  on  a  similar  average  ;  viz.,  beer,  spiriUj, 


sugar,  wine.  tea.  tobacco  and  malt ;  or  according 
to  the  aggregate  proportion  resulting  from  both 
these  considerations  combined ;  or  on  a  compar- 
ison of  the  amount  of  income  in  each  country, 
estimated  from  the  produce  for  the  same  period  of 
a  general  tax,  if  such  shall  have  been  imposed  on 
the  same  descriptions  of  income  in  both  countries ; 
and  that  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom 
shall  afterwards  proceed  in  like  manner  to  revise 
and  fix  the  said  proportions  according  to  the  same 
rules,  or  any  of  them,  at  periods  not  more  distant 
than  twenty  years,  nor  less  than  seven  years  from 
each  other ;  unless,  previous  to  any  such  period, 
the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  shall  have 
declared,  as  hereinafter  provided,  that  the  expen- 
diture of  the  United  Kingdom  shall  be  defrayed 
indiscriminately,  by  equal  taxes  imposed  on  the 
like  articles  in  both  countries:  that,  for  the  de- 
fraying the  said  expenditure  according  to  the  rules 
above  laid  down,  the  revenues  of  Ireland  shall 
hereafter   constitute    a  consolidated  fund,  which 
shall  be  charged,  in  the  first  instance,  with  the 
interest  of  the  debt  of  Ireland,  and  with  the  sink- 
ing fund  applicable  to  the  reduction  of  the  said 
debt,  and  the  remainder  shall  be  applied  towards 
defraying  the  proportion  of  the  expenditure  ot 
the  United  Kingdom,   to  which  Ireland  may  be 
liable  in  each  year  :  that  the  proportion  of  con- 
tribution to  which  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  will 
be  liable,  shall   be  raised  by  such  taxes  in  each 
country    respectively,    as   the   Parliament  of  the 
United  Kingdom  .shall  from  time  to  time  deem  fit ; 
Provided  always,  That  in  regulating  the  taxes  in 
each  country,  by  which  their  respective  propor- 
tions shall  be  levied,  no  article  in  Ireland  shall  be 
made  liable  to  any  new  or  additional  duty,  by 
w'hich  the  whole  amount  of  duty  payable  thereon 
would  exceed  the  amount  which  will  be  thereafter 
payable  in  England  on  the  like  article :  that,  if  at 
the  end  of  any  year  any  surplus  shall  accrue  from 
the   revenues    of    Ireland,    after    defraying    the 
interest,  sinking  fund,  and  proportional  contribu- 
tion and  separate  charges  to  which  the  said  country 
shall  then  be  liable,  taxes  shall  be  taken  off  to  the 
amount  of  such  surplus,  or  the  surplus  shall  be 
applied  by  the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom 
to  local  purposes  in  Ireland,  or  to  make  good  any 
deficiency  which  may  arise  in  the  revenues  of  Ire- 
land  in    time   of  peace,  or  be  invested,  by  the 
commissioners  of  the  national  debt  of  Ireland,  in 
the  funds,  to  accunuilate  for  the  benefit  of  Ireland 
at  compound  interest,  in  case  of  the  contribution 
of  Ireland  in  time  of  war;  Provided,  That  the  sur- 
plus so  to  accumulate  shall  at  no  future  period  be 
suffei'ed  to  exceed  the  sum  of  five  millions  :  that 
all  moneys  to  be  raised  after  the  Union,  by  loan, 
in   peace  or  war,  for  the  service  of  the  United 
Kingdom  by  the  Parliament  thereof,  shall  be  con- 
sidered to  be  a  joint  debt,  and  the  charges  thereof 
shall  be  borne  by  the  respective  countries  in  the 
proportion  of  their  respective  contributions;  Pro- 
vided. That,  if  at  any  time,  in  raising  their  respect- 
ive contributions  hereby  fixed  for  each  country, 
the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  siiali  judge 
it  fit  to  raise  a  greater  proportion  of  such  respect- 
ive contributions  in  one  country  within  the  year 
than  in  the  other,  or  to  set  apart  a  greater  propor- 
tion of   sinking  fund  for  the  liquidation  of  the 
whole  or  any  part  ot  the   loan  raised  on  account 
of  the  one  country  than  that  raised  on  account  of 
the  oilier  country,  then  such  part  of  the  said  loan, 
lor  the  liquidation  of  wliich  difi'erent  pi'ovisiou.s 
shall  have  been  made  fur  the  respective  countries, 
shall  be  kept  di.-tiuct,  ami  shall  be  borne  by  each 


624 


APPENDIX. 


separately,  aud  only  that  part  of  the  said  loan  be 
deemed  joint  and  common,  for  the  reduction  of 
which  the  respective  countries  shall  have  made 
provision  in  the  proportion  of  their  respective 
contributions :  that,  if  at  any  future  day  the  sepa- 
rate debt  of  each  country  respectively  shall  have 
been  liquidated,  or.  if  the  values  of  their  respect- 
ive debts  (estimated  according  to  the  amount  of 
the  interest  and  annuities  attending  the  same,  and 
of  the  sinking  fund  applicable  to  the  reduction 
thereof,  and  to  the  period  within  which  the  whole 
capital  of  such  debt  shall  appear  to  be  redeemable 
by  such  sinking  fund)  shall  be  to  each  other  in 
the  same  proportion  with  the  respective  contribu- 
tions of  each  country  respectively  ;  or  if  the 
amount  by  which  the  value  of  the  larger  of  such 
debts  shall  vary  from  such  proportion,  shall  not 
exceed  one-hundredth  part  of  the  said  value  ; 
and  if  it  shall  appear  to  the  Parliament  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  that  the  respective  circumstances 
of  the  two  countries  will  thenceforth  admit  of 
their  contributing  indiscriminately,  by  equal  taxes 
imposed  on  the  same  articles  in  each,  to  the  future 
expenditure  of  the  United  Kingdom,  it  shall  be 
competent  to  the  Parliament  of  the  United  King- 
dom to  declare,  that  all  future  expense  thence- 
forth to  be  incurred,  together  with  the  interest 
and  charges  of  all  joint  debts  contracted  previous 
to  such  declaration,  shall  be  so  defrayed  indis 
criminately  by  equal  taxes  imposed  on  the  same 
articles  in  each  country,  and  thenceforth  from 
time  to  time,  as  circumstances  may  require,  to 
impose  and  apply  such  taxes  accordingly,  subject 
only  to  such  particular  exemptions  or  abatements 
in  Ireland,  and  in  that  part  of  Great  Britain  called 
Scotland,  as  circumstances  may  appear  from  time 
to  time  to  demand  ;  that,  from  the  period  of  such 
declaration,  it  shall  no  longer  be  necessary  to 
regulate  illS  GOntribution  of  the  two  countries  to- 
wards the  future  expenuitnre  of  the  United  King- 
dom, according  to  any  specific  proportion,  or 
according  to  any  of  the  rules  hereifl  before  de- 
scribed ;  Provided  neverthelese,  That  the  interest 
or  charges  which  may  remain  on  account  of  any 
part  of  the  separate  debt  with  which  either  country 
shall  be  chargeable,  and  which  shall  not  be  liqui- 
dated or  consolidated  proportionably  as  above 
shall,  until  extinguished,  continue  to  be  defrayed 
by  separate  taxes  in  each  country ;  that  a  sum, 
not  less  than  the  sum  which  has  been  granted  by 
the  Parliament  of  Ireland  on  the  average  of  six 
years  immediately  preceding  the  first  day  of  Jan- 
uary, in  the  year  one  thousand  eight  hundred, 
in  premiums  for  the  internal  encouragement  of 
agriculture  or  manufactures,  or  for  the  maintain- 
ing institutions  for  pious  and  charitable  purposes, 
shall  be  applied,  for  the  period  of  twenty  years 
after  the  Union,  to  such  local  purposes  in  Ifeland, 
in  such  manner  as  the  Parliament  of  the  United 
Kingdom  shall  direct ;  that,  from  and  after  the 
first  day  of  January,  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  one,  all  public  revenue  arising  to  the  United 


Kingdom  from  the  territorial  dependencies  thereof, 
and  applied  to  the  general  expenditure  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  shall  be  so  applfed  in  the  pro- 
portions of  the  respective  contributions  of  the  two 
countries. 

Article  VIII.  That  it  be  the  eighth  article  of 
the  Union,  that  all  laws  in  force  at  the  time  of  the 
Union,  and  all  the  courts  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction  within  the  respective  kingdoms,  shall 
remain  as  now  by  law  established  within  the  same, 
subject  only  to  such  alterations  and  regulations 
from  time  to  time  as  circumstances  may  appear  to 
the  Parliament  of  the  United  Kingdom  to  require. 
Provided,  That  all  writs  of  error  and  appeals  de- 
pending at  the  time  of  the  Union  or  hereafter  to 
be  brought,  and  which  might  now  be  finally  de- 
cided by  the  House  of  Lords  of  either  kingdom, 
shall,  from  and  after  the  Union,  be  finally  decided 
by  the  House  of  Lords  of  the  United  Kingdom  ; 
And  jyrovided.  That  from  and  after  the  Union,  there 
shall  remain  in  Ireland  an  instance  Court  of  Ad- 
miralty, for  the  determination  of  causes,  civil  and 
maritime  only,  and  that  the  appeal  from  sentences 
of  the  said  court  shall  be  to  His  Majesty's  dele- 
gates in  his  Court  of  Chancery  in  that  part  of  the 
United  Kingdom  called  Ireland  ;  and  that  all  laws 
at  present  in  force  in  either  kingdom,  which  shall 
be  contrary  to  any  of  the  provisions  which  may 
be  enacted  by  any  act  for  carrying  these  articles 
into  effect,  be  from  and  after  the  Union  repealed. 

And  whereas,  the  said  articles  having,  by  ad- 
dress of  the  respective  Houses  of  Parliament  in 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  been  humbly  laid 
before  His  Majesty.  His  Majesty  has  been  gracious- 
ly pleased  to  approve  the  same  ;  and  to  recom- 
mend it  to  his  two  Houses  of  Parliament  in  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  to  consider  of  such  measures 
as  may  be  necessary  lor  giving  effect  to  the  said 
articles  ;  in  order,  therefore,  to  give  full  effect 
and  validity  to  the  same,  be  it  enacted  by  the 
King's  Most  Excellent  Majesty,  by  and  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  the  lords  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral, aud  commons,  in  this  present  Parliament 
assembled,  and  by  the  authority  of  the  same,  that 
the  said  foregoing  recited  articles,  each  and  every 
one  of  them,  according  to  the  true  import  and 
tenor  thereof,  be  ratified,  confirmed,  and  approved, 
and  be  and  they  are  hereby  declared  to  be  the 
articles  of  the  Union  of  Great  Britain  aud  Ireland, 
and  the  same  shall  be  in  force  and  have  effect  for- 
ever, from  the  first  day  of  January,  which  shall 
be  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  aud  one.  Provided,  That  before  that 
period  an  act  shall  have  been  passed  by  the  Par- 
liament of  Ireland,  for  carrying  into  effect,  in  the 
like  manner,  the  said  foregoing  recited  articles. 

[Here  follows  the  supplementary  enactment  for 
regulating  the  mode  of  summoning  the  Irish  lords 
and  commons  to  sit  iij  the  then  current  United 
Parliament.  This  enactment  is  sufiBciently  de- 
scribed in  the  text  J 


APPENDIX    No.    IV. 


PEOCLAIMATIONS  FOUND  IN  EMMET'S  ARMS-DEPOTS,  INTENDED 
TO  BE  ISSUED   ON  THE    DAY  OF  THE  OUTBREAK. 


The  Provisional  Government  to  the  People  of 
Ireland  : — 

"  Yoii  are  now  called  upon  to  show  to  the  world 
that  you  are  competent  to  take  your  place  among 
nations,  tliat  you  have  a  right  to  claim  their  re- 
cognizance of  you  as  au  independent  country,  by 
the  only  satisfactory  proof  you  can  furnish  of  your 
capability  of  maintaining  your  independence, 
your  wresting  it  from  England  with  your  own 
hands. 

"  In  the  development  of  this  system,  which  has 
been  organized  within  the  last  eight  months,  at 
the  close  of  internal  defeat,  and  without  the  hope 
of  external  assistance ;  which  has  been  conducted 
with  a  tranquillity,  mistaken  for  obedience  ;  which 
neither  the  failure  of  a  similar  attempt  in  England 
has  retarded,  nor  the  renewal  of  hostilities  has 
accelerated  ;  in  the  development  of  this  system, 
you  will  show  to  the  people  of  England,  that 
there  is  a  spirit  of  perseverance  in  this  country 
beyond  their  power  to  calculate  or  repress.  You 
will  show  them,  that  as  long  as  they  think  to  hold 
unjust  dominion  over  Ireland,  under  no  change  of 
circumstances  can  they  count  upon  its  obedience  ; 
under  no  aspect  of  affairs  can  they  judge  of  its 
intentions  ;  you  will  show  to  them,  that  the  ques- 
tiou,  which  it  now  behooves  them  to  take  into 
serious  and  instant  consideration,  is  not,  whether 
they  will  resist  a  separation,  which  it  is  our  fixed 
determination  to  effect,  but  whether  or  not  they 
will  drive  us  heyond  separation;  whether  they 
will,  by  a  sang^iinary  resistance,  create  a  deadly 
national  antipathy  between  the  two  countries,  or 
whether  they  will  take  the  only  means  still  left 
of  driving  such  a  sentiment  from  our  minds — a 
prompt,  manly,  and  sagaciotis  acquiescence  in  our 
just  and  unalterable  determination. 

'•  If  the  secrecy,  with  which  the  present  effort 
has  been  conducted  shall  have  led  .our  enemies  to 
suppose,  that  its  extent  must  have  been  partial, 
a  few  days  will  undeceive  them.  That  confidence, 
which  was  once  lost  by  trusting  to  external  sup- 
port, and  suffering  our  own  means  to  be  gradually 
undermined,  has  been  again  restored.  We  have 
been  mutually  pledged  to  each  other,  to  look  only 
at  our  own  strength,  and  that  the  first  introduction 
of  a  system  of  terror,  the  first  attempt  to  execute 
an  individual  in  one  county,  should  be  a  signal  for 
insurrection  in  all.  V/e  have  now,  witl'out  the 
loss  of  a  man,  with  oiir  means  of  '^'^/.nmunication 
untouched,  brought  our  plan=  to  the  moment  when 
they  are  ripe  for  exer";tlon,  and  in  the  prompti- 
tude with  which  nineteen  counties  will  come 
forward  at  once  to  execute  them,  it  will  be  found 
that  neither  confidence  nor  communication  are 
wanting  to  the  peojjle  of  Ireland. 

"  In  calling  on  our  countrymen  to  come  forward, 
■we  feel  ourselves  bound  at  the  same  time,  to 
justify  our  claim  to  their  confidence  by  a  precise 
declaration  of  our  views.  We,  therefore,  solemnly 
declare,  that  our  object  is  to  establish  a  free  and 
independent  republic  in  Ireland  ;  that  the  pursuit 
of  this  object  we  will  relinquisli  only  with  our 
lives,  that  we  will  never,  but  at  the  express  call 
of  our  country,  abandon  our  post  till  the  acknowl- 
edgment of  its  independence  is  obtained  from 
England,  and  that  we  will  enter  into  no  negotia- 
7a 


tion  (but  for  exchange  of  prisoners)  with  the 
government  of  that  country,  while  a  British  army 
remains  in  Ireland.  Such  is  the  declaration  which 
we  call  on  the  people  of  Ireland  to  support. 
And  we  call  first  on  that  part  of  Ireland  which 
was  once  paralyzed  by  the  want  of  intelligence, 
to  show  that  to  that  cause  only  was  its  inaction  to 
be  attributed;  on  that  part  of  Ireland  which  was 
once  foremost  by  its  fortitude  in  suffering ;  on 
that  part  of  Ireland  which  once  offered  to  take 
the  salvation  of  the  country  on  itself:  on  that 
part  of  Ireland  where  the  flame  of  liberty  first 
glowed  ;  we  call  upon  the  North  to  stand  up  and 
shake  oif  their  slumber  and  oppressions. 

"  CiTIZEXS  OF  DUHLIN  : 

"A  band  of  patriots,  mindful  of  their  oath  and 
faithful  to  their  engagement  as  United  Irishmen, 
have  determined  to  give  freedom  to  their  country, 
and  a  period  to  the  long  career  of  English  op- 
pression. 

"  In  this  endeavor  they  are  now  successfujly 
engaged,  and  their  efforts  are  seconded  by  com- 
plete and  universal  cooperation  from  the  country, 
every  part  of  which,  from  the  extremity  of  the 
North  to  that  of  the  South,  pours  forth  its  warriors 
in  support  of  our  hallowed  cause.  Citizens  of 
Dublin,  we  require  your  aid ;  necessary  secrecy 
has  prevented,  to  many  of  you,  notice  of  our 
plan,  but  the  erection  of  our  national  standard, 
the  sacred,  though  long  degraded.  Green,  will  b« 
sufficient  to  call  to  arras  and  rally  round  it  every 
man  in  whose  breast  exists  a  spark  of  patriotism 
or  sense  of  duty.  Avail  yourselves  of  your  local 
advantages — in  a  city  each  street  becomes  a  defile, 
and  each  house  a  battery — impede  the  march  of 
your  oppressors — charge  them  with  the  arms  of 
the  brave — the  pike — and  from  j'our  windows  and 
roofs  hurl  stones,  bricks,  bottles  and  all  other 
convenient  implements,  on  the  head  of  the  satel- 
lites of  your  tyrant,  the  mercenary,  the  sanguinary 
soldiery  of  England. 

'•  Orangemen !  add  not  to  the  catalogue  of  your 
follies  and  crimes  ;  already  have  you  been  duped 
to  the  ruin  of  your  country,  in  the  legislative 
union  with  its  tyrant — attempt  not  an  opposition, 
which  will  carry  with  it  your  inevitable  destruc- 
tion. Return  from  your  paths  of  delusion,  return 
to  the  arms  of  your  countrymen,  who  V»ili  receive 
aad  hail  your  repentance. 

"Countrymen  of  all  descriptions,  let  us  act 
with  union  and  concert.  All  sects.  Catholic,  Prot- 
estant, Presbyterian,  are  equally  and  indiscrim- 
inately embraced  in  the  benevolence  of  your 
object.  Repress,  prevent  and  di.scourage  excesses, 
pillage  and  intoxication ;  let  each  maa  do  his 
duty,  and  remember,  that  during  public  agitation 
inaction  becomes  a  crime.  Be  no  other  competi- 
tion known  than  that  of  doing  good  ;  remember 
against  whom  you  fight;  your  oppressors  for  six 
hundred  years.  Remember  their  massacres,  their 
tortures — remember  your  murdered  friends — your 
burned  houses — your  violated  females — keep  in 
mind  your  country,  to  whom  we  are  now  giving 
her  high  rank  among  nations,  and  in  the  honest 
terror  of  feeling,  let  us  exclaim,  that  as  in  the 
hour  of  her  trial  we  serve  this  country,  so  may 
God  serve  us  in  that,  which  will  be  last  of  all." 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

A  message  of  peace  to  Ireland       .        .        .70 

Abb6  MacGeoghegaa 4 

Abb^  Perraud 599 

Abolition  of  negro  slavery     .        .        .        .617 

Abseuteeism 53 

Account  of  first  rising 312 

Act  repealed 152 

Act  of  Union 384 

Acts  of  attainder 348 

Address  of  the  American  Congress  .  .116 
Address  of  the  Catholics  received  .  .  .78 
Address  to  the  patriot  minorities    .         .         .  145 

Address  to  the  King 151 

Addresses 211 

Addresses  of  loyalty 283 

Adopted  precautions 553 

Adverse  winds 275 

Affidavits 201 

Agher,  rector  of .38 

Agitation  for  Septennial  Parliaments  .  .  91 
Agitation  upon  Catholic  claims  .  .  .  215 
Ajax         ........     63 

Alarm  in  England 68 

Alarms 177 

Ahirms  got  up  by  Government  .  .  .  177 
Albermarle's  battalions  .        .        .         .34 

Alliance  with  Austria 24 

Almanza,  battle  of 33 

Alms,  repudiation  of      ....        .  552 

American  affairs 114 

American  corn 5(58 

American  revolution      .         .         .         .         .114 

American  slavery 549 

Amiens,  peace  of 415 

Amnesty  act 339 

Ancient  Britons  at  Ballyellis  ....  330 
And  I'm  a  hundred  and  eleven       .        .        .  376 

Anderson 61 

Anglo-Irish  nationality 13 

Anue  of  Denmark 22 

Anne's  brother 36 

Announcement  of  compensatioa     .        .        .  390 

Answers 216 

Auti-Gallican 201 

Antrim 332 

Antrim,  earls  of 43 

Arachne 46 

Aragon,  troops  of 34 

Arch-agitator 510 

Archbishop  Burnet 10 

Archbishop  of  Canterbury  ....  569 
Archibald  Hamilton  Rowan,  escape  of  .  .  234 
Avchil)ald  HamiltoQ  Rowan,  prosecution  of  .  232 
Archibald  Hamilton  Rowan,  treason  of.         .  234 

Archly  dropped 310 

Arguments  of  Macaulay         .         .         .         .       1 

Ark  of  salvation 435 

Arklow,  fight  at 322 

Armagh  assizes 265 

Armagh  county,  reign  of  terror  in  .  .  258 
Armed  force,  efforts  to  establish  .  .  .  259 
Armed  force  opposed      ....  -^"^ 


Armed  negotiators 

Arming  .... 

Arms  act 

Armstrong,  informer 

Arrest  of  Arthur  O'Connor 

Arrest  of  chiefs  in  Dublin 

Arrest  and  death  of  Edward  Fitzgerald 

Arrest  of  the  Sheares 

Arrests   .... 

Arrests  of  Bond  and  Butler 

Arthur  Wellesley    . 

Arthur  Young,  testimony  of 

Articles  .... 

Articles,  Castlereagh  proposes 

Articles  exported  from  Ireland 

Articles  finally  adopted  . 

Articles  imported  into  Ireland 

Articles  of  Limerick,  act  to  confirm 

Arts  of  government 

Ascendancy,  insolence  of  the 

Asks  indemnity 

Assurance  of  protection 

Athy  barracks 

Atrocious  bill 

Attack  on  Carlow   . 

Atwood  and  Carey  . 

Aughrim,  avenge  the  carnage  of 

Augmentation  of  the  army     . 

Avesnes 

Ballina 

Ballinahinch   .... 

Ballycannoo.  actions  at  . 

Ballyellis,  combat  at 

Banishment  bill 

Bank  of  Ireland 

Bank  of  Ireland,  no  Catholics  in 

Bantry  Bay  expedition   . 

Bar  meeting    .... 

Barcelona,  siege  of . 

Baron  Macaulay 

Barry  Yelverton 

Batavian  expedition,  disastrous  fate  of  the 

Batavian  republic   . 

Battle  of  Dettingen 

Battle  of  the  Diamond    . 

Battle  of  Landen    . 

Battle  of  Meeanee  . 

Battle  of  Steinkirk 

Bear  arms        .        .        .        . 

Beauchamp  Bagenal  Harvey  . 

Beggarly  Corporation,  a 

Belfast  mob     .... 

Belfast,  Tone  goes  to 

Belfast,  town  council  of . 

Bereslord  Burton     . 

Beresford,  dismissal  of   . 

Beresford,  John  Claudius 

Beresford's  riding  house 

Bernard  Crosson  of  Mullanabrack 

Berkeley      .         .        •_       •       ^ 


PAOS 

.  117 
.  137 

.  227 
.  297 
.  285 
.  293 
.  299 
.  297 
.  43 
.  232 
.  228 
.  106 
.  384 
.  396 
.  452 
.  398 
.  452 
.  15 
.  281 
.  56 
.  379 
.  384 
.  308 
.  47 
.  304 
.  18 
.  1 
.  107 
.  485 

.  350 
.  333 
.  317 
.  330 

.  348 
.  161 
.  467 
.  249 
.  365 
.  34 
.  3 
.  141 
.  276 
.  268 
.  63 
.  240 
.  12 
.  529 
.  10 
.  142 
.  319 
.  488 
.  221 
.  204 
.  551 
.  208 
.  230 
.  264 
.  304 
.'  263 
60,  70 
.  85 


628 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

PAQK 

Berwick-upon-Tweed      .        .        .        . 

.  257 

Catholic  meeting  in  Dublin     .        . 

.    77 

Berwick's  army       .... 

.     33 

Catholic  meetings    .... 

.  454 

Bieu  Ititbrme 

.  35  (i 

Catholic  officers'  bill 

.  455 

Bill  of  resuiuptioa  .... 

.     21 

Catholic  petition     .... 

.     82 

Bill  of  rights 

.  154 

Catholic  petition  presented     . 

.  465 

Bishop  Atterbury    .... 

.     42 

Catholic  petition,  refusal  to  present 

.  439 

Bishop  of  Cloyne     .... 

.     60 

Catholic  question  in  the  Whig  club 

.  218 

Bishop  of  Derry,  George  Stone 

.     62 

Catholic  relief          .... 

.  212 

Bishop  of  Quiiiiper,  the  .        .        .        . 

.  460 

Catholic  relief  bill,  provisions  of  . 

.  223 

Black  list 

.  407 

Catiiolic  relief  immediately  proposed 

.  222 

Bloody  riot 

.  425 

Catholic  relief,  trifling  measure  of  . 

.  213 

Bois  de  Barri 

.     64 

Catholic  rent 

.  495 

Boliugbroke  impeached  . 

.     42 

Catholic  tradesmen  and  artificers   . 

.       8 

Bond  dies  in  prison 

.  335 

Catholic  university 

.  607 

Bottle  riot,  the 

.  494 

Catholics  and  Dissenters 

.  142 

Bourbons,  restoration  of  the  . 

.  483 

Catholics,  civil  and  religious  liberties  o 

.     17 

Boyle  and  ilalone  .... 

.     74 

Catholics  duped,  the 

.  410 

Bradstreet  the  recorder  . 

.  140 

Catholics  excluded  .... 

.  160 

Branded  

.  528 

Catholics  excluded  by  a  resolution 

.      7 

Brazen  head  hotel   .... 

.  294 

Catholics,  extermination  of    . 

.  240 

Brenan  the  ecclesiastical  historian  . 

.     44 

Catholics,  humiliation  of  the  . 

.     38 

Brian  boru 

.  5(51 

Catholics,  loyalty  of  the 

.     43 

Bribe  the  priests,  new  attempt  to   . 

.  112 

Catholics,  magistrates  marrying 

.    47 

Briberies  of  Buckingham 

.  139 

Catholics,  places  given  to 

.  595 

Bring  in  the  Pretender    . 

.  196 

Catholics,  promises  to  the 

.  384 

British  famine  policy 

.  573 

Catholics,  rage  against  the 

.     58 

British  museum       .... 

49,  563 

Catholics,  temporary  toleration  of  the 

.     72 

British  recruits        ...... 

.  564 

Celtic  element         .... 

.  189 

Brotherhood     

.  211 

Celtic  race,  plea  for  the  . 

.  600 

Brothers  Sheares  hanged 

.  335 

Censuring  the  Irish  government 

.  414 

Brothers  Sheares,  the      . 

.  294 

Change  of  dynasty  in  France  . 

.  516 

Brothers  Sheares  tried     . 

.  385 

Charge  against  Sarsfield. 

.       6 

Brutal  treatment  of  prisoners 

429,  435 

Charlemont 

137,  138 

Buckingham  leaves  Ireland    . 

.  193 

Charlemont's  intolerance 

.  170 

Buonaparte  at  Toulon 

.  276 

Charles  Ball,  of  Clogher 

.  406 

Buonaparte,  successes  of 

.  446 

Chateau  Renault     .... 

.       2 

Burke's  book 

.        .  202 

Chatham,  conquests  of    .         .         . 

.     12 

Byrne  hanged      '    .        .        .        . 

.  S35 

Cheap  ejectment  laws  passed  . 

.  486 

Chevalier  d'  Entragues    ... 

.     32 

Caithness  Legion     .... 

.  334 

Chief-Justice  Robinson   . 

.     44 

Caledonia 

.     36 

Chiefs  executed  in  Wexford    . 

.  327 

Calm  in  Ireland       .... 

.     43 

Cholera 

.  516 

Camden  and  Carhamptoa 

.  284 

Christ  church  cathedral  . 

.       4 

Camperdowr. 

.  276 

Church  in  danger    .... 

.  461 

Canning,  death  of   . 

.  502 

Church,  king  head  of  the 

.      7 

Capitulation  of  Limerick 

.     16 

Church  of  England,  rites  of  the     . 

.    56 

Captain  Luke  Lawless    . 

.  485 

Church  rates 

.  617 

Capture  of  Namur  .... 

.     13 

Church  temporalities  act         .        . 

.  517 

Caravats 

.  461 

Citizen  soldier          .... 

.  219 

Cardinal  Aberoni    .... 

.     47 

Civil  constitution     .... 

.  202 

Cardinal  Wiseman  .... 

.  601 

Clare  and  Castlereagh     .         .        . 

.  287 

Carrickshock   ..-.., 

.  516 

Clare  constantly  employed 

.     32 

Castile,  nobles  of     . 

.     34 

Clare  election 

.  503 

Castle  press 

.  244 

Clare's  dragoons      .... 

.     33 

Castle  sheriffs 

.  522 

Clonraeljail 

.  589 

Castlereagh  cuts  his  throat 

.  493 

Clontarf  war 

.  536 

Castlereagh's  explanation 

.  371 

Coal-porters     .         .        .        . 

.     14 

Castlereagh's  judicious  measures    . 

.  307 

Cockayne        

.  234 

Castrating 

.     48 

Coercion  and  anarchy,  beginning  of 

.  240 

Catholic,  Protestant  marrying  a 

.'    7 

Coercion,  preparing  for  .        . 

.  532 

Catholic  address      .... 

.    55 

Colonel  Irwin 

.  143 

Catholic  address  not  noticed   , 

.    56 

Colony  of  the  Palatines  .        .        . 

.     39 

Catholic  agitation,  commencement  of 

.    78 

Commissioners,  betrayed  by  . 

.     35 

Catholic  association,  action  of  the  . 

.  499 

Commissioners  of  public  accounts 

.     35 

Catholic  association  formed     . 

.  494 

Commissioners  of  public  works      .        . 

.  556 

Catholic  bishops  loyal     . 

.  283 

Committee  on  grievances 

.     14 

Catholic  board          .... 

.      7 

Commodore  Bompart 

.  356 

Catholic  clergy,  precarious  condition  ot 

.  105 

Compact  between  prisoners  and  govern 

ment   335 

Catholic  convention 

.  220 

Compact  violated  by  government  . 

.  335 

Catholic  convention,  deputation  to  the 

.  220 

Comparison  between  Ireland  and  colon 

es    .114 

^a'uolic  emancipation     . 

.  235.  410 

Compensation  act    .... 

.  407 

Catholic  gem-al  committee     . 

203,  229 

Conciliation  hall      .        .        .        . 

.  5:57 

Catholic  generai^ommittee.  progress  ol 

.  207 

Conclusion      ...... 

.  609 

INDEX. 


629 


Concordat 435 

Condition  of  the  country  ....  605 
.Confiscated  estates,  commission  of  .        .    20 

Conflict  of  jurisdiction 45 

Congress  at  Fbiladelplii.i        .         .         .         .  lUi 

Conolly 174 

Consolidated,  farms  to  be        .        .        .         .  547 

Constantine  Fhipps 40 

Constitution,  enemies  of  the  .  .  .  .44 
Constitation  in  church  and  state  .  .  .  3(! 
Contagion  of  American  opinions  in  Irehxnd  .115 
Continual  defeats  of  patriots  .         ,         .         .  192 

Convention  act 2'27 

Convention  dissolved 1()5 

Convention  in  Dublin  ....  159,  219 
Convicts  hung  at  Clogheen  .  .  .  .103 
Cornwallis  and  Castlereagh,  labors  of  .  385,  897 
Cornvvallis  collects  an  army  ....  359 
Cornwallis  encounters  them  at  Ballinamuck  .  354 
Cornwallis  marches  to  meet  the  French  .  358 

Cornwallis  on  a  tour 386 

Cork  constitution 5H4 

Corn  laws,  repeal  of  the  ....  553 

Corruption  ....  59,191,387,469 
Corry  attacks  Grattan  .....  395 
Council  of  three  hundred         ....  643 

Countess  of  Orkney 20 

Country  not  dead,  the 405 

Country,  state  of  the  .....  43 
County"  Cavan,  Quilca's  retreat  in  .  .  .52 
Court  and  country  parties      .         .         .         .19 

Court,  influence  of  the 35 

Court  majorities 176 

Court  of  Delegates 20 

Court  of  Exchequer 45 

Court  of  St.  Germains 11 

Courts-martial  .         .        .    334,  355,  359,  364 

Creating  influence 214 

Cremona         ■• 32 

Cromwellian  squires 142 

Cromwellian,  the  stern 6 

Croppies  lie  down 500 

Culloden 71 

Curate  of  Boolevogue  and  Monageer     .        .  310 

Curfew 286 

Cnrran 167 

Curran  in  court 335 

Currau's  desci'iption  of  informers  .         .         .281 

Curran's  promotion 449 

Curran's  speech 281 


Daly's  attack   . 

Daniel  O'Connell     . 

Dead  majority 

Dean  of  St.  Fatrick's 

Dean  Swift 

Dean  Swift,  perils  of 

Dean  Swift's  Irish  patriotism 

Dean  Synge 

Death  by  starvation 

Dealh  of  Boulter     . 

Death  of  Hoche 

Death  of  Lucas 

D-ath  of  Sarsfield   . 

Debates  on  money  bills  . 

Debates  on  the  supplies  . 

Debt,  rapid  increase  of  . 

Deck  passengers 

Declaration 

Declaration  defeated  in  Parliament 

Declaration  of  right 

Declaration  successful  in  the  country 

Decline  of  trade 


.  393 
.  388 
.  201 
.  19 
.  39 
.  41 
.  39 
.  5 
.  562 
.  -62 
.  275 
.  112 
.  12 
.  59 
.  73 
.  451 
.  568 
.  11 
.  136 
.  135 
.  136 
121,433 


Defeat  of  the  French 
Defenceless  state  of  the  country 

Defenders 182 

Defenders,  trials  of . 

Demand  for  reform . 

Depopulation  .... 

Depression  of  Catholics 

Desolation  of  the  country 

Despard's  conspiracy  in  England 

Devon  commission 

Digest  of  the  evidence    . 

Digest  of  the  Popery  laws 

Dingle  bay       .... 

Disaffection      .... 

Dissensions       .... 

Dissensions  as  to  rights  of  Catholics 

Dissenters,  agitation  of  . 

Dissenters,  clause  against  the 

Dissenters,  passiveness  of  the 

Dissenters,  Swift's  virulence  against  the 

Dissenters,  the 

Distinctions  kept  up 

Distress  of  (he  country    . 

Distress  of  the  people 

Distribution  of  seats 

Division 

Dixon 

Doctor  Dopping,  Bishop  of  Meath 

Doctor  Doyle  ;  "J.  K.  L."      . 

Doctor  Duigenan 

Doctor  Duigenan  privy-councillor 

Doctor  Lucas  .... 

Doctor  Madden 

Doctor  Moreton 

Doctor  Newman 

Doctor  Reynolds 

Doctor  Sacheverell  . 

Doctor  Samuel  Johnson  . 

Doctor  Whateley,  archbishop  of  Dublin 

Dolly's  Brae    .... 

Dominant  nation,  the 

Donegal  to  Kerry,  from  . 

Down  county.  Castlereagh  defeated 

Drapier's  letters 

Dublin  Catholics  against  union 

Dublin,  decline  of  . 

Dublin  grand-jury,  advice  to  the 

Dublin  police  bill    . 

Dublin,  reign  of  terror  in 

Dublin,  riot  in         .         .         , 

Dublin,  torpor  and  gloom  in  . 

Dublin,  tortures  in  . 

Dublin  university    . 

Dublin  volunteers  under  arms 

Duel  of  Grattan  and  Corry     . 

Duffy,  trial  of  . 

Duke  of  Bedford's  coach 

Duke  of  Berwick     . 

Duke  of  Cumberland 

Duke  of  Dorset,  unpopularity  of 

Duke  of  Richmond's  policy     . 

Duke  of  Rutland,  death  of 

Duke  of  Savoy 

Duke  of  Wellington 

Duraouriez  and  Jumappes 

Duncan's  fleet 

Dungannon  convention,  first  . 

Dungannon  convention,  second 

Dungannon.  meeting  in  church  at 

Durham  Fencibles  .        .        , 

Earl  of  Drogheda    .        .        . 
Earl  of  Kihiare        .        .        . 


.  356 
.  123 

195,  25-9 
.  232 
.  157 
.  597 
.  458 
.  53 
.  422 
.  545 
.  540 
.  215 
.  2 
.  222 
.  563 
.  170 
.  57 
.  29 
.  496 
.  67 
.  39 
.  231 
81.  88 

453,  489 
.  403 
.  395 
.  325 
.  4 
.  495 
.  260 
.  463 
.  61 
.  262 
.  5 
.  603 
.  234 
.  40 
.  5 
.  522 
.  603 
7 
.  1 
.  445 
.  50 
.  388 
.  432 
.  51 
.  467 
.  335 
.  418 
.  399 
.  337 
.  373 
.  131 
.  398 
.  590 
.  457 
.  42 
.  455 
.  75 
.  467 
.  179 
.  16 
,  506 
.  220 
.  275 
.  143 
.  157 
.  143 
.  323 


.  69 


630 


INDEX. 


Earl  of  Kildai-e's  address 

Earl  of  i\Iar     . 

Earl  of  Shannoa,  death  of 

Earnest  language     . 

Ecclesiastical  titles  bill  . 

Edict  of  Nautes,  recall  of  the 

Editors  bribed 

Edmund  Burke 

Educated  classes  bought 

Edward  Fitzgerald  . 

Edward  Sprag 

Edward  Sugden 

Eft'ort  to  save  Byrne  and  Bond 

Efforts  of  patriots   . 

Efforts  of  patriots  all  in  vain 

Efforts  to  delay  explosion 

Eighteen  persons  hanged 

Eighty-two  club 

Elections,  interference  in 

Emancipation  act,  passage  of  the 

Emancipation  refused 

Embezzlement 

PJraigration '7, 547 

Emigriition  agent    . 

Emmet  arrested 

Emmet,  examination  of  . 

Emmet  executed 

Emmet  retires  to  Wicklow 

Emmet  returns  to  Dublin 

Emmet,  Thomas  Addis    . 

Euimet"s  evidence   . 

Encouragement  to  fisheries 

End  devastations 

End  of  insurrection  of  1798 

England  against  repeal  . 

England  yields  at  once    . 

English  commercial  policy 

English  interest,  triumph  of 

English  parliament,  decisive  action  of  the 

English  parliament,  predomin 

English  parliament,  the  Union  in 

Enmity  of  Flood  and  Gi'attan 

Enniscorthy,  storm  of 

Enuiskillen  yeomen  iufantry 

Enthusiasm  of  the  people 

Erin  go  bragh 337 

Escheatorship  of  Munster 
Essex  Fencibles 
Established  church  . 
European  revolutions 
Evidence  extorted  . 
Excitement  against  Catholics 
Excitement  in  Dublin 
Executions 
Executed  in  Wexford,  loyalists 

Exodus    

Expedition  of  Dutch  government 

Expenditures  of  the  kingdom 

Explosion  in  Patrick  street 

Exterminating,  necessity  of    . 

Extermination 

Extinction  of  civil  existence  for  Catholics 

Extravagance  and  corruption 


Failure  of  Forbes'  motion 
Failure  of  Grattan's  efforts 
Failure  of  the  patriots    . 
Famine    .... 
Famine  carnage,  progress  of 
Famine  carnage,  statistics  of 
Famine,  cause  of  the 
Famine,  horrors  of  the  . 
Catibfivpf  1817 


ance  of  the 


PAGE 

75 

,     42 

95 

405 

603 

31 

575 

142 

511 

,  222 

14 

,  530 

,  335 

.  189 

,  190 

294 

429 

,  561 

.  458 

508 

,  441 

.  107 

,  597 

,  525 

42G 

.  363 

,  426 

.  425 

,  426 

.  247 

.  300 

.  117 

.  340 

.  355 

.  633 

.  151 

.     61 

.   Ill 

.     18 

.     17 

.     40 

.  155 

,  313 

,  262 

.  5^3 

,  350 

.  373 

.  262 

.  595 

.  580 

.  304 

.  2:n 

.  374 

.  305 

.  324 

.  598 

.  269 

.  141 

.  423 

.  544 

.  525 

8 

.     91 

.  180 

.  178 

.  92 

.  57 

.  560 

.  592 

.  491 

.  491 

.  489 


Famine  of  1822 

Famines,  other 

Father  John  Murphy 

Father  John  Murphy,  fate  of 

Father  Maguire 

Blather  Philip  Roche 

Father  Tyrrell 

Faulkner's  journal  . 

Fenian      .... 

Fermanagh  yeomanry    . 

Fighting  men  . 

Financial  distress    . 

Fmancial  frauds 

First  act  in  violation  of  the  treaty. 

First  octennial  parliament  dissolved 

Fii'st  parliament  in  this  reign 

First  recognition  of  the  Catholics  as 

First  Ulster  regiment 

First  united  Irish  club     . 

First  whisper  of  repeal  . 

Fitzgerald  and  Aylmer,  surrender  of 

Fitzgerald,  treatment  of 

Fitzgerald's  speech  on  pension  list 

Fitzgibbon"s  speech  on  the  regency 

Fitzwilliam  recalled 

Fitzwilliam's  administration  . 

Five  years  of  independence   . 

Fleet  anchors  in  Bantry  bay  . 

Flesh  brush      .... 

Flogging  sheriff  of  Tipperary 

Flood  and  the  patriots     . 

Flood's  reform  bill  . 

Flood's  reform  bill  rejected   . 

Fontainbleau  .... 

Fonteaoy  .... 

Forbes  and  the  pension  list    . 

Forfeitures  of  rich  estates 

Forged  assassination  list 

Forniati(3n  of  an  Irish  character 

Forty-shilling  freeholders 

Four  thousand 

Foxhunters'  corps   . 

Fox's  martyrs 

France  and  England  in  India . 

France,  coalition  against 

Francis  Bacon 

Free  parliament 

Free  trade        .... 

Free  trade  act 

Freeman's  journal  . 

French  and  Americans  at  Yorktown 

French,  conduct  of  the   . 

French,  disasters  of  the  . 

French  give  a  ball  . 

French  government,  designs  of 

French  landing  under  Humbert 

French  principles    , 

French  republic  declares  war 

French  revolution   . 

French  revolution,  progress  of  the 


.  490 
60,  551 
.  311 
.  330 
.  505 
.  322 
.  536 
.  258 
.  603 
.  263 
.  391 
.  118 
.  491 
.  5 
.  119 
.  7 
subjects  78 
.  142 
.  204 
.  448 
.  534 
.  307 
.  93 
.  187 
.  238 
.  234 
.  177 
.  253 
.  365 
.  378 
.  91 
.  162 
.  164 
.  483 
.  63 
.  179 
.  7 
.  282 
.  188 
.  509 
.  117 
.  342 
.  500 
.  86 
.  416 
.  412 
.  128 
.  128 
.  133 
.  142 
.  141 
.  350 
.  40 
.  352 
.  431 
.  349 
202,  229 
.  222 
.  199 
.  201 


Galling  ascendancy  of  privileged  neighbors  .       8 

Gardiner's  measure 142 

Gardiner's  measure,  Burke's  opinion  of  .  1-J8 

Gardiner's  measure,  debate  on        .         .         .  117 
Gardiner's  measure,  Grattan's  speech  on        .147 

Garrett  Fennell 291 

General  Abercrombie 284 

General  Abercrombie,  resignation  of     .         .  288 

General  corruption 176 

General  Daendels 275 

General  determination 137 

General  lioche         246 


631 


General  Lake  in  the  north 

General  order,  i-emai'kable 

Geoghegans,  the 

George  I.         .        .         . 

George  I.,  death  of  . 

George  III.      . 

Germanic  empire,  power  of  the 

Gibbet  Kath  of  Kildare,  massacre  at 

Giiikell.  army  of     . 

GiiikelTs  camp 

Glenh'on  .... 

Goderich  cabinet     . 

Good  eflVcts  in  the  south 

Government  funds  . 

Government  intention  at  Clontarf 

Government,  majority  for 

Government  spoon  feeding     . 

Government  supporters,  discipline  of 

Grain,  stopping  export  of 

Grand  scale  of  bribery  . 

Gratitude  and  afiection  . 

Grattan 98,  119 

Grattan  advocates  coercion    . 

Grattan  on  tithes 

Grattan's  emancipation  bill     . 

Grattan's  fiiiancial  expos^ 

Grattan's  motion  for  free  trade 

Grattan's  picture  of  the  times 

Grattan's  revenue  bill     . 

Great  despondency 

Great  distress  .... 

Great  majorities 

Grievances  of  the  Protestant  colonies 

Growing  liberality  . 

Gunpowder  act 

Gunpowder  plot 


FAGK 

.  261 
.  288 
.  81 
.  42 
.  5-1 
.  85 
.  22 
.  30a 
.  1 
2 
*.  lU 
.  502 
.  2G7 
.  523 
.  535 
.  395 
.  573 
.  122 
.  577 
.  391 
.  188 
123,  12G 
.  459 
.  178 
.  481 
.  141 
.  130 
.  291 
.  1G9 
.  239 
.  53 
.  442 
.  13 
.  4  (53 
.  227 
.  601 


Habeas  Corpus  act 140 

Habeas  Corpus,  suspension  of  245,  412,  428,  436 
493,  517,  526,  578,  586 

Hague,  the 270 

Half-hanging 295 

Hamilton  Rowan 193 

Handcock  of  Athlone 387 

Handcock's  song  and  palinode  .  .  .  387 
Hanging  of  Father  Redmond  .        .         .  334 

Hans  Hamilton 370 

Hapless  enthusiasm 159 

Harcoiu't  Lees 494 

Hardy 167 

Harvey,  Beauchamp  Bagenal.  .  .  .  319 
Harvey  commands  insurgents         .         .         .319 

Harvey  shocked 321 

Harvey  summons  New  Ross  to  surrender  .  319 
Head  paciticator  of  Ireland    ....  537 

Hell  or  Connaught.  to 240 

Hercules  Langri.she 174 

Heroism  of  Catholic  priests  .  .  .  .47 
Hessians'  tree-quarters,  the  ....  289 
Hoadley  appointed  to  the  see  o-f  Armagh       .     62 

Hoche  captured,  the 357 

Hochstet.  battle  of 33 

Holy  wells,  laws  against  meeting  at  .  .36 
Horrible  atrocities  in  Wexford  .  .  .291 
Horror  of  French  principles  ....  202 
House  of  Hanover,  loyalty  to  the  .  .  .218 
House  of  Hanover,  toleration  under  the         .  105 

House  of  Thomond 537 

Hue  and  Cry 4(i9 

Hugh  M'Fay,  of  Seagoe 263 

Hunter  Go  wan 291 

Hussey  Burgh 131 

Hybernicua 413 


PAGR 

Illegal 204 

Illegal  combinations 178 

Imperial  standard,  a  new        ....  409 

Impression  of  horror 339 

Imprisoned  without  charge  ....  429 
Improvement  of  the  country  ....  168 
Incouu'  and  expenditure  of  Ireland,  account  of  610 
Incumbered  estates  act  ....  691,593 

Indemnity  act 243 

Indejjendence,  claim  of 51 

Independence  of  Curran  ....  179 

IndepcMuhMit  kingdom 9 

Individual  representative  ....  8 
Informers  honorable,  making  .         .         .34 

Ingratitude  of  the  Irish 569 

Inquiry  demanded 287 

Insanity  of  the  king        .         .         .        .         •  182 

Insolence  of  ministers 289 

Insolence  of  the  castle 201 

Insult  to  the  ci'own 214 

Insurgent  camp  at  Gorey  ....  290 
Insurgents  defeated         ......  833 

Insurrection  act 243 

Insurrection  breaks  out 301 

Insurrection  first 237 

Insurrection  in  Scotland  .  .  .  .  36,  42 
Interest,  new  plan  of  keeping  up  the  English  .  Ill 
Intimidation 337 


Invasion,  alarm  about     . 

Invasion,  apprehensions  of  an 

Inverriggen  and  MacDonalds 

Ireland,  address  to  the  people 

Ireland,  distress  in . 

Ireland,  laudable  efforts  for  poor 

Ireland  loyal  .... 

Ireland  on  her  smaller  end 

Ireland,  peace  in     . 

Ireland,  promises  of  gain  to   . 

Ireland,  resolutions  adopted  in  every  p 

Ireland,  supremacy  of  England  over 

Ireland  to  save  a  million  a-year 

Ireland,  unhappy  Catholics  of 

Irish  act  for  electors 

Irish  army,  uniforms  of  the     . 

Irish  articles,  non-confirmation  of  . 

Irish  brigade,  casualty  in  the 

Irish  brigade,  the     .... 

Irish  Catholics,  divisions  amongst  . 

Irish  Catholics,  reliance  in 

Irish  confederation,  end  of 

Irish  debt 

Irish  debt,  history  of 

Irish  exiles  in  France 

Irish  families  suffering     . 

Irish  Felon 

Irish  harvests  go  to  England 

Irish  House  of  Lords  lavor  an  Union 

Irish  independence . 

Irish  ind(^pendence,  effects  of 

Irish  legion  in  France     . 

Irish  on  the  Continent     . 

Irish  Orangemen 

Irish  parliament 

Irish  parliament,  corruption  of 

Irish  parliament,  declaratory  act  of 

Irish  parliament,  degraded  condition  of 

Irish  peerage  . 

Irish  Protestant  nationality 

Irish  railroad  companies 

Irish  Tribune   . 

Irish  tricolor   .         . 

Irvine's  address 

Is  it  possible    . 


.  435 
.  419 
.  10 
.  116 
.  417 
.  75 
.  437 
.  98 
.  1 
.  396 
irt  of  157 
.  173 
.  396 
.  12 
.  403 
.  135 
.  15 
.  67 
.  64 
.  202 
.  435 
.  573 
.  409 
.  409 
.  430 
.  6 
.  585 
.  553 
.  36 
151,  152 
.  152 
.  485 
17,32 
.  601 
.  43 
.  154 
.  45 
.  114 
.  397 
.  8 
.  657 
.  585 
.  582 
.  146 
.  69 


632 


INDEX. 


Jucobins  

James  III.         .... 
Jamestown  in  Cork  harbor 
Joliii  Uhiquiere 
John  Claudins  Beresford 
John  Keogh     .... 
John  Locke      .... 
John  Mitchel   .... 
John  O'Coiinell 
John  raniell   . 
John  Philpot  Cnrran 
Jonah  Barrington    . 
Jonathan  Swii't        .         •         . 
Joy  of  the  people    . 
Judge  Chamheilaine 
Judge  Fox,  prosecution  of 
Judge  Johnson,  prosecution  of 
Judicature  bill 

Juries,  Catholics  excluded  from 
Jury,  packing  of  the 
Juverna  


Kaisarswart.  siege  of 

Keep  peace  with  all  men 

Keogh  lodged  in  jail 

Kiiiuilien  .... 

Kilicea  castle   .... 

Kiliala      .         .         .         .■       . 

Killcavan  hill  .... 

King  congratulates  parliament 

King  Fredfiicli;  the  Great 

King  George  II.,  death  of 

King  (j-eorge  iL,  on  the  .French  frontier 

King  George  IV.     . 

King  George  IV.,  death  of 

King,  insanity  of  the 

King  Louis  and  the  young  dauphin 

King,  reluctance  of  the   . 

King  William,  death  of    . 

King  William,  vexation  of 

King  AVilliam  IV.    . 

King  William  IV..  death  of     . 

King  William's  birthday. 

King's  friends. 

Kingsborough  a  prisoner 

Knight  of  Glin 

Knights  of  St.  Patrick     . 

Labor-rale  act 
Lady  Hester  Stanhope    . 
Lady  Pamela  Fitzgerald 
Lake's  proclamation 

Lally 

L-.iUy's  campaign  in  India 

I^and  tenure  commission 

Lanilhtrd  and  tenant  commission 

]  ^ast  rose  of  sunnner 

Last  session  of  the  Irish  parliament 

j.aws  against  education  . 

Laws  against  priests 

l^eech  nnirdered 

Left-wheel       .... 

Leitriin  grand  jury 

Leu'ins    ..... 

Liberator,  the  .         .         . 

l.ilierty    .         .         .      '  ,         . 

Ijiege  in  the  Netherlands 

L  udsay   ..... 

J-ord  Clare  creates  alarm 

Ii(U'd  Clare,  death  of 

Lord  Clare,  Grattan's  reply  to 

1-ord  Fingal     .... 

Lord  Godolphin      .        .        , 


201 

42 

5G7 

370 

337 

203 

18- 

561 

561 

Hi 

179 

828 

38 

97 

278 

442 

445 

161 

37 

538 

444 

23 

5 

327 

302 

337 

349 

331 

408 

61 

80 

62 

489 

512 

478 

64 

507 

22 

21 

512 

519 

198 

414 

327 

565 

161 

562 

417 

318 

302 

63 

87 

544 

545 

266 

392 

14 

15 

424 

584 

217 

268 

690 

202 

11 

10 

222 

414 

2:!4 

461 

22 


FAGH 

Lord  Grey's  c5ercion  bill        .        .,  .517 

Lord  Hardwicke.  duplicity  of         .        .  .  437 

Lord  John  llussell  ....  .  539 
Lord  Kenmare  disavowed       ....  160 

Lord  Kilwarden,  murder  of    .         .        .  .  425 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Bolton          .        .         .  .45 

Lord-Lieutenant.  Buckingham         .         .  .  120 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Capel 14 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Dorset 56 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Duke  of  Bedford         .  77,  447 

Lord. Lieutenant,  Duke  of  Devonshire    .  ,     59 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Duke  of  Portland        .  .161 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Duke  of  Richmond     .  .  457 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Duke  of  Rutland         .  .  169 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Duke  of  Shrewsbury  .  .     40 
Lord-Lieutenant,  Earl  of  Northumberland     .     93 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Earl  of  Westmoreland  .  194 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Grafton        .         .         .  .47 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Harcourt     .         .         .  ,113 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Lord  Anglesea    .        .  .  513 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Lord  Camden      .         .  .  238 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Lord  Carlisle       .         .  .  139 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Lord  Carteret      .         .  .54 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Lord  Clarendon  .         .  .  574 

Lord-Lieutenant.  Lord  Fitzwilliam        .  .  235 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Lord  Halifax       .         .  .91 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Lord  Hardwicke         .  .415 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Lord  Hartlbrd     .        .  .95 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Lord  Townshend         .  96,  107 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Marquis  Cornwallis     .  .  338 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Marquis  of  Buckingham  .  179 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Marquis  of  Normanby  .  521 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Marquis  Wellesley      .  .  493 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Ormond       .         .         .  .23 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Pembroke    .         .        .  .35 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Rochester    .         .         .  .23 

Lord-Lieutenant,  Wharton       .         .         .  .37 

Lord  Middleton  and  Justin  MaeCarthy  .  .     11 
Lord  North's  lirst  measure  favoring  Catholics  123 


Lord  North  yields   .... 
Lord  Paluierston     .... 

Lord  Sydney 

Lord  Sydney's  administration 

Lord  Temple 

Lord  Yelvertoa       .... 

Louis  the  XIV 

Louth  election         .... 
Loves  of  the  angels,  the 
Loyalty  of  the  Irish        .         .        , 
Lucas  and  the  patriots     .        , 
Lucas,  the  failure  of       .        .        . 
Lucasian  mobs        .... 

M.  de  Lamartine      .... 
MacDonalds,  of  Glencoe         .        . 
MacHale,  Archbishop  of  Tuara 
Maclan,  of  Glencoe 
Maclan"s  wile,  murder  of 

MacNeven 

MacNeven  and  O'Connor  in  France 
MacNeven,  examination  of 
MacNeveu's  memoir 
Macomores       .        .        •        .        . 
Magna  charta  ..... 
Major  MacNamara   .... 

Major  Mahony 

Major  Rial 

Major's  people,  the  .... 
Majority  of  one       .... 

Malta 

Man  of  the  people  .... 

Marechal  de  Noailles 

Marechal  de  Saxe    .... 


134 
509 


13 
161 


.  16 
.  499 
.  266 
43,72 
.  72 
.  97 
.  79 

.  581 
.  10 
.  519 
.  9 
.  10 
.  153 
.  419 
.  363 
.  273 
.  339 
.  147 
.  503 
.  33 
.  379 
.  336 
.  372 
.  416 
.  505 
.  63 
.  64 


INDEX. 


633 


PAGE 

PAOE 

?.rarquis  Cornwallis 

.  338 

New  arms  bill          .... 

.  52!' 

Jlarqiiis  oT  B  read  a  1  bane  . 

.      9 

New  election 

.  19i 

Maiqiiis  of  Biiclviiifrliain  . 

.  184 

New  era 

.  ili 

Marquis  of  Buekinsliam,  unpopularity  ( 

)f       .  18!) 

New  insurrection  act       . 

.  45f 

JIarquis  of  I^ownsbire      . 

.  3«i; 

New  Jerusalemites  .... 

.  4i; 

Marquis  of  Drogheda  at  Cloglieen  , 

.  loo 

New  oath,  the 

.  .50; 

Marshal  Boiifllers     .... 

.     13 

New  peers 

.  19! 

Alarshal  BiOiilie       .... 

.     CI 

New  ])ropositions  of  Mr.  Pitt . 

.  17: 

JIarsIial  Luxembourg      . 

.     10 

New  reformation      .... 

.  50( 

Martello  towers        .... 

.  434 

New  Ross,  battle  of         .        .        , 

.  32' 

Martial  law 

.  428 

New  system 

.     90 

Mary  M"Cracken's  letter 

.  278 

Newenham       

.  167 

Masou's  argument    .... 

.     94 

Newgate  keeper      .... 

.  301 

Mason's  argument  rejected     . 

.     95 

Newry  election,  Curran  at 

.  479 

Massacre  at  Peterloo 

.  489 

Newspapers  of  Dublin    . 

.     98 

Massacre  of  Glencoe 

.     10 

Newtowubarry        .... 

.   317,515 

Massacres 

.  291 

Never 

.  584 

Massacres,  rumors  of  plots  and 

.  240 

No  Catholics  exist  in  Ireland  . 

5,44 

blaster  of  the  rolls  .... 

.  539 

No-Popery  pledge,  a       .        .         . 

.  455 

Material  prosperity 

.  198 

Noailies  in  the  Netherlands     . 

.     63 

Mauvaise  bonte        .... 

.     81 

Non-importation  agreements  . 

.  129 

Maynooth  college,  board  of    . 

.  465 

North  Cork  militia  .... 

.  304 

Maynooth  grant  curtailed 

.  463 

Northern  Star 

.  200 

]^Iayiiootb  grant  enlarged 

.  283 

Not  conquered         .... 

.  405 

Maynooth  grant,  increase  of   . 

.  454 

Numerous,  wealthy  and  strong 

.      9 

Maynooth  professors  loyal 

.  495 

McCracken  and  Monro  hanged 

.  334 

Oak-boys 

.     89 

Meagher,  trial  of     . 

.  582 

Oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy 

.       3 

Meaning  of  free  trade 

.  -"^   .  128 

Offers  of  protection 

.  341 

Meeting  at  Belfast   .... 

.  166 

Offers  of  protection  not  efficacious 

.  341 

Meeting  dispersed   .... 

.  389 

Oliver  Bond 

.  232 

Meeting  in  Dublin  dispersed  . 

.  233 

Onslai^jht  of  troops  in  Dublin 

.  386 

]\Ieeting  of  parliament    . 

.  212 

Opinions  of  grand  juries 

.  217 

Meeting  prevented  .... 

.  537 

Opposition  to  convention 

.  216 

Memoirs 

.  266 

Oppression  of  the  farmers 

.     89 

Message  of  peace    .... 

.  548 

Orange  boys    

.  289 

Miles  Byrne 

.  266 

Orange  charter  toast 

.  489 

I^nies  Byrne  and  his  friends     . 

.  485 

Orange  convention  .... 

.  471 

Miles  Byrne  in  France     . 

.  430 

Orange  in  the  north 

.  258 

Military  system        .... 

.  127 

Orange  outrages  and  murdei-s 

.  468 

Militia  bill 

123,  229 

Orange  purple  man 

.  472 

Millenarians 

.  412 

Orangemen,  address  of  the     . 

.  292 

Ministry,  change  of         .        .        . 

456,  500 

Orangemen  ever  punished,  no 

.  257 

Mirabeau 

.  201 

Orangemen  flourish,  the  . 

.  467 

Misery 

.  120 

Orangemen,  Grattan  on  the    . 

.  243 

Mitchel.  trial  of       ...         . 

.  583 

Orangemen,  insolence  of 

.  458 

Mitcbel.  sentence  of 

.  583 

Orangemen,  the       .... 

.  239 

Molyneaux 

.     18 

Orangemen,  the  Armagh 

.  450 

Monster  meetings    .... 

.  533 

Orde's  commercial  propositions 

172,  184 

Montchevreuil          .... 

.     12 

Oregon 

.  548 

Moore  hall 

.  359 

Organ  of  the  castle 

.  258 

Morning  Star 

.  261 

Organizing 

.  137 

Morning  Star  office  wrecked  . 

.  261 

Ormond  "impeached 

.     42 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  Villiers    . 

.     20 

Orr.  account  of       ...         . 

.  278 

Mrs.  Gerard 

.  559 

Osborne  house          .... 

570 

Municipal  reform 

.  521 

Oulard 

.  313 

Munster,  reign  of  terror  in     .        .        . 

.     99 

Out-door  relief        .... 

.  571 

j\Iarder  of  Father  Sheehy 

.     99 

Outrages  in  the  year  1797 

.  263 

JIutiny  bill 

134,  140 

Outrages  in  Wexford  county  . 

.  329 

Myles  Keon 

.  208 

Outrages  on  the  people  . 

.  285 

Ovidstown 

.  342 

Naas 

.  301 

Oxford  impeached  .... 

.     42 

Namur 

.     13 

O'Brien  attempts  insurrection 

.  587 

Napper  Tandy 

.  173 

O'Brien,  demands  of        ...        . 

.  552 

liatian 

.  528 

O'Brien,  imprisonment  of       .         .         . 

.  561 

National  congress 

166. 171 

O'Brien  moves  for  inquiry 

.  531 

National  debt,  the 

.  176 

O'Brien,  sentence  of       .         .         .        . 

.  589 

National  education  .... 

.  515 

O'Brien,  trial  of      .         .         . 

.  582 

National  guard,  the 

.  219 

O'Brien's  last  appearance 

.  581 

National  schools 

.  607 

O'Connell  and  the  convention  act  . 

.  471 

Naval  engagement 

.  356 

0'Coun(!ll  and  the  whigs 

.  498 

Navigation  laws               .        .        ,        . 

.     19 

O'Connell  at  the  bar  of  the  house  . 

.  508 

Neerwindea    .... 

.     11 

O'Connell,  demands  of             .         .         . 

.  551 

80 


634 


INDEX, 


O'Connell  in  court  .... 

O'Connell,  influence  of  . 

O'Connell  Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin   . 

O'Connell  reelected  for  Clare 

O'Connell  returned 

O'Connell.  the  Pope  and  the  devil  . 

O'Counell's  audacity 

O'Connell's  duel  with  d'Esterre     . 

O'Connell's  leadership     . 

O'Connor  committed  to  the  tower  . 

O'Connor,  examination  of 

O  Doherty,  trial  of  . 

O'Mahony        

Packing  juries         .... 
Palace  of  St.  Germain-en-lave 
Panic  and  rout  of  the  British 
Papal  aggression     .... 

Papal  brief 

I'apists,  act  against  intermarrying  with 
Papists,  act  for  disarming 
Papists,  Boulter's  policy  to  extirpate 
Papists  deprived  of  elective  franchise 
Papists,  no  faith  to  be  kept  with     . 
Papists  the  common  enemy    . 
Parade  in  Dublin    .... 

Pariahs 

Parliament       .         .         .■       . 
Parliament,  last  days  of  . 
Parliament  prorogued    ...         9, 

303,  409, 
Parliamentary  reform,  last  effort  of 
Parliamentary  reform,  motion  rejected 
Parliamentary  reform,  petitions  for 
Patrician  preeminence  in  Ireland 
Patriot  party  .... 
Patriots  defeated     . 
Patriots  in  power    . 
Peace  of  Ryswick  . 
Peace  of  Utrecht     . 
Peel  and  his  new  police  bill  . 
Peel  and  Wellington 
Peel  prime  minister 
Peel  resigns  office   . 

Peelers 

Peep  of  day  boys     ....    181 

Pelham  quits  Ireland 

Penal  laws,  effort  for  mitigation  of 

Penal  laws,  enforcement  of  the 

Penal  laws,  object  of  the 

Penal  laws,  operation  of  the  . 

Penal  laws,  working  of  the     . 

Pension  list      .... 

People,  havoc  of  the 

Perceval  administration 

Perry's  address  on  pension  list 

Petition  of  the  Catholics 

Petition  of  the  Catholics  rejected 

Pitch-caps        .... 

Pitt,  death  of  . 

Pitt,^great  speech  of 

Pitt,  resignation  of  . 

Pitt  resumes  office  . 

Pitt's  power,  decline  of  . 

Placebolding  members    . 

Plan  of  Mr.  Pitt 

Playfair  and  Lindley       .        . 

Police  bill        .... 

Police  bill,  motion  against 

Political  position  anomalous  . 

Ponsonby's  resolution    . 

Poor  law         .... 

Pope  and  Maguire  .       .        , 


.  487 
.  4G1 
.  624 
.  510 
.  503 
.  494 
.  487- 
.  483 
.  476 
.  285 
.  363 
.  590 
.  591 

.  232 
.  11 
.  352 
.  601 
.  601 
.  15 
.  14 
.  58 
.  55 
7 
.  39 
.  133 
.  17 
.  139 
.  405 
109, 191 
429,  467 
.  233 
.  169 
.  169 
.  8 
.  59 
.  176 
.  76 
.  21 
.  40 
.  483 
.  503 
.  524 
.  559 
.  483 
195,  239 
.  288 
.  94 
.  84 
.  30 
.  81 
.  106 
76,  194 
.  557 
.  455 
.  94 
.  213 
.  214 
.  295 
.  447 
.  383 
.  410 
.  417 
.  445 
.  214 
.  236 
.  551 
.  175 
.  201 
.  168 
.  377 
.  519 
.  501 


Popery  bill.  Catholic  laws  against  the    .        .    37 
Popery  bill  passed  .         .         .        .         .         .38 

Popery,  bill  to  prevent  the  further  growth  of.    23 

Popisli  conspiracy,  a 89 

Popish  massacre 195 

Population 81 

Population  of  Ireland 74 

Portuguese  Jew,  Gorzia  the    .        .        .        .44 

Post  office  espionnage 549 

Potato  blight 596 

Poyning's  law 141 

Practical  toleration  for  four  years  ...      7 

Pragmatic  sanction 61 

Prashagh 489 

Precursor  society 523 

Presentment  session 564 

Press  prosecution 277 

Pretender,  the 40 

Prevot  prison 336 

Priest-catchers 44 

Priests,  courage  of  the 47 

Primate  Boulter 51 

Primate  Boulter  ruler  of  Ireland  .  .  .54 
Primate  Boulter's  policy         .        .        .        .54 

Primate  .Stone 62 

Primate  Stone,  death  of 95 

Primates  in  hiding 106 

Prince  Charles  Edward,  expedition  of  .  .68 
Proceedings  of  convention     ....  161 

Process  server 564 

Proclamation  .         .  , 534 

Proclamation  of  the  people  ....  324 
Progress  of  union  conspiracy         .         .         .  391 

Projected  massacre,  the 537 

Prosperous 302 

Protection 339 

Protective  duties  demanded  .  .  .  .170 
Protestant  ascendancy    .....  358 

Protestant  boys,  the 500 

Protestant  charter  schools       ....  140 

Protestant  coal-porters 14 

Protestant  succession,  act  for  establishing      .     21 

Protesting  peers,  the 407 

Purchasing  votes 190 

Quarantotti 481 

Queen  Anne 22 

Queen  Victoria's  accession      .        .        .        .519 

Queen's  colleges 549 

Queen's  speech 553 

Queen's  visit  to  Ireland 595 

Questions  to  Catholic  universities  .  .  .  216 
Quilca  in  the  County  Cavan    .        .        .        .52 

Races  of  Gastlebar 351 

Rackrents 53 

Rage  and  impatience  of  Tone        .        .        .  275 

Rage  in  England 601 

Rage  of  the  bigots 505 

Rage  of  the  English  .  .  .  .  .  131 
Rath  of  the  Curragh  of  Kildare  .  .  .342 
Rathcormack,  tithe-carnage  at        .        .         .518 

Rathfarnham 302 

Ravages  of  famine 665 

Reappearance  of  Grattan  ....  394 
Rebel  disqualification  bill       ....  378 

Reclaim  bogs,  bill  to 113 

Reconciliation  of  differences  ....  220 

Recovery  of  Ballina 354 

Rector  of  Agher 38 

Red  list 407 

Redoubt  of  Eu 64 

Regency  act 380 


INDEX. 


635 


Regency,  the  . 

Kegiuin  donum 

Kelief  act,  lueaiiing  of   . 

Kolief  act,  results  of 

Keliot  bill  with  wiugs,  a 

Relief  measures 

Relief  measures,  pretended 

Relief  to  Catholics,  paltry 

Remember  Limerick 

Remember  Orr 

Renunciaiion  act     . 

Repeal  association,  decadence  of 

Repeal  of  Poyning's  law 

Repeal  of  the  test  act 

Repeal  year,  the 

Reproductive  committee 

Republican 

Republicanism 

Resolutions      ... 

Retaliation 

Revenge  .... 

Revenue  and  debt  of  Ireland 

lieveaue,  the    . 

Revenues  of  the  kingdom 

Reversal  of  the  sentence 

Reviews  .... 

Rewards  for  discoverers 

Reynolds,  the  informer    . 

Rjfliard  Briusley  Sheridan 

Richard  Johnson 

Ricaaid  Lalor  iShlel 

Richard  0 'Gorman  . 

Richmond  penitentiary   . 

Rights  of  man 

Riots         .... 

Robert  Emmet 

Robert  Holmes 

Rockwell 

Roscommoo 

Round  Robin  . 

Royal  speech  . 

Rumors  of  disturbances . 

Rump  of  an  aristocracy  . 

Sacramental  test 

Sainttield 

Sale  of  peerages 

Saul,  case  of    . 

Savings  banks 

Scottish  insurrection,  the 

Secret  committee  of  the  lords 

Secret  committee,  report  of 

Secret  service  money 

Secretary  Pelham    . 

Sedition   .... 

Selling  seats,  charged  with 

Septennial  bill  changed  into  Octennial 

Settlement  not  final 

Shauavests 

Sherlock  and  Annesley,  cause  of 

Simon  Biitler  . 

Sincere  friend,  a 

Sir  Robert  Walpole's  policy 

Sir  Toby  Butler,  pleading  of 

Sirr,  Swan  and  Sandys    . 

Situation  of  the  Catholics 

Slanderous  report   . 

Slaughter 

Slaughter  of  prisoners    . 

Slaughter  on  Tara  hill    . 

Sligo  volunteers 

Sowing  dissensions  . 

Specie  payments,  suspensioa  of 


.  185 
,  433 
.  509 
.  510 
.  498 
.  555 
.  5(i0 
.  115 
.  12 
.  277 
.  156 
.  543 
.  152 
.  161 
.  525 
.  565 
.  201 
.  212 
.  144 
.  323 
.  196 
.  451 
.  88 
.  141 
.  642 
.  137 
.  37 
.  293 
.  173 
.  142 
.  490 
.  568 
.  541 
.  201 
.  89 
.  418 
.  583 
.  578 
.  534 
.  192 
.  434 
.  178 
.  365 

.  57 
.  333 
.  200 
.  77 
.  523 
.  72 
.  221 
.  413 
.  277 
.  288 
.  534 
.  469 
.  97 
.  153 
.  461 
.  45 
208.  232 
.  438 
.  62 
.  24 
.  336 
.  5 
.  265 
.  355 
.  321 
.  306 
.  142 
.  282 
.  260 


Speech  from  the  throne   . 

Speech.  George  lli.'s 

Speech  of  Flunket  . 

Spensouians     . 

Spies        .... 

Spiked  heads  . 

Spying  in  the  post  office. 

Stag  house 

Star  and  garter 

State  of  Ireland 

Staunch  bloodhounds 

Steady  majority 

Steel-boys 

Stipendiary  magistrates  . 

Striking  terror 

Subscriptions  . 

Subsistence  money  . 

Successes  of  tlie  Americans 

Successes  of  the  French,  fortunate 

Successes  under  Marlborough 

Suicide  in  prison     . 

Supey-sedeas      .... 

Swift  and  Wood's  copper 

Swift  popular  with  the  Catholics 

Swift's  feeling  towards  Catholics 

Swift's  modest  proposal  . 

Swilt's  pamphlet 

System  of  conciliation     . 

System  of  terror 

Tabular  statements 
Talent  of  Parliament 
Tax  absentees,  proposal  to 
Te  Deum  .... 

Temperance  bands 
Teiuvnt  right  disallowed 
Testimony  of  Lord  Moii"a 
The  loth  of  February     . 
The  19th  of  April    . 
The  23d  of  July      . 
The  23d  of  Yiav      . 
Theobald  Wolfe  Tone      . 
Thomas  Davis,  death  of  . 
Thomas  Francis  Meagher 
Thomas  Russell,  fate  of  . 
Three  evils      .... 
Three  hundred,  council  of 
Three  majors  .... 
Three  rocks      .... 
Threshers  hanged    . 
Threshers,  the .... 
Thurot's  expedition 
Tipperary  Free  Pi'ess 

Tithe-law 

Tithe-tragedies 

Tithes       .         .         .         . 

ToUymore  pai;k 

Tom  the  devil 

Tone  allowed  to  quit  the  country 

Tone  at  the  Texel    . 

Tone  in  Paris  .... 

Tone  on  board  the  Vryheid     . 

Tone's  negotiations  in  France 

Tone's  pamphlet 

Tone's  uneasiness     . 

Torture  in  Wexlbrd 

Tory  ministry  .... 

Tournay  

Townshend's  golden  drops 
Trade,  distress  of    . 
Treatment  of  Catholic  soldiers 
Treatment  of  women 
Treaty  of  Limerick 


FAGR 

.  363 
.  86 
.  371 
.  413 
.  277 
.  337 
.  522 
.  336 
.  454 
.  87 
.  310 
.  214 
.  89 
.  483 
.  428 
.  222 
.  337 
.  120 
.  220 
.  23 
.  361 
.  451 
.  49 
.  51 
.  51 
.  53 
.  46 
.  287 
.  388 

.  610 
.  387 
.  114 
.  198 
.  526 
547 
.  287 
.  143 
.  135 
.  423 
.  301 

202.  234 
.  550 
.  561 
.  427 
.  365 
.  229 
.  336 
.  315 
.  453 
.  453 
.  80 
.  578 
.  520 
.  515 

469,  512 


1*» 


63G 


BOSTON  COLLEGE 


INDEX, 


3  9031   01663024  6 


T  ench  and  Fox      .... 
Troubles  iu  County  Armagh  . 
TubbiTueeriiig         .... 
Twenty-fourth  light  dragoons 
Two  columns  . 
Typhus  fever  . 

Ulster,  emigration  from  . 
Ulster,  pre.sbyteriaa&  of  . 
Ulster,  rising  in       ...        . 

Ultimatum 

Unavailing  efforts  against  corruption 
Under-Secretary  Cooke   . 
Undertakers    .         .         .         .         . 
Union,  barristers  who  supported  the 
Union  declines         .... 
Union  denounced    .... 
Union,  eflt'ects  of  the 
Union.  English  plots  for  the   . 
Union,  first  year  of  the  . 

Union  jack 

Union  of  England  and  Scotland 
Union,  project  of    . 
Union  proposed       .... 
Union  proposed  in  British  parliament 
Union,  repeal  of  the 
Union,  ruinous  effects  of  the  . 
Unionism,  methods  of  conversion  to 
United  Irish  society 
United  Irish  society,  constitution  of 
United  Irish  society,  principles  of  . 
United  Irishmen      .... 
United  Irishmen,  association  of 
United  parliament,  first  measure  of 
United  parliament,  proposed  constitutio 
Unlawful  assemblies,  act  against    . 
Unlawful  assemblies,  act  to  suppress 


Verdict  of  guilty 278,  445 

Veto,  debate  in  parliament  on        .        .        .  475 

Veto  offered,  the 4fi4 

Veto,  unanimity  against  the    ....  482 

Vicar  apostolic 601 

Viceroy,  equivocation  of  the  ....  449 
Viceroyalty  of  Chesterfield  .  .  .  .71 
Vigor  beyond  the  law  ....  241 

Vigor,  Lord  Carhampton's      .        .  .  241 

Vinegar  hill,  battle  of 326 

Vinegar  hill,  camp  at 317 

Vinegar  hill,  troops  concentrating  at     .        .  325 

Violation  of  treaty 418 

Violated  or  not 1 

Volunteers,  Catholics  desirous  to  join  the  .  126 
Volunteers,  end  of  the   .        .       ...        .  X()7 


.  373 

.  210 

.  318 

.  2(54 

.  319 

.  553 

.  90 
.  434 
.  332 
.  529 
.  197 
.  336 
.  96 
.  366 
.  282 
.  405 
.  480 
.  152 
.  417 
.  409 
.  35 
79,  365 
.  367 
.  381 
.  477 
.  433 
.  373 
.■  246 
.  264 
.  211 
.  167 
.  192 
.  412 
397 
222 
498 


n  of 


Volunteers  get  the  militia  arms 
Volunteers,  loyalty  of  the 
Volunteers,  numbers  in  1780,  of 
Volunteers  Protestant  at  first 
Volunteers,  thanks  to  the 
Volunteers,  the 
Volunteers,  the  arms  of  the    . 
Volunteers,  uniforms  of  the   . 
Vow  of  the  Cave  hill 

Wake  in  Monaseed  chapel 

Wales,  disturbances  in    . 

AValpole,  fall  of       . 

War,  close  of  the    . 

War  in  the  Netherlands  . 

War  on  the  continent 

Waterford  election . 

Waterloo         .... 

Watkin  William  Wynne  . 

Welsh  cavalry 

Wexford  county 

Wexford  county,  insurrection  in 

Wexford  evacuated 

Wexford,  massacre  of  the  bridge  of 

Wexford  occupied  by  insurgents 

Wexfodr,  population  of  county 

Wheatly,  the  perjurer 

Whig  club       .... 

Whig  club.  Lord  Clare  on 

Whig  ministry 

Whigs,  support  to  the 

White-boys      .         .         .         .      89,  T 

Wild  alarm,  country  in  . 

Wilson,  the  magistrate    . 

Willful  murder 

William  Brabazon  Ponsonby  . 

William  Conyngham  Plunket . 

William  Jackson,  Rev.    . 

William  Orr,  execution  of 

William  Orr,  of  Ferranshaue  . 

William  Smith  O'Brien   . 

William  III.  an  usurper  .        , 

Williams,  trial  of     . 

AVindmill  hill  .... 

Wolfe  Tone  a  prisoner    . 

Wolfe  Tone  carried  to  Dublin 

Wolfe  Tone  recognized  by  George  Hill 

Wolfe  Tone  tried  by  court-martial 

Wolfe  Tone's  autobiography  . 

Woolen  manufacture,  suppression  of 


PAGB 

.  12f) 
.  125 
.  127 
.  125 
131,  140 
.  123 
.  127 
.  125 
.  234 

.  291 

.  534 
.  322 
.  483 
.  13 
23.  61 
.  499 
.  483 
.  262 
.  262 
.  267 
.  316 
.  315 
.  325 
.  315 
.  316 
.  279 
.  192 
.  193 

447,  562 
.  623 

266,  453 
.  337 
.  450 
.  570 
.  233 
.  404 
.  234 
.  279 
.  278 
.  505 
.  405 
.  590 
.  333 
.  357 
.  357 
.  357 
.  359 
.  209 
.     19 


Yeomanry  corps,  Catholics  driven  out  of       .  307 

Young  Ireland 548 

Younger  nationists,  the 627 


DEC  3-  (989 


DATE  DUE 

Mir.        ]     : 

UNIVERSITY  PRODUCTS,  INC.    #859-5503 


